Have you ever pitched an editor a story idea, only to read that publication a few weeks or months later and discover someone else has written your exact topic? It’s a fairly common experience for freelance writers, especially new writers.

I recently got a mailbag question about this problem, from KT of the blog Gluten Free Safari. She writes:

Recently, one of the blogs Media Bistro follows discussed the issue of a freelance writer who had pitched a political expose to his hometown paper. They passed – then proceeded to assign the story to a staffer.

It seems that once you trust an editor, this is less likely to happen. But, if pitching to an editor you know not, how do you help ensure that your crackerjack pitches aren’t assigned elsewhere — because, after all, they’re only ideas.

Here’s my answer:

There is absolutely no way you can ensure your “crackerjack” pitches are not assigned to other writers. I know, because I’ve had some of those assignments sent to me to write on occasion! And I’ve certainly seen publications write stories similar to ones I pitched that carried another writer’s byline.

I believe most editors are ethical and will assign a story to the writer that brought it to them as much as possible.

But ideas cannot be copyrighted. If you suspect your idea was stolen, there’s really nothing you can do about it, except not pitch that editor again.

Before we assume an editor is a thief, though, let’s examine a couple other possibilities:

1. The editor may have already assigned a story on your topic. If there’s a sleazy political figure on the local scene, a writer can hardly think they’re the only person who will have the idea of looking into the person’s background for a story. This is one reason many magazines have boilerplate in their writer’s guidelines to the effect that they receive many submissions, many ideas are similar, and you can’t sue them if you think you’ve been ripped off.
2. The editor thinks you don’t have the experience or skills to execute the idea you pitched. If you haven’t made a strong case in your query letter or phone pitch for why you are the person to write the story, your idea may well float off to another writer. Be sure to mention any special expertise you have, technical abilities such as online database mining, or knowledge of where the experts are for your topic.

The one weapon that fights idea theft

I’ve seen my story ideas pop up with someone else’s byline. Here’s how much time I spent fuming, fretting, or otherwise feeling pissed off about it:

Zero.

Why doesn’t it piss me off? Because I have a lot of story ideas. So when faced with a possible idea ripoff, I can simply move on to one of my dozens of other ideas. Trust me, this is the most emotionally healthy way to handle it.

Generating many potential story ideas is your most potent weapon against editor ripoffs. You move on and don’t care because you have many other query letters ready to write.

If you’re feeling like your one, precious idea has been stolen and now your career is ruined, then you’re not developing enough ideas.

If I thought an editor really ripped off my idea, I might not pitch them again. That’s about all you can do.

But you can also turn this around and consider it another way. Maybe seeing your idea in print in the publication you pitched it to shows you have a good sense of what that publication needs.

You might try pitching them a few more ideas in queries that make a stronger pitch and a better case that you’re the writer for the job. Maybe you’re getting close, and a little persistence and stronger query-writing would land you an assignment.

Tired of the query game? Come find out how to make your own blog earn for you instead. Today’s the last day to get two previous reports and a bonus one-hour blogging teleclass free when you register for the upcoming Webinar Secrets of a Money-Making Blog. Get details here or press the big button to register now.

Photo: Flickr – richt-what

I often have freelance writers tell me they don’t think writing query letters is worth the effort. They get a lot of rejections, and feel it’s basically a crapshoot…and so much easier to sign on to a content-mill dashboard for a guaranteed few bucks’ worth of work.

It’s true that querying isn’t a sure thing. But if you take the time to learn this skill, it can really help you move up and earn big.

I regularly get lucrative assignments off of query letters, and I continue to believe querying is a vital skill for successful freelancers. With so many writers turned off of queries, taking the time to learn how to write a compelling query letter is well worth the effort, as it makes you stand out in today’s marketplace. Querying can open doors when you don’t know anyone at a publication or company, and make a connection that could turn into an ongoing relationship.

