Adrienne Writes

I got an interesting email from a college junior today. In two pages, she attempted to tell me why she wanted to write for a magazine. She went on and on about needing to tell her story and being a “sort of student activist” and having a “story to tell” and “needing to get the word out” and “getting involved with young adults” and wanting me to be her “representative” and helping her to “attain a platform.”

Oy vey!

Usually when I am in receipt of poorly-formed emails or emails that ask for too much, I just press delete. But because this was a student with gumption, I congratulated her on her career aspirations and then I offered her some advice.

1. If you are trying to send in a pitch, keep it short and simple.
2. Never send a two-page email to an editor. Ever.
3. Try Googling magazine and pitch or magazine pitch letter. Learn from what you find in said search.
4. Buy Writer’s Market 2010 and read it cover to cover.
5. Decide what it is you want to write about. Stating that you have a story to tell isn’t good enough.
6. Try connecting with the journalism department at your university. See if you can enroll in some classes in that department.
7. Join Media Bistro and the NABJ.
8. Spellcheck.
9. Watch those run-on sentences!
10. Read lots of magazines, from Time to Fortune to Men’s Journal to Glamour to O to Ebony. Each magazine has a different target audience and a different way of telling stories. Learn the differences between these magazines so that you can target your pitch to that magazine.

I get these solicitation emails a few times a week, and I always congratulate the student on having gumption. But all too often they don’t have a good sense of the craft of journalism. Many of them want to write columns or give advice, but they don’t yet understand that no one will pay a college student for advice (except perhaps a high school newspaper) and college students typically don’t write first-person columns for big mags either.

It’s also an odd time to want to enter journalism, what with declining advertising issues and large media entities going out of business.

That said, I think that students should also do their research before contacting an editor. The young lady who contacted me was likely not a journalism major. The journie majors go about the pitch/request for info thing a bit differently.

I also think that it’s a good idea to either get some solid news training at a newspaper or Web site before trying to move into feature writing. You need to be able to look up and analyze court records, interview medical examiners and doctors and do the same things that every other reporter does. It’s not all just red carpet and writing down what you think.

And finally, sending over the link to your blog is not a turn on. I don’t click on those links unless the email first impresses me. And even then, blogging is not quite the same as penning a journalistically-based article.

Sometimes I wonder if these students who email me understand how stiff their competition is? The J-majors at Northwestern, Maryland, Mizzou, Syracuse, Howard, FAMU and Columbia know exactly what to do. They have the letters of recommendation, name recognition, classes under their belts, internships and entire journalism departments and alumni working to get them jobs.

Still, I think it is possible for someone to break into this profession if they do the right research and really, really study the craft. It’s not good enough to say you want to write your story. You don’t need to contact me in order to write your story. Go ahead and write it! What are you waiting for? But if you want to write for a magazine, then it’s time to get to work.

And that work doesn’t really start with emailing me… It starts with Journalism 101 or even better, a few internships.