Why Your Freelance Writing Pitches Fail

Want more freelance writing success? Avoid these mistakes.

At a certain point in your freelance writing career, you’re going to want to move on from looking for work on sites like Upwork to making pitches directly to the clients themselves.

And why shouldn’t you? The pay is usually better, and because you’re pitching an idea you are interested in writing about, the work will be more fulfilling.

Making a good pitch is an essential skill for any freelance writer who wants to move from minor league work to major league.

But crafting a good pitch can be tricky. It takes practice.

You’re going to fail more than not.

That said, there are certain practices you can avoid in order to increase your success rate.

Consider these five reasons why your freelance writing pitches aren’t getting the reception you hoped for.

You didn’t make any pitches

Okay, this one is pretty basic, but you’d be surprised how often freelance writers expect work to simply land on their doorstep.

Yes, it happens from time to time — especially if you have a solid reputation, a good website portfolio, and the right contacts. But if you’ve only just begun moving from cheap writing mill-style work to more profitable ventures, you put in some effort.

You need to actually seek out potential clients and make contact with them. You need to introduce yourself and pitch them an idea you think will work well.

They won’t come to you. Not yet, anyway.

You haven’t researched your market

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve written up a solid outline and pitch for an article on cybersecurity for beginners.

Why are you pitching it to an advanced cybersecurity industry website? Their readers already know about basic password creation or phishing avoidance techniques. Their readers are more likely to be interested in more in-depth topics such as high-end encryption algorithms and advanced firewall techniques.

You’d be better off pitching an entry-level cybersecurity article to a more general audience.

Likewise, you wouldn’t propose a deep-dive article on SaaS cloud computing to, say, Boy’s Life.

And even if you are pitching an article appropriate for the publication, have they recently published a lot on that topic? Maybe you need to find a market that isn’t already saturated in your pitch’s subject matter.

Look at the headlines of pieces a market has recently published to see if your pitch will be a timely fit or not. If not, let it wait before trying again or find a more appropriate market.

You didn’t follow guidelines

If a client outlines specific guidelines for making a pitch in a job posting or on their website, assume they mean it.

Publication editors use pitch guidelines to help keep submissions more organized — and easier to read and respond to. They also might use guidelines as a sort of test. If you can’t follow simple pitch instructions, can you be relied upon to follow other instructions or take editorial notes?

They say you only have one chance to make a good first impression. If you’re pitching a new client, following simple instructions is your chance to make a positive first impression.

They’re full up

Hey. it happens. It’s nothing to take personally. Some publications get hundreds if not thousands of great pitches a month but only have room for a few dozen.

If your’s isn’t picked up, that doesn’t mean your pitch was terrible. It could mean that other pitches, at least as good as yours, came across their desk sooner. Or another pitch had an angle that was closer to what they were looking for.

If you presented a decent pitch, you could find yourself invited to try again later.

Meanwhile, you’re free to pitch your idea elsewhere.

You presented a bad pitch

This one is on you.

Your pitch idea was incoherent. Perhaps it was founded on inaccurate knowledge of the subject. Maybe it’s poorly written — full of typos and bad grammar.

Disorganized. Rambling.

Too informal.

To keep this from happening again, consider these simple notes:

• Learn how to frame a proper pitch. I guarantee you’ll find several good examples on Google.
• Have reasonably good knowledge of your subject matter. While freelance writing includes research as part of the process, it is also part of the pre-writing process.
• Refresh yourself with the rules of basic grammar. At the very least, subscribe to an online grammar checker.
• Show some of your pitches to a more experienced freelancer and their some feedback and advice. Unless they’re super-busy, most freelancers would be happy to help out. Someone likely helped them get started. Now it’s their turn.

Don’t give up

All writers get experience rejection. (I’ll even go so far as to say any writer who denies this is a dirty liar.)

Those writers out there experiencing a lot of success in the field do so because they’ve been at this for a decent amount of time and have had considerable practice.

They kept at it — even while experiencing rejection — and all that practice paid off.

Pitching to publications and websites is like any other skill. You get better through time and repetition. It’s like learning to play the banjo (ask me how I know), or like learning a foreign language.

Work at it long enough, and you’re bound to improve.

Don’t give up. You’ll get there.

You’ll find more pitches picked up, your freelance income increased, and your own skills skyrocketing.

Cheers!

About John Teehan

John lives in Rhode Island with his wife, son, and dog. He specializes in tech, health, business, parenting, pop culture, and gaming. Visit wordsbyjohn.net for more info and rates. Twitter: @WordsByJohn2