NEXT COURSE MONDAY JUNE 11 - FRIDAY JULY 6 2012
'I just wanted to share with you the successes I've had since the pitching course because it's all down to what I learned with you. I've had a great week this week and have now written two pieces for Take a Break, a piece for Grazia, and have a commission for a piece for YOU. My working life has been transformed by the course and it moved me along from 'trying' to be a journalist to succeeding as a freelancer.'
'I studied journalism in a degree that cost $45,000. I found your course much better and more enjoyable - it's much more focused, practical and professionally oriented. It's a good feeling to know you're being taught by people who continue to work successfully in the field, rather than former journalists.'
'I did half a course in freelance journalism at The City Lit, but learned more from just the first week in this one than all I learned there.'
'Thanks so much! I feel newly inspired. This is definitely the best course I have done (including my 10 week NCTJ diploma). Jo & Olivia’s knowledge of the UK features market was incredibly valuable.'
'I've just got my first ever commission from the Daily Mail! Thank you VERY much for all your help, I never would have got that without doing the course.'
'It was the best investment I’ve ever made for developing my career. My pitching has been totally re-vamped!'
'I have been on six Press Association courses and none come close to yours!'
'Excellent value for money, would have happily paid for another 4 weeks.'
'I have had two features from the course commissioned!'
'Within weeks of finishing, one of the pitches I'd worked on during the assignments was commissioned. Financially, this more than paid for the course. More importantly, it gave me a break into a new publication and a relationship with an editor I hope will commission me in future.'
'Within weeks of finishing, one of the pitches I'd worked on during the assignments was commissioned. Financially, this more than paid for the course. More importantly, it gave me a break into a new publication and a relationship with an editor I hope will commission me in future.'
'Editors are now emailing me back, whereas before my pitches were ignored.'
'Thank you SO much for your feedback and for the fantasticness of the course - it's been amazing.'
'You've given me so much confidence and inspiration. Oh, and also a touch of insomnia as I can't get to sleep at night for thinking about all these pitches.'
'This course has given me the kick start I needed to get back into writing. So much useful advice and information! This is a really excellent course with very detailed feedback, some harsh but justifiably so, some very encouraging. In such a short length of time, I feel I’ve learnt loads.'
'[This course has been] invaluable. I’m a novelist with some freelance journalism under my belt, but I think this course will give me the confidence to describe myself as a novelist and journalist. I already feel so much better equipped to sell my ideas to editors knowing that I am putting them forward in the best way possible. I’ve already got one possible commission with a glossy after pitching them for the very first time during the course – something that is entirely down to your help and advice.'
'Great advice from two people who are in the freelance business right now. I spent three years doing a journalism degree being taught by people who were not practising journalists and you can really tell the difference in what type of advice you get given.'Correspondence course trainees' post-course comments, 2010/2011/2012
Ideas and pitching for freelance journalists: Four week correspondence course
Students who took this course have gone on to get commissions from papers and magazines including The Guardian, The Times, The Mail on Sunday You magazine, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, The Lady, The Daily Mail, The Express, Woman's Own, Pregnancy & Birth and Take a Break.
Our flagship course has become a cult course for freelance journalists over the last few years.
It's a completely unique and intensive remote course including detailed, individual feedback on your practical assignments, and a 30 minute telephone conference for you to 'pick the brains' of an experienced, busy and well-respected freelance journalist.
It's a completely unique and intensive remote course including detailed, individual feedback on your practical assignments, and a 30 minute telephone conference for you to 'pick the brains' of an experienced, busy and well-respected freelance journalist.
Tutors: Johanna Payton and Olivia Gordon
Class size: Maximum of 10
Cost: £250.00 per delegate
Class size: Maximum of 10
Cost: £250.00 per delegate
Course outline:
Ever wondered how the bylines of successful freelance journalists pop up in every national magazine and newspaper going?
How do they generate the killer ideas that make their way onto the page? And how do they make sure their suggestions grab the attention of editors who are being bombarded by pitches from freelancers in an increasingly crowded and competitive market?
Contrary to popular belief, most prolific freelancers are not ex-staffers or best friends with the features editor. Plenty of highly-regarded freelance journalists are pitching and selling their ideas because they know how to pinpoint stories that sell to the highest profile publications (for the best rates), and can write punchy, perfect pitches that cannot be ignored. These freelance journalists don’t wave a magic wand – they possess skills and knowledge that can be taught.
From where to source story ideas and working out what kind of features editors are looking for, to knowing how many editors to pitch to at once and negotiating a good fee for your feature, this correspondence course has been to designed to take the mystery away from the pitching process and give you the tools you need to become a successful freelance journalist, selling ideas to the markets you wish to target.
