After pitching seven companies over two weeks and receiving no replies at the time of writing, Sameer Qaiser concluded that the experience exposed practical hurdles—but was too small a sample to prove what pitching is usually like. His account is most useful as a record of what he tried, where the process stalled, and what he planned to do next.
What happened in the seven-pitch experiment
In his first-person DEV Community article, Qaiser says he sent pitches to seven companies that pay for technical writing over two weeks. He followed up with five of them. When he wrote the article, he had received no positive replies.
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| Qaiser’s reported count | What it describes |
|---|---|
| 7 | Companies pitched |
| 5 | Follow-ups sent |
| 4 | Closed doors |
| 3 | Companies with no reply yet |
| 0 | Positive replies at the time of writing |
These figures are Qaiser’s account, not independently verified counts. The article displayed “Posted on Oct 1,” but the year could not be established from the available text.
Where the pitches ran into friction
The silence was not the only obstacle Qaiser described. Three responses or submission barriers were concrete:
- One company said it was not currently looking for authors.
- One submission form listed Elixir, Ruby, and JavaScript, but not Python—the language Qaiser wanted to write about.
- One company required a paid subscription to submit.
For the other pitches, Qaiser says he received neither acknowledgement nor a timeline for a response. These examples show how a pitch can meet a closed door, a mismatch between a writer’s subject and an outlet’s intake options, or simple uncertainty. They do not establish how often any of those outcomes occur across technical-writing markets.
What Qaiser did—and what he planned to change
Qaiser says he chose companies that pay, included writing samples, followed up professionally, tracked his outreach in a spreadsheet, and described his experience honestly. He also says he published 16 articles while waiting. Those are his reported actions and count, not independently verified measures of an effective pitching strategy.
Rank #2
Because seven pitches had produced too little information to draw a meaningful conclusion, he proposed widening his next round of outreach. His suggestions were to:
- Pitch more companies rather than treating seven attempts as a verdict.
- Start with smaller publications and consider less-known companies, including dev-tool startups.
- Send one more follow-up after two weeks of silence.
- Keep publishing while waiting for responses.
These are Qaiser’s next steps, not guarantees. A writer can adapt them to each outlet’s stated submission process; if an outlet gives a response window or asks writers not to follow up, that guidance should take precedence.
Rank #3
What zero replies can—and cannot—tell a writer
At the point Qaiser described, the result was seven pitches and no positive replies. It does not show that all seven companies rejected him: three were still listed as having no reply, and silence alone does not reveal an editor’s decision. Nor does the account prove that silence is universally normal, that seven pitches are always too few, or that the same approach will work for another writer.
The article offers an individual view of the uncertainty and administrative friction involved in pitching. It includes no representative sample, comparison group, or independent response-rate data. Its strongest practical lesson is narrower: keep track of outreach, distinguish explicit declines from unanswered submissions, and avoid treating a small batch of pitches as a reliable forecast of future opportunities.
Qaiser captured his own interpretation this way: “Zero replies doesn’t mean zero chances. It means the story isn’t finished yet. I’ll let you know when it is.” That is an encouraging personal outlook, not evidence that an unanswered pitch will eventually receive a reply.
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