What TV producers and bookers want from a pitch

Introductions and titles

Jess: Joining me today is Sara Edwards. She was a booking producer at CNN, and she was at CNN for 12 years. She knows a thing or two about what producers want, certainly in cable news, certainly at CNN. We have a few different types of people who might be listening: individuals who are experts and authors trying to get press, and PR and communication professionals. And you have transitioned to become a PR professional yourself. Is that right?

Sara: I have, yes. I jumped the line. I went over to the other side. As somebody who used to decide, hey, this is the type of guest we want, either deciding myself or having people reach out to me, and now I'm on the other side. I know how people like that think. I know the secrets. I know how to get people on TV.

Jess: So you were a booking producer. There are so many different titles that producers have. I was in cable news for 11 years of my 13 in television, and it was confusing. Tell us about some of the titles.

Sara: Everybody's a producer, pretty much. A booking producer is the person on the show team who books the guests. They're the ones who get people put on TV. That is their main focus. That position has various titles: booker, booking producer, editorial producer, which is a fancy way to say booking producer. It's the main position that puts guests on television. I was the gatekeeper of all the PR people who used to pitch to us, and if my executive producer, who was pretty much the show supervisor, got any pitches, she would shift it over to me to look at. So if you want to get anybody on television, you need to know who the booker is.

Jess: So if somebody were a supervising producer, not really the right person to pitch.

Sara: Not really the right person. A lot of times people like that just don't have the bandwidth or time, because their focus is completely somewhere else. Even if a pitch does go to somebody like a supervising producer, or even to the anchor, a lot of times they simply end up shifting that to the booking producer, because it's their main job. I would be the one who would call the guest and vet them, and then disseminate back to the anchor, the executive producer, or the supervising producer, saying yes, this person would work, or maybe no. The booking producer has a lot of weight, because the show team trusts the booking producer's judgment. We're the ones who deal with people all the time, and we know who would be good television and who wouldn't work out. You need to go through the booker first.

A booking producer's actual week

Jess: I want to start with what the day was like. We know media folks are busy, but what did that look like, and which show were you on?

Sara: I mainly worked the weekend show, which meant I'd get in on Wednesday and my week would end on Sunday. The day would start at nine o'clock, when CNN-wide would have an editorial meeting with every single show on the network on a call. The day would start with listening in on that call. Editorially, we'd be waiting to hear what everyone across the network was doing. I wouldn't really be open to listening to anybody on the outside until about 10:00, right after that call, because I have an idea of what the network really deems important. Even though our show was Saturday and Sunday, Wednesday through Friday was really important from an editorial standpoint. A lot of news gathering, a lot of listening, figuring out the tea leaves: okay, this is what Saturday is possibly going to look like.

Sara: From a day standpoint on Wednesday: listening to that call, 10:00 then going through emails all day, but really being like, okay, now I can focus, and I'm going to need to call this PR person back because they pitched me a guest that would really work for us this weekend. Around 10:00 I'd do that, then be calling people throughout the rest of the day to figure out their schedules. My day on Wednesday would end early, around 3:00, because you really can't predict on a Wednesday what's going to happen on a Saturday. I'd kick into high gear on Friday, because that's the day before Saturday, and that's when everything was go time. You could tell the tone change: on Wednesday everybody was light and cheerful, by Thursday it amped up a little, but Friday was all in. Everybody was serious, because we knew Saturday would be show day. Whatever was happening on Friday was going to have a big impact on Saturday. On Friday I'd be listening to the call more attentively and making a ton more calls to everybody who'd sent stuff to me, or people who'd sent stuff months before but for whatever reason it would work at that time. I'd be calling those people back like, hey, remember you sent me that guest six months ago? I'd really like that person to join television now.

Jess: Now say somebody who worked on a weekday morning show, which runs three hours, five days a week. They just have a tighter version of that. They're always in go mode.

Sara: Right, yes, always in go mode, and a much bigger team. In terms of booking producers on a show like that, I'd say a good ten or so, and that's just the booking producer level, each working various hours of the day: people who work during the actual show, people who work late at night, if not overnight, plus senior producers and even line producers. Another way to get a guest on television is to know who the senior producers are, because they deal a lot in vetting as well as pitching and even sometimes booking guests. They act as a second arm to us editorially. So if you want to get anybody on that kind of show, you just have to know who the booking producers are, and they have a ton of them. LinkedIn is one of the best ways to go about finding that these days.

