Pitching Practice is one of the most challenging classes that I offer. On the surface, the workload does not appear that much different from my other classes. However, querying is more challenging than it appears…which is why it needs its own class.
The whole point of query writing is to show that you know your stuff—to show that you have something to say and you know how to say it in a way that is relevant to the market you are targeting. Like most things in life, the first few times you try to write a query well, the process is slow and clunky and you think, “I don’t see how I am ever going to get the hang of this.”
But that’s because I’m not one of those teachers who hands you a template and says, “Here you go, copy this and you’ll be all set.”
No way, when I say I’m going to teach somebody something in six weeks, I mean I am going to put them through the paces, so that when they are done, they won’t be the same person, at least not with regards to the particular skill we are working on.
So, I invite you to come and face the challenge of writing queries easily and well. I can’t promise you will have the hang of it by week two or even three. But by week six, the skill will be yours to keep.
Here’s the course description for Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries in Six Weeks.
Okay, you’ve completed freelance writing classes, you’ve read writing and marketing books, qne you have published a few articles. Now all you need are assignments, deadlines, and more checks made out to yours truly. Or perhaps you’ve taken classes with Christina Katz and now you are ready to take your writing career to the next level.
But you’ve run into a few challenges:
- You have plenty of ideas, but you just can’t seem to get motivated enough to pitch them to editors
- Although you’ve written a few articles, the query writing process is still difficult because you feel like you have to reinvent the wheel each time
- You are isolated from other writers. Not that your family and friends aren’t great. They are, but you crave the company of like-minded others
- You feel stuck writing for lower-paying, regional markets and want to break into higher-paying, national markets
In this writing class, pitching is all you do. Over the course of six weeks, you crank out six queries, which is exactly the kind of practice you need if you want to get into the habit of landing better-paying assignments.
After you write and send six queries, you will never again ask, “What makes a strong query?” You will have developed your own style into muscle memory that you can exercise over and over to obtain future assignments. Finding your own rhythm, not someone else’s, is what effective query writing is about.
Each week, you will study a successful writer’s query and create your own list of steps to follow. You will also receive a three-page worksheet weekly, which will provide helpful ideas and checklists to help you systematize your query writing process and increase your productivity. You will be able to use these worksheets, along with your checklist to write a targeted query every six days for the rest of your career.
Emphasis will be placed on developing the query-writing habit, achieving the goal of six queries written in six weeks and sent to publications that advance your career.
Here’s what recent students have to say about the class:
There’s nothing like having a new concept click. That’s what happened for me in Christina’s Pitching Practice class. Query writing used to be a faraway hurdle. Now I have the confidence and know-how to take my story ideas to bigger markets. ~ J. Crain
Pitching Practice helped me to refine my focus and find my query-writing rhythm. It increased my confidence in my own ideas and taught me how to evaluate the salability of my queries before sending them out. Look out editors, here they come! ~ H. Luedtke
Christina offers quality instruction and critiques to her students. She expects the best from herself and upholds those same standards for her students. She asks no more of them that she asks of herself; this dedication is clear in her instruction, critiques and kind words of support. I learn so much about myself as a writer every time I take a class with Christina. ~ M. Lindberg
Christina has a talent for not giving you the answer you think you want. Instead, she guides you in finding your own process and answers, which is infinitely more valuable. ~ L. Davidson
I got exactly what I needed from Christina’s Pitching Practice class: several queries that are ready to go, and the confidence to send them out. ~ S. Foyt
I had gotten in a rut with my article submissions, pitching almost exclusively to lower-paying regional markets. Christina encouraged me to raise my sites and pitch to the nationals—by the time the class was over, I had received very positive feedback from the editors of two major national magazines, opening up the lines of communication for potential assignments. ~ J. Armstrong
This is the class for students who have been building article-writing skills steadily for some time and who are ready to tackle and master the challenge of the query letter. The difference between cover letter writing and query letter writing is the difference between making some money writing and making a whole lot more money writing.
When you are ready for the challenge, you can find more info and register here.