Comments on: Meg White asks: How do I approach pitching as a freelancer?

By: Painful Paulie

Painful Paulie — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:25:30 +0000

Nice advice; I wish I had that sort of support when I was starting out – well done that man. Now then, I will test our friendship – I see you have worked for the Oz Penthouse – I wrote a Landmines article for them in the late 90′s, (that I put together the hard way, when I lived at the Inter Hotel in Aranyaprathet). I have recently had my folio stolen amongst other items of memorabilia, including the only hard-drive I had that backed-up my life’s work – oops (faaark!). More recently I have been asked for my folio – first time in a long time. I guess everyone that knew me is either dead, or just buried.

How do you think I would go about getting someone over there to rummage through the archives and send me a copy?

I have sent them an email similar to this request, however, as you have pointed out – it’s who you know that can make or break a submission!

Cheers mate,

Paulie Grice

AKA “the combat wombat” ( well, years ago I was)

By: Pitching my first story « Aimee Chanthadavong

Pitching my first story « Aimee Chanthadavong — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:30:16 +0000

[...] and I have learnt that a pitch is the selling point for my story idea. The best advice came from Andrew McMillen, which eventually led me onto Rachel Hill‘s website. These two, who are obviously successful [...]

By: Darragh

Darragh — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:15:46 +0000

Very interesting.

By: Rachel @ Musings of An Inappropriate Woman

Rachel @ Musings of An Inappropriate Woman — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:31:40 +0000

Good advice, Andrew – I like the tip about getting an acquaintance to put you in touch. Definitely something that gives a pitch more weight.

That said, I disagree that approaching an editor without an introduction is “rude”. Reading pitches and sourcing new writers is part of an editor’s job – as someone who has been on the receiving end of a lot of pitches, I don’t mind it at all (and in fact love it when the pitch is well written and well targeted). Similarly, I’ve cold pitched top tier editors and had success – sometimes on the first try.

By: Meg

Meg — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:33:32 +0000

Aha, obviously I need to get you to do ALL my intros. Think I’m blushing. Thanks again. x

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:25:05 +0000

Absolutely spot on again, Andrew!