The Writing Life: Pitching Failures

While I’ve been reading pitches and making pitches for decades, sometimes I miss the mark. A pitch are some carefully selected words targeted to a decisionmaker to get a specific result. There are many different types of pitches because you have a variety of possible results. You pitch a magazine article to an editor. Or you pitch a book idea in a proposal or a query letter.

When you pitch, it is not about you. Readers don’t care about you. They care about themselves--so focus on the reader and what they want--their needs, the benefit to them and these sorts of details. The focus of your pitch is a critical aspect so you make the right presentation and aim at the right target.

Each week I get an email from an author who has a large email list. In this email, she encouraged people to pitch her something that she will include in a future email. I crafted a pitch and sent it to her.

Here’s my pitch to her:

I launched a weekly blog in 2008 and have been consistently writing each week with over 1700 entries. I found this article which listed my name as one of the top 27 content producers: https://izea.com/resources/top-blog-content-writers/ Here’s the link where you (and others) can receive the entries in their email: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

My pitch caught her attention (good) and she responded (also good). My pitch failed because I neglected to focus on her readers and her audience. In her response, she called me on it and pointed out my pitching failure. I understood and rewrote my pitch with the right focus.

Here’s my second pitch:

Millions of book ideas are circulating in publishing offices. The majority are ghosted without even a form rejection letter. New York publisher acquisitions editor Terry Whalin is one of the top content producers with his weekly blog, The Writing Life. You can gain his insights and teaching on email. Subscribe at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Notice my second pitch has the right focus on her readers and only includeds a single focus point or website link. My first pitch did not have this proper focus. What happened with my revised second pitch? Nothing. I was ghosted and she didn’t respond a second time. I didn’t get another opportunity.

My commitment to you in these articles about The Writing Life is to tell you about these experiences and what I’ve learned--for myself but also to help you. Here’s some of those lessons from my pitching failures:

1. First impressions count. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. You can’t redo that first pitch. Sometimes you get grace from the decisionmaker and a second opportunity, but you should not expect to receive it. The other person has no obligation or responsibility to tell you why your first pitch didn’t work. I recognized that I was given a gift of a response. The same sort of expectation should be involved with a submission to an editor or literary agent. If you get a response, it is likely a generic pass letter. That professional is not responsible to tell you what was missing and why they made their decision (nor do they have time for such answers). If you get the information (and occasionally you do) then recognize those words as a valuable gift from that person.

2. Haste makes waste. I cranked out my pitch and fired it off on email--and it failed. It would have been better if I drafted the pitch and then held it for a day or two. I could have reviewed and edited that pitch to refine it and make sure it was focused on the reader.

3. There is value in a thoughtful pitch. If you draft the material and hold it for several days, it gives you an opportunity to make sure it is complete and not missing some element. For example, for my work with Morgan James Publishing, authors will often send me their book proposal. It is common to find their proposal is missing a critical section or is incomplete in a section. If the author had held it for a few days, then he could have filled in those missing pieces and presented a thorough proposal instead of a partial proposal.

How do you find a missing section in your proposal? The most difficult thing to see is something that is not there. It’s why checklists have value because they point out missing sections. I have a free book proposal checklist (just follow this link).

4. Keep pitching. The only way you can permanently fail in your pitching is to quit or stop. It takes work for you to find the right fit and the right place for your pitches. I encourage you to continue forming new relationships and connections at writers’ conferences, online and through LinkedIN. As you make these connections look for new opportunities. I suspect these opportunities are all around you but you aren’t aware of them and not pitching or making the right pitch.

As I’ve said before in these entries, if I can help you, let me know. My personal email address is in the top of my X/Twitter profile. What steps do you take with a pitching failure? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

When your pitching fails, what actions do you take? This prolific author and editor gives the details about his pitching failure and what he learned for the next time. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)