7    The commissioning and the editing

An editor: a person who knows precisely what he wants – but isn’t quite sure. (Walter Davenport, quoted by Bennett Cerf in Saturday Review Reader, No. 2)

Good editing is about knowing when to … ‘drag the readers into a story that they would never before consider reading’. (From Henry Porter, ‘Editors and Egomaniacs’, an essay contributed to The Penguin Book of Journalism. Secrets of the Press, edited by Stephen Glover, 2000)

What editors overwhelmingly want are good ideas. There’s no use being a skilled writer if you have nothing to say. Walter Davenport’s editors are quite sure what they want when presented with a fresh idea well expressed that fits the features formula of their publication and yet is different in some way from anything that has already appeared in it. Henry Porter is emphasizing that the good editor should have the imagination and leadership to sell the quite unfamiliar, perhaps complex and challenging piece from time to time. That unfamiliar product is sometimes a speculative (‘spec’) article, one that any proposal or outline could not have described satisfactorily.

This chapter sets out the ground you need to cover between studying a publication and seeing a feature of yours printed in it:

•  understanding the editor’s point of view

•  preparing to pitch

•  pitching methods

•  using your network

•  organizing the assignment

•  sending specs

•  dealing with editors.

THE EDITOR’S POINT OF VIEW

Features editors are keenly aware of the market they’re in and of their publication’s needs. They must be able to respond rapidly to changes in needs and to successful moves by competitors. On newspapers such responses are most likely to mean commissioning staff writers or freelances whose work is well known. The young outsider must develop strategies for breaking in.

Commissioning involves choosing the right person for the right job, not as easy as it sounds. Choosing ‘the safe pair of hands’ is the tendency when the pressure is on, but can lead to a predictable set of feature pages. The trick is to know when the safe is the best, and when you need an unusual combination to lift a feature out of the ordinary; when to send, for example, a fat, middle-aged, chain-smoking humorist who knows nothing about sport rather than a sports buff to interview a quirky and egotistic star athlete.

Features editors must commission and give follow-up briefings clearly or there will need to be much rewriting, by themselves, or by subs or by the authors. A news-pegged article on a national paper has to be as near as possible right first time. There may not be time for much rewriting: promising material may have to be spiked. Commissioning policy on any publication will be influenced by the special requirements of different subjects, by the traditional ways of dealing with them, and by the relationship that has been developed between editor and writer, in the course of trying to get on the same wavelength.

One writer may need to know how the feature is to be projected on the page, may need an idea of the likely headline and some precise questions that should be asked of interviewees. Another is spurred on perhaps by being given a clear idea of how the typical reader will feel after reading the article, or in what way their attitude to the subject is expected to be changed.

The processing of a newspaper staff writer’s feature may have to be done in a day or two, or in an afternoon. The space requirement may change, pictures may be found that the writer didn’t anticipate, breaking news may require some rewriting at the last moment. Section editors and subs may have to work on it in the middle of the night.

Freelances (and staff writers on magazines) are more likely to be given the extra time and extra briefing to make the changes themselves, or at least to be consulted. On the other hand, staff writers are more likely, provided there are none of the above emergencies, to get it right first time. They can instinctively anticipate exactly what their publication wants.

What all commissioned writers have to understand is that editors, despite the insight described above, will often not know exactly what they want until they see what they don’t want. An editor and a writer must work effectively as a team. A staff writer can strengthen that teamwork by informal chat and by participating in the formal conferences and group meetings. The freelance may have to make judicious use of phone conversations, fax and email. In the end an article is a finely judged compromise – having to satisfy editor, readers, writer, lawyer and, to varying degrees, proprietors.

PREPARING TO PITCH

The commonest way to get commissioned is to sell the idea with your proposed content and treatment and illustration (if appropriate) to the editor first. If you’re not known to the editor you have to sell yourself as well: explain why you are the best person to write the article, backed up by some indication of your relevant experience, including if possible cuttings of articles you’ve published.

