#92 – Make your editor’s life as easy as possible

Or providing no hassle copy

Words of encouragement
I got some good words of encouragement from one of my editors last week. She said: “I love using your work – I very rarely have to change anything.”

Make the editor’s life easy
But aside for that being a nice ego massage for me, it also hints at a good philosophy to work by. Make the editor’s life as easy as possible, and they’re more likely to use you again.

Word count etc
This means getting the word count pretty much spot on, putting the factbox information in the standardised format, doing the requisite currency conversions and perhaps suggesting a headline.

No hassle
All of this is pretty simple to do, and while none of it will be a dealbreaker, the fact that it can go into the paper/ magazine pretty much as is will help your cause in future. It may not be an immediate thing, but after two or three articles, the editor will start thinking: “This contributor is no hassle – great.”

#83 – Milk annual events for all they’re worth

Or the joys of recycling.

Time of year
Ah, it’s this time of year again. Valentines Day is in a few days’ time, then there’s St Patrick’s Day next month and Easter following along soon afterwards. To the ordinary person, these are just part of the calendar. To the travel writer, all should be goldmines.

Recycling
I, for one, will be recycling a few pieces related to all three. A piece on the least romantic locations will sell for Valentines every year, a story about the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick will always be welcome just before March 17th, and any pieces related to the Easter story are an easy pitch as soon as the chocolate eggs come out.

Travel editors love topicality
It’s not rocket science – stuff like this will always sell. As I’ve mentioned before, travel editors love something topical. The key is to make a mental note when you come across something that may fit the bill. It might not sell immediately, but it probably will later on.

Apply to all annual events
The same theory applies to Hallowe’en, Christmas, the Oscars... pretty much anything that occurs every year and gets plenty of media coverage. So if you go to a destination where an Oscar-winning film was shot, has a reputation for being haunted or has a link to St Nicholas, chances are you’ll be able to use the material again and again.

#75 – Use anniversaries as a hook

Or the joy of nice round numbers.

Travel editor difficulties
One of the difficulties of being a travel editor is creating a reason for running a story on a certain destination. In all honesty, there’s no real reason to run that quite nice story about flea markets in Paris – it’s just personal choice. And frankly, it doesn’t matter which issue it goes in – it’s hardly topical, is it?

Anniversaries and topicality
So editors love to have something topical. They like to have stories on places that are in the news, and they often end up running things related to anniversaries. Look out over this year, and you’ll see plenty of stories with tenuous links to some anniversary or other.

From Galileo to the Berlin Wall
I should know – I’ve got commissions to write about some of them. It’s 400 years since Galileo Galilei invented his telescope; it’s 200 years since Charles Darwin was born; it’s 90 years since the Nazi party was founded and it’s 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down.

Nice round numbers
In all honesty, most of these are not that significant, but humans buy into anniversaries in a big way. If it’s a nice round number of years since a major event, people will always find some excuse to celebrate it. And travel editors are interested in what people are celebrating. Thus 1,000 meandering words on the lovely English town of Shrewsbury suddenly takes on more urgency when Charles Darwin was born there 200 years ago.

Keeping track
As a writer, it’s always worth keeping track of anniversaries that are coming up. If you can get in there before everyone else starts writing about them, you’ve got a high chance of making a successful pitch.

#72 – Respond to rejection with a new idea

Or striking while the iron is lukewarm.

Being rejected by editors
For the freelance travel writer, having your ideas rejected by editors is all part of the package. It happens all the time and always has. The key thing is how you respond to that rejection.

Response to rejection
The response for some writers is to take the rejection of one idea as a rejection of all ideas. They will write the publication off, thinking they have no hope of being published there, and will not pitch any more ideas.

Negative responses as a positive
Other writers do it the smart way and see that rejection can be a good thing. It is far better to get a response from an editor than none at all, even if that response is in the negative. If they have taken the trouble to respond, then you are doing something right. OK, so they didn’t like the idea you sent, but that’s not to say they won’t like another one.

