I am tired and energized. I am happy and sad. I am ready to get to work and desperately fighting the urge to take a nap. This is my life of contradictions after spending the last four days at the ASJA conference in NYC (#ASJANY17). But most of all, I am glad I invested in my career by taking the time and money to spend time with other writers and learn ways to grow my business. And I’ve already landed an assignment that pays for my travel and conference fees, which is always my goal.

While the sessions were fantastic as always, once again my favorite part was hanging out with my writer friends. The friendships and connections I have made with other writers are what keeps me going the other 360 days of the year when I’m working by myself at my kitchen table. Instead of being alone, I can connect with people who understand my reality and they are just a phone call or email away if I need advice, commiseration, or someone to join in my celebration.

Here are five things I learned from this year’s conference:

1. Put “Freelancer” in the subject line of your LOI emails.

Editors get a gazillion emails each day. PR representatives have gotten clever lately and now try to make their pitches look like a pitch from a freelancer by using subject lines such as Story Idea or Pitch. The editors at the panel “What Top Assigning Editors Want You to Know” said they were much more interested in story ideas from freelancers and wanted to be able to quickly spot these emails in their overflowing inboxes. The consensus across the panel was putting some variation of the word Freelance or Freelancer in the subject line so that they would not accidentally delete your Letter of Introduction or pitch without reading it.

2. Editors want you to follow up, just not every day.

I wanted to jump up and down in the session when the editors on the same panel said they like it when writers follow up. Many writers assume that an editor doesn’t want to work with them if they do not respond to the first Letter of Introduction or initial pitch. I’ve been saying for a while that the reason you don’t hear back almost never has to do with you and the editors confirmed my theory. They encouraged writers to follow up a week or two later, and several editors told stories about writers crossing the very fine line between stalking and an effective follow up. Several editors suggested writers ask when is the best time to follow up if an editor says that they might be interested the future.

And I have to say I’m still shocked that all of the editors had stories about writers that had argued with them after getting a rejected and worse, about those who had gotten nasty with the editor. Yes, one editor even shared he had gotten an “FU” reply from a writer after rejecting a pitch.

3. You don’t have to get a formal meeting at Client Connections to land an assignment.

One of the highlights of the ASJA conference in NYC is the Client Connections event, in which ASJA members meet with top editors in a speed dating event of sorts. Huge shout out to Wendy H. for chairing the event for three years in a row. Since appointments are assigned by lottery, members sometimes are upset if they don’t get an appointment that they want. However, I landed a $1 per word assignment in the hallway of the conference when I ran into an editor who I had worked with in the past. I also have gotten $18,000 of work recently from a 10-second business card exchange that I had during the cocktail party at the Chicago Conference in 2013.

4. The majority of editors don’t care if you write both content and journalism.

Several editors mentioned that the only people that they hear of having an issue with writers doing content and journalism are writers, not editors. I heard several writers who are still concerned about this, but I honestly do not find it to be a problem and have only heard it being an issue at three publications (NYT, WSJ and Financial Times – this was one that someone told me about this weekend). My ethical line is that I will not write a story for publication using a source that I have previously taken money from. If I ever have any concern about a possible conflict of interest, I talk to both the journalism editor and the content client beforehand. I also listen to my gut and if something doesn’t feel right, I don’t do it. Many writers get around this issue by keeping separate niches for content and journalism.

5. The relationship between the editor and the writer in journalism is different than the relationship in content.

This was something I had never thought of before and I totally agree with it. Anne Miller, an editor at Contently, explained that in journalism there is a symbiotic relationship with an editor and writer to work together to create a story. However, that in content marketing there is a third entity – the client. And even if the editor and writer disagree with what the clients want, the client is always right. She said that some journalists are never able to fully embrace that concept and the writers that she sees succeed in content marketing are able to be flexible and deliver what the clients want.

What was your top takeaway from the conference? Any questions that you have if you didn’t attend that we can help you with?