For instance: I recently sent one query letter that got me $6,000 of assignments. This query used one of my favorite strategies: Multipitch, or the technique of sending two or three story ideas in a single, one-page query letter.

Multipitch sort of reminds me of the multiball feature on old pinball machines. If you’re old enough to remember these, you’d load more than one ball onto the board, and then if you could hit it right, you’d get them all to activate and start scoring you points at once, multiplying your score.

Multipitch in queries is like that, as it multiplies the impact of your letter — and also multiplies your possible earnings. Submitting more than one story idea shows:

• You know how to be brief. In multipitch, each idea only gets one short paragraph. This impresses editors that you understand how to write short, which in this era of shrinking wordcounts is a valuable skill.
• You have a lot of story ideas, not just one. This communicates instantly to the editor that you could join their list of go-to freelancers who can be relied upon to have a steady stream of quality story ideas. This is how you want to be viewed by editors.
• You are confident. You don’t feel a need to blather on and on about your ideas — you can sum up each one in a couple-three sentences. The format also requires a very short personal bio, which you feel OK about, too.
• You could handle multiple assignments. Presenting several ideas at once telegraphs that you have the capability of taking on more than one assignment at a time from this publication — another key skill editors often seek.

So here’s the part about this query win that really had me elated: When I sent in my pitch, I was told this outlet had never accepted an outside query before. All the story angles had up to that point been developed by the editor!

Instead of discouraging me, hearing that only made me more motivated to deliver strong pitches. I was hoping maybe one of my three ideas would make the grade.

I about fell over when the editor let me know all three pitches had been accepted, for a total of $6,000 in assignments.

I’ve never done this on the blog before…but since this was my most lucrative single query letter ever, I decided it would be useful for readers to see exactly what this query letter looked like. So I’m reproducing my pitch below.

This pitch went to a major company that operates several business-information websites. The site I targeted publishes well-researched, 1,000-word articles. Pay is $2,000 per article. I initially reached out to the editor on Twitter and asked if it would be OK to pitch her.

To avoid having my editor inundated with queries, I have omitted some identifying details about this market and the sources I proposed.

This is what I sent the editor:

Dear [editor's name]:

As I mentioned on Twitter, I am a longtime business writer with expertise in finance. Here are three ideas I think might be a fit for your site:

1)Why Now’s the Time for a Sale/Leaseback Deal - Conditions are ripe for companies to liberate cash by selling property and leasing it back. Known as “net leasing,” these deals can fund growth without a company having to seek bank or investor funding. Whether a company owns an office building, warehouse, or retail stores, net leasing allows it to operate in the same facility with a long-term lease and assurance there’ll be no disruption to operations. Another plus: sale/leasebacks get companies out of the property-ownership game and back to focusing on their core business. Net-lease is booming this year as companies are strapped for cash and investors like the guaranteed tenant that comes with the deal. For this story, I would interview several company finance managers who have recently done sale/leasebacks, as well as commercial-realtor experts and [source name], an online exchange for commercial property that company owners are looking to sell and lease back.

2) To Save More, Send Your Workers Home - A recent study from [well-known research house] shows mid-sized companies can save $11,000 per worker by letting them work from  home just half-time. Telecommuting has other benefits as well, including reduced absenteeism and increased productivity on work-from-home days, according to the report. That’s $1.1 million in savings for a company that puts 100 workers on part-time telecommuting schedules. With Congress passing legislation requiring more home-based work by government-agency employees, it’s a great time to examine how telecommuting can help businesses save money. For this story, I would talk to experts and business owners who’ve implement telework programs to glean best practices for making it work.