Send another idea
So why not send them another one pretty much straight away? You’ve clearly got the editor’s attention, so you may as well strike while the iron is at least lukewarm, if not hot.

Voice of experience
The second one may not get a positive response either, but there’s probably no better time to send it than after the editor has just taken the time to contact you. I speak from experience on this – I’ve got a lot of work through quick follow ups to rejections.

Victory from the jaws of defeat
On another note, when that acceptance does come through as a result of this method, it’s tremendously satisfying - even more so than normal. There’s nothing like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat to improve the mood.

#65 – When to pitch a story by phone

Or the contact that editors don’t want you to make.

E-mails
As a general rule, most editors don’t like being phoned up with pitches. They get enough e-mails as it is, but at least e-mails can be dealt with when the time is right. If all of those pitches were coming in by phone, they would never get anything done.

Dealing with the situation there and then
But sometimes, pitching by phone is the right way to go about things. It can work for precisely the reason that editors hate it – they have to deal with the situation there and then rather than postponing it for a more convenient time.

Successful pitches
If I analysed it, I’d guess that a higher percentages of my successful pitches are done over the phone, rather than by e-mail. But I also don’t see the point in annoying an editor without good reason – constantly phoning up is liable to have you earmarked as being hugely annoying.

Reasons to pitch a story by phone
For this reason, I will usually only call an editor for one of the following reasons:

1. The pitch is time-sensitive/ topical, and I need a quick “yes” or “no” in order to be able to pitch it to someone else if the editor I originally pitched to is not interested.
2. To clarify confusion over a brief/ editorial requests. Sometimes a quick phone call can solve what days of e-mail tennis can’t quite manage.
3. I am following up a pitch, and they have not responded to the follow-up e-mail. And I’ll always make sure I’ve left a couple of weeks after the follow-up e-mail to do this. By this stage, it’s generally a no lose situation – you’re expecting a “no”, and it’s better to have the “no” confirmed than have it hanging in the air. If it’s a “yes”, then it’s a bonus.

Professionalism vs pestering
I think, in these scenarios, you’re on the right side of the professionalism/ pestering line. It’s probably best to not make a habit of calling up though – you may start to find that the editor is constantly “away from the desk” every time you call.

#63 – Getting the commission that seals a press trip

Or looking for angles in the itineraries.

How to get on a press trip
In Tip #60 I explained that the way to get on a press trip (or junket, if we’re being honest) is to secure a commission in advance from a publication that the PR company or tourist board wants coverage in.

Getting the commission
This is a lot easier said than done, especially if you’re seeking the commission from a publication you haven’t worked for before. Most editors don’t like handing out commissions to people they don’t know, especially if they haven’t even been to the destination yet.

Vague press trip invitations
The other problem is that press trip invitations can be incredibly vague. They will often invite you to “explore the history of Snotsville” or “get active in Snotsland’s wonderful Snotty mountains”. If this is the case, the first step should be to e-mail the PR person back and ask what exactly this entails. Respectfully state that you would be interested in the trip, and could potentially secure a commission, but you need more information to pitch to the editor with.

Itinerary or waffle?
One of two things happens here – the good PR people send back an approximated itinerary, with details on each aspect of it. The bad PR people direct you to a website or send you back a whole lot more waffle on the wonders of the area. In other words, they don’t even know themselves what will happen on the trip.

Ones to avoid
Avoid the latter – chances are it’ll end up being a trudge around new hotel developments, and a series of half-arsed tasters of what the region has to offer. If the former, take that information, and hunt for an angle.

Example
If, for example, a whale watching tour is part of the trip, take a look at the company website and try and dig out something unique about the company or the whales in the area. Is the ship’s captain a former whaler who switched to tourism? Are whale numbers in the region rapidly increasing due to protection measures? That is the sort of thing that could be pitched out.

Selection of angles
It may take a little more research than just looking at the itinerary presented, but a good trip should present a selection of possible angles to pitch to editors. Find the angles, pitch them out, hope the editor bites, and then go back to the PR people saying that Publication X has commissioned you to write a story as a result of the trip. As long as the publication in question is one they want coverage in, your place should be secured.