Make sure you’ve done the market study described in Chapter 5, and have included in this study, if available, the website, media pack, editorial calendar and writers’ guidelines. Having the idea and the target in mind, you must first find out both the title and the name of the person you must deal with. If there are editors of different sections of the publication, work out which section should get your query. First ask the switchboard for the name and title of that editor. The editor may be described in several different ways: features editor, commissioning editor, assistant editor, for example. For convenience we shall refer to the editor.

You will also want to know how the editor prefers to receive proposals: on the phone, by email, by fax, by letter? If you’re keeping records as described in Chapter 3, note your experiences. Emails can be disregarded or forgotten if there’s a daily onslaught.

A few editors want to see c.v.s, but brief ones, relevant to your ability to perform what you promise; published cuttings; printouts of online pieces; a brief summary of the proposal; or an outline of the proposed feature (or any combination of these). Writers’ guidelines may specify your giving such information to back up your initial contact, whereas some editors will initially want only the idea on the phone and will accept or reject it after a minute or two.

Be ready on the phone with 25 words to make your proposal. To sell your idea at that length is a good test of its merit. If the idea is accepted, then you might be asked for all the rest. You may be taken up on an offer to provide illustrations, or you may be told that the publication will provide them.

Some American publications have changed their submission procedures since the contamination of mail by anthrax spores that followed the terrorist assault on the Twin Towers of New York. There are also widespread fears of contamination by computer virus. Don’t send anything as an email attachment unless asked to.

Check that your idea meets the criteria listed in Chapter 5. What about that timeliness? Don’t query too soon for you may find you cannot perform – there may be too little information available, or it may be too expensive to obtain, for example. Don’t query too late, after spending much time on research, only to find that the idea has been taken up by someone else, whether for the target or for a competitor. Query when you’ve done just enough preliminary research to be fired by the idea and sure you can deliver.

Choose the best time if you want to get straight through to your editor. The switchboard or a secretary may be able to advise. There are unpropitious times: first thing in the morning, just before lunch or an editorial conference, between, say, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on a newspaper when pages are going to press, on a Thursday press day on a weekly magazine (try Friday).

There are many reasons why a proposal might be rejected. It may have been covered recently. (That shouldn’t happen if you’ve done the necessary market study.) The idea may be considered boring or potentially libellous; the proposed treatment may be considered inappropriate, or sound too much like a ‘scissors-and-paste’ job. That is where your proposed content is clearly to be collected from files of newspaper cuttings and where there is no sign that it will be transmuted by some kind of originality.

If you’re new the editor is unlikely to commission straight away, but if your idea appeals you may be encouraged to send the piece in and ‘we’ll have a look at it’. You may be given valuable suggestions about treatment. If your idea is rejected you may be told why it doesn’t appeal to the market. In any case you will be able to scrutinize the idea and the target again, and consider sending the proposal to another publication. You must avoid expending time and energy on producing and sending off unsaleable features.

HOW TO PITCH

As every businessman knows there’s no point in having a good product if you lack salesmanship. A good idea can be buried under an ineffective proposal. Here are some suggested techniques for querying:

•   by telephone or email

•   by fax or letter

•   face to face.

By telephone

Be precise. Vagueness will irritate the busy executive you are talking to and, apart from losing you the commission you are aiming at, might leave an unfavourable impression.

The travel magazine editor receives a phone call

The caller has had a few articles published in a students’ magazine and a local paper and has a pleasant voice and manner. A young writer worth encouraging perhaps?

‘Tell me about it.’

‘I’m going on holiday to Vienna for two weeks. I wonder if you’d be interested in a feature when I get back.’

‘We had a feature about Vienna six months ago. Didn’t you see it?’

‘I’m afraid not … But I thought I’ d do something a bit unusual, like describing the places where Beethoven lived and there’s a museum …’

‘Our feature covered that. Sorry.’

‘Actually I’ll be visiting Salzburg as well and …’

‘What have you got in mind for Salzburg? Mozart’s haunts? We’ve done that as well.’

‘I wonder if you could suggest something I could look into while I was there?’

