Take Notes: How to Pitch Poets & Writers
A: Do you handle the actual pitches that come in from freelancers?
K: Well, I started as the editorial assistant so I certainly was doing it then. But our assistant editor is the one who receives the unsolicited submissions. She takes a first look at things and passes along those that she thinks might be a good fit.
A: About what percentage of the magazine is written by outside freelancers?
K: It’s hard to pinpoint a specific number, but I would say about 80%. The only section of the magazine that’s not open to freelance writers is the grants and awards section--that’s the listing of contests, deadlines and recent winners. Our conferences are in that section, too. That’s just because it’s all done in-house, and it’s a large, research-driven editorial listing. So that’s not open to freelancers. But everything else is completely open. We work with a regular stable of freelance writers who actualize the ideas that are generated in house, but we're always open to fresh ideas from freelancers to fill out the bulk of the edition.
A: That’s one of the main questions I get from the new freelancers: how do you get an editor to come back to you? What is it that a freelancer does that turns them into one of your regular contributors?
K: It always starts with that first pitch. It’s usually the people who come to us with a fully formed and informed proposal and who have clearly read the magazine, understand what we're looking for, understand the tone of our editorial and understand the scheduling pressures that we're under.
For example, at the time of this interview we're editing for the January/February 2010 issue. That’s wrapped up and we're not accepting any submissions for it. We're looking into March/April, May/June and beyond 2010.
The proposals that really work are ones that are a complete proposal, not just a couple of lines. Some of the pitches we get--it’s as if they’re relying on us to fill in the blanks. That will occasionally work if they havesuch a great idea that it really ignites something within us. But, by and large, the proposals that really work are ones that are fully formed when they come to us.
Then, in terms of freelancers that we keep going back to, it’s ones that are on the ball throughout the entire production cycle. It’s not just a matter of sending in a good proposal. It’s executing the idea and writing a really terrific article. It’s also working with the editor during the editing process. Being consistent. If everything works well for one article, if people are consistent and continue to send us good ideas, we’ll keep working with them.
A: Many of my readers are career freelancers, and I believe that’s how you get to be a career freelancer. You can spend a lot less time looking for work and a lot more time fielding editors’ calls.
K: Right, and that’s the other thing: once you establish a track record, when those ideas are generated in house, we start to run down a list of names. And, your name is much more likely to come up in my mind if you’ve definitely had a track record and things have worked well in the past.
A: Many of my readers are also new or intermediate writers, and we tend to worry about the perfect query letter more than the perfect idea. It sounds like what you’re saying is that you want a fully formed idea, that you don’t care about the format of the letter as long as the idea comes across. Does that sound accurate to you?
K: That’s accurate but I think they go hand in hand. If you have a really good idea and you’ve really thought a lot about it and you’re trying to propose it fully, I think that you’re going to end up with a pretty good query letter.
You don’t have to write the first four paragraphs of the piece and send it to me and have that be your pitch. But, I’d say yes and no to some of what you mean. I think if you have a great idea and you’re a really good writer, your letter is probably going to be pretty good.
A: I noticed that Poets & Writers does not have an editorial calendar on your submission page. Do you not use one? Do you release one?
K: We do, it’s primarily for the advertising department. It’s in our media kit. We did release the 2010.
Trend Watch
A: Have you seen any new trends or developments in the writing world that you’d want to share for us?
K: A few years ago the big trend or at least the hot topic was fact versus fiction, with all of the memoirs coming out. That has started to die down a bit. In terms of writing trends, it just goes along with the evolution of technology.
A: From an editorial standpoint, what do you think of that? For example, Twitter novels?
K: I’m for it. I’m all for however the writer wants to get their work out there. It seems to work for some people. All of these things are going to work for some writers and won’t work for others.