Email, phone, and the one-two punch

Jess: People can send an email, they could pick up the phone, and I'm curious if anybody answers the phone anymore, or they could go through social media. Would you say the most common way in is probably email?

Sara: Yes, go via email. Phone calls used to get on my nerves, I can't lie to you, because they're time-consuming, and at that, they gave me absolutely nothing to pass on to my executive producer, and it all worked on my memory. I'd have some publicists who would talk me to death, and at the end of it I couldn't even remember what they'd said.

Jess: Would it have been a better plan if somebody had done the one-two punch: they call you, they have the email all set, and they say, that sounds interesting, and hit send right then?

Sara: A lot better, because for one, it lets me know that you understand a bit about how this works. If you call me and I'm on the phone, and you say, hey, I'm also sending you an email, it forces me to look at it, and I can tell you quickly, yes this would work, or it might not work right now but thanks for calling. Even if it's a no, I've at least heard you, we've at least met, and I'd remember the person's voice. Even if you called me again, I'd remember. I'd still say I hated getting phone calls, and I'd much rather have an email.

Jess: Now that you're on the other side, what's your take on phone calls?

Sara: I'd say social media is smarter. I wouldn't say I'd never call anyone, but social media is smarter because it's a warm-up. It's more casual than email, and I can gauge receptivity on the producer's part. If I've connected on LinkedIn and they message me back, that's how I used to get guests on television, as a matter of fact. And from there I get phone numbers too. If they've given me their phone number, that's an invitation to call. Whereas with cold calling before social media existed, I always felt like they didn't know who I was.

How to actually message someone on LinkedIn

Jess: So let's say a person is going to spend three weeks working on a press release that's five pages long, then copy and paste it into the very first message they've ever sent you on LinkedIn. Does that sound like a plan? Are you going to read the whole thing?

Sara: I am not going to read the whole thing. I'm going to skim it and I'm not going to answer you back.

Jess: If it's the first message they've ever sent, should they reach out that way?

Sara: No, it's not okay. I'd say briefly introduce yourself and say who you are and what you might have to offer. Very briefly, a couple of lines, three lines. Hi, my name is Sara, and I am a publicist, and I have a lot of experts who deal specifically in law, finance, economics. I know that you guys do a lot of coverage on that. I'd love to be able to chat with you about this guest. I know you've been covering, for example, a particular ongoing investigation, and my guest could really speak on that. Is it possible to chat? And then I wait for them to answer with a yes or no. I never put in a big long press release.

Jess: So I guess the implication is only a yes or no answer. Chances are they're not going to say no, it's either going to be a yes or they'll ghost, which means they'll delete and ignore it.

Sara: Or they'll shift you to the person you should talk to. Sometimes they might say, this might not be good for me, but you might want to talk to this other person, and that's fantastic, and that's what we hope for.

Jess: Now if the person says that could be interesting, or hey, we need a lawyer with a different point of view on the story of the day, and then you say, let me send over the press information, that's a different conversation, because you're already talking.

Sara: Exactly. From that point it makes sense, because now you're filling me up. You've already introduced yourself, you've already caught my attention, and then you're selling me because you have a specific person in mind. Definitely take a look, and we'll discuss when we chat. But to start with a big long spiel isn't a good idea. When I used to look at that from publicists, I was like, this person's going to talk for hours and I'll never get them off the phone. That's what would be my fear, even in an email: this person is going to talk my ear off. So brevity is just important.

Jess: And they can always link to more information, or say, if you want I'll send you that.

Sara: Exactly, and just take it in steps. It's probably better if they have multiple interactions with you anyway, because it creates a relationship, and then I remember you. We don't want to show up like showing up on a first date and saying, let me start from the beginning, this is where I was born. You've got to breadcrumb it.

Reading the schedule, and how many emails actually arrive

Jess: I imagine there were a lot of emails on Monday and Tuesday for you to wade through, and probably miss a lot of them. People sometimes say, I don't know, I guess they didn't like me, I sent an email once.