3) Starting a Joint Venture? Plan for Its End – Joint ventures often start with the best intentions, but a few years down the road, one or both parties may determine the partnership isn’t working. That’s when things can get sticky — unless the original agreement included careful planning for how the joint venture would be dissolved. For this story on how to structure a prudent joint venture agreement, I would speak with company finance executives who’ve been involved in recent JV partnerships that needed to be unwound, including one where planning was good and the process was fairly straightforward — and one where the agreement didn’t contemplate the breakup and problems were encountered. I’d also get recommendations from well-known business attorney [source name] on how to structure these deals. Readers would come away with concrete information on how to structure partnerships to protect their interests and prevent costly litigation or loss of vital assets created in the partnership.

My work has appeared in Entrepreneur magazine, Washington CEO, The Seattle Times and many other publications. You can view recent clips and my list of awards won at http://www.caroltice.com.

Thanks in advance for considering my query.

Enjoy!

–Carol Tice

I’d say one key element that helped this query succeed — which I often don’t see present in many queries I’ve reviewed for writers in my mentoring program — is the research into the topic and citing of possible experts. Editors tell me many queries seem lazy — they propose a vague idea without laying out a clear road map of who would be quoted and what information the story would contain. Including those specifics made this query stand out for my editor.

Final note: You’ll notice I have an unusual signoff. I believe developing a creative conclusion for your queries can help you stand out and get noticed. It’s worked well for me.

Had success lately with query letters? Leave a comment and tell us about your approach.

On this edition of Mailbag, we tackle a question I get a lot: How can a freelance writer kick the content-mill habit and move up to better-paying clients?

On the recent post about Demand Studios’ IPO, reader Mike Biscoe was concerned about the revelation that DS doesn’t make a profit, which puts them at risk for going bust. An excerpt of his comments and questions:

I’ve been working for Demand Studios since 2009. Almost exclusively. I live in Thailand and because the cost of living where I am is cheap, I can pay the bills simply by writing DS articles. My only other income comes from occasionally writing articles for similar content mills that pay half of what DS does. Prior to 2009, I have no experience in writing anything other than regular letters to my grandma.

I am here on a tourist visa and therefore can’t legally work. If the [DS] job goes, I go. Since I am newish to writing I can’t say I know that much about what a logical next step would entail. Though I don’t think DS is going out of business tomorrow, it reminds me that I must look ahead.

I want to begin formulating a plan for more meaningful mid- and long-term goals.

Do I carry a scarlet letter for the rest of my life for writing eHow, Trails and Livestrong articles?

In spite of what good DS might do for me, there have been times when I’ve been so frustrated by the process that I’ve imagined jettisoning my laptop right through the window and listening with satisfaction as it crashes on the rooftop five stories below. In other words, I don’t want to believe that DS is my only hope for employment as a new writer.

Thanks for the information and clear-headed advice.

To get the easy stuff out of the way first: You’ll only be branded a mill writer forever if you put DS on your resume. Leave it off, and no one will know. End of stigma.

Here’s the nut of my answer to your main question about kicking mills and getting paid more: To move up, you’ll need to actively market your writing business. That’s the gist of it. Getting better pay involves getting off your tushy, and looking for better clients.

There are some basic ways to do that — plus one I’ll throw in that’s unique to your being an expat living in an exotic locale. Here are seven ways to break in to better markets:

