Great course on pitch letters.
Media Bistro offers a lot of great courses. If you happen to be in the San Francisco area, check out the courses taught by Jay Cooke.
I just took Cooke's 3 hour course on creating the perfect pitch letter. Very insightful stuff with a hip, no nonsense attitude. I've been freelancing since 1986 and I definitely learned a thing or two. Even seasoned professionals need to sharpen their tools from time to time.
He breaks down the pitch letter into four parts, the hook, the pull, the plan and the why you. He shows you how to entice editors with a tight 300-word package.
I've given several speeches on how to write pitch letters. My personal track record is about 50% on new pitches to cold contact magazines. (Cooke says that in baseball if you fail seven times out of ten, you get into the hall of fame.) Clearly I can deliver what editors want. My big problem is that with so many editors I already work with calling me up with new assignments, I never made a practice of regular pitching to new clients.
After Cooke's class I have a new approach to not only make regular pitches to new clients but also how to create a follow-up plan that gets results and a back-up plan to find alternative markets for every pitch.
Without stealing his thunder, Cooke's basic approach is "you have to be in it to win it...Pitch early, pitch often, pitch boldly."
Words to live by.
Starting in April I'll be using this new approach. I'll let you know my results.
I just took Cooke's 3 hour course on creating the perfect pitch letter. Very insightful stuff with a hip, no nonsense attitude. I've been freelancing since 1986 and I definitely learned a thing or two. Even seasoned professionals need to sharpen their tools from time to time.
He breaks down the pitch letter into four parts, the hook, the pull, the plan and the why you. He shows you how to entice editors with a tight 300-word package.
I've given several speeches on how to write pitch letters. My personal track record is about 50% on new pitches to cold contact magazines. (Cooke says that in baseball if you fail seven times out of ten, you get into the hall of fame.) Clearly I can deliver what editors want. My big problem is that with so many editors I already work with calling me up with new assignments, I never made a practice of regular pitching to new clients.
After Cooke's class I have a new approach to not only make regular pitches to new clients but also how to create a follow-up plan that gets results and a back-up plan to find alternative markets for every pitch.
Without stealing his thunder, Cooke's basic approach is "you have to be in it to win it...Pitch early, pitch often, pitch boldly."
Words to live by.
Starting in April I'll be using this new approach. I'll let you know my results.
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