Writing on spec

A freelance question here. Has anyone ever written a piece involving a bunch of interviews then shopped it around to get someone to publish it?

My girlfriend had an idea for an article. I asked who would publish it. She didn’t have an answer. Her idea is do the article then sell it.

I’ve repeatedly tried to explain to her why this is a bad idea. Basically, if the work doesn’t get published, not only have I wasted my time, I’ve wasted the subjects’ time. They would rightfully be pissed off at me and even if I never see them again, I just think that’s a really shitty way to treat people.

I explain this and she dismisses it with a wave of the hand.

Am I being too risk averse or is there some way to explain it so she could understand it?

 

You have a girlfriend?

 

I know. Hard to believe.

 

Time to trade her in for a smarter model. Unless she's really hot.

 

If the idea is good enough to sell after being written, it should be good enough to pitch somewhere and have an agreement in place when you request the interviews and then write the thing.

Don't put in the work if you're not sure you're going to get paid.

 

I actually just did this and it published in June. Spent about two years interviewing and playing the query letter game and pulled it off.

 

Writing on spec is routine. Especially for fiction writers and poets. Really not very different for nonfiction.

She can work up a query or a pitch if she has a specific place in mind to publish it.

Also great: she can write it and shop it around once she's finished.

It will help is she has some places already targeted.

But there are lots of ways to do this work.

 

How much research/how many interviews did you have in the can before you got a yes? Or was the entire thing done?

 

My story is a unicorn because I knew it was going to be large in sources from the get go but I didn't start pitching until I had interviewed 12 people and ultimately talked to about 30.

 

The freelancers I know have soured on pitching, mostly because it takes time and effort that does not get remunerated, and pubs co-opt their story ideas for their own writers.

 

As strange as it sounds, I’m not as concerned about not getting paid as I am about wasting the subjects’ time.

If I were writing fiction of some sort and just got one rejection notice after another, I figure that’s something that probably goes with the territory and the only time I’ve wasted is my own.

If someone is willing to take time out of their day, especially if it’s a lot of time and my work never sees the light of day I’ve wasted their time. They would think I’m an asshole and rightfully so. If they talk to other potential subjects those people will probably not want anything to do with me.