An editor I work with regularly never assigns me stories. What gives?

Hello friends! I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. It was deathly hot here in Denver (and, uh, everywhere), so I stayed cool indoors with my partner and kitties. (If you’re a kitty person, see the end of this newsletter to meet Meatball Potato, who did his very best to help me write this post.)

Today we have another edition of FWT’s Q&A series, in which I pick out a reader-submitted question or two and offer my take. (If you’ve got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism, email me at [email protected] or fill out this form with your question.)

Anonymous asks,

What’s a good way to get an editor to commission you when you have a good working relationship? They usually greenlight my pitches, but have never assigned something out. This is a major, worldwide publication, and we've worked together for more than a year.

Well, first, congrats on consistent work with such a big publication! That alone is huge and worth celebrating. Getting onto an editor’s “regulars” roster is a surefire path to regular work, so kudos to you for summiting that particular peak. (For advice on that, check out this previous newsletter.)

Getting direct assignments from an editor can feel like the next natural step of that working relationship. They take your pitches all the time, so, eventually things should start working the other way and they should send you stories, right?

Well, sometimes. Before we dive in, though, always keep in mind that while a direct assignment is great, it’s not the only sign that an editor values you. The fact that they keep taking your pitches speaks volumes.

Now, longtime readers know that the most-repeated phrase in all of FWT is, “It depends,” and in this case, that definitely applies. It does, indeed, depend.

Let’s start by going backward a little bit and talk about pitching. Cold-pitching a new editor can, sometimes, be a numbers game, because there are a thousand reasons editors decline pitches. What a lot of freelancers don’t realize (or don’t keep front-of-mind, which is totally understandable, we all have enough going on) is that an enormous portion of those reasons have nothing to do with the pitch itself.

When considering whether a pitch is strong enough to commission, editors also have to consider how a given story would fit in their pub sked, their budget, general timing, whether it’s on a topic they’ve recently covered or have over-indexed on lately, if they have the bandwidth right now to take on new writers, if the story is even a fit for the section in general, if they’ve got time off coming up, if they’re even taking on new writers at all … it’s a lot. You’d be shocked at how often editors have to decline great stories for those or a whole host of other outside reasons.

The reason I bring up pitching in a question about direct assignments is that all of those reasons are also factors when editors assign out stories. Just as there are a ton of reasons editors don’t accept a pitch that aren’t related to the pitch, there are a ton of reasons editors don’t assign stories to freelancers that are unrelated to any freelancer. It’s also entirely possible that this editor is just so inundated with pitches — they do after all, work for a “major, worldwide publication” — that they just don’t have a need to assign stories

Generally speaking, for some editors, giving out assignments can be somewhat rare, even if all the stars are in alignment. When I was a commissioning editor at The Times, I had a roster of maybe a dozen or so “regulars” who would write for me once or twice a month from pitches, and within that, I had maybe three or four writers I would assign stories to. And even then, that wasn’t a regular occurrence; maybe like a once-or-twice-a-month kinda thing, if even. I wasn’t unique in this regard.

However, I have a question for you: Have you told this editor that you’re open to assignments? Friend of FWT Kaitlyn Arford of the fantastic newsletter Freelance Opportunities! said recently in a FWT workshop that a huge part of getting work as a freelancer is making it known that you’re actively open for work, because if you don’t do that, no one will even know you’re available. So maybe as you’re wrapping up the next assignment with this editor, just casually mention you’re up for commissions if they have story ideas they’ve been kicking around but haven’t found a writer for.

So basically, all of this boils down to saying: I wouldn’t worry too much about this. As long as they keep taking your pitches, you’re well ahead of the curve.

A quick FWT update: I have just launched the Freelancing With Tim Store! This is the spot where you can buy recorded workshops, including sessions on Travel writing, launching newsletters, using social media to find work, and much more. I’ll be regularly adding new workshops and other products to it, but take a look around and pick something up if it looks interesting!

Have a wonderful week (from me and Meatball both)!