3 Questions PR Teams Should Stop Asking Freelance Writers
Patience is a virtue; this we all know. However, it can get frustrating sometimes to hear the same questions over and over again, knowing that they are not an effective use of time for either PR professionals or freelance writers. Here are three questions to stop asking, and how to flip the script instead.
“I’m not sure how much you know about this, but…”
OK, so this isn’t really a question—and that’s precisely the problem. So often, I hear this phrase on phone calls or in-person meetings with sources and/or PR teams before they launch into a 15-minute one-way conversation. “I’m not sure how much you know about this city, but…” and I can’t get a word in. When this becomes a complete waste of time is when I actually do know about the thing they’re telling me about—I’ve even had instances where I’d just been to a destination and had someone launch into a soliloquy on it because they didn’t give me a chance to interject. The bottom line here: Instead of saying this phrase, simply turn it into a question: Do you know about X? Give writers a chance to respond and even give you a direction on what they would like to know about X before you launch into talking-point mode. The more you can tailor a conversation to an individual writer and their beats, the more effective the conversation will be for both sides.
“What are you working on?”
This question is a two-dimensional problem. First, writers do appreciate PR professionals thinking of us and reaching out to find out how we can work together, but we can’t always keep up with answering these kinds of emails. They are way too broad. And to be honest, on any given week I’m working on about 10 stories at a time, and I need to be focused—not writing out what I’m working on to someone with no skin in the game on those deadlines. The onus is on you to do some research on us and find out what publications we’re writing for, then send targeted ideas.
Second, if we haven’t worked together before, don’t ask this question without sharing a client list (it sounds silly, but happens often). How am I supposed to share relevant information about the stories I’m working on if I don’t even know who you work with? If you are reaching out to me for a first time, it’s great if you can introduce yourself and share a client list in the body of the email (no attachments, please!). This allows me to easily search my emails if I have a need for one of your clients in the future and helps me know what sorts of stories we could potentially work on together.
(PS—if you want to know what I’m working on, simply sign up for my bimonthly newsletter!)
“Do you know when the piece will run?”
You’ve probably heard this so many times before, but about 80 percent of the time, freelance writers do not know when a piece will run. Some digital editors will post a piece a few hours after I submit it, while others (or even the same editors) will hold a piece for two months (or more!) before it runs. You never know what is going on behind the scenes with a publication, so once a writer submits a digital piece, it’s out of our hands. Print stories can be different, as we often do get assigned stories for a specific issue. However, that too can change, depending on all kinds of things, from editors accidentally assigning too many stories on a single topic, or low ad sales one month, or photography that got delayed, etc. For example, I had a piece set to run in a national travel publication in July 2019 that’s now running in February 2020 due to some internal shifts. It’s a bummer for both the writer and PR teams that assisted with the story—but again, patience is a virtue.
Now, you get to tell me: What questions do you wish freelance writers would stop asking you, as a PR professional? Am I missing anything on these three questions that you want to share your POV on?