ASPIRING freelance journalists have often asked me what a 'typical' hit rate is for pitches. It's one of those 'how long is a piece of string?' questions and the answer depends on factors such as:
* Who you were pitching
* The ideas you sent
* What your specialism is
* If you know the editor...
Plus I'm sure, many more.
Anyway, I thought it may be useful to recount how I got on recently when I spent pretty much a day pitching. I sent nine ideas, contacting five editors. Some ideas were included in more than one pitch, adapted to target the different publications.
This resulted in:
One 'thanks you are on the right lines so keep trying as we have done something a bit similar.' This was a broadsheet newspaper's specialist online section, in response to one idea.
One 'first two could work, will discuss them in a meeting in a few weeks' time'. That was the response of an editor on a monthly magazine for families, for whom I've already written three features.
One, 'not for us, thanks' - which was another section of a broadsheet, in the paper as opposed to online. I really would love to crack that one - I've tried about three times now and have sparked interest in the past - but no firm commissions.
One complete silence so far, from a health magazine.
One 'yes please 1,400 words by next Wednesday'. This was from an editor on a tabloid newspaper I have pitched twice before, with my last idea falling at the hurdle of a features conference.
Each of these responses took a week or so to reach me, and most came after a prompt of a second, really polite email from me.
I hadn't pitched for ages so was feeling a bit funny about it. I'm moderately pleased that there was a fair return on a day's time spent pitching.
It's funny, it doesn't matter how much other work I can get, stuff that comes from pitching can still give me the biggest 'buzz'.
But I do feel in the scheme of things, for me anyway, it has had to take a back seat as competition is greater these days - as fewer editors are dealing with more pitches.
What doesn't change is me starting work on the commissioned piece arguably far too close to deadline!
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