Sara: I think it's really important to understand the flow of a show's schedule, because it will save you a lot of heartache. I'd get a lot of emails on a Monday, and people are like, you didn't answer me. I'm like, well, I'm not at work, I'm not looking at it, I took Monday and Tuesday off completely. Or maybe I read it but didn't answer because I'm not at work. You have to understand the flow of the schedule. For a weekday morning show, I'd say the smartest time, if it's breaking news and your guest needs to be on that story as soon as it happens, you start messaging people right away, because they're desperate, they need any relevant person who can talk about it, and it's a really good time to hit them if the person fits exactly what they need. If there's an active shooter situation and you have a security expert, you pitch it at the time that's happening, because they're desperate for voices.

Sara: But barring that, if it's something more evergreen, I'd say do it after their show ends, from nine o'clock up until about five, because they have varying booking producers coming through on different shifts, and the best window is between roughly 9:00 and noon, because that's when they have their editorial meetings and are focused on what's coming next. After that the day is over and you just want to go home, and you're not going to be paying attention.

Jess: How many emails do you think you'd get in a typical day?

Sara: External, about 50 or so that I'd actually look at. I had my email set up so I wouldn't see things I already knew I didn't want, like a press release about a new restaurant opening somewhere, obviously not relevant, delete.

Jess: How many internal emails?

Sara: By the time I got to work it would be hundreds.

Jess: So the average person may not even get 100 emails in a day. You're getting hundreds internal, plus opening 50 external and probably deleting another 50 you never even see. That's at least 200 a day just sitting there, and if your schedule starts on a Wednesday, that could be 400 emails clogging things up.

Sara: Correct, which is a reason getting outside of email is smart sometimes. That's why I mentioned social media: it's already saturated, and I'm not paying attention to things I don't want to look at in my email already. I'd already shuffled out everything relevant first, like anything from my boss, my anchor, my senior producer, those were already highlighted. Everything else I knew was secondary. And I had certain publicists I relied on all the time and read theirs in a special place. The biggest thing is you're trying to get through a person's filters. You could send it, but if it's not relevant, that person is not going to read it.

What actually gets an email opened and read

Jess: Out of all the possible emails that could be sent to you, what were the most effective ones, in terms of getting you to open it, read it, and say yes?

Sara: I'll start with the bad and go to the good. I'd notice people sending press releases I couldn't use, like events. Because we were a stationary show, that wasn't within our function. I'd look at those and say they need to send this to the news desk, because they're the ones who deal with reporters and sending people out to things. If you're pitching an event, never pitch it to a booking producer or a show, there's nothing I can do with it. Shows deal mostly in people. If you're pitching a person, go to a booking producer. If you're pitching an event, go to the news desk.

Sara: I would look at pitches that had a picture, video of the person, other interviews they'd done, and talking points really prominent. In the subject line, if it was for example a lawyer who could talk about a legal story, they'd put the relevant piece, not just the title, but something like legal analyst, former DOJ federal prosecutor. That would really get me looking, because I need somebody with that kind of connection. Then I'd look at the picture and think, okay, that person's telegenic enough to put on television. Then a brief bio, not a huge one, this person worked at the DOJ for a number of years, and if they name-drop that they worked with prominent people I should pay attention to, even better. Then the salient talking points: this piece of the story will lead to something significant, that kind of thing. What would catch my attention was talking points that read like sound bites, where I'd think, if I get this person on television, my anchor is going to say that's a shocking thing to say, or that's a really interesting thing to say, and my executive producer will be looking for something she'd never heard before.

Jess: That's the template I teach PR folks: when you say talking points, to me that means bullet points on what that person would say. In a pitch meeting, that's what people want to know. If you say, I don't know, I have no idea, that's the end of that conversation many times.

Sara: One hundred percent. Though sometimes I'd phrase talking points differently so the producer knows the person doesn't have to talk only about this, but this is what they could talk about, so you're not forcing anything on them.

Jess: So the subject line: is it helpful to put pitch, colon, or story, colon, right before the credential?

Sara: Very helpful. It lets me know what it is. You get a gazillion emails, but if I see pitch, I know exactly what you want to do, you're pitching to me. I'd look at the rest of it after that, and if it was relevant I'd read it, if not I'd gloss over it and keep it moving. But having pitch there at least lets me realize this is something somebody's trying to send me for the purpose of putting them on television.

Getting past a producer's own filters

Jess: You brought up something important. When I asked how many emails you get, you said, oh, external? How many internal emails do you think you got?

Sara: By the time I got to work, hundreds.

Jess: And that's why getting outside of email, onto social media, is smart.

