Editors: stop assuming they’re out to get you

I spend a lot of time talking to other freelancers, both in the real world and in cyberspace, and I keep coming across the view that editors are sadistic bullies who mistreat poor, vulnerable freelancers just because they can, idly toying with their pitches while simultaneously sharpening their claws. Why don’t they reply? Why are they ignoring you? Because they can, that’s why! They have the money and you want it, so they can hold it high above you and watch you jump up and down trying to grab it.

Perhaps I’m exaggerating, but I’ve heard some freelancers with opinions not so far from this. I’ve been told that editors are all out to mess writers around, that they ignore emails just because they can, apparently forgetting about the fact that sometimes editors are – wait for it – busy. They don’t just have your email to answer, they have all the other emails to deal with, too, and phone calls, meetings… They have to deal with writers and PRs and publishers and ad sales folk.

It would be nice if editors could take the time to respond to every pitch, but wildly unrealistic. They have other things to do, like their jobs. Aha, I hear you say, but they need good ideas, they need fresh new writers. Yes, they do, but for every decent pitch there will be 20 or 50 or 100 rubbish ones. In one staff job, I drafted some guidelines on what I was looking for and sent them to everyone who emailed me poorly-targeted pitches. And as a rule, they then sent me… more poorly-targeted pitches.

You need a thick skin to survive as a freelance and you need to recognise that if an editor doesn’t reply to you, it’s not out of spite or malice, it’s because they had something else to do, and lots of something elses at that. During one recent stint as an acting magazine editor, there was one day where it took me four hours to start eating my lunch, because every time I tried to take a bite of my sandwich, more urgent things demanded my attention.

I also think it’s dangerous to see editors as gods or monsters because it’s impossible to form a good working relationship with someone if you think they are out to screw you over. But when you’re cold-calling, you don’t have a relationship yet. So if you pitch an editor and they ignore you, it is not actually the equivalent of them sleeping with you, saying “I’ll call you” and not doing so. Expecting editors to respond to every unsolicited pitch (a suggestion that was floated by one organisation a while ago, possibly the NUJ, but I can’t find the link) is rather more like a double-glazing salesman turning up on your doorstep and expecting you to critique their patter after you’ve failed to take them up on the offer because you don’t actually need any double glazing, and are busy dealing with the fact that your house is on fire right now and you’re trying to put it out.

(Also: Write You Are… has been somewhat neglected these past few weeks. This is because I was going to write about having a good work-life balance, but have been too busy having one to blog about it. Which is better than the time I wrote a 1,400 feature on work-life balance while working on two other big pieces due at the same time, and was too busy writing about it to have one.)