‘Not really.’ The features editor has already been too kind. ‘If you think you’ve got something that might interest us, send it in. But study the magazine first.’

The features editor had to be vague because the caller was vague. The caller was unwise to query with even the subject only vaguely in mind and no sign of an idea.

The woman’s magazine editor receives a call

The caller is also young, and has had a couple of pieces on sports background published.

‘What’s your idea?’

The caller refers to a summary jotted down in 23 words. ‘How parents push their children to win at various sports. To damaging effect. Title perhaps: ‘Champion Children – But Is The Price Too High?’

‘It sounds interesting. What facts have you got?’

‘The Sports Council has just published some research on effects on children of different ages. Quite academic stuff. I thought a composite piece, interviews with four or five children and their coaches and parents.’

‘Send me your cuttings and a bit more – a brief outline and an intro. I don’t promise but I like it so far.’

By email

When you pitch by email (unless required otherwise) try to keep the whole message short enough to be visible on the screen. Although less formal than a letter the email should give an idea of an appealing writing style and the presentation must be polished. The danger with the casualness encouraged by emails is that grammatical and spelling errors can creep in.

If sent by email the above proposal would be set out in the core paragraph, perhaps with a little more detail. Above would be the normal ‘Dear (name)’ greeting, followed by a subject line such as ‘Article proposal’ with the provisional title. A first paragraph might refer to a telephone call being followed up, in which case the briefest reminder of qualifications will suffice. If the email is the first approach, the first paragraph can give some background, perhaps a summarized c.v., and grab the editor’s attention in some way. A third paragraph can ask for any details required from the editor of submission requirements. After signing off (perhaps with ‘Best wishes’), give your contact details.

By fax or letter

Letters pitching to editors look more businesslike on headed notepaper with your name and address printed elegantly. Make sure you address the commissioning editor by name. As well as the normal contact information on your letterhead (home/work phone numbers, mobile phone numbers, email address, website), include at the end of the letter any other useful contact numbers, such as those of sources that the editor might want to check with. You may want to state times when you can be contacted in different places.

If the letter follows up a telephone conversation or meeting with the editor, you may not need to say much more about yourself, but you may be expected to give more elaborate descriptions of ideas already discussed.

Here are two samples of query letters sent as initial contacts:

To a magazine dealing with ecological/environmental issues

Dear …

I believe I have an excellent idea for an article that would appeal to your readers. It will be about a new social movement that has been called the ‘DIY Culture’. An increasing number of people, mainly young, are working out an alternative lifestyle outside the mainstream of conventional commercial culture.

I am not sure, before I have done some research, what my own attitude to these people is or whether they will succeed or not. I shall describe the ways in which they are opposed to the conventional culture of ‘economic growth’ after interviewing those practising this different lifestyle. I will also look into LETS (Local Exchange and Trading Schemes) used as an alternative to money in places where this is carried on. Have you heard of this? If so, and you have some information, I’d be grateful if you’d send it on to me.

Yours sincerely

There’s potential in this idea, but not enough preliminary research has been done. The first sentence of the second paragraph should be indicating knowledge, not ignorance, an attitude, not a lack of attitude. LETS should already have been looked into and the proposer should have at least an initial reaction, preferably favourable. The proposer’s asking whether the target has heard of LETS suggests that any market study has been cursory. It’s hardly a good start to be asking your target for information about your subject.

To a consumer magazine

This pitch succeeded, I would guess, out of its sheer enthusiasm:

Dear …

A new leisure pursuit is sweeping Britain – walking! Everyone is getting into it and there are all kinds of snazzy gear to do it in – so it could prove an ‘ad-get’ for you. I am an experienced hiker and journalist (brief c.v. and relevant cuttings enclosed). About 1500 words, with illustrations if required.

Here is a suggested intro:

Walking is fast eclipsing fishing as the number one leisure pursuit in Britain today. Britons are taking to the hills in vast numbers each weekend and the sport is getting so popular that some of the favourite routes, like the Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast, are beginning to be so well trodden you hardly need a map. They join the Ramblers Association or ad hoc groups, or they like to do it in pairs, or they strike off on their own, but however they do it, they like to be well and truly togged.