Sara: Right, because social platforms are less saturated with things I don't want, and I'm already using social media as a tool to find guests, so I'm constantly looking at it. You can reach out casually and gauge whether the person is interested in you, then exchange contact information and set up a time to talk.

New guest versus proven guest, and where to start

Jess: I watch CNN from the outside and I see a lot of the same guests. I wonder if higher-level producers feel like somebody is tested and proven, and just put them back in without worrying about it. Tell me about both sides, because a lot of people listening are the new person trying to get through.

Sara: There's a lot of fear in trying out new people. Tried and tested is exactly what producers, especially for the bigger shows, really want, because you can't be taking risks early in the morning with something untested. If you're new, you first have to crawl before you walk. The smarter thing to do is go on the weekend. The weekend has a lot more time. We come in Wednesday and end Sunday, and we're pretty relaxed from Wednesday until Thursday. It's smarter to pitch the weekend show than to try to get on the weekday newsroom show, because they're so in it, they don't have the time. If you're new, go with the people who have the time to hear you, because they'll be more relaxed, easy, and receptive.

Sara: And a lot of the bigger shows pull from the weekend, they're watching what airs there. So you get somebody who becomes popular from starting on the weekend at odd hours, because who wants to wake up at three or four in the morning to be on a weekend morning show? Nobody. But if you're the person who says yes, you've got an in, and that's a great in.

Jess: That's great advice for people who are trying to break through and can't seem to, but if they're willing to be flexible and be there at odd hours, or on the weekend, then other producers can see them.

Sara: Exactly, because at six in the morning during the week, you don't have a lot of time to experiment. Once you've gained the network's trust because you've been tried and tested on the weekend, and there's evidence of it because they've seen you in various interviews, producers will be more apt to listen to you and look at you, and it grows upward from there. You can't be too ambitious unless it's a breaking news situation and your guest is genuinely the expert on it. That's when you dive right in, because they'll be more receptive, they're desperate and they need it.

Jess: So somebody can lay the groundwork and say, hey, I'm an expert on active shooters, keep me in mind, and if I see something should I just send you an email? This way they've gotten some buy-in.

Sara: Exactly. You use the contact you were given, and you email the producer you know and say, remember we met on this platform, I have that active shooter person, this person is available. You give really specific information, because a lot of times people would say, yeah, I have this guest, then contact the guest and the person can't do it. I'm like, why did you waste my time? That would break my trust with the publicist, now I can't rely on you. So make sure the guest is available, you know exactly where the person is, and you know if they can get on television. Always make sure your guest has a remote setup they can access easily, that's well lit and looks good and is TV-ready, and let the producer know that.

Setting up a home studio

Jess: I want to talk about the remote setup, because that wasn't something we did much when I was working in television. It was starting to happen as I was leaving.

Sara: CNN used to be more Skype, they now use a different video platform, so the specific software doesn't matter much. The most important thing, aside from all that, is a really good camera, and good audio, an external mic of some sort. They're inexpensive and sold everywhere. Setup-wise, make sure you're in a well-lit room. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate, a lot of people have a bookshelf or some artwork behind them. From a privacy standpoint, I never liked it when I could see a guest's entire house, mainly for their own security. A private office with a bookshelf or something that looks interesting to the eye is good. If it's a blank wall, that's not terrible either, lighting matters more.

Sara: If you're going to buy equipment: a camera, audio, and good lighting, those are the three main things. A good HD or 4K webcam runs around $100. A clip-on lavalier microphone is smart and inexpensive. For lighting, small square video lights that plug into the wall are better than ones that run on batteries, because batteries charge out at the wrong moment. That's worth the investment if people want to be on television. If a guest wants to do television regularly, the first thing I tell them now, on the PR side, is we've got to get that remote setup working. You want to be ready to go the moment it's go time, with no obstruction, and once a producer feels like you're anticipating for them, that's when you really have them.

Sara: A lot of publicists would send me people who weren't anticipating for me. I felt like some publicists thought we were on their time schedule, and with 24-hour cable news, that's not how it works. You're on their time, and you have to be ahead of their time. My boss would want a guest by yesterday, and I'd only been told today. That's why I relied heavily on a network of publicists who anticipated for me, who'd call and say, I saw this on the news, you need this person, they're ready, their setup is up, and if that person doesn't work, I've got two other people for you. My head would spin, because they were there before me, and not just there, ready.

