Site Overhaul & Matador Photography
I’m currently overhauling my site, combining it with my writing portfolio, and will hopefully also be able to include a photography portfolio. One of the reasons I did this was I wanted a place that has all my info and because Matador is about to increase their pricing for courses, I just signed up for their photography course. The old site just wasn’t able to showcase photography as well as I wanted it to. Although I first thought it would be a big deviation to include photography, it has become increasingly paramount for me to become...
read moreFollowup Emails To Pitches
Follow up emails to pitches are probably as important, or more important, than the pitch itself. In the last month I’ve probably doubled my response rate by being more consistent in following up. The emails usually look something like this: ————————- Re: Esquire Travel Pitch Macau Sam, I submitted a pitch on “The Other Macau” on 4/10/12. I was hoping if you’d had a chance to review it yet. I’ve copied the original below for your reference. Thanks again for your...
read moreBetter Writer Workflow with Google Mail and Calendar
In several previous posts I’ve lamented having a good system to keep track of tasks such as follow up emails, invoicing, etc. Followup.com is great, but wasn’t streamlined enough for me – And there were a few problems – If I’ve got a task that has nothing to do with an email, or if I need to send a followup email in case of no response, their system is a bit….wonky. Here’s a a quick and dirty guide to solving this problem using Google Mail’s Task feature, which syncs quite nicely with Google...
read moreMilestone Retraction, Travel + Leisure: China
I read something about how progress is recognizing that you’ll often be taking one step back and two steps forward. Well, this is a step back. In THIS post I mentioned that I had been published in Travel + Leisure: China – unfortunately when I got my copy, the magazine actually said Travel +. I didn’t know, but I assumed that it was just a new layout change. That was until I saw a copy of the actual Feb issue of Travel + Leisure China. After asking my editor, I found out that they discontinued working with Travel + Leisure...
read moreThe Open Notebook's Pitch Database
Charles Q. Choi recently wrote a blog post on several of his pitches that worked. As a freelance science writer, he talks about how he pitched a few major magazines pitches that he didn’t think would work, but did, and made for fascinating articles. He links to his pitches, and through the link I found a website called The Open Notebook that focuses on science stories. The website has a great section, their Pitch Database, that gives examples of pitches that worked for top tier magazines like Smithsonian, National Geographic, and...
read moreBack from Kerala
Finally back from Kerala! I was really struggling with A) finding a story and B) getting quality pictures. The first generally resolved itself as I talked and relaxed into the experience. Several of my relatives are somehow connected to the emerging phenomenon of Indian grown coffee, which is becoming more and more of a popular drink in the subcontinent. A relative of mine known as “The Captain” made an appearance, and I got to talk to him about his time in the Indian Army in WWII where he fought in Egypt, Sudan, and Singapore....
read moreTravel Article Discussion Series: "Viennese Delight" by Brett Harriman
This week’s discussion is on Brett Harriman’s “Veinnese Delight” in the April 2012 edition of Silver Kris (Singapore Airlines). The article is a walk through of Vienna, and as such struck me as unique in that it only uses location transitions to shift from one place to the next. The article starts from a perch high above the city, with the locales spread on the ground like a map. For some reason I’m pretty drawn to the transitions in this article so I’m just going to list them out. He starts with the center...
read moreMediaBistro’s "Pitches That Worked" Series
Media Bistro is great. One section I never got around to looking at is their Pitches That Worked series, where the website collects pitches, interviews the writer and the editor. The editor explains what about the pitch attracted them and then they do a point by point analysis of each pitch. This is amazing, especially since I’ve had this sneaking suspicion that my pitches are lacking. I really want to up my pitch/acceptance ratio, as I think it’s a good indicator of my progress overall as a writer (as well as the job...
read moreComissioned by Viator.com and Columbus Travel Media
I have been commissioned for to write an article for Viator, a tour and flight booking website, and Columbus Travel Media, a travel content website. This is great because both sources are paying at the highest rates I’ve had so far for online content, and there is the potential to work for them like I worked for the Circumference – on a casual pitch by pitch basis. The unusual thing is that they are both paying for the same article pitch. I’m not sure if that means I’m supposed to notify both parties or not. It might...
read moreQuery vs a Pitch
Since I’ve seen the two words used interchangeably by people in the past, I’ve never actually been certain what the difference between these two is. I finally got a clear definition while reading a book on writing, and it makes a lot of sense. A pitch submits an idea to an editor. A query is any smaller question. For example, I ask an editor if they’ve run any stories on Hawaii, that would be a query. If I offered a complete outline for an article on Hawaii, that would be a pitch. I’ve found quick queries to be really...
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