I’m in marketing mode again this week, after my pitching yielded results right in the first week of December and gave me some extra momentum to push. It’s one of those periods when I’m not as concerned about the writing part (and struggling with it a little bit, actually), but am enjoying tremendously coming up with ideas and sending them out in the world.

Many writers, when they’re first starting out, think of querying or pitching as a necessary step to get established, which is, of course quite true. What most people assume though, is that once they’re a bit established either with a publication or with their career in general, the pitching levels will go down and editors will start coming to them regularly with stories.

That is also true, but I think it’s important to remember that as a freelancer (or any journalist, really), you’re never going to stop pitching. The pitches themselves might change– your editor may be cool with a one-line e-mail or a quick phone call instead of a 500-word outline– but you’re still going to be keeping an eye out for interesting stories, and still coming up with ways to convince your editors why they should publish them. This is especially true if you work outside of the country where the publication is based, or if you’re more interested in writing on topics that appeal to you.

Would it surprise you if I told you that I’ve been sending one pitch a day for the past month? (I have three deadlines next week, though, and should probably STOP!)

Actually, part of my yearly goals is to make one marketing effort a day (if I’ve made five in one day though, I’m off the hook for the next four days), so that even if editors are taking their own sweet time to assign stories, I’m not sitting idle. More than that, as I’ve discussed on the blog before, I’m really interested on focusing on subjects that interest me, and that maybe haven’t been written about a lot already. Then again, if my editors are sitting in the US or UK, I’m going to have a much more informed idea of what’s happening in this country, and why their readers might be interested in knowing about it. I’m more likely to come up with untold stories than they are because they’re dependent on the media to get them the information, whereas I’m working my sources.

Regardless of the reasons, the truth is, I quite enjoy pitching for the most part. Finding an idea that gets you excited and then writing to an editor with the potential that idea holds, is the honeymoon phase of the project– when all possibilities exist and anything could happen.

I’m currently starry-eyed about a story idea that I think has the potential for a series in one of the big international newspapers. For now, as I pitch, I’ll dream of how it’s going to turn out. I’ll deal with the reality once the editor gets back to me on it.