Why editors don't reply to your pitch

I speak to a lot of writers whose pet peeve is editors who don’t reply, and who consider it bad manners. Even those who do reply with a ‘no, not for us’ are criticised for being too brief. Some people seem to want something to work on, some advice they can act on.

I haven’t pitched The Times for a few years but when I did I used to sometimes receive brief one line emails, saying something like ‘no thanks’ or ‘not for us’. And far from getting annoyed with the editor I was always pleased that he had taken the time to reply. This saved me time chasing, and allowed me to take the idea elsewhere. What is there to get annoyed about?

How many of us reply to the marketing material we receive through the post? How many of us provide cold callers with proper feedback on why we are not interested in what they are selling? But still we expect the editors to do the same. 

An editor might not reply for many reasons. He might be too busy. He might not have received it (good reason for chasing). Perhaps he is still considering it (I had positive responses from editors six months after pitching). But perhaps he thinks – why should I reply, I didn’t ask to be emailed.

Whatever the reason sending an angry follow up email will not encourage him to respond. It will however get you blacklisted by the magazine and, as editors talk and have friends who work for other publications, it may also get your name known in the business for all the wrong reasons.