I’ve added a new category to my list: “Misguided Advice For Writers.”
I was buzzing my Pitching Practice class on Twitter when another Tweeter asked me how I could still be teaching such a passé skill when so many of the online gurus are telling us that everything has changed in publishing.
I almost fell out of my chair. That’s how misguided this information is.
For one thing, I guess I feel like I know what I’m talking about after twelve years of professional experience and ten years experience teaching others. I don’t think this makes me a guru (and I don’t want to be a guru) but I do feel after all of these years that I know what I’m talking about.
Most of my personal success is based on the fact that I am pitching myself in one way or another every single day that I am working.
Big project or small project, every project happens because I pitch it. And because I am always pitching, I am always making professional strides in my career.
But I get it. Many writers seem to suffer from an aversion to pitching or are looking for a way around it. In the spirit of keeping things real, wouldn’t it save a lot of time and energy to finally learn how to pitch instead of wasting time trying to come up with ways to get around it?
When I look at my most successful students from the past ten years, they all have one thing in common: they know how to pitch and they do it on a regular, if not daily, basis.
If you would like to be one of them, please sing up for my Pitching Practice class that begins tomorrow. Pitching is a skill that pays off in the short run and the long. In landing gigs and selling your self and your services.
I look forward to working with writers who understand that pitching is the second most important skill right after writing.
If you’d like to learn more about my how you can write six queries in six weeks, please check out the class description. Class begins tomorrow but you can still jump in if you have adequate clips.
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I would almost argue that pitching is MORE important than writing. I know a few writers who aren’t the most skilled, but their bylines are everywhere because they never stop pitching. Ideally, I think there’s a balance between the two. 🙂 Every once in awhile I’ll notice I haven’t published anything in a while & I’ll realize, “Oh, yeah. It’s because I stopped pitching.” You have to pitch to get published!
I agree that pitching is important. And even informal appeals to editors and other customers are pitches, even if they aren’t formal query letters. Pitching is only passe if you want to write for a content farm. I don’t.
thansk a lot for the psot!