1. Create a writer Web site and SEO it. If you don’t have a site that promotes your writing, create one as soon as possible. Make sure you use key words about the types of writing you want to do in your header and home-page copy. Put up some clips — yes, for now they’ll be from DS sites, but replace those as soon as you can with others. This will allow some prospective clients to find you. So once you’ve done the active work of creating and properly optimizing your site, you can passively snag clients with it. I’d put in “American expat in Thailand” somewhere, if I were you.
2. Create a personal blog. You can make a strong audition piece — especially if you’d like to blog for pay for others — by starting your own blog on your writer site. Don’t doodle on there — write each entry as if your career depended on it. It does. This technique paid off for me huge, and now some months I make half or more of my income from paid blogging.
3. Direct-mail or email prospects. Identify a type of publication or business where you know something about their subject matter, and then do some online research. Create a list of prospective publications or companies. Contact their editor, marketing manager, communications director or other likely target. Since you’re overseas I’m betting mail or email will be the way to go rather than cold-calling on the phone. Introduce yourself in your mail or email piece and simply ask if they use freelance writers. This has a low response rate, but you will usually get some clients, as Chris Bibey recently testified over on All Freelance Writing.
4. Seek out guest-post opportunities. If you’ve written for DS, there are probably blogs where you could guest post. Subscribe to Blogger Linkup and respond to sites seeking guest bloggers. Yes, it’s usually for free, but it’s a valuable form of marketing for you. Being seen on high-traffic blogs can get you clients — and it gets you clips from places that aren’t from DS sites. Try to spend some time on these guest posts and really make them strong. You’re auditioning for better-paying clients. The bigger-viewership site you can appear on, the better.
5. Network online. I’d ordinarily recommend getting out to some in-person networking events, but since you’re in Thailand, it’s probably hard to drop by a big-American-city Chamber of Commerce networking event. But you can meet and connect with lots of people on LinkedIn groups, and networking sites such as Biznik. The latter is another good place to create strong articles that could serve as example clips.
6. Leverage your locale. OMG,  you’re living in Thailand! I bet you’ve visited plenty of interesting tourist spots there. You could write a query letter to all sorts of travel magazines offering to share those. You could also hit all the simple-living mags and Web sites with your “how to live in Thailand on $1 a day” ideas. You’ll need to learn to write query letters, but it’s not that hard, and well worth it for the money you could make. You can read a book about querying if you need to learn more. You can resell your Thailand-travel story angles umpty-dozen times. You might start with tourism companies that need brochure copy or marketing letters, and work your way up to calling on airlines that fly to Thailand and pitching their in-flight magazines (these are usually top payers). Find editors online or in the Writer’s Market.
7. Apply for jobs you see online. Start diversifying where you write for — even if it’s at DS rates — by answering online job ads. You should be able to gradually increase your rates as you acquire non-mill clients. Problogger often runs ads for bloggers at rates at or a little more than what you’re making, and the work may make for stronger clips for moving up.

There’s more about how to market your writing here and here.

How would you advise Mike to move on beyond content mills? Feel free to add more tips in the comments below.

To earn more, you’ve got to market your writing services. Learn how live next Tuesday at my Webinar, 40 Ways to Market Your Writing, with co-presenter Anne Wayman of About Freelance Writing. Only 150 can participate. Sign up here.

Photo via Flickr user extranoise

Hi all –

I know. I don’t ordinarily post on Tuesdays. But I got a question from Christine Champ, who’s participating in the 40 Ways to Market Your Writing Webinar, that can’t wait until the Webinar on Dec. 7!

She wrote:

Do you think it’s a bad idea to send out new pitches during the holidays? Like with Thanksgiving coming up, would you not send any new pitches until the following week? I have a few pitches I planned to send out [Thanksgiving week}, but then thought should I wait ’til after the holiday.

Quick answer: I’d wait.

Editors’ schedules are crazy enough on a normal, five-day week. On the short weeks, they’re really nuts. I think it ups your odds of just getting passed over.

I actually wouldn’t send any out the Monday after a long holiday weekend, either. If I don’t miss my guess, editors will spend the entire day just digging out of email and putting out fires. So I think that’s not a good day either.

It’s frustrating to hit these periods where you have a story idea you love, but you need to sit on it. But I think it’s probably the right thing to do.

I’m sure there’s another school of thought, that a lot of workaholics tend to sit and catch up on email during the holidays, and maybe that means in a weird way they might be more likely to take time to read yours. But I guess I don’t want to encourage workaholism, so I don’t add to the pressure by sending queries in a holiday period.

Finally, if you’re snail-mailing queries, go ahead and send them out — they won’t look at them until next Tuesday, but that should work out fine.

Are you sending out any queries during the holidays? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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Photo via Flickr user hurricanemaine