Are You Guilty of Dropping the Momentum When Working with a Writer?
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Good morning, subscribers!
This week, we’re going to talk about a topic we’ve strangely seen happening a lot lately: Publicists dropping the ball when it comes to maintaining momentum with a journalist — and why you should NEVER let this happen.
But first, sharing these resources again, as we have a lot of exciting stuff going on at Top Tier Consulting!
1. Pick our brains in our November Top Tier Talk
Our upcoming Top Tier Talk will be held on Wednesday, November 29 at 10 A.M. PT/ 1 P.M. ET.
This will be an open forum where you can ask us anything. We can discuss pitching, the state of the industry, seasonal gift guides, sources/experts, best practices, writer pet peeves, AI, interviews, products, deadlines, affiliate programs and more!
2. Save 40% on an annual subscription and set yourself up for success in 2024.
Not yet a paid subscriber? Here’s what you’re missing out on:
Full access to our weekly newsletters
Access to our extensive archive of paid posts
The ability to attend/participate in our monthly Zoom Top Tier Talks
Discounts on all our most popular group workshops
Upgrade to an annual plan today and save 40% — instead of $99/year, it’ll only be $59! It’s our way of saying thank you during a month of gratitude :)
3. Book a Private session with Jill and Nicole — we’ve reworked our pricing so it’s more affordable than ever before to have a 1:1 meeting with us!
We have a few slots open for the rest of the year … so if you’re interested in more direct access to us, book one of our private consulting sessions:
Want to workshop a few pitches with two top-tier writers? Try our Pitch Perfecting session.
Looking to build deeper relationships with journalists? You’ll love our Become a Journalist’s BFF session.
Have a slew of questions you want answers to? Book an Ask Us Anything session.
Are you putting together a press trip and need help with the details? We offer a Press Trip Invites and Itineraries session.
Need fresh ideas for sending mailers to writers? Book our Press Package session.
Scheduling an in-person or virtual media event? We can help, with our Hosting the Perfect Virtual/In-Person Media Event session.
Have other ideas you need help brainstorming or creating an action plan for? We offer Custom sessions, too!
4. Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Resource Center
Pitching products for gift guides this year? Pitching sources for stories around the holidays? Here are some tools we highly recommend:
The ULTIMATE INSIDER’S GUIDE to Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Workshop(one full hour of best practices, sample subject lines, a checklist of what to include in your pitch, advice for how to stand out from the crowd, tips for getting your sources included, examples of real HGG pitches that worked and answers to your most pressing questions)
Christmas in July Zoom Q&A with Affiliate Marketing Expert Sarah Karger (this will answer ALL your affiliate-related HGG questions!)
A Real-Life Example of an HGG Product Pitch Format that Most Writers Will Delete (hint: Don’t do this!)
What NOT to Pitch in a Holiday Gift Guide (seriously, save these pitches for another time)
A Handy-Dandy Checklist of 10 Things to Double-Check Before Sending Your Pitch (don’t send another pitch before making sure you’ve included everything a journalist needs!)
Back to this week’s topic
Nicole is working on several stories right now that are fast moving and require a ton of sources. This is pretty typical of a freelance journalist, to have an editor reach out and offer them a story with a crazy-fast turnaround. Usually this occurs when a publication comes across something newsy they want to report on to be culturally relevant or when something shifts with their editorial calendar, which means they need to slot another story in — and fast. One of the stories Nicole was working on happened to be a cover story — and for an outlet with a HUGE audience. For this reason, she was even more shocked to see publicists drop off in the middle of working with her.
But this isn’t the only example, unfortunately — this happens far too often. Writers put out a call for sources, whether that’s on Substack, Czars, Twitter, HARO, Qwoted, their own personal social media pages, and beyond. They have publicists respond with sources. And then for whatever reason, the momentum slows.
We’re going to dive into some examples of what this looks like (some publicists may not even realize they are doing it — hello busy inboxes and tons of clients and multitasking!) and talk about why this can be harmful to a writer/publicist relationship and what to do instead.