Phone or Email for Following Up With Editors?

I’ve been taking my own advice and have been in hard-core follow up mode—I haven’t been sending out many queries lately, but most of the ones I’ve sent out have gone unanswered. Next to people not following through on what they commit to, editors who never respond (or need considerable prodding to give you a “no”) would be on my Top 5 list of pet peeves. That’s probably one of the elements of freelancing that I can’t ever see getting used to.

Normally I’ll follow up approximately 2 weeks after I send my original story idea. Then 2 weeks later if the follow-up got me nowhere…then another 2 weeks later, so we’re talking a good 6 weeks before I give up and send the “Do you want this or don’t you?!” (though a bit more professional, of course) email.

Which brings me to today’s question—what’s the best way for communicating with editors? Being the introspective nerd that I am, discovering email way back when was a godsend. My initial reaction to email went something like “No face to face communication?!?! I can rant and rave and confront the other person without having to see them?!?! How do I sign up for this?!?!” And like most people my age who came up through the ranks right at the tail-end of face-to-face communication as the preferred method of interaction, I embraced email and still choose that over picking up the phone. I’ll email an editor until they respond just to get me to leave them alone, but I never call. I don’t know why—I wouldn’t say I’m nervous about it, per se (at my 9-5 job I associate with company presidents, CEO’s, and other high ranking officials without batting an eye), but it just doesn’t feel right to me. I guess I just know that most editors are insanely busy, and I don’t want to be another phone message pushed into the “Later” bin. Thanks, but I’ll wait for the little rush I get when I see an editor’s name in my email inbox.

What about you? Do you prefer phone or email for following up with editors?

Following Up and Following Through

One of my big pet peeves lately is people that don’t do what they say they’re going to do. It drives me nuts. My thought is—my time is very precious, and if I commit to something, I want to make sure it’s something I can reasonably accomplish. I don’t like making extra work for myself or anyone else if I don’t have to, but if something falls through, others have to pick up the slack. Sure, it’s much easier to do things halfway or blow them off completely, but the lack of effort comes through loud and clear to the wider world.

This is why I was totally shocked to learn how many freelancers simply let work slide. A similar approach is not following up, whether it’s with an editor, a recent business connection (which could be a possible client), or a colleague on a project’s status. How will you know the status of something if you don’t ask? How will you earn that business owner as a client or convince that editor that your story idea is worthwhile if you don’t show some interest in what they think? So many of us expect people to come to us, when in fact (particularly in the freelancing game), we have to find the opportunities for ourselves. Editors are busy people—once I caught on to the fact that it’s actually okay to send a gentle “Hey, are you interested in the story idea I sent you x number of weeks ago?”, I’m relentless with follow-ups. Normally I’ll send the original query with my follow-up email to make less work for the editor.

By the same token, there are plenty of newbie freelancers out there who are networking up a storm, but not following through on contacting some of these contacts about possible projects. People have short memories—most of them appreciate those friendly reminders such as “Great meeting you at the such-and-such mixer on Wednesday night. Hopefully we can collaborate in the future!”, or some other generic (but genuine) message. As writers, we need to keep our names and services out there, so contacts think of us first for upcoming projects. Although there are plenty of freelancers out there, you want to set yourself apart from the rest by trying to establish an actual relationship with your client, whether it’s an editor or a business. You want to set yourself apart from other freelancers by showing your enthusiasm, professionalism, and genuine interest in their publication or business.

What about you? Do you follow up on queries? Do you follow up with contacts? Any ideas for either that you’d care to share?