#62 – Pitch topical stories to editors who respond quickly

Or how to stop your story dating.

Topical hook
So you’ve got a good story, but one that will date quickly... It’s juicy, topical, has a good hook and should be an easy sell. But the editor you have pitched it to isn’t responding. Grrrr.

Slow response
This is an all too familiar tale. I’ve lost out on numerous good story ideas in the past, simply because by the time the editor has got round to responding, the story is out of date. It’s intensely annoying.

Avoiding the gamble
And this is why it is only on very rare occasions that I’ll pitch such stories out to publications that I don’t already have a relationship with. Sure, these publications may pay well, and the story may provide a springboard to getting more regular work with the publication in question – but I’d sooner place the story and get paid slightly less than gamble.

Quick response
It gets to a certain stage where you get to know the foibles of your regular clients. I know which editors will usually respond quickly – often on the same day, and certainly within a couple of days. I also know the ones that will sit on a pitch for ages. And thus when I have a topical story that is great if run soon and useless otherwise, it will be the editors in the former category that get the pitch first.

Convenience versus money
These editors may not be the ones at the best-paying publications, but they are the ones that allow me to mobilise quickly, get the job done and secure the commission with a minimum of hassles. And sometimes that convenience is worth more than the money – it leaves more time to concentrate my resources and time on another story for someone else.

#59 – Following up on an initial pitch

Or what is pestering?

Time to move on?
So you’ve sent your pitch and you’ve heard nothing back. Is it time to move on? Well, I’m sure if you ask most editors, they will say: “If you haven’t heard anything, we’re not interested.” Usually, of course, this is true.

Standard fob-off
But sometimes it isn’t. It can be used as a standard fob off. Sometimes, if the editor is being honest, they will have to admit that they haven’t read your e-mail. And this is why it is always worth following up.

Second e-mail
Sending a second e-mail that politely enquires whether the initial pitch was received and whether it would be of interest can sometimes pay dividends. The editor may not have seen the original e-mail, or forgotten to reply to it, or glossed over it without reading it. A second e-mail is more likely to illicit a response, irrespective of what happened to the first one. In fact, I have one editor who almost inevitably only responds to the follow-up e-mail.

Fine line
But there is a fine line between following up and pestering, and it is difficult to know where that line lies. There’s no real correct answer when it comes to the best time to follow up – different writers will give you different responses.

Relationship and frequency of publication
I’d argue that the length of time before a follow-up e-mail depends on your relationship with the editor and the frequency of a publication. Monthly magazines obviously have longer decision making processes, so I would probably leave it at least a month before following up with an editor at such a magazine. And that’s if I have worked with them in the past. It’s probably six to eight weeks for a blind pitch sent to someone I’ve had no previous dealings with.

Weekly travel section
For a weekly travel section or website, I’d argue that it can be followed up more quickly. Probably two to three weeks for an editor I do know and maybe four for one I don’t.

Arbitrary timeframes
These timeframes are fairly arbitrary, of course, and are largely based on what I feel constitutes pestering. Other writers will have different opinions, and if they’d like to share them by adding a comment, that would be wonderful.

#58 – Don’t be afraid to submit mediocre copy

Or knowing how good your average is.

High standards
One common mistake that writers make is thinking that every piece of work they turn out has to be of an exceptionally high standard. In an ideal world, of course, this would be the case. But in an ideal world, we’d all be superhuman writing cyborgs with unparalleled knowledge and a witty quip for every occasion.

Quantity as well as quality
The truth of the matter is that if you’re going to become a successful freelancer, you are going to have to deal in quantity as well as quality. There’s no point spending two weeks at a time crafting a masterpiece if you only get paid enough to live on for one week as a result.

Mediocre work
Unfortunately, there will be some occasions where you know that what you’ve written isn’t particularly good. By your own standards, it’s pretty mediocre stuff. And sometimes you’ll know what you’ve tapped out into your laptop is just plain crap. Admittedly, though, this is often when the editor has asked for something that can only be crap, and no amount of turd-polishing on your part can redeem it.

