Prelude to pitching

When I was in Guatemala last summer, internet access wasn't always available and that made pitching stories hard. Three days before leaving for my internship, I still didn't know where I was going and what exactly I would be writing about.
That means I didn't know which publications I could pitch to and I flew off with only a vague idea of the whole process of trying to sell your ideas.
I learned pretty quickly that mainstream media are reluctant to publish stories about international development. Being new to the pitching process didn't help me either. It was frustrating to spend a lot of time writing pitches and receiving negative replies... a week later.
But my efforts weren't useless in the end. I met the editor of the English Guatemalan Revue magazine, who was very friendly and explained what she was looking for in an article. She liked my idea about the development of San Juan la Laguna and ended up publishing my story.
That's why I'm trying to get in touch with as many editors as I can before leaving. I know that I'll be one step forward to getting stories out there when I'm in Sarajevo and Kosovo.