I’ve been a freelance writer for nearly two decades, specializing in science and medicine. Most of my living comes from editors who like my work and farm out stories to me. That’s healthy for my cash flow, but it comes with a drawback: I rarely get to choose what I write. I doubt I’m alone [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Pitching’
Post-Slam Dunk
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on November 19th, 2012
The great thing about a Pitch Slam is that everyone benefits from courageous writers who conquer their nerves enough to pitch an idea, at a microphone, in front of a room full of their peers and a panel of editors from top publications. By any measure, the Pitch Slam at ScienceWriters2012 was crammed with outstanding pitches [...]
Cramming for the Slam
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on October 24th, 2012
Few tasks bring more stress and anxiety to freelancers than pitching a story, except coming face-to-face with an editor at a meeting and pitching a story on the spot — in front of an audience. With ScienceWriters2012 and the Pitch Slam in just a few days, we decided to help freelancers prepare by offering up [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft 
Tags: Ask TON, Elements-of-Craft, Erdmann, Ferber, Maher, McKenna, Pitches, Pitching, ScienceWriters 
2 Comments »Ask TON: Repitching killed stories
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on August 29th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I recently had a feature story killed just before publication. I retain the rights to it. However, I’m not sure of the etiquette and ethics of selling a killed story to a new editor. What’s the most [...]
Sharpening ideas: From topic to story
Posted by Dan Ferber on July 11th, 2012
George Johnson wanted to write about new developments in cancer research for the New York Times. But he needed to find a story that would let him to do it. So last year Johnson, a regular contributor to the Times’ science section who’s writing a book about cancer, cut a deal with his editor. He’d [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Characters, Elements-of-Craft, Ferber, Guest Contributor, Narrative, Pitching, Story Development, Structure 4 Comments »Ask TON: Saving string
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on January 26th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Wondering what Ask TON is? See here for background information and our introductory post. Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I’m a freelancer, and I want to move from doing straight news stories to features, but I don’t really know how to start [...]
Posted in Ask TON Tags: Ask TON, Features, Finding Ideas, Frederick, Greene, Maher, Pitching, Story Development 2 Comments »Pitching errors: How not to pitch
Posted by Laura Helmuth on January 4th, 2012
Writing a good pitch is really tough. Writing a bad one is easy. Editors see the same mistakes over and over again, even from good writers. A few weeks ago, seven editors from a variety of publications participated in a round-table discussion, in a series of group emails, about how NOT to pitch. I started [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Helmuth, Pitching 24 Comments »