Thread by @Jem_Collins

🧵THREAD 🧵As it's the start of a new year, there seems to be a lot more calls for freelance pitches about. If you're thinking of pitching for the first time, or wanted a refresher, here are some of the things I find useful. /1

First up, finding work – here's what I use to find calls for pitches each week. But you can easily search these yourself or set them up as columns in your TweetDeck. Use quote marks so it searches for the exact phrasing. /2 docs.google.com/document/d/1yS…

I also try to keep a note of places making call outs that I don't immediately have ideas for – they're probably going to be swamped fairly quickly, but now you know they have budget – and they'll be less swamped if you come back to them in a month with a belter of an idea. /3

In weird Covid times, this is also a really helpful spreadsheet from @studyhallxyz on who is and isn't accepting pitches atm. This kind of stuff is often just useful to give you ideas of places you didn't realise you could pitch. /4 docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

If you can't find an editor's email address, my favourite tool is @EmailHunter which shows you the format of an email address at any organisation, so you can take a best guess. 50 free searches a month. /5 hunter.io

Also, off this hellscape of a website, I'd recommend joining some Facebook groups. Yes, really. @asyiaiftikhar's Young Journalist Community is absolutely one of the best. They have a spreadsheet of editors happy to work with new writers, examples of successful pitches + opps /6

Other good groups I use include @freelancingfor, No 1 Freelance Media Women (who have a pitching hour for pitch feedback + loads of opps), gals in journalism, Women in Journalism, and our own Journo Resources one! /7

I would also heavily recommend the wonderful Slack community from @freelancesoc – as well as a channel of work opportunities, it's just a generally really nice community to be part of! /8

In terms of actually nailing your pitch, we've got this guide here which has a few real examples. Watch this space, as we're hoping to make an interactive library of these by next month! /9 journoresources.org.uk/here-are-a-loa…

This is no longer running, but I always link to it as it's still a great resource – @GuardianJessica ran a series where she ranked pitches she received with grades and gave feedback (and also commissioned some) /10 medium.com/pitch-clinic

It's also worth subscribing to @MissedPitches to see what other people's look like – they send out a selection of them every week, and you can also submit any of yours which didn't quite land to try and find it a home. /11 missedpitches.substack.com/welcome

This is also a decent database of successful pitches too, and also includes info on the exchange with the editor and how the story turned out. /12 successfulpitches.com/see-successful…

From an editor's perspective, we have this big old guide here, which is just a huge list of pitching guidelines from publications across the globe. Good for advice, and to see where you could pitch too. Props to @sianabradley for updating this weekly! /13 journoresources.org.uk/pitching-guide…

There are thousands of pieces out there about how to write the perfect pitch, so I'm going to recommend just two – this is a really practical one from @TimHerrera that spells out all the common mistakes. /14 niemanlab.org/2018/10/how-to…

And, secondly, this one from @RobynVinter is very accessible and practical as well. /15 journoresources.org.uk/pitch-freelanc…

Okay, so rates! A couple of databases out there – we have one, so does @NUJ_LFB, and @WhoPaysWriters. All of these are also good places to look for inspiration too.

1️⃣ journoresources.org.uk/freelance-rate…
2️⃣ londonfreelance.org/feesguide/inde…
3️⃣ whopayswriters.com/#/results

That's basically all my oomph for now pals – I'll add more bits and bobs as I find them in future 🤓

Just realised I should probably say that my (free) newsletter goes out today. It has 50+ opps in it and goes out at about 5pm, depending on when I finally get out of bed and stop tweeting. journoresources.substack.com/subscribe