How about a standfirst?:

Manufacturers are cashing in on the walking boom with all kinds of expensive kit on offer in a growing number of High Street stores – I took to the hills to investigate.

If this sounds interesting to you, please give me a call on the above number.

Yours sincerely

The writer then went on to suggest other features, on different aspects of the walking boom, to several of the dozen or so specialist walking and outdoor pursuits magazines. One article was more to do with gadgets (computer digitization of maps and navigational aids), another contrasted walking expeditions alone with doing it in groups, another explored the potential dangers in unknown territory and how to be prepared for them. All three were published. He had discovered that these magazines had not covered these aspects much.

If you want to suggest several ideas at the same time, it will probably be best to write a short covering letter with a separate ideas sheet.

Query/outline combined

After briefly following up any previous discussion, here is the way you might propose an article on ‘The London homeless: what are the answers?’ Note that such a subject is constantly changing and any outline would have to be updated every time you sent it out. American publications are keener on this detailed approach – see Writers Market.

1   Proposed length, angle, treatment.

2   Suggested intro:

There are homeless people in London. They shuffle through the streets, despondent and weary. They keep moving so that they do not have to be moved on. At night they creep under railway arches, motorway flyovers, building complexes. Homeless used to be considered synonymous with alcoholics, misfits, feeble-minded, feckless, useless, old and resigned. Many of them still are, but an increasing number of them are young, only very recently unemployed and desperate to find a way back. Some of them succeed. Many more would succeed if they did not feel their family or society had rejected them.

3   Summary of proposed article:

There are short-term answers … A housing policy that takes account of the homeless is one answer. But success with an important long-term goal, to restore to the homeless a sense of community, is elusive, despite the efforts of government and the voluntary associations. (Compare the efforts to treat the mentally ill and the mentally handicapped within the community, abortive when the services provided there are inadequate.)

4   Background:

Definition of homelessness (Act of 1967). Those who deserve the title and those who don’t. Causes: family breakdowns, fragmentations of social structures, unemployment, drug addiction and alcoholism, housing policy. Economic anomalies: bed and breakfast costs.

5   Past attempts to solve problems:

Successes and failures of housing policies, and of the efforts of voluntary associations.

6   The task ahead:

The particular problems of the time of writing.

7   Conclusion:

Up-to-date situation and prospects.

Sources: Shelter (National Campaign for Homeless People, CHAR (Campaign for the Rootless and Homeless), local government housing department, case studies.

When you’ve produced a structured pitch letter like the above and have been commissioned you can often develop your outline from that and quickly produce a first draft while your head is full of the subject. If you’ve collected material in a subject file you might have, as well your pitch, an editor’s briefing, cuttings, notes and references to sources.

Use the points listed, expanding them as you write, leaving gaps where you may want to expand with an interview, anecdote, quote or other supporting material.

Multiple proposals

Chapter 3 discussed multi-purposing and syndication. Let’s look at this more closely. You may want to send the same ideas to various non-competing publications, in different cities perhaps, or different countries. Indicate clearly what rights you’re offering, as explained on page 14. If you receive an embarrassing number of acceptances, be sure you have prepared plans to adapt the ideas in different ways for the various publications.

If your pitches/idea sheets are not working, scrutinize them for specific detail. Lack of detail gives a feeling of blandness. Beware, however, of sticking rigidly to any formula given here or in any similar text for any stage in the pitching process.

It’s a good idea to have several targets in mind for an idea, so that when it’s rejected by one you can try it on another. Suppose you get interested in dubious cults being followed in your area (which not many people know about). With a local weekly in mind you do some preliminary research including interviewing. You discover some multi-purposing is going to be feasible. The local weekly might like ‘When Bingo bored they turned to witchcraft’ at 1000 words, with some pegging to local history. For an occult magazine you propose ‘Strange Rites in Backwoods England’. This, at similar length, will incorporate various manifestations of the cult and mention similar cults in the UK. A national monthly might consider 1500 words on ‘Sects can easily damage your health’, with a promise to investigate cults that are hostile to the family and that use brainwashing techniques, or that claim association with charities where no connection exists, or where no proper accounts are produced.

