Pitching article ideas to magazines and online outlets can feel an awful lot like screaming into an abyss.

I know that it felt (and often continues to feel) like that for me. But for years I went about it the same way and got frustrated and disheartened frequently. Often, before I even got to the emailing editors stage.

But I learnt a few things along the way and I've picked out one mistake I made over and over again. A mistake that cost me so much time and effort and almost exclusively resulted in either silence or a 'no'.

Are you developing pitch ideas the wrong way?

This is what I used to do.

I'd think up a great idea for a magazine article, I'd flesh it out and think of all the great points I could make. God, sometimes I'd even write it.

Then I'd go online and find a place to pitch it to.

ERMMM.

Nope.

If this is how you're creating ideas for articles to pitch to magazines, stop it now. You are wasting so much time it'd be more productive to watch back-to-back episodes of Love Island.

If this method ever works, it's a fluke. And here's why.

You need to know your audience

Generating themes and topics to write about before finding an outlet is fine. Discovering a news story that interests you and gives you ideas for potential articles around the subject is great.

But actually creating a full article or even a pitch before you choose a publication? Nope, not going to work.

Without knowing who you're pitching the idea to, you can't actually formulate a solid article. You have no idea who your audience is, what tone to write in and what angle would suit them. You cannot write a word before you know your audience.

Let's take a travel example, because it's really easy to see what I mean:

Perhaps you'd like to write an article about Berlin. But obviously you need to go more niche than just 'Berlin'. So you decide on an overview of ten things to do during a weekend in the capital.

Sounds simple right? Sounds like you wouldn't need to know the audience much. But wait, of course you do.

Because a 23 year old nightlife addict is not going to be looking for the same things to do in Berlin as a family of four in their late thirties. A solo budget backpacker will not be looking for the same things as a first class traveller with a new Amex in their Birkin.

Without writing for a specific audience, your article will be so generic it won't appeal to anyone.

How to develop pitches that fly

Developing an idea and then looking for somewhere to pitch it to is a hugely inefficient way to operate. By the time you've found a potential publication, read a few back issues and worked out which sections they accept pitches to, you'll have discovered that your idea is completely unsuitable for them. It neither speaks to their audience nor talks in their style.

What would work for Wanderlust would not work for EasyJet's Traveller or Sidetracked. They're all travel but that's essentially where their similarities end.

Instead, you need to flip your process.

Like I said before, it's okay to have theme and topic ideas first, but don't go further than that.

Instead, seek out the submissions guidelines of various publications and familiarise yourself with what they publish. Read a few issues, note down which pieces have staff writer bylines and which are contributors.

Head over to Twitter and search for 'pitches' and the publication's name — this often brings up its commissioning editors calling out for specific pieces.

Sign up to journalism newsletters so you can find calls quickly:

However you choose a publication, that's the place you begin your actual idea development. Often you'll read the submission guidelines and be able to develop your idea based directly on those.

Guidelines are often inspiring in their own right, frequently listing example articles they've published in the past and what they're looking for now. If you don't have any ideas at all, spending half an hour reading through magazine submission guidelines will certainly create a few.

By reading the publication you've decided to work on a pitch for, you can discover the tone in which they write, the typical format their headlines take and whether they have other bits of formatting, like 'quick tip' boxes or mini guides showing readers how the writer did what they did or bought what they're talking about.

All of these things show editors that you are actually pitching for their publication. Not just sending a random article idea out to any publication in the same genre.

Re-working a declined pitch

Of course, there are times when you'll have the pitch already developed and need to find a new publication to offer it to. If you've pitched someone an article and it's been rejected, you don't just want to ditch that work.

You could either find a competing title whose audience is very similar and pitch it to them, or you can re-work the angle to suit another publication that you've found.

Either way, always read the new publication's guidelines, their previous content and their headlines. Your pitch is going to need re-working to some extent — don't just cut and paste it, commit to tailoring it for the new publication.

Avoid the half-arse

Half-arsing pitches is a waste of time. Even more of a waste of time than writing them first and finding the outlet afterwards. Because if an editor can see that you haven't thought it through very well then there's no chance they're going to take it on.

Editors might entirely change your article idea and propose it back to you — which is fine. But the original still needs to sound like you care and know what you're talking about.

They want easy lives, so make their lives easy. Give them what they want, what their readers want and what their publishing company wants.

TLDR:

• Find a publication
• Get familiar with it
• Read submission guidelines
• Understand audience
• THEN develop idea and pitch

= Commission

Kitiara Pascoe is a ghostwriter and author. After three years of sailing around the Atlantic and Caribbean, she washed up in Devon in the UK. You can find her on Twitter @KitiaraP and @TheLitLifeboat. She's the author of In Bed with the Atlantic and The Working Writer and you can find her journalism and blog at KitiaraPascoe.com or her ghostwriting at TheLiteraryLifeboat.co.uk