Wednesday 2 April 2008

Pitch Perfect

Had a bit of a cracker of an afternoon... pitched ideas to two editors and got both gigs. In the world of the Intern, this is pretty great news.

Freelancing assignments are generally hard to get. Developing relationships with editors is key but often getting the chance to meet these people is challenging enough. It's all about getting your foot in the door... the saying boils my blood but is undoubtedly true.

Lucky for me BAZAAR has two forums: with my left foot in the magazine and my right tap, taping in the Web I eagerly await calls from PR about new clients and scan the mail for press releases on upcoming events, all in the hope for that one ‘new’ idea. Something that I can take, spin around and angle ‘just right’ in order to land an assignment. In this industry one thing you just can’t do is sit back and wait for someone to hand you a story on a platter.

And even if you’re eager and your idea is a great one, when you’re the Intern on the block it’s not unusual for your editor to take your idea - make it better - and hand it off to one of their regular contributors to write. It’s not personal. It’s business.
With four of my recent assignments set to be launched on the website at the end of April, you’ll soon be able to read my ‘real stuff’ at Harpersbazaar.co.uk and hopefully my byline will be appearing on BAZAAR’s glossy pages in the not too distant future too… I’m taking it one pitch at a time.

2 comments:

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Jules said...

That's great! Can't wait to read it.