The only 4 unbreakable rules of pitching
There are countless ways to pitch every story, but there are very, very few concrete rules that apply to every pitch.
Hello friends!
I often hold workshops about writing better pitches, and many times the conversations veer into territory I talk about all the time but have never really put into writing: There are very few concrete, unbreakable rules in pitching.
Every piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about pitching — including from this very newsletter! — is just a guideline, a suggestion, or a subjective take on the process. It’s all very squishy! There are countless ways to pitch every story. Some are certainly better than others — like, ahem, those based on advice from this very newsletter 😇 — but none are necessarily wrong or right.
However …
When thinking about what components of a pitch are mandatory, I revisit these four things that I think should apply to every pitch, regardless of the story itself. That’s it! Four things! And they’re pretty simple! But, unlike every other piece of advice on pitching, they aren’t guidelines. These are the unbreakable rules of pitching.
Never send a full draft
This is one of the most common questions I talk about in pitching workshops — “Should I send a draft along with my pitch?” — and it’s the one issue I’m most absolute about. Never, ever, ever send a draft.
But why not?
Whether you intend to send this message or not, the message received by the editor when they get a full draft of a story is: “This story is done, take it or leave it.” And I promise you, it’s rare for an editor to take it at that point. Part of an editor’s job is to work with you on shaping the story for their publication and readership. When an editor gets a draft, that process is essentially finished, and, again, it doesn’t matter if you meant to tell the editor it’s finished; they will assume it is. Attaching a draft with a pitch actively costs you money.
(BIG caveat: If you’re pitching an opinion piece or a personal essay, generally editors want to see a draft. Opinion pieces build an argument, so you need to show what that argument is, and that’s difficult to do in a pitch. As for personal essays, some editors want to see the developed story, rather than a summary of it, so you’re mostly okay to include a draft.)
Workshop alert! I have three super useful sessions coming up over the next month, covering how to write the perfect story pitch, how to find freelance work using social media, and how to launch and grow your own newsletter. (All registrants will get a full playback of the workshop, whether they attend live or not, and paid subscribers get 50% off tickets to all events!)
• April 23 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to write story pitches editors will actually read — and commission. Join me for an in-depth examination of what goes into a fantastic story pitch. How do you structure it? What must be in it, and what should you leave out? How much pre-reporting should you do? How can you head off the follow-up questions an editor will inevitably ask? How do you even find editors to pitch or know what publication to shoot for? We’ll cover all that and much, much more in this session.
• May 7 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to use social media to find work. Join me and freelance extraordinaire Kaitlyn Arford for a workshop on finding work using social media, and how it can help you build a sustainable — and profitable! — business. There is SO much out there for those who know exactly how to look, and Kaitlyn is the best in the biz at digging up those opportunities.
• May 14 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to start and grow a newsletter. Join me and Parker Molloy of The Present Age for a workshop on how to launch and grow a successful newsletter. We’ll cover the best platforms for publishing your newsletter, how to find your target audience, how to promote your work, the ins and outs of developing your niche, and so much more!
Structure of your subject line
This is an easy one. Your subject line should always be:
Freelance pitch: [Proposed headline for your story]
I always advise writers to include “freelance” in the subject line, since PR people often use this same format, so it helps you differentiate your pitch from someone just looking for publicity for their client. Your very first job when pitching a story is just to get the editor to open your email, and a catchy subject line is the best way to do that.
The other major reason to include a proposed headline is that it serves as a kind of backstop to make sure you know what your story actually is. If you find yourself struggling for, say, 10 minutes to write a great headline/subject line, it might be an indication that you should go back and focus your idea a little more.
Quick anecdote: The best pitch I’ve ever gotten had a proposed headline as the subject line, and that headline happened to include the word “fuck.” Amazing! I’m certainly not advising you to swear in yours, but this writer knew I would respond to that, knew I wouldn’t be offended, and knew that that was my general vibe. Like we always say: Pitch the editor, not the publication.
Include clips and a brief bio (and a website if you have one, which you should)
This one is very simple, but often overlooked and forgotten (you wouldn’t believe how many people forget to include these!). This is just a few simple lines at the end of your email, that’s it. No more than three or four clips, and if you have a website, drop that link, too. Generally, I think it’s advantageous to have a website because it lets you guide what the editor reads of your work. The first thing an editor does when they get a cold pitch is Google you to see where you’ve written and to see what you’re all about, but if you send along your website you can answer all those questions while also putting your best foot forward.
For reference, here is the exact language I include at the end of every pitch I send (clips will vary, these were for a pitch in the same line of coverage):
About me: I helped launch Smarter Living at The New York Times then edited it for five years. Before that I was a reporter and social producer at The Washington Post. I’ve written in this area a ton — below are a few clips — and I think [publication] would be a perfect home for this. I’m hoping to get this placed sooner rather than later, so if I don’t hear back from you by [specific date] I’ll assume it’s a pass.
Thanks for your consideration!
-Tim
• Remember: What You Do Is Not Who You Are
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• I Hope This Email Finds You Well
Simple as that!
Don’t forget the small stuff that can add up
This is more of a category than a specific rule, but it matters. Here we’re talking about the list of things to do before sending your pitch:
Check the publication’s archives to make sure they haven’t run anything similar to your story lately (which you should do at the very beginning of the story generation process, but it never hurts to check one last time)
Triple-check for typos
Make sure you’re addressing the correct publication and the correct editor (Really! Even if you’re sure, just check again! You’d be surprised!)
Triple-check that all of your links go where you want them to go, then check them again (this one can be particularly embarrassing — lots of copy/paste errors end up here)
On their own, these things really don’t matter too much. No editor would ever decline a killer story because there is a typo or two in the pitch. But taken together, a handful of these tiny little slip-ups may make an editor think twice about commissioning your story.
Good luck out there, and if you have any other “unbreakable rules” of your own, please drop them in the comments, I’d love to hear!
Oh, a few other things …
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