Being a guest worth rebooking

Jess: As far as the way a cable news booker thinks: during the show you're watching and nervous, you want your guest to do a good job. When a publicist has really prepped a guest to come out with something amazing to say, versus a guest who waffles when the anchor asks something like, is this a big problem, should we be worried, and the person says, well, I guess people will decide for themselves...

Sara: That's what makes a good guest, having a point of view, a strong one, and being okay saying it on television. Getting somebody who waffles, the post-show conversation was always, how did the guest go, and I'd ask the anchor, because the anchor is the host, and your job as a guest is to make the host happy. If the anchor likes you, remembers you, that's good. It's the anchor who has a lot of editorial weight. There were a lot of people I'd book who were just a one-time thing, mainly because they didn't please the host. And that meant the executive producer wasn't happy either, because the executive producer wants to make the anchor happy, and the booking producer wants to make the executive producer happy. Nobody's happy if a guest came on and didn't add anything, an opinion, a solution, a prediction.

Promoting a book or a plug, without turning the segment into an infomercial

Jess: I want your take on the newer version of including a plug or a promotion. Briefly, how do people do it wrong, and what do they do right?

Sara: The wrong way: the guest talks about the surprising ways an industry doesn't help people, and then says, well, you have to read about it in the book, and that's it. That's a short interview, because you didn't give anything. I've seen versions where the person pulls the book out of their pocket and holds it next to their head, don't do that either. A less obvious version of the same mistake is when the person says in the first or second answer, I talk more about that at my website, go there right now.

Sara: A good publicist comes in beforehand and gives me everything I need for the interview. If your guest has a book, attach the book cover to the pitch, so I have all the material. If they have other elements, pictures, video, send them as a package, because it lets me sell the guest and it saves a lot of pre-interview time, it's already plug and play. If you've highlighted the important background details, that helps too. I had a client who was an intellectual property lawyer, which as a title doesn't mean much to a viewer, but he'd been the director of intellectual property for a major, well-known electronics company. Everybody knows that company, so I pull that out when I pitch him: former director of intellectual property for a major electronics brand. If something involving phones or hacking comes up, I can pull him out, because he'd know that company's world better than almost anyone.

Sara: If the guest has a book, pull out something from the book to feed the booking producer, so they know the person also said this in their book, that becomes one of their talking points. Then when they go on television and want to sell the book, they don't have to work at it, because standard practice is the show will mention the person is the author of the book, since you've already given it to them, and they'll show the book cover you sent. Your job on air isn't an infomercial. The purpose is to provide information, and you're there as the expert to analyze what's going on, not to sell your work, even though it can be used to sell it later.

Jess: The better way is what you said: give information, and bullet points structured in a way that makes the anchor ask questions like, I know you did a lot of research for your book, which helped you find this out, so you could share this detail with our audience. And then they flash the book. If you don't give them the book cover, there's a lesser chance it's on there. Sometimes the guest doesn't even mention they have a book.

Sara: That happens all the time, and I'd find out from a search afterward that this person had a book, and think, thanks for telling me prior, I would have done something so it didn't look so amateur. I always tell people, your publicist gets you the placement, it's on you to be a great guest and also sell without selling. If you sound really confident about the topic, it makes people want to read it anyway, because it's like, wow, this person's a real expert.

Sara: Here's what happens if the publicist is smart: you sound confident, the anchor hasn't read your book but goes and reads it afterward because you sounded credible, and if the publicist sent a copy to the booking producer, I'd have a copy sitting right there, so for future reference I could pass it around to other booking producers, who then pass it to other shows. That's how it goes viral throughout a network. The major thing isn't worrying so much about selling, it's selling yourself and your expertise. Because you sound confident, people want to buy into what you say, and they'll start looking at your social media and website.

Jess: It's worth a few extra dollars to send three or four copies of the book around.

Sara: One hundred percent. You want it in more hands, so producers remember to consider that guest again down the line.

Pitching through social media, platform by platform

Jess: Some last thoughts on pitching through social media, whatever comes to your head.

Sara: Use the messaging function as much as possible. Twitter has open messaging now, and I look for booking producers who have open messaging and chat with them, casual, as a way to introduce yourself, not a hard sell. Just, hi, this is me, this is who I am, this is what I have, do you want to talk? Then set up a further time to talk somewhere else. People can go on LinkedIn and figure out who the producers are, that's a great place to start, but see where they're spending time. Some are more active on Twitter, some on LinkedIn.

