13 out of 200: A Less-Than-Impressive Start to my Freelance Career

There's a big difference between seasoned freelancers and those just starting out, at least when it comes to marketing. Seasoned freelancers write much better queries than other writers. And new writers? Most of the times, their queries...well, they stink. 

My first year of full-time freelancing, I sent out more than 200 queries to potential markets. (This is including resubs, but that’s still a lot of pitching.) You know how many of them actually sold? Are you ready? Thirteen.

Thirteen out of more than 200. That's not a bad number for a direct mail campaign, but it's not too impressive for pitches that were supposed to be targeted to specific editors and markets. If I started out freelancing today and had that kind of result, I don’t know that I could, or would, stick with it.

          

But receiving so many “bongs” (that’s what I call rejections) thickened my skin. I stopped taking rejection personally. Yes, I was still annoyed. Disappointed. Discouraged. Frequently disgusted, and occasionally depressed. But I knew it wasn’t a rejection of me, only of my idea. (And looking back, many of my queries were terrible. They lacked focus, they were poorly researched, they weren’t written with the magazine’s audience in mind. No wonder they failed!)

            

By using the 24-hour rule, I turned each of those bongs into two opportunities. I kept pitching. I kept trying. Yes, I was discouraged but I kept my hand in, so to speak. And eventually I started getting assignments—not only because I kept pitching but because my queries got better. Much better. I learned to think about what the editor might want in a pitch, to highlight my I'm-So-Great paragraph, or ISG, and to present a "package" that made it easy for an editor--even one new to me--to say "yes." 

By my second year of freelancing, about one-quarter of my pitches sold, and that percentage continued to climb. (Today, more than half of the articles I pitch sell—and that’s a percentage I’m very happy with.)

            

I tell new writers that they will spend most of their time marketing until they start getting assignments. And that marketing doesn’t pay off until you get work. Well, that’s not quite true. Because the marketing you do makes you a better marketer. Write a lot of queries with the goal of improving your queries, and you will write better queries! And better queries=more assignments. 

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The 24-Hour Rule and Why it Works

I've written before about the importance--and power of--setting specific, performance-related goals. At the Annual Writers Institute this weekend in Madison, I shared with attendees one of my most effective specific goals that I used as a fledgling freelancer--the 24-hour rule.

You'll find more about the 24-hour rule in Six-Figure Freelancing, but here it is in short:

Within 24 hours of receiving a rejection, or "thanks, but no thanks" (what I call a "bong") from an editor, I would do two things. First, I’d resubmit the query to another market; I call this a "resub."

Second, I’d send a new query to the editor who had rejected me, starting with language like, "Thank you very much for your response to my query about women and weight-lifting. While I’m sorry you can’t use the idea at this time, I have another for you to consider." Then I’d include my new query.

The 24-hour rule transformed each rejection into two new opportunities. Getting my original query idea out to another possible market (typically a national magazine) increased my chances of selling it. But even more important, getting back in touch with editors immediately helped me build relationships even before I’d written for them!

As I said this weekend, when you go to the Gap to buy a new pair of pants, and the first pair are pleated pants that look terrible, the salesgirl doesn't say, "'K, bye!" She brings you more pants to try on. So be the Gap salesgirl, and keep bringing the editor more pants.

Finally, the 24-hour rule also eliminated the question of "what should I do now?" after receiving a bong. I didn’t get derailed by a rejection; I simply applied my 24-hour rule and kept going.

If you're freelancing part-time or you're swamped with work, 24 hours may be too ambitious. Maybe a 48-hour or 72-hour rule will work better. But the idea is the same--that you give yourself a specific amount of time to resub your original idea and pitch a new idea to the editor. A rejection isn't really a rejection--it's two new opportunities for you as a freelancer.

Turn a Rejection into Two Opportunities: The 24-Hour Rule

If you freelance for magazines, you use a query letter to get your foot in the door and introduce yourself to an editor. But you can't develop a relationship with an editor until you write an article for her. Right?

Wrong! When you employ what I call the “the 24-hour rule,” you can start a relationship with an editor even before you get your first assignment.

When I started freelancing fulltime 14+ years ago, I came up with the 24-hour rule to help keep me focused. Within 24 hours of receiving a rejection (what I call a “bong”) from an editor, I'd do two things:

First, I’d tweak the query and send it to another market (what I call a "resub"). That gets my query letter back "out there"--it won't do me any good sitting on my hard drive. Second, I’d send a new query to the editor who had rejected me, starting with language like, “Thank you very much for your response [not rejection!] to my query about women and weight-lifting. While I’m sorry you can’t use the idea at this time, I have another for you to consider.” Then I’d include my new query.

The 24-hour rule enabled me to transform each rejection into two new opportunities. It also kept my name in front of editors I was pitching, and hopefully impressed potential clients with my persistence and professionalism. Just as important, it eliminated the question of “what should I do now?” that I would have otherwise wondered about after receiving a bong. I didn’t get derailed by the rejection; I simply used it as opportunity to apply my 24-hour rule.

If you're not freelancing fulltime, the 24-hour rule may be too ambitious. But what about a 48-hour rule? A three-day rule? A one-week rule? Choose the timeframe that works for you and your schedule, and start looking at those dreaded bongs as opportunities rather than rejections—and a way to create a relationship with an editor that will lead to your first assignment for her.