USING YOUR NETWORK

Your ultimate aim, if you haven’t already achieved it, is to have friends in high places. Then, when you have a great idea for an article, you ring up your ‘friend’, the features editor on a national paper, and in a minute or two you’ve got your assignment. A week later you have another great idea and you fix up another assignment by ringing your friend on a weekly magazine. And so on. A daunting thought for the tyro.

You can develop such friendships by telephone calls and correspondence. But it can take a long time. And you can easily blow it if you occasionally spell a name wrongly or send a query aimed at Marie Claire addressed to Vogue, because you are sending the same query to several women’s magazines without any attempt to adapt them, and this time forgot to change the address.

From time to time, take the opportunity to meet editors face to face. The advantage to you is that you can soak in the atmosphere of the publication’s offices created by the publication and the people who work for it. Something special will be added to what you’ve learnt by market study. From the editor’s point of view, putting a face to your name will help to fix you in the memory.

A friendly relationship will then develop rapidly through subsequent contacts, and no doubt further commissions. You first make your customer a friend and then you sell to your friend.

Don’t try this from cold, of course. If you have had a fruitful telephone conversation with a commissioning editor and impressed with an idea or two, or if you have published one or two good articles, you might be asked up to the publication’s offices. If you’re little known to the editor, you could take along a portfolio of any published work.

You can use a cuttings book to make a portfolio, pasting up photocopies of your printed articles, heading them with publication and date, alongside the title page of the newspaper or magazine. Don’t use original cuttings, which will soon fade. Any front cover of a magazine that features or mentions your article, even going back to school or college magazines, could be pasted opposite. Some writers prefer a display book of the kind used by travelling salesmen, with cuttings inserted above a back-up sheet in a transparent plastic envelope. The cuttings may then be moved or replaced with better ones. Another kind of portfolio is loose-leafed, so that reordering of the content is easier. Once you’ve produced a fair number of articles you may want to use two or three portfolios each devoted to a different subject area.

If you are already writing for a publication regularly it is useful to meet your editor anyway. Depending on how far you live from the publishing address and whether you need to visit the town (to buy books and equipment or do research), allot days for the purpose in your timetable, once a month or even once a year. Plan your visits well so that you go with several ideas to discuss for the particular market, having perhaps broached them in a letter or telephone call. You will thus not be starting cold.

You’ve got to work at friendships. When your friend the editor complains that your feature needs a complete rewrite, try to agree. Cooperate cheerfully and promptly if asked to find better evidence for your argument not later than 4 p.m. today. Don’t assume you can be a day later than the deadline because the editor’s your friend, or that you can ring up for a friendly chat in the middle of a busy day, or that you can ask for the highest fee.

ORGANIZING THE ASSIGNMENT

At the moment you are commissioned to write an article you may be in the middle of several other assignments. It is advisable to write down the main instructions clearly, so that when you start the new assignment, you will not be trying to decipher yet another illegible note.

You can use your desk diary or a special telephone logbook for notes of phone conversations at home. You may want to have two desk diaries or two personal organizers: one for your personal life and one for your professional. Keep a note of the time you’re paying for on the phone; the cost will be allowable for income-tax purposes. Above all, note the deadline. Work out your own deadlines: for example, for completing the reading, for completing the interviewing, for completing the writing.

If you received your assignment verbally, you should note it down, adding anything that occurs to you while the adrenaline is flowing and the discussion is fresh in your mind. You may, of course, get a letter or email containing clear instructions on what kind of article and content is wanted, and you should certainly get a letter confirming the terms. If you do not, and if you are not quite sure of the instructions, compose a letter that sets out the agreement as you have understood it and send it off. Some writers use a specially prepared form for this. If you are in this situation you may want to telephone first. Specialist features may require detailed briefing. See Figure 19.2.

