Way way back in February, I published a small essay here about a revolutionary community leader in Queens. I pitched the story to a publication, but I lost the assignment in catastrophic series of frustrations.Check it out...
"As I contemplated burning furniture for warmth, I "escaped" to a wacky press conference held entirely inside the computer-generated world of Second Life. Time has passed, wrapping both these events together in my head—much like a wooly mammoth and a diamond mine buried under the same glacier. Something compels me to tell both stories, even after the editors killed them."
The whole experience was so frustrating that I haven't pitched another story to a magazine since I lost that story.
Then, today, I see this story in the New York Times by John Freeman Gill. According to that story, the story about that community leader was "first reported in Wired magazine." I went and checked, and found this Wired story by Jacob Ward--published in May 2006.
My point is, I wrote that story FIRST, but I lost the race. I let the story drop, and somebody else scooped it up. I will never again lose another story like that. And neither will you.
For the rest of the week, we will be studying the art of pitching stories to publications. It's time for you to figure out how to publish the stories you want to write.
So here's the cool part. If you have a story idea you would like to pitch to a magazine or newspaper, send me a few paragraphs and we can polish the pitch together at The Publishing Spot...
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