Wow, it’s November. That’s wild, eh? This email is being sent a bit later than usual because I had a fun consulting adventure with BFF Aly Walansky today. We chatted with the truly lovely team at ChicExecs PR about the best and worst of pitching, how to navigate some of the tech specifics of the affiliate world, and more.
One of the most interesting questions was about what not to pitch though. It was interesting because I am usually so hyper-focused on what is positive and works that I forget to think about the balance to all that — what never gets a positive response. I can’t speak for other eds, but I know Aly and me agreed on the same thing: pitching coverage from other magazines. Now, that’s not to say we don’t love the magazines our colleagues and friends work at. We probably ultra-love them. We may have freelanced there or worked there in the past, but the truth is, we can’t be responsible for our own outlets if we’re covering someone else’s story. We can definitely cover the same product, but pitching with “Just named the best eye cream by XYZ mag” is never going to lead to a story with a similar title. We can (and do!) high-five those colleagues at other mags behind closed doors. We love celebrating each other, we just have to focus on unique content.
Anywho, I loved that question because I think it’s never really discussed openly, so here we are… discussing it openly.
Onto queries for this week.
Looking for pitches ASAP:
Family Handyman: Looking for the best PR contacts at Harbor Freight + Ace Hardware. Feature pieces! bryce@theluxuryspot.com
Reader’s Digest: Target Black Friday deals that are too good to miss! Hit me with the best of Target Black Friday pitches. Yes, needs to be Target. Pitch by EOD Wednesday. bryce@theluxuryspot.com
Reader’s Digest: Best loungewear sets for women. I’m redoing this piece high-performance piece from last year. Need major retailers like Nordstrom, amazon, Zappos, and/or Skimlinks-ready independent retailers. We love to cover a variety of price points and sizes (real women, real bodies, real shoppers, real budgets) and if your loungewear sets have great reviews, that’s a major plus! Need pitches by EOD Wednesday, but early birds get better loungewear worms. bryce@theluxuryspot.com
Recently published (thanks for helping!):
Investigative journalism about the best clothes drying racks. For Reader’s Digest.
Money-saving Amazon tricks everyone should know.
Black Friday galore! I’ll refresh this one another time right before the big day. But holy moly, it has a crapload of deals. It’s on RD but will syndicate to MSN, AOL, etc etc etc etc etc.
Amazon Music vs Spotify: the pros and cons of each. People are getting really fired up about this btw, and strangers are emailing me to tell me about myself for not hating either one. I can’t imagine what politics writers get on a daily basis if this is how America reacts to music streaming.
Happy November!!
You two are so sweet with your time...THANK YOU for being so awesome!