Pragmatic approach
Some writing gurus will advise that if you’re not happy with your work, you should revise it until you know that it is up to your usual standard. I’m more of a pragmatist (which is probably why I can’t affix the ‘guru’ qualification to my business card). I figure that sometimes average or mediocre will do the job.

Send the piece away
Sometimes it is better to send away the slightly uninspired piece and get on with the next one, rather than wasting time and money trying to improve it. But a lot depends on how good your own particular ‘average’ is.

One of the best
This will sound horribly arrogant, but I know damn well that I’m one of the best writers at many of the publications I work for. If I wasn’t, the editors wouldn’t keep giving me work. I also know that some of the other writers that somehow get published in these publications are bloody awful; they consistently churn out hackneyed, turgid dross.

Getting run
Therefore, I know that if I end up sending off a piece that I don’t think is anywhere near my best, it’ll still get run. I might not be overly proud of it, but it’ll still be a damn sight better than some of the content in that issue. In other words, I know my average is still better than a good proportion of the competition’s best work. And as long as I don’t fall back to mediocre too often, it’ll do. Proof-read it, change anything that’s really bad, send it, move on.

How good is your average?
The key thing is to have a critical awareness of where you are in that pecking order. How good is your average? Is it good enough to allow you do dip from peak form every now and again?

#56 – When is it best to e-mail a pitch to an editor?

Or the secret of timing.

Best time to approach?
On a forum I frequent from time to time, an interesting topic recently came up: When is the best time to approach an editor?

Monday morning pile-up
The range of responses to this question was fascinating. Most writers seemed to agree that the worst place for your pitch to be is in the huge Monday morning e-mail pile up. But some said that editors often read e-mails on the weekend when they have a bit of peace and quiet. I can vouch for that – I’ve occasionally received an unexpected e-mail from an editor on a Sunday.

Friday afternoon and weekend mode
Others suggested avoiding Friday afternoon, as that is when weekend mode has kicked in and the mind is not on work. There’s a counter argument to that as well – perhaps a response is more likely when an editor is relaxed?

Print deadline
There were strong arguments for Tuesdays, others for Thursdays, and frankly it’s possible to argue any position with a reasonable degree of validity. But I think everyone would agree that the worst time to pitch is just before the print deadline.

All hands on deck
When the paper or magazine is about to go to press, it’s usually all hands on deck, fairly intense and there can often be a state of blind panic. So if you know which day of the week or date in the month press day is, don’t pitch then. Pitch a day or two afterwards when the ship has sailed.

Instant response
The other thing I try and do is to try and pitch when the editor is likely to be at their desk. This is purely because I know what I’m like – I’ll often respond to an e-mail straight away if it provides an opportunity to distract myself from what I am supposed to be doing.

E-mail backlog
An especially good time is when the editor is clearing the backlog of e-mails that have arrived since the end of the previous working day. Send then, and yours goes to the top. If not during, then just after is a good time – it’s still fresh, and the mind is still in response mode before starting to tackle meatier matters.

#55 – Why specially formatted sections are the easy way in

Or supply and demand for regular slots.

Too many stories
The editor of one of my outlets usually has more than enough stories to fill her travel section with. She could probably fill it four or five times over every week, even though there’s a high pagination. Understandably, therefore, it is not really in her interests to put out appeals for yet more stories.

Pleading e-mail
Relatively frequently, however, I will get a pleading e-mail from her. She’ll want to know whether I have any stories that fit a particular slot in the paper. This slot is around 700 words long, and is in an identifiably structured format.

Written specifically for the slot
This format means that there isn’t much flexibility with any articles going in that slot. Realistically, they have to be written specifically for that slot. And that’s probably why she’s always short of pieces to fill it with.

Supply and demand
Most of the articles she’ll be sent are the ones we all enjoy writing – travel narratives in an essay-style format. And I’m sure this applies equally to other magazines and newspaper travel sections. Logic dictates, therefore, that these specially formatted slots are the easy way in. There is less competition; supply and demand.