Whether you’re a pitching novice, or an experienced freelance journalist looking to enhance your pitching skills and up your hit rate, this course will help you become a confident, professional and successful pitcher. As the course can be completed from your home or office, it’s also perfect for people who can’t take time off to attend an offline course, or live too far away to travel to lectures.
The course tutors, Olivia Gordon and Johanna Payton, successfully pitch and sell their ideas to a wide and impressive range of publications. They are not former journalists harking back to a halcyon age of freelance pitching – they are experienced, professional, working journalists who know what editors are looking for right now, not ten years ago.
By sharing their own secrets and top tips, as well as giving you a real insight into the workings of an editorial office, Olivia and Johanna will provide you with top-notch training in the art of sourcing ideas that sell and pitching them successfully. Although the focus of the course is on the consumer print market (glossy and weekly national magazines and features sections/supplements in national newspapers) the skills you will learn on the course can be seamlessly transferred to niche or trade markets.
Olivia and Johanna are two highly experienced freelance journalists who have written for everyone from Grazia, LOOK, Red, Marie Claire, Woman&Home, Brides and EasyLiving to The Times, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian/Observer and Daily Mail. They also run Successful Freelance Journalism workshops for Journalism.co.uk – the testimonials of their delegates speak for themselves.
The ideas and pitching course is suitable for beginner and moderately experienced freelance journalists and covers the following areas:
Week one: Sourcing ideas; what makes a good story, finding stories and generating ideas.
Week two: Getting ready to pitch; deciding where to pitch, matching stories to publications, pitching checklist, finding the right angle.
Week three: Pitching; crafting the perfect pitch, pitching dos and don'ts.
Week four: Pitching issues; chasing pitches, negotiating fees, writing on spec, handling rejection.
Week two: Getting ready to pitch; deciding where to pitch, matching stories to publications, pitching checklist, finding the right angle.
Week three: Pitching; crafting the perfect pitch, pitching dos and don'ts.
Week four: Pitching issues; chasing pitches, negotiating fees, writing on spec, handling rejection.
What our correspondence course students say:
"I have had two features from the course commissioned and the phone call is a real selling point - a rare opportunity to ask lots of questions without feeling like you’re being a pain!"
"Absolutely invaluable! Essential! There’s nothing left in my new style from the way I was preparing pitches before the course at all! I have loads more confidence because I feel equipped with the right skills and more insight into how to go about pitching in a more professional manner. I did half a course in freelance journalism at The City Lit, but learned more from just the first week in this one than all I learned there."
"The course was over too quickly! Excellent value for money, would have happily paid for another 4 weeks. The feedback provided every week was invaluable and I will undoubtedly refer back to it for many years to come."
"Sent off my first ever feature pitch to Marie Claire on Friday, which I'd been working on as part of Jo and Olivia's course...I'm so pleased to get such a positive response so quickly. And it's all thanks to Jo and Olivia and their genius course and advice. I'm loving the course and will be gutted at the end of the week when it's over! If anyone's thinking of doing it, I'd really recommend. I feel miles more confident already."
"This is a fantastic course! I learnt so much from Jo and Olivia - excellent support and critique that has really helped me on the slippery slope of establishing a freelance career! I still dig out my course notes on a regular basis and got several commissions on the back of ideas generated as coursework."
"[The course has] filled in a lot of the gaps I had in my head about the whole pitching process. I think it would be hard to find a course as directly related to the specific areas I wanted to learn about. The feedback on my pitches was really helpful but more than anything I probably appreciated the phone call – there was lots of really useful stuff that came up that I hadn’t really thought about."
"[The course has] already made a big difference to my attitude. I feel a lot more positive. My pitches are a lot more professional. An excellent course! It's improved my confidence greatly and has made a real difference to how I approach pitching. I've also gained a real insight into the commissioning process, which will help me in future with tailoring pitches & generating feature ideas. I thought the format was perfect: easily digestible modules and homework assignments that really made me think. The course was comprehensive but easy to fit around work."
"Thanks so much for running this - I think it's a great course. It is useful to get some reassurance that you’re not going to look daft by sending a certain pitch. Or indeed, to be tipped off that you are going to look daft!"
"[The course] has given me both the confidence and the technique to approach a new range of publications. I really appreciated the detailed feedback, the hints and tips for finding contacts and the checklist to run through before developing a pitch. I loved the pace of this course – with time to think about the course notes and the flexibility to change the pitch I was working on within the course. The personal feedback was fantastic – I was glad it was critical as that was more constructive. Plus, it made the praise at the end feel very motivational!"
"I have been on six Press Association courses and none come close to yours! I think this course has been very useful and I hope to put my newfound knowledge into practice as soon as possible. It boosted my confidence and gave me the push I needed to start approaching editors. That alone was worth the money. When you start out as a freelance it is all a bit of a mystery, so to find out from people already doing the job how to crack the industry was fantastic. The feedback was always helpful and constructive and my questions at the bottom always answered fully. It was a great course and I will be recommending it. It was excellent value for money. The chat at the end of the course is a very good idea."
