A New Record Response Time

Back in January, I blogged about a new personal record for the amount of time between sending a pitch and receiving a response just to give a picture of how hopeless pitching can seem. The record at that time was nearly four months.

This March 22nd, I received a letter from the LA Times travel section:

Thank you for your submission to the LA Times Travel section. After consideration, we’re going to have to pass on your story.

We receive many more submissions than we have space to print so competition for every column inch is fierce. We also generally try to leave about five years between major destination pieces, except on the oft-visited places, which we do more often.

If you’d like a look at our guidelines, please go to latimes.com/travelguidelines.

Again, thanks for thinking of us and all good wishes,

C--------
travel editor

The date on my original message?

July, 25, 2008

That's right, nearly 8 months had passed between my original pitch and the response. I never said pitching was all roses.