Get Better Responses from Pitching Freelance Writers with This Email Tip

In high school, I was a proud member of FFA — and an ace on the Parli Pro team. If you’re not familiar, that’s short for parliamentary procedure, and my team and I took home several titles for running professional meetings like pros. It’s been a long time since I donned that blue corduroy jacket, but one thing I think of often from those days is the principle of germaneness. Basically, you could object to a motion to amend something if it was not germane—meaning not in close relationship, appropriate, relative or pertinent to the topic at hand.

What does this have to do with pitching freelance writers? I see many publicists sending emails that are not germane, and it majorly detracts from the organization a freelance writer must practice to be successful.

The bottom line is this: If you want to start a new discussion with a freelance writer, send a new email—don’t respond on a chain that’s already dozens of emails long, or to something that’s about an entirely different topic.

Many PR teams don’t follow this principle. For example, one publicist, responding to a 40-plus-long chain that originated in an old HARO response dating back months, followed up with me to share a current client list. Now, sharing a client list is an excellent idea for many reasons, that I’ll discuss in detail at a later time. However, it wasn’t great to send such valuable information on a messy chain like this, where I’ll honestly never be able to find it, should I need to call up one of that publicist’s clients.

The old “while I have you…” approach just doesn’t work well, either. Like another journalist said on a recent Office Hours, just because a writer responds to you doesn’t mean you “have them”—they just happened to be on email at the time.

Keeping your emails germane is important. Consider your own workflows: If someone reaches out to you on an old email chain with a misleading subject line, about an entirely different topic, are you less likely to see or open that email than if they’d taken time to send a fresh note with a germane subject line?

In prepping for Office Hours with me earlier this week, fellow freelance writer Ashley Mateo mentioned that she stays extremely organized—because she has to be to hit deadlines and work with editors on as many as 15 stories at a time. She follows a rigorous filing process with folders and subfolders for each publication, immediately filing emails as they come in so she can access them when she needs them. When emails touching on multiple, different topics with misleading subject lines come in, it creates chaos in that filing system (and may lead a writer to easily trash it).

When you’re reaching out to freelance writers (or anyone, for that matter), remember that you must send better emails to get better results. That starts with the subject line and your approach. Before sending an email, ask yourself, should this be in response to our current chain (is it germane to the topic we’d already been discussing here?) or is it a separate idea that should be categorized and acted upon as such?

Keeping your emails germane is another way to make freelance writers love you. Is it a make-or-break situation when reaching out to a writer? Not necessarily, but details matter. They go a long way toward building positive relationships.

Have you made any missteps recently in emailing freelance writers? Do you usually start fresh email chains for fresh topics, or are you guilty of the 40-email-long chains? Share your thoughts below.