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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

#61

Post by rewrew »

missn wrote: post #50
6stringmerc wrote: post #37

This is a great article if somebody has unlimited resources to pay rent, buy food, and focus on obtaining a basically temporal literary achievement; however, it offers no practical utility with respect to actually getting paid to write and earn a living by way of the craft, so...uhh...if you need a textbook fluff piece, here ya go.

Agree. The article had good points with the part about pitching especially helpful. I do get too that the focus of this piece is more on how to get into these publications. I do wish though that the author spoke a bit more on how he survived as a freelance writer. If you're a good enough writer with good ideas and you keep pitching persistently, you'll get traction soon enough. It's whether or not you're able to surv…

Ha! 45 days is on the good side these days.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#62

Post by joemi »

wyldfire wrote: post #57
6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a trained writer but not a journalist, I feel there are two noteworthy points to consider in this rebuttal. The first is what set me off so terribly at Avi Selk, formerly of the Dallas Morning News, and now at the Washington Post, based on his framing of the Ahmed Mohamed "Clock Boy" story at first [1]. Here's the admission: > I simplified Pieter's story to fit the narrative I thought I saw. I was blinded by what…

Off-topic: I hadn't heard of Stephen Glass' [1] exploits, so I looked them up. > After journalism, Glass earned a law degree, magna cum laude,[citation needed] at Georgetown University Law Center. He then passed the New York State bar examination in 2000, but the Committee of Bar Examiners refused to certify him on its moral fitness test, citing ethics concerns related to his plagiarism.[3] He later abandoned his eff…

> Then again, would we believe it if he published a photograph of his degree?

I don't think that's a valid wikipedia citation. From Wikipedia's Verifiability page [1]:

> Base articles on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. Source material must have been published, the definition of which for our purposes is "made available to the public in some form".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#What_c...

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#63

Post by GavinMcG »

mike2477 wrote: post #26
pieterhg wrote: post #20

There's more to this story. I was the first person to be interviewed by this journalist (Michael Thomas @curious_founder). He approached me on Twitter to ask questions about digital nomad and remote work life (as I founded Nomad List and have been doing it for years). I told him it'd be great to see more honest depictions as most articles are heavily idealized making it sound all great, when it's not necessarily. It'…

So this isn't entirely true either.. Here's my take: What I did wrong - I didn't run the quotes by Pieter before publishing. I was on a tight deadline, and I simply skipped this step. That was a mistake, but not unethical. Journalists are not required to run quotes by their sources. I only quoted from what Pieter told me. Those who want to verify can hear the whole interview here -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B…

You should look at the definition of "nomad". Stopping somewhere temporarily is pretty fundamental.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#64

Post by kristianc »

haberman wrote: post #59
mike2477 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this isn't entirely true either.. Here's my take: What I did wrong - I didn't run the quotes by Pieter before publishing. I was on a tight deadline, and I simply skipped this step. That was a mistake, but not unethical. Journalists are not required to run quotes by their sources. I only quoted from what Pieter told me. Those who want to verify can hear the whole interview here -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B…

How would you feel if someone wrote a story about you saying that you were done with writing, because it's not all it's cracked up to be? And then every time you made a pitch, the editor replied back saying "I thought you had stopped writing?" Or maybe they didn't write back at all because they found this article and suspected you were someone wrestling with chronic burnout? I would feel more sympathetic if you would…

Except he isn't. He's hawking this piece on Twitter with gems like 'as a fellow writer...'

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#65

Post by nthnclrk »

hawkice wrote: post #48
chinathrow wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (that gets opened everytime) If I were an editor, I would simply blackhole all personal mails which include tracking pixels.

I've thrown people in the spam filter for a lot less. "re: twitter" as a subject line is even more objectionable to my personal tastes -- but I dislike journalists who are intentionally trying to mislead their audience, even in an email subject.

Confused as to why there is any objection to this. He stated that it'll typically get a reply that includes their email, and he is simply creating context within the subject line – this advantageous for the receiver.

If it were me (and I had indeed shared my email to the person reaching out on Twitter) I'd appreciate the reminder of how/why they are reaching out on email.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#66

Post by rewrew »

77yy77yy wrote: post #52
pieterhg wrote: post #20

There's more to this story. I was the first person to be interviewed by this journalist (Michael Thomas @curious_founder). He approached me on Twitter to ask questions about digital nomad and remote work life (as I founded Nomad List and have been doing it for years). I told him it'd be great to see more honest depictions as most articles are heavily idealized making it sound all great, when it's not necessarily. It'…

I had a WSJ journalist threaten me if I don't participate he'll write whatever he wants. Another NY Times journalists wrote completely made up stories and sold their version of it to the public. I really don't like the media, a bunch of bullies and slimeballs.

