This is a brilliant article. It concerns with Magazine publishing but I can guess that the principles apply everywhere. I read the author's pitches with a mind of an editor constantly thinking how would I ever possibly pass it?
The surprising thing about pitching / selling is how oversold is the "magical" knack — of the business guy who knows how to woo. But it's only a matter of understanding that people are willing to listen to you as long as you aren't wasting their time. Editors are more than eager to publish an excellent story, but a pitch like "I want to write about AI" won't cut it.
I have a small blog[1] on which I occasionally write stuff. My process has always been to write a small post, publish, post on HN and disappear with disappointment when they don't catch attention. I think I understand it better now that it's not only a matter of writing novel ideas, but also catching the attention from the first headline, and the first paragraph. In our minds we think of our writing / pitch as a whole, but, for the reader, it's a progressively building story.
But it's only a matter of understanding that people are willing to listen to you as long as you aren't wasting their time.
No, no: people are willing to listen to you as long as they think you aren't wasting their time. Whether you are actually wasting their time doesn't matter. What this means is there are two ways to catch people's attention: bullshit and say what they want to hear, or actually say something meaningful. The first is exceptionally easy, the latter not as much.
Remember, the person who's job is to sell something is probably selling you something. There's a pretty good chance that what they are selling you is not as valuable as they say it is. This guy is doing an exceptional job selling, yes, but whether he's wasting your time...? Based on the first post in this thread, who knows. That's why these narratives are often misleading and self-serving, intentionally or not.
He's selling right now. You bought it. What's the real value?
The surprising thing about pitching / selling is how oversold is the "magical" knack — of the business guy who knows how to woo. But it's only a matter of understanding that people are willing to listen to you as long as you aren't wasting their time. Editors are more than eager to publish an excellent story, but a pitch like "I want to write about AI" won't cut it.
I have a small blog[1] on which I occasionally write stuff. My process has always been to write a small post, publish, post on HN and disappear with disappointment when they don't catch attention. I think I understand it better now that it's not only a matter of writing novel ideas, but also catching the attention from the first headline, and the first paragraph. In our minds we think of our writing / pitch as a whole, but, for the reader, it's a progressively building story.
[1]: https://shubhamjain.co/