Following the success of the first Pitching Workshop last year, we are running a second half-day Workshop.

Again led by Jane Perrone, the workshop assumes participants will have had some experience of pitching stories or photo features as freelancers. It aims to help delegates avoid the obvious pitfalls when pitching stories to editors and bloggers, while tightening up their ability to put together meaningful pitches with a consequent greater chance of success.

Dealing with building the pitch and avoiding the wastepaper basket, some of the areas the workshop covers include:

• The importance of researching your target audience in terms of understanding what they are about and what they publish.
• The use of social media for finding and pitching work.
• Understanding the best ways to approach publications and their editorial process.
• A session on dos and don’ts - the right and wrong ways to pitch.
• There will also be the opportunity to sharpen up pitches that participants may be working on.

Workshop leader

As Gardening Editor at The Guardian for eight years and a freelancer for magazines from M&S Magazine to The English Garden, and local media, Jane has seen pitching from both sides of the fence. She has also delivered a course on garden blogging and has mentored several people at various stages to success in garden writing.

The venue

The Higgins Bedford has a rich history going back several centuries and was originally the site of the Castle Brewery, the owner Cecil Higgins’s family home and his art gallery. It now unites this with the Bedford Museum. The venue is well located for public transport with trains from London and the Midlands and has car parking nearby.

The workshop is limited to 16 people and is priced at £30 for GMG members and £50 for non-members.

To book your place, contact GMG Admin as soon as possible.