"It was very helpful to have so many examples of pitches, good and bad, included within the course notes. The phone one-to-one was also very useful to address my individual concerns. Everything was useful in terms of refreshing my knowledge. Thanks Jo and Olivia for all your help!"
"I just wanted to share with you the successes I've had since the pitching course because it's all down to what I learned with you. I've had a great week this week and have now written two pieces for Take a Break, a piece for Grazia, and have a commission for a piece for YOU. My working life has been transformed by the course and it moved me along from 'trying' to be a journalist to succeeding as a freelancer."
"Very useful. It has given me a good framework for pitching. I can see where I am going wrong. I'll also make use of the resources mentioned. Ways to generate new ideas were also inspiring and helpful. Thanks so much for an inspiring course."
"I can't praise enough the quality of advice I received on this course."
"I studied journalism in a degree that cost $45,000. I found your course much better and more enjoyable - it's much more focused, practical and professionally-oriented. It's a good feeling to know you're being taught by people who continue to work successfully in the field rather than former journalists. It was brilliant to look in detail at the dos and dont's of pitching; it was also really useful to have personalised feedback on my pitches. The course has been extremely useful. I really liked its flexibility and tailored nature and I've already recommended it."
"Very useful. It has taught me how to write better pitches and what has legs and what hasn't. The course structure is spot on. The detailed feedback, which was in excess of what I expected, has been really helpful."
"It was a very comprehensive guide to freelancing. You provided tons of practical information and advice and I also liked having the real life examples to refer to. I’m already using your information as a mini reference library! It was all relevant. It was great to get individual feedback and you hit the right tone with this – both honest and constructive. I also felt encouraged throughout the course."
"MANY THANKS, both of you! Your course has given me the confidence to get out there and keep going! I've already had very constructive feedback from two editors and that's just in one week. I had the right sort of ideas but needed to hone them and this course has done that. I now have a blueprint of what to do and how to do it. I'd certainly recommend it."
"I've just got my first ever commission from the Daily Mail! Thank you VERY much for all your help, I never would have got that without doing the course."
"Thank you SO much for your feedback and the fantasticness of the course - it's been amazing."
"This course absolutely transformed my pitching skills. Within weeks of finishing, one of the pitches I'd worked on during the assignments was commissioned by an editor I had never pitched to before. Financially, this more than paid for the course but, more importantly, it gave me a break into a new publication and a relationship with an editor I hope will commission me in future."
"I am delighted to say that I have just had a pitch accepted for a women's magazine! It is the pitch I worked on in the course. I am so pleased and now I have a good relationship with the staff there, I am sending another pitch to them shortly which I hope they will like which I came up with while scanning the newspapers as you suggested. I have more than made up the cost of the course in this one pitch so am delighted and my confidence is through the roof!"
"I can honestly say that the whole of the course was useful, well worth investing in to give you a kick start in the freelance industry. I really benefitted from the constructive criticism from both Jo and Olivia, even if they had differing opinions it was still great advice from two people who are in the freelance business right now. I spent three years doing a journalism degree being taught by people who were not practising journalists and you can really tell the difference in what type of advice you get given. I’m more than happy to say how confident I now feel sending out that first pitch. Thanks go to both of you for all the help and confidence I’ve now got!'
"The course will be invaluable. It’s given me the confidence to pitch, helped me focus my ideas and come up with suitable publications and websites to pitch to. It's all spot on. Can’t wait to get back from hols so I can start pitching for real. All the tips on websites and knowing where to go to find out information is really helpful. I’ve really enjoyed the course."
"Incredibly useful! I’m currently at the stage where I’ve had a few things published, but it has been a bit hit and miss and I didn’t really know why I was sometimes successful and sometimes not (this is much more obvious now!). The course has taught me what I need to push this to the level where I’m receiving regular commissions from several publications. Thanks so much! I feel newly inspired. This is definitely the best course I have done (including my 10 week NCTJ diploma). Jo & Olivia’s knowledge of the UK features market was incredibly valuable."
"[The course has] already made a big difference to my attitude. I feel a lot more positive. My pitches are a lot more professional. An excellent course! It's improved my confidence greatly and has made a real difference to how I approach pitching. I've also gained a real insight into the commissioning process, which will help me in future with tailoring pitches & generating feature ideas. I thought the format was perfect: easily digestible modules and homework assignments that really made me think. The course was comprehensive but easy to fit around work."
"Thanks so much for running this - I think it's a great course. It is useful to get some reassurance that you’re not going to look daft by sending a certain pitch. Or indeed, to be tipped off that you are going to look daft!"