Sara: For Facebook, it's really difficult to reach people you don't know, because it shifts messages off to a folder nobody reads, so it wastes your time. LinkedIn and Twitter have been the two most effective platforms for me. Instagram is great if you're selling a lifestyle brand or a more recognizable personality, that's where that content lives, but from a hard-news standpoint, I always stayed on LinkedIn. Think in terms of what a journalist might be able to pull from your client's Instagram for a segment, elements they can actually use, that's a huge thing. I'd always have to ask, can we use any of these, and you want that answer to be yes.

The side door: pitching the host, the anchor, or the network directly

Jess: Earlier I promised I'd come back to this: when somebody pitches the host of the show, the anchor, or the president of the network directly. I'm curious what your thoughts are on that being effective, or sometimes effective.

Sara: My anchor did not read those emails, that's all I can say. So just don't do it. If you want to get to an anchor directly, or the president, that's a networking thing, you meet those people at an event and have a chat in that kind of setting. I have a client now who met a well-known host by chance at an event, and because of that, got put on the show. Had he emailed the host instead, the host never would have known who he was, they just don't have the bandwidth for that volume of email, and no, they're not going to pay attention to a cold pitch. My take is I'd never advise someone to email an anchor or a network president directly and expect a result.

Jess: I'm going to tell you how I've seen it work, though. When I was a booking producer myself, it might annoy me if somebody went slightly over my head, but if my executive producer said, somebody pitched me this story, printed it out, and said, why don't you go book this guest, I might think, well, now I have to book that person even though I'm not that into it.

Sara: Here's where I saw it work too. Some people would send something to the network president, which seems ridiculous, but occasionally it would grab their eye, and they'd print it out, because they print everything out, and scribble on a Post-it something like, maybe you want this for the show. Then it gets handed to an assistant, who hands it to someone else, who hands it to the executive producer, who hands it to the booking producer, and by the time it arrives, that Post-it doesn't read as a suggestion anymore. It reads as a directive.

Jess: And you brought up the booking producer being the trusted gatekeeper, but there's this other feeling that it came from the top level.

Sara: Exactly, and it's treated as, I want this guest booked, even when what was actually written was closer to, maybe this is something you want to do.

Jess: That's the technique I used to set my Guinness World Record. I'm going to reveal it. To get the record for most radio interviews in 24 hours, 112 interviews completed, 96 officially certified, I sent it to the bosses of the radio shows, the program directors, along with sending to other people too. The program director would say, that's interesting, and forward it along, saying, maybe this is something you want to do, and that's how it would be read. I know that was the case because the host would say something like, my program director said I should call you, that this would be great.

Sara: That's funny. So that's another side door in.

Ghosting, and why it usually isn't personal

Jess: Last thought, this is a big problem for everybody: ghosting. You don't know, if you're pitching the media, did they hit delete, did you follow up nine times or zero times. Before I get your answer, for people listening: track even your one-to-one emails, with a tool that tells you if somebody opened it and is clicking around, without them knowing. Sara, what's your take on ghosting?

Sara: I'd say a lot of the time it's timing. For the emails I actually read, I touched just about every one of them. Sometimes I'd be really interested, but I didn't have a place for it, and that would lead me to not know what to say back. I didn't want to give anybody false hope, so I'd opt not to say anything. That doesn't mean I didn't want it, it means it wasn't going to work right then. Sometimes I'd shuffle it up to my executive producer, and she'd say, this is actually really cool, keep that person in mind, which meant I'd keep them in mind, but it didn't mean I'd call. I'd file it, thinking, I'll get back to it.

Sara: For PR people, and I'm one of them now, understand that it takes time, and you have to think of dealing with any show or producer as a relationship you're building. Your goal is to build rapport so you can learn what their show actually needs and tailor to that. Deal with the person who's speaking to you, and once you've gotten an in with somebody, that's the goal. Start with the booking producers, that's the smartest way to go first. If you feel like you're getting ghosted, somebody will eventually talk to you if you're persistent in the right way, sending the correct formats and pitching consistently. Don't worry so much about ghosting. Understand it's a matter of timing, and once the right time and the gods all align, you'll feel like a deluge of people. It's going to take a lot of consistency sometimes before you get there, so don't worry about it. It's not personal. It has to do with time, that's all it is.