The NUJ will advise on minimum fees for articles based on advertising rates and you should not accept less than the minimum. Once you have a track record you should expect more.

Starting a feature file

On being commissioned, immediately open a document (wallet) folder for the article. Use different colours of folders for articles in progress and articles published. Put any material you have into the current folder, including cuttings and the letter or note containing the assignment. If your head is full of it, you could exploit all that mental energy by typing a first short draft.

Use the points or brief paragraphs from your query letter or outline, expanding them, and leaving gaps where you might develop with interviews, anecdotes, quotes from experts, pithy quotations or other researched material. This ensures that the points you have put up will be covered. Work out as soon as you can what time you will have to spend on the piece, make any necessary phone calls to arrange interviews, and note these particulars in your desk diary.

Every writer produces a dud occasionally, and it should have a lesson to teach. You will avoid producing them too frequently by being as clear as you can at every stage about what you are doing. A dud teaches you to plan more carefully, to achieve greater control over the information you are gathering. It also teaches you to get right in your own mind what it is you are trying to say.

If you have any doubt about the editor’s requirements or about what you are aiming at, clear this up before you start researching in earnest, so that you get your line of enquiry right. Some articles fail because despite apparent agreement between writer and editor about the assignment, there has been a failure in communication. The best of editors and the best of writers can end up with the wrong idea of what the other has in mind.

A wise editor judges which writers need a lot of guidance and which little: it is a delicate balance. Flexibility in the commissioning policy is necessary: there must be scope for imagination, second and third thoughts may turn out to be best, and some writers do not work well feeling hamstrung or over-briefed. On the other hand, new writers might prefer a fairly detailed briefing.

WHEN TO SEND SPECS

There are occasions when it’s good to send specs:

1  Unusual content. You had an unusual experience. You got lost, perhaps, for a week in a Brazilian jungle and barely survived, meanwhile having a life-after-death experience. Or you cared for your grandmother who had Alzheimer’s disease, or you were converted to Buddhism after hearing voices. Now you want to write a feature about it but you find it difficult to describe briefly, nor are you sure how it will turn out until you write it. So you write it and then decide who might want to print it: you send it on spec.

2  Unusual treatment. It may be the treatment rather than the content that will be incalculable. You may want to vaunt your way-out sense of humour in a personal lifestyle column (undaunted by the fact there are already too many such columns). You may decide to describe a child’s first day at school from the child’s point of view, in the child’s language, or you may want to introduce the surreal, or borrow other fictional techniques, to transmute otherwise ordinary, familiar content. Almost certainly you will do these things on spec.

3  Gatecrashing. Writing an exceptionally good and original piece straight off, after studying the market thoroughly and making sure you have something to say, can be a good way of breaking through the barrier. Don’t aim too high too soon. Some editors, it has to be said, are reluctant to respond positively to beginners’ queries, even when they sound promising. They may have found that such articles have proved unsatisfactory in the past. Or it may simply be that they are overstocked.

Such editors can be delighted to find a new talent beaming up at them, an article unexpectedly well researched and well written, in tune with everything in the publication and yet having a distinctly fresh voice – and they will make room for it.

4  The need to experiment. You need to experiment sometimes and not be always guided by the rules, even if it means some of the wilder ‘specs’ do not come off. These can be filed away and perhaps rewritten at a later date. You will have learnt valuable lessons on the way and it will help you to find a distinctive voice.

5  After a nod and a wink. A long-established friend in an editor may commission after a pitch of a few sentences on the phone: you may be trusted to make all the right decisions about how to develop the idea. Such an editor may also consider sympathetically a piece coming in from you without warning. But don’t count on it.

It can be useful to get some feedback on spec features before trying them on editors, if you know a good critic or two whose views you respect. They are probably not members of your family (though how convenient if they are), and they don’t grow on trees.

DEALING WITH EDITORS

In the course of preparing a feature you may find that your original promise or the editor’s briefing cannot be fulfilled for some reason. Perhaps you have failed to obtain a crucial interview or you realize that you are not sure what the editor wants exactly. Keep in touch with the editor. Explain any problem about completing in the manner agreed. There’s nothing worse than producing an article on the deadline which is so far from the brief that it’s too late to do anything about it.

