pitching Archives - Addicted to Writing

The Best Free Resources for Writers to Find Markets to Pitch

Posted on August 9, 2018 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Or you can just look at a pink screen until you can think of markets to pitch. 🙂

Newer freelancers or those who are just thinking about venturing into freelance writing might be afraid they will run out of ideas to pitch. If that’s the case with you, you can always restock your idea well by brainstorming, and I’ve got the post to help you with that: Finding Article Ideas & Writing About Them: 30 Inspiration Tips for Writers

But for many of us, the problem is usually matching the idea to the right market. So I went ahead and wrote an article about this for WOW! Women on Writing: How to Find the Right Markets for Your Ideas,where I interviewed fellow experienced freelance writers and included their tips as well as my own. I also talked about how long you should keep pitching after your idea has been rejected. After all, two of my ideas found homes in about two years.

If you are however in a too-long-didn’t-read mode and want me to just give you some useful links, here they are:

–wheretopitch.com: Wheretopitch is an amazing free tool run by Susan Shain. You put in a keyword, and the website suggests where to pitch for you.

–whopayswriters.com Whopayswriters is another free website where writers list how much they were paid for an article, how long it took, and how easy/difficult it was. If you do a little digging, you will see many magazines you haven’t thought or known about. And you will have a great idea on what you will be dealing with when it comes to payment terms.

– Contently’s Rates Database: This database is much smaller than whopayswriters.com, but you can still go through the list to get ideas on where to pitch.

– *Your writer friends: When I’m stuck on where to write pitch a given piece or if I need more alternatives, I turn to my writer friends. I try to return the favor as much as I can. Writers are busy. We don’t all have assistants (though we really need one), so make sure you are not just receiving favors all the time. The goodwill will dry up. Don’t leave a bad impression.

If you are bad at coming up with places to pitch, you can offer to do other things for your friends such as proofreading or brainstorming ideas with them.

-Funds for Writers: Funds for Writers is an amazingly helpful resource website run by C. Hope Clark. An established writer herself, the website offers submission guidelines for markets, information on grants and contests as well as articles on all aspects of making money from your writing. I strongly recommend subscribing to the free newsletter.

–Writer’s Weekly: Writer’s Weekly is also a great free resource featuring market guidelines and articles. Both Funds for Writers and Writer’s Weekly are paid markets for writers, should you think you have an article idea for them. However, as with any publication, read their guidelines very carefully before pitching anything.

– Paid Publishing Guidebook by Freedom with Writing, as well as their newsletters. Freedom with Writing website offers a free book of markets to their newsletter subscribers. You also get markets suggested to you in the newsletters.

– Paidwrite.com. Kristy Rice’s wonderful website offers comprehensive lists of freelance writing markets. Make sure you hang out there a while to make the most of it.

– Jennifer Mattern’s All Freelance Writing website.In addition to answering most (if not all) of your questions about freelance writing , the website features a markets directory.

And yes, you will encounter markets you have seen elsewhere, but the more you internalize them, the better. Nothing beats knowing at least five markets an idea might be a good fit for from the top of your head. It’s a wonderful time and sanity saver.

How about you? How do you find markets for your ideas?

Recently Published, Pitched, Read & Watched: Updates for the Week

Posted on May 2, 2016 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Freelance Writer, hard at work — Me, hard at work at my favorite coffee shop.

This has been a busy few days. I’ve reevaluated my blogging goals, recovered from the latest bout of my capricious gastritis and collected three rejections. Since it was three rejections for three different stories, there’s a lot of hope on the horizon.

For one thing, I took a leap in trying to break into three publications I’ve not been published on before. I also went about discovering two great books, two interesting movies and got published on Write Naked.

Below are my notes on them. Read on and see if they might also catch your fancy.

(P.S. I used affiliate links in my post, so if you purchase from those, I make a little money at no extra cost to you.)

Non-fiction:

The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins, but I’ll be coming back to that book again and again. Stay tuned because I’ll be reviewing the book here soon.

I also loved and will keep with me for a long time:How to Do It All: The Revolutionary Plan to Create a Full, Meaningful Life — While Only Occasionally Wanting to Poke Your Eyes out with a Sharpie by Linda Formichelli. Again, the review is in the works.

I’m reading Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin and loving it.

Yes, if there is a fun, well-written and practical non-fiction book that covers creativity, productivity and time-management while keeping potential personality quirks in mind, I’m game.

Fiction: The Widow by Fiona Barton

Wow, this book was dark and depressing. Sure, it was engaging, but I don’t want to keep it. I don’t want to revisit or reread.

