Part 2: What Publicists Wish WRITERS Would Do on Their Ends to Make PR Jobs Easier

We asked, you told us! Here's Part 2 PLUS some commentary from writers in response

As promised, this week we’re diving into Part 2 of this fabulous conversation that we launched a few weeks ago asking publicists “What a writers to better on their ends to make your jobs easier?” We had a great robust discussion pop up around this topic and are excited to share more of the results.

If you haven’t yet read our Part 1, make sure you dive in. It’s a FREE post since we crowdsourced in forums so feel free to share with a publicist who you think it would benefit as well!

(FREE POST) Part 1: Things Publicists Wish Writers Would Do to Make Publicists’ Jobs Easier

We talked about some great topics, had PR, other writers and ourselves weigh in on topics like:

• How publicists would love a yes or no to an email pitch one way or another

• How publicists would like acknowledgment of a writer receiving a press sample

• How some publicists would like their clients to do phone interviews versus email interviews

• How publicists would like to know what writers are working on

• How publicists would love writers to acknowledge that they received email interview responses

• And more…

Plus, we provided some hot tips on how to up your chances of things like the above happening — i.e. getting a reply to a pitch you send, getting a writer to agree to a phoner vs. an email interview if it makes more sense for your client, etc.

Before we dive in this week, we wanted to share one quick news item.

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The details

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Now onto this week’s topic. We’re diving right in. Here’s Part 2 of last week’s discussion.

1. Publicists would like writers to not have calls for sources behind paywalls on their Substacks

One this note, one publicist said: “Regarding Substack I love this as a way to keep tabs on what people are working on but I’ve noticed many put their leads behind a paywall. I’m a freelancer so the burden of payment falls on me alone, not an agency. I know it’s not expensive individually but it inevitably will add up if I do start buying the subscriptions.“

First off, writers who have paid Substack newsletters are often sending a mix of free posts and paid posts. We don’t make the rules here but due to the journalistic integrity that we subscribe to, we feel strongly that these PR sourcing requests should always be free and not part of a paid newsletter.

We saw one writer post in a comment during our convo that they guarantee a response to at least one pitch per quarter to their higher paid Substack members but that also seems a little eeeeeek.

In general if writers are posting calls for sources, they should hopefully be free. There are plenty of writers with Substacks to follow that don’t charge for sources. And if you are looking for other ways to connect with journalists to see what they are sourcing for, sign up for platforms like:

Some of these platforms have paid services but you’ll gain access to calls from sources from many writers.

2. Publicists would like writers to not just blanket “unsubscribe” and instead let them know what isn’t working

One publicist posted: “There is a lot of talk from the journalism side about wanting us to truly read and understand their work and send detailed pitches that fit with the work of the person we're pitching. They say that the issue with PR is that we don't do this and I am sure many people do not. I do, and I often receive ‘unsubscribe’ in response. Stings a bit. I have not subscribed the person. I have written them a letter over electronic mail after reading their work and deciding this could be content for them. A pass would be just fine and totally appropriate.”

Yikes! We certainly have never emailed a publicist back and said “Unsubscribe.” There are times when publicists send pitches that are outside of a writer beat but there is a way to nicely tell a publicist this. Plus, writers, you don’t want to shoot yourselves in the foot and just say “unsubscribe” when a publicist very well may have a client that is a fit for you down the line.

Our best advice here on this, publicists, is to try and pitch within a writer’s beat. If they don’t write about kids stuff, don’t pitch kids stuff. If they cover tech, pitch them tech. The more tailored your pitches are to a writer’s beat, the better they’ll land. But we do understand that many writers are also jack of all trades. If you send a pitch a few times and get silence, it can be a sign that it’s just not the right fit. Maybe move on and try another client. But writers, let’s be nice about it!

3. Publicists would like writers to give a yes or no on an opp like a press trip or event invitation

One rep wrote: “The industry is simply not the same when i entered it 10+ years ago… honestly it’s not even the same as 5 years ago. Lack of responses (i understand you can’t answer every pitch but I’m talking event invites, exclusive opps, FAM trips etc - things we NEED a yes or no to on our end to take back to our clients)”

If you’re a travel writer and you get invited on a press trip — and you want to keep getting invited on press trips — it’s a good idea to write back with a yes or no. We did an extensive deep dive in Part 1 of this into how it’s nearly impossible for us writers to get back to every pitch we receive but we can recognize and be better as a breed at trying to acknowledge invites like this if it’s a trip or something tailored to us — especially if we’re doing travel writing.