Any journalist worth their salt will let you record the interview as well as any communication. You could also save/forward any of theire-mails. If this happens to you make it public/talk to their editors. I'm also skeptical as WSJ and NYT are top-tier publications, and honestly most journalists are highly ethical.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#67

Post by nitrogen »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #58
77yy77yy wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a WSJ journalist threaten me if I don't participate he'll write whatever he wants. Another NY Times journalists wrote completely made up stories and sold their version of it to the public. I really don't like the media, a bunch of bullies and slimeballs.

I'm extremely suspicious of your first anecdote^, given how vital the care and feeding of sources is for someone who makes it to the WSJ, and given that you're probably not being interviewed by Woodward and Bernstein about a story of grave national importance. I suspect miscommunication is at play here, probably in both cases, and I'm confident in that assessment given the drive-by characterization that follows. Can…

In my experience from myself and people I know being misquoted or misrepresented, it's when the stakes are low (except maybe someone's profit motive) that things are at their worst. I haven't had any problems myself with my now-sidelined startup, but when I was a teenager I was misquoted about something as trivial as a local video store. Others I know have been misrepresented to an extreme degree on political topics by local papers.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#68

Post by jsmthrowaway »

nitrogen wrote: post #67
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm extremely suspicious of your first anecdote^, given how vital the care and feeding of sources is for someone who makes it to the WSJ, and given that you're probably not being interviewed by Woodward and Bernstein about a story of grave national importance. I suspect miscommunication is at play here, probably in both cases, and I'm confident in that assessment given the drive-by characterization that follows. Can…

In my experience from myself and people I know being misquoted or misrepresented, it's when the stakes are low (except maybe someone's profit motive) that things are at their worst. I haven't had any problems myself with my now-sidelined startup, but when I was a teenager I was misquoted about something as trivial as a local video store. Others I know have been misrepresented to an extreme degree on political topics…

Different issue, but related. Low impact stories are often rushed and not rigorously written. Sloppy versus actual malice, and I use that very specific legal term intentionally; reading about that and Sullivan will better illustrate the distinction I'm making between the two than I ever could.

Playing hardball with sources as that commenter describes is high stakes stuff. Sloppy stories are sloppy stories because they don't get detailed attention. Related, but different.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#69

Post by pessimizer »

77yy77yy wrote: post #52
pieterhg wrote: post #20

There's more to this story. I was the first person to be interviewed by this journalist (Michael Thomas @curious_founder). He approached me on Twitter to ask questions about digital nomad and remote work life (as I founded Nomad List and have been doing it for years). I told him it'd be great to see more honest depictions as most articles are heavily idealized making it sound all great, when it's not necessarily. It'…

I had a WSJ journalist threaten me if I don't participate he'll write whatever he wants. Another NY Times journalists wrote completely made up stories and sold their version of it to the public. I really don't like the media, a bunch of bullies and slimeballs.

> I had a WSJ journalist threaten me if I don't participate he'll write whatever he wants.

You don't abandon a story if the people you are writing about refuse to participate. There's nothing wrong with this.

Re: The Art of Pitching: How I Got Published in The Atlantic

#70

Post by forgotmypw »

mike2477 wrote: post #26
pieterhg wrote: post #20

There's more to this story. I was the first person to be interviewed by this journalist (Michael Thomas @curious_founder). He approached me on Twitter to ask questions about digital nomad and remote work life (as I founded Nomad List and have been doing it for years). I told him it'd be great to see more honest depictions as most articles are heavily idealized making it sound all great, when it's not necessarily. It'…

So this isn't entirely true either.. Here's my take: What I did wrong - I didn't run the quotes by Pieter before publishing. I was on a tight deadline, and I simply skipped this step. That was a mistake, but not unethical. Journalists are not required to run quotes by their sources. I only quoted from what Pieter told me. Those who want to verify can hear the whole interview here -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B…

>I didn't run the quotes by Pieter before publishing. I was on a tight deadline, and I simply skipped this step. That was a mistake, but not unethical. Journalists are not required to run quotes by their sources. I only quoted from what Pieter told me.

Isn't that called quoting out of context?

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