Apparently there are comparisons to Gone Girl. I only watched the movie and read the screenplay, but I can tell you that Gone Girl is not that depressing. Maybe because it doesn’t involve child abuse, kidnapping and potential child murder.

The Widow tells the story of Jean, a woman who remains the center of media attention after her husband, suspected child abuser/kidnapper/killer is killed in an accident. Did she really know her husband? Was he really guilty? And was she a part of it?

While the book isn’t as gory as Gone Girl, it’s definitely darker, and it’s enough to put off reading certain thrillers for a while. So do I recommend it? You decide.

Recently Watched and Enjoyed: Mr. Right, Cube

I’ve watched two movies: one to study, one for absolute pleasure.

Cube: In the name of studying screenwriting

Cube movie poster — Cube poster via wikipedia.

Cube was for studying mystery/sci-fi plot as it is famous for its low-budget, as well as original and captivating plot. While it’s not too gory on the whole, it has a few scenes that are not for the faint-hearted.

Was the plot as amazing as I heard? Well, yes. However, the acting was uneven, and *spoilers*, if you want a solid reason/purpose for the cube, you are in for disappointment. But it’s worth your time if you know that going in. I had fun, but I prefer movies whose plots have better reasons than “it’s the way it is.” (More on Cube in later posts.)

Mr. Right starring Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick: For Fun

Don’t be fooled by the name. Mr. Right is a usually hilarious and absurd romantic comedy, crime comedy and action comedy movie where a reformed hitman falls for a girl with issues, and together they form the perfect couple.

But of course she will have to deal with his “job,” and the men after him for different reasons. The hitman is Sam Rockwell, and the girl of his dreams is played by Anna Kendrick. If you love Rockwell like I do, it’s a must. His action/dancing scenes are my favorite, as well as most of his lines.

Of course given how many genres it’s tackling, it’s a bit uneven, illogical and strange. I loved it, but don’t be disappointed by wanting a straightforward romantic comedy or action comedy. Also, almost all characters are crazy.

You’ve been warned.

Recently Published:

Well, it’s not all rejections. I’m proud to say I’ve been published on one of my favorite blogs, Tara Lynne Groth’s Write Naked. Check out my tips on how not to make social media mistakes as a writer, and stay for other posts. It’s an invaluable resource for writers.

That’s it. Please share this post if it inspired you to read, watch and/or pitch.

What have you watched, read, pitched and published this week?

How Not To Pitch An Editor: Be Vague and Impatient

Posted on January 27, 2016 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I published the post The Number One Tip for Querying and Pitching: Being Personal & Specific in 2013, and the advice remains as relevant as ever. However, a recent guest post pitch I received compelled me to write a sequel.

Now, there were several things wrong with the pitch. While the person used my name while pitching – points for finding the right name as opposed to calling me by my twitter handle – and didn’t make any glaring language mistakes, she did commit two annoying no-nos.

It goes without saying that you should find out the editor’s name if you can. With some publications it is easier said than done, but when you are pitching a one-person blog, you absolutely have to find the correct name.

And by now, pretty much everyone who’s sane and has written about writing wrote about the importance of using language properly.

But the pitch isn’t done just by using English well and finding the correct name.

Because guess what? I have four blogs. If you say “I want to write for your site,” I’m not going to lose time by asking you which one. It should have been in your subject line or at least in the body of your email.

And another thing you shouldn’t do is to follow up after a week saying you are waiting for my reply. It’s okay to follow up after two weeks if you have faith in your pitch, but before pestering the editor for a response, you might want to check if you did a good job the first time around.

Bonus tip: Don’t offer irrelevant information.

The writer said where she was from, and I couldn’t care less. I only care about your idea, your attitude, and how you laid out your idea in your post. Things like where you are from, your age and gender are irrelevant unless they have a direct relationship to what you’re writing.

If you’re pitching a post called “Dating Problems 30-Something Men Have in Manhattan”, and you are a 30-something male in the Manhattan dating scene, please do tell me that. Otherwise, I couldn’t care less.

So to pitch well, the least you can do is:

Be specific with what you’re pitching and where you are pitching.
Call the editor by the right name.
Wait for about two weeks before following unless the guidelines state you shouldn’t follow up, or you should follow up after a certain period that’s not two weeks.
Use language well.
Don’t offer any irrelevant information, and don’t leave anything relevant out.

There you go. Happy pitching!

If you have any other tips to add, share away in the comments. I love hearing from you. 🙂