Ah, Music Journalism at Birmingham City University. The time where
your tutor is the kick up the arse that you well and truly need in order to
branch away from student publications and unpaid work. Pitching is hard work,
you have to be firm, confident and believe in what you’re selling. Nobody buys
from the quiet market seller, right?
Sending off pitches pays off. Not only do you get your work
published in further fields but you’re also rewarded with valuable advice of
what these editors are looking for, and how to improve your work. Here are some
of the best I’ve learnt.
Jamie Milton, editor
DIY
Pitched: Interview with Cullen Omori.
Advice: ‘At the moment you’re writing one short
statement or narrative about Cullen, before backing it up with a quote from
him. That seems to be the pattern. If possible, I think you should vary
how you integrate quotes.
For instance:
If New Misery were a film, Cullen says bluntly “It would be directed by
Gus Van Sant. Tom Sizemore would be in his house doing a ton of meth and
working up the courage to kill himself.
And at the end he decides not to, but accidentally OD’s.”
Could be…
If ‘New Misery’ were a film, it’d be directed by Gus Van Sant. Tom
Sizemore would star, and according to Cullen’s plot, he’d “be in his house
doing a ton of meth and working up the courage to kill himself.” It doesn’t
pack a happy ending, either. “At the end he decides not to, but accidentally
OD’s.”
So by doing this, you’re adding a little more of your voice to the piece
and I also think it adds more flow.
There are a couple of places within the write-up where you could switch
things up with quotes. Would also contribute to cutting down the word count
slightly, if done correctly.’
Outcome: of course! This made a lot more sense.
Reading back, the interview was a little choppy and jumpy in places, because I
was desperate to try and get everything that Cullen was telling me in. However,
Jamie’s approach read like a conversation between myself and the artist. Taking
this approach, I cut down about 100 words and the pitch was accepted by DIY.
Keep an eye out for it published in April!
Matt Wilkinson, new
music editor at NME
Pitched: Interview with Man Made
Advice: ‘I'm not that keen on massively long things for
new bands - it needs to be interesting to some kid who's never heard of them,
that's who you're writing for and that's who's attention you've got to keep!’
Outcome: I went and chatted to Nile Marr of Man Made, and
as he’s ‘a bit of a talker’ I gathered 2000 words of transcribed words from an
hour’s conversation. This was not going to be interesting for somebody who’d
never heard of the band, and hadn’t got their hands on an advance of the debut
album. Therefore to suit the Radar blog I had to decide what was interesting
and include that. Any repetition or tangents had to be cut. I knew Nile was
full of charisma, but NME is about the music. I had to weave his personality
into the energy of the writing instead!
Check it out, here: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/man-made-interviewed-nile-marr-on-manchester-debut-albums-and-dishonesty-in-music
Check it out, here: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/man-made-interviewed-nile-marr-on-manchester-debut-albums-and-dishonesty-in-music
Joe Brine, editor at TMRW magazine
Pitched: to be a contributor
Advice: ‘In terms of writing style I like them to be
feature length with conversational aspects, we rarely do question, answer,
question, answer, style features. In
terms of pitching, just fire over a handful of feature suggestions and I’ll
point you in the right direction with what will work for the site.’
Outcome:
I’m yet to send anything over to TMRW magazine, but
love reading it. With sending my interest to TMRW I asked what sorts of things
they were looking for, then said what sort of music I’d be interested in
covering. The feature length and conversational aspects was really helpful, as
that’s the writing stance I tend to take, however some publications prefer to
just have Q&As and really short, sharp pieces. Their pitching approach is
useful too, as an editor Joe will discuss ideas and send opportunities out to
writers to make sure each piece on the site has its own voice but similar
style.
Robin Murray, editor at Clash
Pitched: Album review – The Crookes
Advice: ‘Remember a rating.’
Outcome: The review got picked up too late, unfortunately. However
the advice remains clear, if you’re going to send over a piece as a pitch, make
sure it fits the publication’s style guide. If they have ratings at the end, or
stars – include them! It saves following emails and time. Similarly, check
whether album names are in ‘Single Quotation Marks’ or maybe they’re Italic? Prove that you will fit in.
