This is a long one.

A “pitch” is a short proposal for a full length article sent to editors for consideration. Mostly freelancers and PR people write them – once you’re on-staff you get assigned stories or pitch ideas in a meeting (though I’d assume a formal pitch is necessary is some other situations as well).

I’m in the process of writing my first “big” magazine pitches. [I'll obviously tell you guys the magazine when I'm ready.]

A good friend put me in touch with a publication whose content I’ve admired in the past, and I tried to set up a meeting. It took a lot of persistence (which felt like borderline pestering at times) over the course of nearly 4 months – but I held my own.

I’m pretty sure he was testing me from the start to see if I’d follow through (or he was just really really busy and kept forgetting me – one of the two), but after lots of back-and-forth, he eventually asked me to do a “test” (a sample article written in the style of the magazine). After which, if he liked my work, “we’d do coffee.”

Well, I wrote the test and I was proud of it. Apparently he liked it too. The coffee meeting happened. I always get shy at first interviews (though confidence is coming with age) but he and I share very similar ideals about the industry and are both “culture-junkies” at large. He pretty much told me I got the gig (as a freelance writer) and to pitch some ideas for the next issue.

Ya, even with a strong resume, this industry is so fat-full of egos, “entitlement”, and nepotism… that it takes a VERY special someone to give you your first real PUSH. I’ve had lots of mini-pushes, but nothing portfolio-worthy published. So I’m trying hard to make this one count.

For a pep talk, I went and had a brief visit at my old (and hopefully future) stomping grounds – Teen Vogue, where an old boss gave me a run-down of the pitching process (it’s basically up to the writer how you want to pitch it) and just boosted my confidence. It also just makes me feel really good and frankly blows my mind to walk down the TV halls (which have expanded since my last visit!) and have editors say “Hi Jazzi!”… it’s like my version of Cheers or something lol.

So yeah, that’s it… in preparation for “the pitch” this week is full of reading, and hunting for inspiration (under-the-radar designers, cool fashion stuff/people, etc.) which has been really difficult with this tempermental internet… but I’m on my way.

I have no expectations – though I do hope to published – even if these articles don’t come to fruition, I’m just taking this as a learning experience like everything else… baby step by baby step…

Will keep ya posted.

xo Jazzi

[edit: congratulations aren't in order quite yet, i'm just updating on the journey! congratulate me when I'm published... anyone can pitch!]

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