Successful freelancers will admit that it takes a lot of patience and hard work, not to mention tough skin to deal with rejection and criticism, to evolve into a better writer with a steady flow of assignments.
But knowing a few basic tips will make the process a little less trying — and more fruitful. Read on for ways to help perfect your pitch.
Master the pitch email.
Start with the right subject line. John Surico, who has been freelancing full time for the last three and a half years, includes the word “Pitch” in the subject line, usually followed by the proposed headline of the article. If an editor is skimming his or her inbox, you want yours to stand out.
In terms of composing the pitches themselves, freelancers have different approaches. In general, if working with a new editor, it’s best to write a longer, more fleshed out story pitch with a brief bio, and perhaps a resume and links to previous work samples within an active online portfolio.
“The body of the email will change based on how comfortable I am with a particular editor,” says Surico. Whether informal (because you know the editor) or formal (because you don’t know her), just be sure the tone of the email is upbeat and accommodating.
Hook the editor within the first two sentences.
It goes without saying that editors receive a ton of email, many of which are pitches from PR reps, as well as from new writers hoping to entice them with a story idea that may or may not be suitable for the publication being pitched. So if you want to avoid being skipped over in an editor’s inbox, the first couple of lines in your pitch have got to be stellar.
For the past four years, full-time freelancer Farran Powell has been writing for CNN Money, TheStreet.com and several other news outlets. When dealing with editors, especially ones she’s never worked with before, she makes sure that the editor will have a sense of her personality by the second sentence of her pitch email. “It’s just like reading a book… someone will glaze over if you don’t write in an exciting way, so I have something in the first sentence or two that shows my personality right off the bat,” she says. “I make it clear that I’m from Texas, for example, which helps add color about who I am.”
Full-time freelancer Noah Davis concurs. The best way to hook an editor is to make him care about your story right from the start, he says.
As an example, here is an article Davis wrote for The Boston Globe about two sisters taking the world of squash by storm.
The actual pitch went like this:
Hi Francis,
Would you be interested in a profile of Amanda Sobhy? She’s a Harvard senior and also the first American to reach the top 10 on the pro squash tour, which she did in September. There’s a good chance she could be the first American-born player to win a world championship… unless her younger sister, Sabrina, who will start at Harvard in the fall and play No.1, does so first. Sabrina beat Amanda at the 2014 U.S. nationals. They come from a squash-crazy family. Father was a highly-ranked junior player in Egypt, their mom won a U.S. national championship in the 1970s, and their brother Omar won a collegiate national championship. Amanda’s dominance at Harvard is impressive. She didn’t lose a game, much less a match, last season. She plays for the college team and also frequently travels to international tournaments, reaching the semifinals of big events in Hong Kong and Maccau this summer.
Davis had previously worked with the editor, so his pitch was a little more informal, but he made sure to be concise in his first couple of sentences: Here is the subject I’m pitching and here is why she would be an extraordinary subject.
Tailor your story to the editor and publication.
To be successful, freelancers must develop relationships with editors and know what they’re looking for. This might mean checking in via email every so often to find out if editors are pursuing any specific topics. It might mean going out for lunch with your clients to discuss what they’re looking for and regularly talking about story ideas you have in mind. It also means reading publications regularly to know the style of writing and coverage areas specific editors pursue.
“My pitch to Vice is wildly different from my pitch to The New York Times metro desk,” says Surico. “My pitches are also very different based on how well I know specific editors.” You want to get to the point when you can almost predict how an editor will receive your pitch. Again, it’s all about the relationship you establish.
Have a remarkable, special or unusual idea.
The most important aspect of a pitch is the idea itself. It’s essential for reporters to provide an idea that the publication itself or its competitors have not already written about. Or at least present a unique spin on that topic. Even better is a trendy or timely idea. “That brings a sense of urgency,” Powell says. “You have to make a splash.”
As an example, Powell describes a story she wrote a couple of years ago for DNAinfo about guerrilla weddings in New York City. The story was later picked up by Business Insider. “When you have other publications citing your name and the publication where your story originally appeared, it shows they wish they had written it,” she says.
More recently, Powell wrote a story for CNN Money about how the American craft brewing craze had finally hit the South. Her reporting was then referenced and story linked to by Bloomberg Business in an article on how obsolete laws (such as limiting the alcoholic content of beer to 5 percent) are stifling job growth.
Leverage available resources.
Resources like Mediabistro’s How To Pitch series, which outline the background, writing style, points of contact and other relevant pieces of information for various outlets, can make the story pitching process more effective.
As for resources for staying on top of news that can be used for inspiration, Surico says he looks to social media and news feeds: “I’m a Twitter obsessive, as well as a newsletter subscriber to things like Capital New York’s Morning Read, The Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet, the New Yorker daily, and the New York Times’s First Draft.”
Also tap your friends and relatives. “My best resource is my girlfriend or my roommate. If they want to read my story after seeing the pitch, or have more questions, that’s a good sign,” Surico says.
Whether it’s hooking the editor from the very first point of contact, tailoring your pitch to the editor or having a winning idea, the art of story pitching is an evolving process. It improves with practice. A story pitch to an editor should simply be the start of a longer conversation between you and the editor — one that will expand the pitch from an idea into a fleshed-out story geared to a very specific audience.
