I love this article on The Gloss by Andrea Kasprzak and Megan Baldwin SO, SO MUCH.
As a lady who pitches at least a half-dozen concepts per day, I can say it’s a real exercise in psychological strength to deal with the silence.
Rejection? That I can take. But the silence… the non-acknowledgement of this pitch that I’ve taken so long to think up and craft? Grrrr. And then there’s the mania of inner dialogues this wall of silence leads to, alternately angry at and accommodating to the shhhhhhh so quiet editors. They’re busy. But how long does it take to send back a “No thanks”? But they must get thousands of submissions like this each day. But isn’t it their job to try to work with writers? I shouldn’t have bothered them with my pitch. But isn’t that how they populate their publication? But mine was probably crap. But I’m not THAT MUCH of a a dum-dum, and I always use spell check, so what’s the big problem? GLARRWRRRGGHHHHH.
Recently I sent out a slew of pitches specifically to women’s blogs (HEY GIRLS! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Like what you’ve done with your hair. Call me!) and tried an experiment. After not hearing back from a few places after a week, I wrote back thanking them for their consideration and asking if they had any suggestions for how I could shape future pitches so they might be of interest, because, gee golly, I’d really love to write for them some day and could use some constructive feedback.
And the request was in earnest. Like, maybe I accidentally included too many f-words in the pitch? (Kidding…?) Anyway.
*Cricket chirps*
I love that these chicks writing for The Gloss just kept at it with Esquire, that’s exactly the tone I’ve been taking, and I’m glad to know that solid writers out there are also taking on The Wall of Silence by trying to knock it down with humour and persistence rather than retreating in shame.
Nice one, ladies.
Awesome Retorting Lady Writers Repeatedly Rejected by Esquire (link)
Brianna Goldberg 