Writing pitches
Since my recent requirement for ways to earn money, i’ve been pitching to various publications. I’ve signed up for a few different newsletters, including Kaitlyn Arford’s Freelance Opportunities e-mail.
I have to tell you, I have no knowledge of how to craft a good pitch to a magazine. I’ve pitched my literary manuscripts through queries to publishers and received e-mails asking for the manuscripts, but then the manuscripts are usually turned down in the end or the press quickly goes out of business or whatnot.
Now I’m interested in learning how to write nonfiction articles, do interviews and reviews. I pitched a few reviews and have received requests to write the reviews, so that’s good. I have a few reviews I’m working on and one that will be published in a Canadian literary journal soon. I received a copy of the book and potential income of $80, for a review it took me a few weeks, off and on, and some anxiety to write. I’m still hoping I haven’t misconstrued the writing or misquoted or misnamed anything. It feels like a big responsibility to get this stuff right.
I crafted an e-mail to someone who was listed as the e-mail contact in a pitch to Noema Magazine, “an award-winning magazines, exploring the transformations of our world,” based in Los Angeles. “In ancient Greek, noēma means “thinking” or the “object of thought.” And that is our intention: to delve deeply into the critical issues transforming the world today, at length and with historical context, in order to illuminate new pathways of thought in a way not possible through the immediacy of daily media.”
I have never heard of Noema before, but after a quick scan [I know reading quickly is unacceptable, but I am who I am, and I’m distracted by a thousand things all the time, aren’t you?] , I was interested. I enjoyed the variety of topics covered and I liked the idea of delving deeply into critical issues transforming our world today. God knows we’re in a time of extreme transformation.
Not expecting to get an answer, this is the pitch I sent in and then it bounced, so i can’t send it in. this is what i wrote. i’d still like to do this…somehow, but this is my experience with trying to pitch nonfiction work:
Dear Nathan et al,
I saw your call for solutions-based articles via an e-mail list on freelance opportunities. i have to admit that the idea of a "solution-based lens" intrigued me. I don’t know that I have solutions for anything. The lenses I look through these days are cracked and distorted by war, social injustice, climate and economic disasters.
what can I pitch you? I am a writer who is deeply ensconced in the literary and visual poetry community. How odd. You might not think this is right for Noema Magazine, and you are likely right, but I believe that art is a way to cope and work through the angst that is happening in the world. art can enrich our lives and give us meaning in a time when everything seems meaningless. there is infinite love in the creation of art, and empathy and boundless creativity, which shows us that more is possible than is dreamt of in our imagination, to bastardize Shakespeare.
I'd like to interview artists who live and continue to try to make and distribute their art in conflict-ridden areas. Are there artists in Gaza still? I've heard of a choir in Ukraine. What about places like Sudan? I believe that art is everywhere, and artists continue to make art, despite or because of circumstances of war, poverty, hunger. I don't have any contacts in any of these places, but if you give me the nod, I will try to find a few artists in conflict-ridden locales and talk to them about their circumstances, their art and the issues they are dealing with. why do they continue to make art in such terrible times? and how can this art help fellow sufferers?
I'm a poet and prose writer, but primarily a poet. My most recent poetry book, Beast Body Epic, was provoked by a near-death health crisis, which taught me to celebrate the moment I am in, and not to waste time on bullshit.
I am not a practical person.
I, perhaps foolishly, believe in the capacity of art to lift people up and give their life meaning. If you'd rather pass this idea on to a bonefied journalist, I'll understand. I think it's something that needs to be written. I think people need to believe in persistence, resilience and survival in times of conflict. Artists and their art demonstrate all of these.
i guess this would fit into your Philosophy and Culture section. I was particularly interested in a recent article entitled " Poetic Time in the Age of Acceleration" by Nathan Gardels, published in August 2023. Gardels quotes Milosz, "“Poetry matters greatly in the face of this deprivation because it looks at the singular, not the general. It cannot look at things of this earth other than honestly, with reverence, as colorful and variegated; it cannot reduce life with all its pain and ecstasy into a unified tonality. By necessity it is on the side of being.” "this deprivation" refers to the loss of colours due to nihilism. Art restores colour.
I don’t want to write inspiration porn. I am fully aware that times are dire, but I wonder if art can actually help in times like these, or perhaps that’s just bullocks. I think of Vera Lynn serenading servicemen with “We’ll Meet Again,” during World War II. I think of Guernica, Picasso’s 1937 painting of the bombing in Northern Spain. Do we need to be reminded of the absurdity of war through art? Why?
sincerely,
Amanda Earl