The piece you’ve got might be accepted but it might not. If not, you might get a kill fee. The editor may feel that you’ve communicated your difficulties well and that you’ve done your best, or may accept some of the blame for any misunderstanding.

Make sure you submit your feature as agreed when commissioned. If you’re not sure, check before submission. Some magazines (for example, Geological Magazine) require you to send an SAE to receive detailed instructions on how to lay out their work. Is a disk required (for example, Mac or PC format or .txt file in Word or WordPerfect) as well as hard copy? Does the publication want the article in the form of a document sent as an email attachment, or copied and pasted as text into the body of the email? How should photographic and other illustrations be submitted?

When submitting, explain any minor divergences from the query letter or briefing, or give any other explanation that may be necessary. Include a separate, brief cover letter for this if submitting by post.

A reminder: give details of sources with telephone numbers and email addresses in case any information from them needs to be checked or updated by the publication. But build up your own ‘exclusive’ database of contacts: don’t give away all your contacts and ideas.

Proofreading

If you are sent page proofs you may be charged for any corrections you make that are second thoughts, additions or deletions, or restructuring. Be sure to use British Standard Institute (BSI) proof marks for copy preparation and proof correction. Printers’ errors or errors attributable to the publication will be charged to the publication.

Editors may ask you to cut to fit their space or you will agree to their doing so. The better established you are, the more likely it is that little will be changed without your approval. The sense of your article must not be changed.

When editors reject

Editors can rarely find the time to give detailed reasons for rejecting an article. A rejected spec article sent by post will be returned if you’ve sent an SAE, accompanied usually by a standard rejection slip.

If there has been interest shown in your idea with some communication about it (including ‘We’ll have a look at it’), you might get something on why it was rejected. For example:

•  The idea of describing the first week in England of a refugee from Zambobwe was a good one. Unfortunately the interviewee hasn’t much to say and you haven’t managed to get into his mind and soul.

•  Five refugees from Iranaqwait, covering their first week in England, is two more than you promised. The result is too much detail, and I’m not sure what it all adds up to in the end. If you can send me a detailed outline, covering two refugees and one theme, we’ll be prepared to give it another shot.

•  Your brisk, light-hearted style doesn’t suit the theme of domestic violence.

•  You’ve written an elegant literary essay. If you study the magazine, you’ll see that we never publish elegant literary essays.

If there has been some detailed discussion about the proposal, with an outline approved and a full briefing, some sympathy might accompany a kill fee. For example:

•  I’m sorry but I’m afraid it hasn’t quite come off. We don’t become involved with the people suffering from the environmental disaster. You’ve become bogged down in the intricacies of the legal case against the multinational company responsible. We need to see these people and their deformities, their wrecked hopes. I enclose a cheque for $xx because I know you’ve put in a lot of work on it.

•  I love your English irony and sense of humour. You’ve also got a vivid descriptive passage in the middle. But the average American reader is not au fait with your foreign words and phrases, nor with the history of Goa. Thanks for trying. I see that you’ve decided to subscribe, so we’ve decided to give you a year’s subscription free of charge.

Responding to rejection

Respond positively. If a commissioned feature is rejected with such flaws identified, read it through to decide on future action. Assuming you have not been encouraged to rewrite it, you may be able to identify another publication that might welcome it. Then you decide whether the new editor would react in the same way and how to improve the piece.

If no comments arrive with a returned spec feature, try to work out yourself exactly why it was rejected. There may not be much wrong with it. Three or four pieces on the same theme as yours may have arrived at the same time. Yours was good, but one of the others was better. Or two pieces on the same theme arrived: yours was better, but the other was commissioned and yours wasn’t. Or the editor changed while you were writing your feature and has different criteria. You may be able to try other targets.

Some features can be rewritten immediately for another target, others can be filed away to be considered at a later date. A news peg may appear after a month or two that may restore life to the material.