Same structure
Most magazines and newspapers have such slots (often called departments in the United States). To anyone who has read more than one copy of the publication, these sections are easily identifiable - they follow the same structure every issue.

Lack of competition
And due to the lack of competition, a pitch aimed at that slot or department is more likely to get the editor’s attention. Craft a pitch specially designed for that slot, put the name of the slot in the e-mail subject heading and make sure you highlight why your idea is good for that slot – not just the publication as a whole.

Breaking into new publications
In the past, I have found this an excellent way of breaking into new publications. Editors who have ignored rafts of e-mails suddenly become responsive, and in one instance I’ve ended up taking over that slot as my own regular gig.

#53 – Why editors don’t respond to your e-mails

Or the quest for acknowledgement.

Lack of acknowledgement from editors
One of the most painful aspects of being a freelancer is that often editors will not even acknowledge your pitch. It may the greatest idea in the world, and you may be just the person to write it, but that response just won’t come back. The bastards.

Frustration
From the writer’s perspective, this can be immensely frustrating. Perversely, a rejection often feels better than no response at all – at least the editor has acknowledged you exist.

Editor’s perspective
But from an editor’s perspective, it is virtually impossible to respond to every pitch. Put simply, editors are usually bombarded by pitches from well-meaning freelancers. They may start out with the intention of responding to every enquiry, but such a policy is incredibly difficult to maintain.

Sheer weight of bad pitches
As I’ve said before, often your competition in this game is not the really good freelance writers, but the sheer weight of bad ones. When an editor is besieged with enquiries, he or she will justifiably assume that most of them are rubbish. The query stockpile will be glossed over at best, and ignored at worst.

Supply and demand
Unless your name is already known to the editor (through previous work for them or from elsewhere), or you get lucky, your pitch is unlikely to get the attention it possibly deserves. The editor is not the one to blame for this – it’s pure supply and demand. And this is why it is best to follow up a pitch a few weeks later.

#50 - Pitch a story, not a list of destinations

Or how to avoid annoying an editor.

Annoying freelancer habits
The other week, I asked one of my editors what freelancer habits annoyed her most. This was her response:

“I think the most annoying emails are the ones giving someone’s life story and then just saying ‘so I can write any kind of article you like’.
“A close second would be ones that just give a list of well known countries the writer is about to travel to and asking me if I’d like any articles written about them… it’s up to writers to pitch story ideas to me, not the other way round.”

The freelancer’s job
OK then. Hands up – who has made a pitch like that at some point? I know I have, and it’s very easy to see this editor’s point. It is the freelancer’s job to come up with a story idea. It’s important to get to the point in a pitch. You are selling an idea, not asking whether an editor would like to give you some work.

The destination is not a story in itself
If you put yourself in the editor’s shoes, would you be likely to commission someone on the basis of a list of countries they are going to? Of course not. I refer back to my earlier point – a destination is not a story in itself. And if that mantra doesn’t stick, then be aware that you’re going to annoy a few editors.

#49 – Gauging a word count

Or working out how long an on-spec article should be.

How long?
One of the comments left on a previous post asked what the best way to gauge how long an article in a magazine or newspaper is. If pitching to a new publication, this is important – there’s no point sending them something way over or way under what they usually take.

Ask the editor outright
This is something I’m pretty hopeless at. I’ll usually just ask the editor outright, but obviously this doesn’t work if sending an article on spec. After a while, however, you do start to develop the knack of guessing a ballpark figure.

The tedious process of counting
But if you’re not sure that you’ve developed that knack, there’s nothing else for it but to count. It’s a tedious process, but it’s the only way you’ll know for sure. Of course, if you don’t fancy counting word by word, it’s possible to get a reasonable estimate by counting the number of lines and multiplying by a rough average of words per line.
And if the columns are of roughly the same length, multiply average number of words per line by average number of rows per column by number of columns.

Any suggestions?
However, I’m more than open to better suggestions on this one. So if any readers have better techniques to suggest, leave a comment below.