4. Publicists would like writers to check their spam folders

Our inboxes are craaaaazy enough and it’s hard to remember to do this. But hey, there are some valuable things that do slip through the cracks. A good reminder to both sides to check our spam folders when we think of it. And once you mark an email from someone as not spam, it won’t land there again (hopefully!)

5. Publicists want writers to “Put the relations back in public relations.”

“Relationships leads to feedback and better pitches,” said one publicist.

The more we can both work to humanize a pitch or an email or an interaction and the less robotic we can make these interactions, the better.

For publicists: This can look like:

• Well targeted pitches

• Acknowledging a writer’s recent article to show you are following their beats — “I love the story you just wrote on XYZ”

• Being human: “I’m so sorry to hear your dog passed.” “Saw you were under the weather. hope you’re feeling better and on the mend.”

• Staying on top of deadlines and communicating any delays that come up with your clients

• Asking your clients to share an article they are featured in on social media. This gets us writers BIG brownie points with our editors

• Being easy to work with and nice

Per the convos we saw flowing around, from writers, this can look like most of the above plus;

• Sharing a link to a published story with a publicist with a client featured after it goes live

• Being clear on deadlines, expectations from interviews, interview angles

• Acknowledging and providing feedback on a press sample

• Acknowledging receipt of email questions, that link to the photos you asked for, the follow up info you provided on a client etc.

• Communicating with a publicist if anything changes mid working together on an article

4. Publicists would like writers to send pdfs of articles they have clients featured in that are behind paywalls.

One publicist wrote: “If a client answers a story and the link is behind a paywall, please be kind enough to send a way for us to see the link and send it to the client otherwise the opportunity is “useless “ for us.”

This is a conversation that has many sides. For starters, in an ideal world, PR companies would pay to subscribe to these outlets they want their clients included in that are behind paywalls. That supports those publications and enables them to keep going strong. It enables them to continue to pay writers fair wages to work with them and to not have to lay people off left and right.

We get that budgets are tight but if you regularly strive to get your clients in NYT, for instance, you might want to think about subscribing to NYT — even as a company.

Another thing to keep in mind is that wages are being cut left and right and writers don’t always have subscriptions to everything they write for.

One writer responded to this and wrote: “Often we writers don’t even have access to stories we wrote when they’re behind a paywall. The publications we write for don’t usually give us free subscriptions, unfortunately.“

We do our best to subscribe to places we write for (pretty sure it’s accurate to say both of us have subscriptions to everything we write for currently that’s paywalled) but there are some struggling writers who can’t afford to do this. Or maybe they pitched a one off story to a new pub and aren’t sure if the relationship will continue or if it was a one time thing and are holding out on subscribing.

That being said, anything we can do on both sides to support journalism and publications in this struggling media climate is so important. So if you have the budget to pay the $5 or $9.99 per month to subscribe to a paywalled publication that you are constantly pitching your clients for, it’s definitely worth considering paying for it.

5. Publicist want writers to make it easy to “get to know them.”

On this note, one publicist wrote: “Outside of typical best practices, give us more avenues to get to know you, what you're working on, what you're up to, your preferences, etc. Otherwise, it's extremely cumbersome to do the necessary pre-pitch research or form meaningful relationships with you. Plus, we are inundated with PR softwares that claim to have this information but are often wrong. We are willing to put it the work/research but oftentimes there are dead ends.”

A few tips from our POV on how to make this happen:

• If a writer you want to pitch has a Substack, subscribe. From these newsletters, you can typically learn everything from if they have a dog or a kid to where they have recently traveled, articles they’ve recently published (which gives you the ultimate window into the types of things they write about) and more from subscribing to these. You can also see calls for pitches right there in you inbox.

• Follow writers on social media

• If you see a post from a writer on a platform like Qwoted or SOS but it’s not the right fit - but you have clients that make sense for them outside of this request — track down their email address and reach out directly to send them a pitch.

• Add writers on Linkedin

• Check bylines on publications you are targeting to see who is writing the types of articles you’d like to get featured in and reach out to that person. Most writers are pretty easy to track down and have their email addresses on places like in their instagram or X profiles or on their website.

