Sending sample work to major magazines

I will be honest, and I don’t mean to sound negative, but I always throw those out. If they have a beautiful package or a small token inside, I will look over it, smile/eat/toy with it (depending on the object) and then throw it out. If you wrote for somewhere that impressed me and had articles that were a really good fit for our publication, I will keep your business card and toss the rest. If there’s any advice I can give you, I would say make sure your clips are really targeted, either on topics you know we cover or from magazines that are our competitors in our market. For instance, I write for a luxury lifestyle magazine. If I see clips from Forbes/ForbesLife, Robb Report, etc., I will be interested in you, regardless of the topic; to a lesser degree, if I see good clips on travel, food, etc., I will be interested but would need a really compelling and specific pitch to choose to write that kind of story over using one of our own staffers.

If you’re a native of South Africa and you can bring a really interesting perspective to a story on safari resorts, that might interest me; if you used to be a chef and now you’re a writer, that might interest me—hopefully you see what I’m getting at. Essentially, if you’re not anybody, I need you to give me a really good reason why I should give a great assignment to you instead of writers I already know and like or one of my own staff members who might enjoy a press trip or a free meal. The reason I throw out most clip packages is that they’re generic, generic, generic. If you wouldn’t apply for a job with a form letter, don’t pitch with a form letter either. That will count a lot more than any enclosed item.

In a practical sense, this means don’t waste money on enclosing anything in your envelope and don’t waste money mailing envelopes to every editor in New York—instead send better packages targeted to specific magazines.