#44 – Don’t credit sources when it’s unnecessary

Or Beer Theory.

Reader comment
One of this blog’s regular readers made an interesting comment at the bottom of Tip 18 – Expensive destinations on a budget. I’ve pasted it below:

“As an unexperienced published writer, but a college graduate who had to write many papers... how do you go about crediting sources. Say you find some budget information via the tourist board, and part of your article exists thanks to their help, do you acknowledge that?

“This is one area that's always perplexed me because a lot of the articles I read seems to give an impression that 100% of the article were things the writer just knew. However, I'm sure the history of the location and other tidbits had to be researched.”

Beer Theory
It’s a good point. Unfortunately, there’s no right answer. A lot depends on the publication you are working for. But I do have a general theory that I try to adhere to whenever possible. I call it Beer Theory, and it goes something like this.

Irrelevant background information
When I want a nice cold beer, the only important thing is that the beer is nice, cold and in front of me. I don’t care how that beer is made, what blend of ingredients was used to make it, what lines of supply the bar used to get it or why the label was designed in a certain way. All of that background information is largely irrelevant. And frankly, having to know all of it would really get in the way of me enjoying my nice cold beer.

Not a maths exam
The same largely applies to information in a travel article. The reader cares that Item X costs $30, that Transport Y departs at 06:45 and that Building Z was built in 1873 in a neo-classical style by Johnny Architect. They really don’t care how you obtained that information, as long as it is accurate.
This is not a maths exam – you don’t get points for showing your working out.

Horrendously clunky read
To attribute every bit of information to a source or two would make for a horrendously clunky read. As far as I’m concerned, this should be avoided wherever possible.
However, I am aware of a bit of a cultural divide on this sort of thing. North American publications tend to be sticklers for accuracy, and articles in them are more likely to attribute information to sources.

American publications
Personally, this is one reason that I often find American publications to be really dull. But if getting published and paid requires an adaptation of your preferred writing style, it’s best to adapt and grumble quietly under your breath.

Sources in footnotes
Either that, or write the article properly, then put the sources of the information in footnotes for the editor’s eyes only. Generally, though, I’ll only do that if I know the editor wants that sort of information for fact-checking purposes. Most editors will either check independently or trust that you’ve got it right.

Don’t take tourist board information as gospel
And how do you know that you’ve got it right? By checking it yourself with an alternative source – never take anything received from a tourist board as gospel. They do have a vested interest, after all.

#31 – Stick to the word count

Or delivering what you’re asked for.

Editor’s perspective
When I was doing my time editing in Australia, one of the things that always annoyed me was receiving articles that were waaaaaaaaay over the word count. I’d ask for 800 words and get 1,200. Even worse, I’d ask for 150 words and get 350.

Freelancer’s perspective
From the freelancer’s perspective, I can see why this happens. I’ve often been writing pieces myself, and wondering how on earth I’m going to fit it within the word count. It may be a complex subject that really needs deeper explanation, it may it quotes that seem too good to leave out, and it may be a sheer wealth of great material.

Flowery paragraphs
99% of the time, however, it’s just me getting carried away with things and waffling. There’s very little that can’t be solved by hacking through with the red pen and chopping a few flowery paragraphs out.

The golden rule
Occasionally, I have submitted articles that are well above the requested word count. I just couldn’t bear to cut, and I know this did me no favours in terms of keeping the editor happy. It goes against the golden rule – Make The Editor’s Job As Easy As Possible. It is not making their job easy if they have to go in and make swathing cuts to your copy. Quite the opposite – and, if they’re anything like me, it’s likely to annoy them intensely.

Cutting the best bits
The other reason to submit within a few words of the word count requested is that if the editor has to cut, then sod’s law dictates that they will cut the bits that you liked the most. The jokes, witticisms and sparkling turns of phrase are usually the first to go. They may be brilliant, but they’re not essential. As a consequence, your story can end up turning out quite drab.

