Build a schedule for pitching story ideas to markets on a regular basis. Photo by: Todd Lapin
The Quarterly Pitch Plan: Why It Matters
Pitching story ideas is like fishing:
If you want to catch more fish, get more lines in the water.
And if you want more travel writing assignments, get more queries out to paying markets.
As any freelance worker knows, the more you hustle, the greater your return. But you don’t just want to spray and pray, and hope for the best.
You want to approach pitching story ideas with a game plan.
To maximize your pitching efficiency, set up — and stick to — a quarterly pitch plan.
Starting Your Quarterly Pitch Plan
Simply, a Quarterly Pitch Plan is a schedule you build to track story ideas that you have pitched to varying markets.
It’s based on two pitching best practices:
- For each of your story ideas, identify three target markets. Make one the primary market and the other two backups.
- Pitch a new story idea to each of your target markets once a quarter.
By following a quarterly pitch plan, writers can establish a regular pace of communication with their targeted markets, without spamming multiple publications with the same, generic query.
Key point: You don’t want to fall into the simultaneous submissions trap. Nothing burns writers like offering your story ideas to two competing markets at a time, and having them both express interest.
Who do you turn down? Conde Nast Traveler or Travel + Leisure?
Talk about awkward, and bad business form, too.
Instead, a quarterly pitch plan gives your story idea queries more chances for success.
Often, the first market you pitch a story idea to will pass. But just because your idea about horseback riding in Argentina or pizza tours of Brooklyn doesn’t get accepted by Market A, that doesn’t mean your story idea should be spiked.
Rewrite it to fit the needs of Market B and pitch it there instead.
The quarterly pitch plan helps writers balance the need to pitch a lot of story ideas to different markets, without promising the same idea to more than one market at a time.
Pitch target markets new ideas quarterly, to show your subject matter expertise. Photo by Dafne Cholet
Executing Your Quarterly Pitch Plan:
Here are the steps to build a quarterly pitch plan:
- Brainstorm 8-12 story ideas.
- Target three markets for each idea: one primary market and two backups. EG, National Geographic Traveler/Sunset/Afar.
- Write a pitch letter for your idea aimed at Market A. Use writer’s guidelines to help craft your pitch. Email your pitch to the market.
- Follow up! Your goal is a clear answer: yes or no. Follow up 2-3 times over the next four weeks until you get a response.
- If you get a yes, great! Get to work. And remember to go back to that same market with a new idea next quarter.
- If its not a yes, tweak your pitch to match the specs of Market B and email it to them.
- Repeat the steps above for Market B, follow up, and turn to Market C if needed.
If you don’t have success getting your idea picked up by any of your three titles, don’t worry about it. Just table that idea, and move on.
But here’s the key: No matter what, go back to your primary market with a new idea next quarter.
You want to establish a regular pace of communications that shows your commitment to your beat destinations, and builds your name recognition for your target markets.
Build a spreadsheet to capture your story ideas, with their primary and backup markets.
Quarterly Pitch Plan: An Example
Here’s an example of a QPP in action. Let’s use the example of a story idea for Eating Oakland, the New Brooklyn.
Month One:
Start by writing a pitch letter for your idea, targeted at a specific section of your primary market. In this case, let’s target National Geographic Traveler.
Angle this pitch toward to a food-related section, or one focused on city neighborhoods. Email it to the editor – if you don’t have their contact, LinkedIn can help out.
For each pitch you send out, you’ll get one of four responses:
- Yes
- No
- Maybe, or some expression of interest without a firm commitment
- No response, AKA dead air
If it’s a yes, great! Way to go. Now get to work. (And deliver the piece a few days before your deadline, to make a good impression.)
If it’s a no, that’s OK. You have a firm answer, and direction how to move forward – namely, by tweaking your pitch and sending it to Market B. Plus you have a foot in the inbox at Market A, always nice.
Reply with thanks for their consideration, and maybe mention a different story idea, if the response seemed welcome to it. Up to you.
If you hear a non-committal maybe or some similar response, reply back with thanks, and make sure to circle back a week or two later. Similarly, if you get no response, try, try again.
Don’t shy away from trying to pin the decision-maker down.
Be friendly, but direct:
“I’m reconnecting about my ‘Eating Oakland’ story idea, sent to you on DATE YOU EMAILED IT. I’m sure you’re busy but the idea is spot on for your audience, and I’m happy to chat about the idea. How’s your schedule for a quick call next week?”
Once again, you’ll get one of four responses: Yes, No, Maybe, or Nothing. If the market hasn’t committed one way or the other, follow up accordingly, but a bit more firmly:
“I’m reaching back out again about my story idea, “Eating Oakland.” Your readers will love the article, but I’m not sure how you want to proceed. Please let me know if you’re interested, otherwise I’ll have to move forward.”
Sounds a little harsh, right? But it’s not. It’s business. And since you don’t want to go down the simultaneous submissions road, it’s crucial you keep your control of your intellectual property: your story idea.
So exert a bit of leverage, and create a sense of urgency by subtly saying “If you don’t want this idea, cool. But I’m gonna pitch it elsewhere soon if not.”
And then do that, if Market A doesn’t bite then, by tweaking your story idea for Market B and pitching it there in Month Two.
But no matter what: Go back to Market A with a brand new story idea next quarter. Hit the reset button and hit them up again.
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Month Two:
Here’s where you can start to scale your outreach significantly.
In month two of your pitching cycle, not only will you tweak your “Eating Oakland” idea to match the specs of Market B (Sunset Magazine, in this case), you’ll also write and send a totally different pitch about another topic to a different magazine.
You’ll be starting the sequence all over again for another story idea.
In our example grid above, this means you’ll have two tasks for Month B:
- Tweak your Eating Oakland idea and send it to Sunset Magazine;
- Write and pitch your Horseback Riding in Argentina idea to Afar – the first of its three target markets.
Since you’d already done the heavy lifting on your Eating Oakland pitch, it won’t be that time-consuming. But you don’t want that work to go to waste if Market A doesn’t want it, so make sure to rework the pitch for Market B.
Be sure that the pitch isn’t just a repeat of the one to Market A – while the main topic (Eating Oakland) is the same, do your diligence on Market B and adapt the pitch to appropriate sections.
Simultaneously, craft a new pitch for your Horseback Riding in Argentina story that fits a specific section in Afar Magazine.
For both pitches, follow up like you did with your first pitch in Month One.
Month Three:
From here forward, continue the pattern:
- Pitch A (Eating Oakland) – Send it to Market C, as needed
- Pitch B (Horseback Riding in Argentina) – Send it to Market B, as needed
- Pitch C (Airbnb Hawaii Guide) – Send it to Market A, and follow up
If you don’t have success with an idea with a specific title trio, and none of the markets have bitten by the end of the quarter? Just table it, and don’t worry about it. There are countless reasons why an editor may night bite on a pitch.
But the key step to take at the end of the quarter is to go back to the original Market A you pitched three months ago – and pitch them a completely new idea.