6. Publicists would like writers to diversify the clients they include in roundups

One publicist wrote: “For those who represent restaurants they can cover different establishments in their roundups Not talking openings those are easy to get. Most of the time each NYC outlet covers the same give or take 1 - Example i pitched great restaurants on the UWS for an upper westside roundup what they offer etc. an editor I pitched came out with a roundup without any of the restaurants in the pitch which are GREAT new and legendary restaurants. OR best Italian restaurants in West Village I have a client that is iconic and never gets covered.. the same restaurants are in them. So now I just have been working with Content Creators they are bringing more of an ROI also doing incredible visual round ups.“

A lot of this is out of a writer’s control. Editors can suggest what types of places they want featured for instance when assigning to a writer. Places may need to meet certain criteria like having X amount of reviews or serving this type of food or having 4-star ratings on Amazon, etc. In general, we do try to diversify but we get if it feels frustrating. Editors like things that are clickable. And if a buzzy restaurant is getting lots of traction, they want in on that.

Keep pitching your clients and try to suggest angles, as that can be a helpful approach here. Oftentimes writers get pitches for products or places and they sound great but they can’t think of the right fit for them in the moment when they are on email #500 of the day. If you’ve got a great spot…

-Really talk it up and share any differentiating points that you can. What makes it stand out from all the other restaurants in its category

-Suggest some story angles. You know your client better than anyone in this space. Put together a few bullet points and say it could a great restaurant to work into a round up on: top eco-friendly spots to eat, top old-school Italian with recipes passed down from generations, top renovated restaurants in Brooklyn, best places for gluten free diners, best places to take your vegan friend that has something you’d still want to eat, best pizza for families etc. Sometimes suggesting an angle sparks an idea and a writer may actually pitch an entire story around an angle in your pitch.

Publicists would like to be kept in the loop on what writers are sourcing for.

One publicist wrote: “I think what would be helpful is like an email list if every month they send something out on the sources and stories they are looking for the next month or so or few months.”

Many of us have Substack newsletters in which we do this. If you find a writer you want to pitch, follow their Substack if they have one. If not, social media can be a great option as well. We sometimes source on platforms like X, for example.

8. Publicists wish writers had one place they all source from

One publicist wrote: “Many journalists have pivoted to only posting story leads on their Substack or posting on Instagram stories. It would be great if there was one official forum where journalists can post story leads so we don’t have to spend half our day reading 100 Substack newsletters.”

Another wrote: “I wish all leads were in one place to make it easier.”

Trust us, we wish there was one standard place as well but everyone tends to have their preferred method. Those who have Substacks prefer that method and prioritize that. Then we do places like Czars and other Facebook forums like Sharing Opps: PR-FRIENDLY. And then there are tons of platforms. We actually did a deep dive into where the writers are hanging out as of late here, which is definitely worth reading!

Recommended Reading: A 2025 Update on What Platforms Journalist Are Posting Calls for Sources on These Days

9. Publicists wants writers to acknowledge if they no longer writer for a certain publication

One publicist wrote: “One challenge we face is keeping up with a writer’s latest work. Sometimes publications will update stories, and old articles can appear new. This makes it easy to mistaken where someone is currently publishing, especially if it's a writer I haven't pitched in a while. If you see us pitching you and you have switched publications within the last year or even content, responding with kindness is so appreciated.”

Someone else wrote: “I second this! More and more articles are being republished as “new” even though they were originally created years ago. So, it makes it look like the writer still works for that publication or maybe even started writing for them again.”

We get that this is confusing. Writers, if publicists pitch us for specific pubs and we’re not there anymore, let’s let them know with grace. They are trying their best to keep tabs on it all, as we all are with where the heck did our editors go. :(

10. “More connection, collaboration, and coffee chats would be lovely.”

In a perfect world, yes but writers are so busy these days — as we know publicists are too. Many just don’t have the time to take people up on these coffee chat offers. We don’t have time to talk on the phone with publicists about pitches. And between pitching, sourcing, writing, invoicing, networking for new writing opps and doing edits, we’re spent. Our inboxes are where we field everything and that’s where we are able to build the best connections!

You can definitely still invite people on these opps but there is a good chance writers will pass. And some publications don’t allow them to accept these offers (more of a case for staff writers) due to their codes of ethics.

*Note: Our consulting sessions, workshops, Zooms and Substack newsletters are strictly educational. Signing up for anything has no bearing on landing coverage in any of our outlets. Our role is to fine-tune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching other journalists.