I've been a freelance writer for almost 10 years and this is my third year doing it full time. I have a good base of anchor clients, but I want more journalism work. The problem is that I've always found pitching to be completely deflating. I have a good relationship with one editor who basically says yes to almost any idea I throw at him, which is great, but the pay is a bit lower than what I'm aiming for at this point. I'm also building a relationship with another editor after her predecessor switched publications. But other than that, it's cold pitch after cold pitch. I feel like I have some pretty good ideas. I always include a potential headline with two short paragraphs about the story, one paragraph about my reporting plan, and a summary about me with some clips. I feel like I'm just pitching into a void though. I've sent dozens of pitches out lately without any luck. Is there some code to crack? And if so, why haven't I cracked it after a decade? Or is this just really how it is? I don't know if I just suck at this or if it's normal to have such a low success rate. I know it can be pretty low with other types of cold pitching, but I've read 25% is more the norm for journalism, with really experienced folks getting closer to 50%.   submitted by   /u/Effective-Try8787 [link]   [comments]