How close to the limit?
But how closely should you stick to the limit? Nobody’s really expecting you to be exactly on the nail – there’s always a little leeway. But it is only a little. Some people will say that within 10 or 15% of the requested word count is OK. Maybe so, but I’d argue that 5% is a better figure.

Don’t go under
That doesn’t mean it can be under by five percent either. I don’t think you should ever come in UNDER the word count – if there’s one thing that’s worse than having your work cut, it’s having it padded with drivel. And on a more cynical note, if you’re being paid by the word, why on earth would you choose to get paid less?

#27 – Always meet your deadline

Or delivering what you promise, when you’ve promised it for.

Time management skills
I have met plenty of freelancers in the past who are completely unsuited to freelancing. They’re constantly in a flap, have no time management skills and always seem to behind for any number of deadlines.
Quite how these people keep getting work, I will never know.

Missed deadlines
If there’s one thing that’s going to make an editor reluctant to use a freelancer again, it’s a missed deadline. So if you say you’ll get something done by a certain date and time, make sure it is done by then.
Frankly, the editor will not care about what sort of workload you have. And he or she will certainly not care about your grandmother getting lost in the wash, your dog having the flu, the bus having eaten your notes or your computer being delayed.

Deliver when you promise
The simple rule is that if you promise something by a certain time, you deliver. You may have to bust a gut to deliver it, but deliver it you should do.
The time to negotiate a deadline is not after you have accepted it. If you really think it’s impractical, make the query before accepting the assignment.

Negotiating a deadline
I’ve done this in the past, and editors rarely mind a slight tweak of the deadline when forewarned. If accepting an assignment, I’ll occasionally say something along the lines of: “I’m going to be on the road until the 15th – would it be OK to get it by the 17th instead? If not, no worries, I’ll work something out and get it done on time.”

Timeframes
The key with this approach is that you have shown you’re prepared to move mountains to get it done by the original deadline. But, by offering another, very reasonable option that’s not far out of the proposed timeframe, you’re not losing anything.
Chances are that the initial deadline proposed was entirely arbitrary anyway, and another couple of days won’t hurt. It only becomes a problem when whatever deadline is agreed upon isn’t met.
So once you’ve agreed – meet it.

#21 – Why editors love round-up articles

Or playing the numbers game

Money-spinning list articles
Round-up – or list – articles are brilliant money-spinners for the freelance travel writer. I’m afraid that if you keep coming back to this site, you’re probably going to get bored of me saying that. I’m not going to apologise for this – it is a point well worth emphasising. Even if it is with a sledgehammer.

Editor response
I will always remember the response of one of my editors when I pitched him one of these best-of pieces. I can’t even remember what it was now (probably something like Top Ten Adrenaline Rushes in Australia), but the e-mail he sent commissioning it was very illuminating.

Number on the cover
I’m paraphrasing a little here, but his response was something along the lines of: “Yep, sounds great. And it’ll keep the publisher happy – get a number on the cover and all that.”
It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But an enticing magazine cover is a hugely important factor in getting readers to pick up and buy a magazine.

Top Ten or Fifty Best?
And list articles will do that. Think about when you read through a magazine or travel section. Most of us will flick past stories about destinations we’re not interested in. But when there’s a Top Ten, Fifty Best or 100 To Do Before You Die, we’ll look. Well I certainly do, and magazine sales figures suggest that others do too.

Menu of choices
Why do we do this? It’s partly out of curiosity – we want to know which has been deemed the best, and want to argue over it. It’s also partly because we like having a menu of choices – if we fancy going to a tropical island, it’s nice to have bite-sized round-ups of a few tropical islands to look through.

Selling more copies
To the publisher, however, it’s all about the bottom line. Sell more copies, make more money. And if having a few numbers on the front (30 greatest, top 50, whatever) sells more copies, then they’re going to want articles that allow them to do that.
And unless the editor doesn’t want to keep his or her job, (s)he is going to be looking for that sort of piece to put on the cover too. The magazine can have some of the best writing in the world, but ultimately the editor’s performance will be based on how many people buy the thing.