"[The course] has given me both the confidence and the technique to approach a new range of publications. I really appreciated the detailed feedback, the hints and tips for finding contacts and the checklist to run through before developing a pitch. I loved the pace of this course – with time to think about the course notes and the flexibility to change the pitch I was working on within the course. The personal feedback was fantastic – I was glad it was critical as that was more constructive. Plus, it made the praise at the end feel very motivational!"
"I have been on six Press Association courses and none come close to yours! I think this course has been very useful and I hope to put my newfound knowledge into practice as soon as possible. It boosted my confidence and gave me the push I needed to start approaching editors. That alone was worth the money. When you start out as a freelance it is all a bit of a mystery, so to find out from people already doing the job how to crack the industry was fantastic. The feedback was always helpful and constructive and my questions at the bottom always answered fully. It was a great course and I will be recommending it. It was excellent value for money. The chat at the end of the course is a very good idea."
"It was very helpful to have so many examples of pitches, good and bad, included within the course notes. The phone one-to-one was also very useful to address my individual concerns. Everything was useful in terms of refreshing my knowledge. Thanks Jo and Olivia for all your help!"
"I just wanted to share with you the successes I've had since the pitching course because it's all down to what I learned with you. I've had a great week this week and have now written two pieces for Take a Break, a piece for Grazia, and have a commission for a piece for YOU. My working life has been transformed by the course and it moved me along from 'trying' to be a journalist to succeeding as a freelancer."
"Very useful. It has given me a good framework for pitching. I can see where I am going wrong. I'll also make use of the resources mentioned. Ways to generate new ideas were also inspiring and helpful. Thanks so much for an inspiring course."
"I can't praise enough the quality of advice I received on this course."
"I studied journalism in a degree that cost $45,000. I found your course much better and more enjoyable - it's much more focused, practical and professionally-oriented. It's a good feeling to know you're being taught by people who continue to work successfully in the field rather than former journalists. It was brilliant to look in detail at the dos and dont's of pitching; it was also really useful to have personalised feedback on my pitches. The course has been extremely useful. I really liked its flexibility and tailored nature and I've already recommended it."
"Very useful. It has taught me how to write better pitches and what has legs and what hasn't. The course structure is spot on. The detailed feedback, which was in excess of what I expected, has been really helpful."
"It was a very comprehensive guide to freelancing. You provided tons of practical information and advice and I also liked having the real life examples to refer to. I’m already using your information as a mini reference library! It was all relevant. It was great to get individual feedback and you hit the right tone with this – both honest and constructive. I also felt encouraged throughout the course."
"MANY THANKS, both of you! Your course has given me the confidence to get out there and keep going! I've already had very constructive feedback from two editors and that's just in one week. I had the right sort of ideas but needed to hone them and this course has done that. I now have a blueprint of what to do and how to do it. I'd certainly recommend it."
"I've just got my first ever commission from the Daily Mail! Thank you VERY much for all your help, I never would have got that without doing the course."
"Thank you SO much for your feedback and the fantasticness of the course - it's been amazing."
"This course absolutely transformed my pitching skills. Within weeks of finishing, one of the pitches I'd worked on during the assignments was commissioned by an editor I had never pitched to before. Financially, this more than paid for the course but, more importantly, it gave me a break into a new publication and a relationship with an editor I hope will commission me in future."
"I am delighted to say that I have just had a pitch accepted for a women's magazine! It is the pitch I worked on in the course. I am so pleased and now I have a good relationship with the staff there, I am sending another pitch to them shortly which I hope they will like which I came up with while scanning the newspapers as you suggested. I have more than made up the cost of the course in this one pitch so am delighted and my confidence is through the roof!"
"I can honestly say that the whole of the course was useful, well worth investing in to give you a kick start in the freelance industry. I really benefitted from the constructive criticism from both Jo and Olivia, even if they had differing opinions it was still great advice from two people who are in the freelance business right now. I spent three years doing a journalism degree being taught by people who were not practising journalists and you can really tell the difference in what type of advice you get given. I’m more than happy to say how confident I now feel sending out that first pitch. Thanks go to both of you for all the help and confidence I’ve now got!'
"The course will be invaluable. It’s given me the confidence to pitch, helped me focus my ideas and come up with suitable publications and websites to pitch to. It's all spot on. Can’t wait to get back from hols so I can start pitching for real. All the tips on websites and knowing where to go to find out information is really helpful. I’ve really enjoyed the course."
"Incredibly useful! I’m currently at the stage where I’ve had a few things published, but it has been a bit hit and miss and I didn’t really know why I was sometimes successful and sometimes not (this is much more obvious now!). The course has taught me what I need to push this to the level where I’m receiving regular commissions from several publications. Thanks so much! I feel newly inspired. This is definitely the best course I have done (including my 10 week NCTJ diploma). Jo & Olivia’s knowledge of the UK features market was incredibly valuable."
