Readers!
As part of my early August mini marketing sprint, I scrolled back through my marketing spreadsheet and looked at outlets I approached years ago but didn’t hear back from, to see if maybe someone else was in a role that would hire freelancers. That’s very likely since folks change jobs so often, and I started this marketing spreadsheet on February 21, 2005, three weeks into full time freelancing.
As you can imagine, it’s a big document! Instead of just scrolling, I had it printed and spiral bound. It’s a big boy too: It clocked in at 5,961 rows on 154 pages. I’ve spent some time over the last two weeks going through it. Here’s what I found.
Here are a few takeaways:
- I shot high from the start. In the first couple of pages from 2005 and 2006, I logged pitches to Elle, Glamour, Wired, Town & Country, Health, Women’s Health and the New York Times. Sometimes they worked! And even if they didn’t, who cares. I had to try. And you never know when an outreach will lead to something something eventually. I was just emailing with one of those editors last week. She wants to hire me for a job where she is now, and gave my name to another editor looking for someone.
- I tried almost anything, too. I pitched ad agencies, marketing firms, and magazines for demographics I’m nowhere near, like those for grandparents and weddings. I wrote for Hooters, too — for a long time! I pitched TMZ! Playboy! Essence! I found the first instances where I dipped a toe into writing in a new-to-me-area, like construction, technology, finance and cybersecurity, and could track how those niches grew over time. It also reminded myself that I started out writing about music, so when I took my Jeep out yesterday (2002 Wrangler Sport, stick OF COURSE), I took a few CDs with me and blasted the albums Hot Fuss by The Killers and Never Take Friendship Personal Anberlin while tearing up the streets of South Jersey. It also reminded me of perhaps the best concert of my life, which was The Killers at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia on December 16, 2006. I was fun once, I promise!
- I’m much better at keeping track of my marketing than I used to be. I didn’t always record dates let alone the last names of some of the people I pitched. I didn’t always follow up either. Whoops. I also started out keeping pitches and assignments together, but quickly made a separate spreadsheet for those. I saw how I created a system that worked for myself, and still does, 20+ years later.
- Few publications live forever. That’s obvious, but also a reminder that this is not a new phenomena. Looking at those long ago names also served as a remind as to why I market all the time, and why I don’t earn more than 20% of my income from one client, because so many of these dream markets and former anchor clients eventually disappeared. I saw the names of a lot of former clients who curdled too, whether because of a bad editor, owner mismanagement or both. Good thing I didn’t need to keep pitching jerks.
- Marketing sprints work. I’ve told this story many times before, including in my ebooks, but 2018 was turning out to be an absolute disaster for me, work wise. My freelance angel Jennifer Goforth Gregory gave me a call and told me I needed to be doing a LOT more marketing if I wanted to right the ship. I was sending out at least five editor outreaches a day. In reading through the 2018 entries, I counted that I still write for nine outlets I approached for the first time that year. One is my biggest client and another I wrote for for the first time this year (and yes they confirmed it was because of that 2018 letter of introduction).
- It was a walk down memory lane. Sometimes good, sometimes not. I found the names of editors I liked but lost track off (who I plan to reach out to), but also the editor who took my pitch and gave it to someone else with my suggested sources. She’s now in the freelance trenches with the rest of us (good luck to you, I guess). I came across the names of people who became friends but I didn’t realize I’d known that long; of an editor who took over my one and only magazine job when I left, who then set out to ruin me (she failed, obviously); and found out that a few of my old editors had died. Deep sigh. As I was writing this newsletter, an editor I wrote for back in 2005 fond me on LinkedIn via an interview I gave two years ago that just ran again recently. People do remember you, for better or for worse — and the same is true for editors in in my spreadsheet too.
I’m not done sorting through it yet, but I suspect I’ll find more surprises as I continue to work through it. Stay tuned!
Also if you have any questions, toss ’em in the mail bag. I have a trip coming up and want to pre-write some newsletters before I go.
What I’m Reading
- The Last Lady B by Eloisa James. When Genevieve marries Lord Burnsby, who is nearly 50 years her senior, she does so out of necessity. Her sister needs a dowry, and Lord Burnsby needs a wife — who he promises to treat platonically. For the month of December, they travel to his estate in Scotland, which is the home of his mistress. SURPRISE! Even more of a surprise than the ghosts haunting the abbey that’s part of the estate, it seems. This may not sound like a fun set up, but I found this one to be light because, really, a mistress and ghosts? Did I mention the pet pig? I have interviewed Eloisa James (whose real name is Mary Bly) and read many of her books and yet I didn’t know until this book that her father is Robert Bly. Makes sense!
What I’m Watching
- The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare. I don’t know if we needed another docuseries about four college students murdered by a madman, but this police bodycam footage, but more importantly, interviews with their family and friends. Another one where I watch and think what a waste, because one dude hated women.
- The Investigation of Lucy Letby. In 2020, British neonatal nurse Lucy Letby was charged with the murder of seven infants and and the attempted murder of seven more. The documentary is about what really happened, and if the police narrative is the right one. This docuseries really got to me, but maybe not for the reason you think: I was a NICU baby. I was born with pneumonia and given a 50/50 shot at making it (I was more than nine pounds, and so big that I didn’t fit in any of the incubators and the hospital had to send around for a bigger one). I have always thought that the trauma of that was to my parents. But as I watched this, I kept thinking about how could anyone harm the most helpless of babies, like I was. I got choked up just writing that. Brains are weird.
- Maternal Instinct. In 2020, a Texas state trooper pulled over a woman who said she was driving erratically because she’d just given birth. But when she’s taken to the hospital, there’s no evidence that she was ever pregnant. So where did the baby she had with her come from? As you can guess, the answer is awful. I already knew about this case so nothing was a surprise, but sheesh.
- Should I Marry a Murderer? Right before Caroline Muirhead is set to marry her fiance, he admits something to her: he killed a cyclist when he hit him with his car, and hid the body. What is she supposed to do with that information? The title doesn’t really capture what happened, and how a man and then Scotland Yard let this woman down. Good on her for speaking out.
- The Rip. Twenty minutes into this Ben Affleck/Matt Damon cops and robbers movie, I yelled “wheeee!” twice. Lots of cursing and mugging and shooting and back stabbing and people yelling “the rip!” at random times. Thank you Netflix + an assist from The Oddessy for Damon’s beard, which he was growing out for that role while filming this (I’m still in my month of, if you can’t tell by all the true crime).
Nail Polish of the Week
Let’s be Friends by Hello Kitty by OPI. This is an extremely pale pink that apparently was a fan favorite recently re-released by OPI. I see it as a cream color that’s good with my late August skin tone. OPI says it’s pink, but I don’t see any in the bottle I bought at CVS recently in an attempt to replace my kicked bottle of Coastal Sand-tuary, which is a color I would like to see them bring back. OPI, take notes! Anyway I like it! I’ll probably use it again next year.
Until next time!
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
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