Congrats on the WIRED piece!

Good points about all the reasons why a pitch to a magazine editor may not be a good fit at that time. I definitely wouldn’t resend the same query to the same editor at the same magazine. I might consider it two to three years later if there was a new editor.

Editors are busier than ever, with reduced staff at publications across the board. Sometimes the pitch doesn’t fit their calendar, the slant/word count/tone of the article is a bit off, the editor published something similar recently—there are all kinds of reasons for rejection, and many have nothing to do with the quality of the idea.

I don’t resend queries to the same publication, but I do send them out to multiple publications, often over long periods of time. The WIRED piece was an old idea that finally found a home.

I hear you, Cheryl, and I respect your approach. For me it depends on the potential client. Some I will only contact once, while I’ll follow up two to three times with ones that I think likely have high-paying projects for which I’m well-qualified.