by Leo Wiles
04 March 2016
Once upon a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I worked as a commissioning editor I had an incredible contact book of talented people who I knew could deliver. Because I worked for a weekly, I was also on speed dial for many freelancers too. Including writers who I wouldn’t have hired in a pink fit and promptly ended up deleted or crossed out. One that still enthrals dinner party guests is the journo who phoned through her copy to the subs desk minutes before going to pre-presse because she had stuffed up the cover story deadline – needless to say I never hired her again.
So how can you stay in the good books? Think like an editor, that’s how:
Know the title. General, sloppy ideas that don’t gel with the publication on any level scream ‘I just pitched this to every Tom, Dick and Harry to see if someone might pick it up’. Nothing enrages an editor more.
Pitch fresh Do not regurgitate my rival’s offerings, something we ran in the last issue /year, or a tired stale story that makes me yawn. You wouldn’t believe how many editors are pitched ideas that have been done two months’ prior.
Google your idea. If it comes up 30 billion times, there’s a good chance we won’t buy it. Too saturated, too done to death. Could you spin it in a different way? Ideally, you want that search result to be pretty low (in the millions) but not so low no one is interested / searching for it (a few hundred).
Word counts aren’t optional. Overwrite and I will hate you once the chief sub has stopped screaming at me. As someone I can’t recall once said; ‘You can tell a story in three paragraphs. The rest is just padding.’
Finish it properly. By this I mean, write suggested heads and sells. Yes, I know it’s the sub’s job to do that – but I’m always impressed by writers who do it anyway. You know the story best and it gives your copy that final bit of polish (even if the sub slashes it and writes something different).
Don’t forget sources and references. Remember writing essays at uni and including footnotes? Do the same at the end of your piece with numbers/emails for every single person you interviewed, and links to original studies you’re citing. This is 101 and many freelancers just don’t do it! Don’t make me or the subs go hunting for these details – we won’t be happy.
Under promise, over deliver. There’s nothing like a freelancer delivering copy before the deadline to warm the cockles of a editor’s heart. Be warned though, too early before the publishing date and editors in particular can view the piece as stale. (Okay, so their audience has never read it, but it’s been on their flatplan for three weeks and they’re now over it.)
No means no. Stalking with daily phone calls and emails is not going to improve our relationship.
Timing is everything. Know my commissioning peaks, i.e. after the Monday news meetings, and act accordingly.
Ask now rather than later. Hate the brief, don’t get the brief? H hit reply with a retelling of what I have asked you to do, rather than handing something in that’s substandard (and that I will think is completely your fault).
Choose your channels wisely. Clients have communication preferences and it is up to you to know if they’d prefer an email a phone call – what length of information do they like, are they are formal or informal conversationalist – it’s up to you to know.
Pick my brain (when I’m not on deadline). Ask me about what I like, sections I find hard to fill, stories I’ve recently commissioned that have done exceptionally well. If you figure out how I’m thinking and use that information wisely, you’ve got a much better chance of getting into my publication.
Are you an editor? Got any extra tips to add on how a freelancer can think like you?
