The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
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Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#2This is all excellent advice. I especially love that the OP uses a spreadsheet to systematically track his pitches and their status. I think using a spreadsheet for such structured list keeping is the best way to get comfortable with spreadsheets (if you're "just" a writer) while being the optimal way to improve your own work and note-taking. I do it for public records requests and searching for Craigslist apartments.
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#3This is all excellent advice. I especially love that the OP uses a spreadsheet to systematically track his pitches and their status. I think using a spreadsheet for such structured list keeping is the best way to get comfortable with spreadsheets (if you're "just" a writer) while being the optimal way to improve your own work and note-taking. I do it for public records requests and searching for Craigslist apartments…
Hey, thanks so much for saying this. It means a lot :)
I agree that spreadsheets are an awesome way to organize life. I've become obsessed with Google Sheets. This year I learned the power of all the plugins. For example, I built a stock tracker that pulls live data from Google Finance (with no programming background). I also built a custom dashboard for my business to track revenue. It worked better than anything else up to $30k / mo in revenue.
Some great resources on this Zapier post -- https://zapier.com/learn/google-sheets/best-google-sheets-ad...
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#4This is all excellent advice. I especially love that the OP uses a spreadsheet to systematically track his pitches and their status. I think using a spreadsheet for such structured list keeping is the best way to get comfortable with spreadsheets (if you're "just" a writer) while being the optimal way to improve your own work and note-taking. I do it for public records requests and searching for Craigslist apartments…
Hey, thanks so much for saying this. It means a lot :) I agree that spreadsheets are an awesome way to organize life. I've become obsessed with Google Sheets. This year I learned the power of all the plugins. For example, I built a stock tracker that pulls live data from Google Finance (with no programming background). I also built a custom dashboard for my business to track revenue. It worked better than anything el…
Was just going to edit my own comment but since you've shown up with a reply; maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I couldn't find your name anywhere on the page. Not as a byline or at the footer. Might be worth adding it as not everyone will come through your front page. It'd also be helpful to see links to your published stories :)
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, thanks so much for saying this. It means a lot :) I agree that spreadsheets are an awesome way to organize life. I've become obsessed with Google Sheets. This year I learned the power of all the plugins. For example, I built a stock tracker that pulls live data from Google Finance (with no programming background). I also built a custom dashboard for my business to track revenue. It worked better than anything el…
Was just going to edit my own comment but since you've shown up with a reply; maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I couldn't find your name anywhere on the page. Not as a byline or at the footer. Might be worth adding it as not everyone will come through your front page. It'd also be helpful to see links to your published stories :)
Ah that's a great point, haha. Sometimes I forget to do the most obvious things :)
I linked to them, but right now my CMS isn't underlining links (WTF, right?)
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was just going to edit my own comment but since you've shown up with a reply; maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I couldn't find your name anywhere on the page. Not as a byline or at the footer. Might be worth adding it as not everyone will come through your front page. It'd also be helpful to see links to your published stories :)
Ah that's a great point, haha. Sometimes I forget to do the most obvious things :) I linked to them, but right now my CMS isn't underlining links (WTF, right?)
In the meantime, here's The Atlantic and Quartz story. Two more FastCompany stories on the way :)
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/spacex...
https://qz.com/775751/digital-nomad-problems-nomadlist-and-r...
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#7Great advice for a new marketing director who hasn't had to deal with PR before!
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#8Hey, I remember reading that Atlantic article and being curious to see other things you'd written! Pity you don't have an easy-to-Google name...
A question regarding the spreadsheet: have you found it better to just list every pitch you do in order, even if it's the same story? What I do is have publications as columns and stories as rows, so I can easily keep track of where I have or haven't submitted something, but I'm curious if you see an advantage to the straight list.
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#9This is all excellent advice. I especially love that the OP uses a spreadsheet to systematically track his pitches and their status. I think using a spreadsheet for such structured list keeping is the best way to get comfortable with spreadsheets (if you're "just" a writer) while being the optimal way to improve your own work and note-taking. I do it for public records requests and searching for Craigslist apartments…
I feel like this is such a basic skill that I'm surprised this is even a discussion.
Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic
#10This is all excellent advice. I especially love that the OP uses a spreadsheet to systematically track his pitches and their status. I think using a spreadsheet for such structured list keeping is the best way to get comfortable with spreadsheets (if you're "just" a writer) while being the optimal way to improve your own work and note-taking. I do it for public records requests and searching for Craigslist apartments…
Hey, thanks so much for saying this. It means a lot :) I agree that spreadsheets are an awesome way to organize life. I've become obsessed with Google Sheets. This year I learned the power of all the plugins. For example, I built a stock tracker that pulls live data from Google Finance (with no programming background). I also built a custom dashboard for my business to track revenue. It worked better than anything el…
Very good article. Just after the MacGregor joke, Andrew Stanton says "storytelling is joke telling, it's knowing your punchline". This is illuminating. It's something we probably do instinctively but it helps a lot thinking about it voluntarily.
Zinsser's "On Writing Well" is fantastic, esp. parts 1 & 2 and "The Travel Article" which is a story by itself... I so much love this book!
What's maybe missing from your article is who do you pitch to? How do you find emails of editors and how do you get them to open your message when you're starting out and nobody knows your name?