AMOM: Day 21: Follow-up on Your Correspondence
I’ve posted about this before. But it bears repeating. E-mails get lost in cyberspace, editors forget, things get busy, and your submission may be deleted without being looked at. It happens. Follow-up. Follow-up on queries. Follow-up on Letters of Introduction. Follow-up on any correspondence that needed a response and didn’t get one.
I usually follow-up no more than once, but I do know of writers who follow-up on their follow-ups as well. For me personally, that’s pushing it a bit, since I tend to assume that if the editor was interested, a query and a follow-up would have gotten a response. However, it has known to work. So it’s a personal choice.
Today, look over the work you’ve been sending out over the past one month. Is there anything you should be following up on? Do it.
(And with that, we come to the end of the Month of Marketing. Any successes? Any more tips? Share in the comments.)
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Who Am I?
I'm an award-winning freelance journalist based in New Delhi, India. I've written for Time, the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Global Post, Ms. magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and many others. I'm a contributing editor at Elle, India and I've also contributed to the books Chicken Soup for the PreTeen Soul II and Voices of Alcoholism. In November 2010, I was named Development Journalist of the Year at the Developing Asia Journalism Awards Forum in Tokyo.
www.mridukhullar.com
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This is something I’m horrid at. I very seldom follow-up and that’s something I’m really trying to work on. I just feel like a bother.
I’m also trying to work on my confidence. When that improves, I know my editor responses/sales will too. I have been writing and selling – mostly under a pseudonym lately – but I know I could do better if I just make myself go to the ‘next level’….
Encouraging others to be confident… no problem. Being confident enough to, say pitch my dream market, a whole different story!
*sigh*
About Pitching in Person
When I visit New York City, I usually set up appointments with editors from:
Redbook, Family Circle, Essence, Ladies Home Journal and First for Women.
How does this come about? I make an appointment ahead of time and prepare several pitches to present. I’ve found the editors expect visits of this sort. They usually set aside a few days a month to meet with writers.