Not an isolated incident
This editor wasn’t the first to mention this tendency to me either – another said much the same thing when I proposed 50 Things To Do In Australia For Free to her. “Ooh – that’ll look good on the cover...”

#16 – When the destination IS a story in itself

Or when editors need to cover their areas

Here I go, contradicting myself again. Having just said that a destination isn’t a story in itself, I should point out the rare occasions when it is. Be forewarned, however – this doesn’t really apply for those that haven’t already got a good relationship with an editor.

Fancy a story?
If everything goes well, at some point in your career, you will get to the stage when a few editors know you well enough to be able to trust you to write a good piece, irrespective of the destination or subject.
At this stage, with certain editors, you’ll be able to drop a quick e-mail saying: “I’m off to Sicily in a couple of weeks’ time – fancy a story?”
And a lot of the time, they’ll say yes.

Rapport and relationship
Frankly, this is a bad habit to get into. It can work, but only when that rapport and relationship has been built to the point where you are a trusted regular contributor.
And even then it only works when they’re looking to cover a particular area or region.
This works in a different way with newspapers and magazines. For newspapers it’s a case of not wanting to tread over the same old ground all the time. If there’s a fairly large travel section that comes out every week, it only stands to reason that the editor will want to get a reasonably good geographical spread over time.

Caribbean commissions
A classic example of this is one of the papers I work for in Australia. Earlier this year, I said I was planning to head over the Caribbean for a couple of weeks, and the editor was immediately interested. She said that they never got any stories from the Caribbean, and immediately commissioned pieces on four or five islands.
Even then though, I had to give an idea of what sort of angles I may cover in the piece (ie. Watersports, particular hotels, celebrity spotting).

General guide pieces
For magazines – particularly ones focused on a particular country – it may simply be a case of them not having covered a particular region or city for a while and feeling that they should have a piece on it before long.
These tend to be very general guide pieces, or ones with a slight slant. But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter; if a magazine about Australia hasn’t covered Adelaide or Perth for year or so, it’s going to need a feature on Adelaide or Perth relatively soon.

Advertising sales
Be aware that this can often be advertising fuelled – the sales team may want to mine a fruitful area, and doing a feature on a certain destination can help pull in advertising dollars from companies with links to it.
See – I told you that it helps to bear the link between writing and advertising in mind, didn’t I?

Informal pitching – not for beginners
But I do say this rather reluctantly. For a new writer starting out, the informal pitching of destinations you’re going to without specifying a strong angle is a sure-fire loser. Only contemplate it when you have a strong relationship with the editor and you understand the needs of the publication.

#14. Don’t send attachments with pitches

Or why Word is out.

In my previous tip, I sang the praises of sending articles on spec when trying to crack a new publication. However, when sending that article, don’t make the mistake of sending it as an attachment.
Many of us will use Microsoft Word as a matter of course when writing, and it would seem logical to send a completed article as a Word document. I’ll give you three reasons why you shouldn’t.

#1 – Not everyone uses Word.
In practice, most publications will have Word on their computers because they know they will get sent Word documents from time to time. But it will be used surprisingly rarely. The big papers have their own software, others will work with Quark Xpress and Adobe Indesign when laying out pages.
While Word isn’t necessarily incompatible with these programs, it can throw up some oddities that are annoying and time consuming to get rid of.

#2 – Firewalls and internet security
In these days of appeals for money from Burkina Faso, malware and endless spam about Viagra, internet security at publishing companies has to be reasonably tight.
Filters and firewalls are set up to stop nasties getting into the system. And often that this means that an e-mail with an attachment sent from an unrecognised source can end up in the junk folder. Yes, that means your masterpiece that you sent on the word document.

#3 – Making it easy for editors
The third reason is relatively simple. Making the editor open an attachment gives them an extra thing to do, and thus they’re less likely to read your story.
If it’s pasted into the body of your e-mail, below the pitch or your signature, then they can just scroll down and take a look.
They’ll probably only skim read the first paragraphs, but that’s two more paragraphs than you might get if sent as an attachment.