A story about simulpitching
Yes, you *can* send the same story pitch to multiple places
When I started my career as a freelance journalist, I was often warned to not send the same story idea to multiple publications. My mentors told me that editors may get upset if a freelancer is shopping their idea around.
For years, I heeded this advice. I used to spend quite a bit of time, often overseas, exploring a single topic. Soon, I became practiced in finding different, non-overlapping story angles, so I could maximize my income from a single reporting trip.
But in 2020, my perspective on this changed. Between Covid-19 and the George Floyd protests, the news cycle seemed to be moving at a much more rapid clip. I didn’t want to lose out on covering a timely story (and earning money) just because editors didn’t respond to me on time.
I started pitching a story about how frontline medics were getting targeted at protests, sending it to three outlets. Two of the three places, I had a relationship with: The New York Times and Elemental (RIP). The third was more of a cold pitch. I let all three editors know I was pitching simultaneously: “due to the time sensitive nature of this story, I am sending this idea to multiple outlets.” (This, by the way, is key to be successful at simulpitching: be transparent so you don’t burn any bridges.)
My editor at Elemental jumped to commission me. Meanwhile, the New York Times didn’t want the story outright, but put me to work as a contributing reporter on how police violence was growing during the protests. Later, the third editor, who was slightly slower to respond, expressed remorse at not being faster, and asked me where it was publishing and wanted me to send him the link to the story when it published. “Too bad,” he said. “We could have given it better play.”
It turns out, nobody was mad. In fact, I now had evidence to the contrary, upending the beliefs I was told years ago. Everyone wanted a piece of my story, if not the whole thing. Importantly, though, I was in charge of the fate of my work.
Freelance journalism inherently creates a power dynamic where the commissioning outlet has financial and editorial power over the freelance writers that they work with. Freelancers play into this dynamic constantly by accepting the low wages they are offered from the jump and taking on commissions at low word counts just to ‘make it work’ with a certain publication (especially if said publication is a ‘dream outlet’). We’ve bent and bent and bent, until there are no more boundaries left.
Simulpitching inherently upends this mindset by putting the freelancer at charge. Perhaps editors hate this practice because they hate the idea of the underdog having power. Because they feel threatened that the conventional power dynamic can be pulled out from under them. Because, yeah, having power is nice.
Two weeks ago, I had another story idea I wanted to sell. There was no real time hook, besides the fact that I needed to land a commission so I could earn money while writing about something that mattered to me. I sent the same story to five editors, all the while being explicit that I was pitching simultaneously.
One editor got back to me and offered me $250 for the idea, to publish online. I passed: “Unfortunately, my business can not afford to earn only $250 on a pitched and originally reported piece.”
Another wanted the piece for print, offering me a maximum of ~1200 words at $0.75/word.
A third also wanted the story idea for print, offering $1500 for a story of no more than 1100 words.
A fourth editor also wanted it for online, offering $2000 for approximately 1800 words.
(The fifth never got back to me, as they were on vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
It’s worth saying that while money is important, it wasn’t the only factor I considered. I knew what I wanted my story to look like, and I wanted some flexibility on the word count. For the rates offered here, I also knew it wouldn’t make that much sense to bring it through a print editing process. I ended up accepting an assignment with #4.
If you’ve been tuning into this newsletter for a few years, you’ll know that I’ve been basically yelling: FREELANCE JOURNALISM IS A BUSINESS, TOO. It’s not a glorified hobby for the people who can afford it.
When I explained my unconventional pitching process to some colleagues, they described it as a ‘story auction,’ which, in some ways, yes.
I like describing it as selling a house. I’ll put the story idea on the market, and everyone who is interested can give me their best offer. I’ll consider all their offers, all the while knowing the true value of my story idea, and go with the one that makes the most sense.
Because if you have a killer idea to sell, you deserve the power of figuring out its best home.