Pitching to posting — How to submit news relevant pieces
I’m a freelance journalist and I get asked about how freelancing works, and how I work. Here is a very general step by step guideline that I put together based on a Guardian Masterclass I taught a couple of years ago. This is by no means definitive, but some of it might be useful.
- Wake up, read papers online, search through social media and find out what your timeline is talking about. Check out US and UK sites — pop culture and mainstream news.
2. Make a shortlist of ideas, focusing on those that fit with the areas you write about. (For me, this is sex, feminism, pop culture, TV, dating, consumer tech.) Narrow the list down to the ideas you feel strongly about, and ideas that are not not obvious or likely to be covered heavily already.
3. Write a brief pitch. Include a line summarising the news story, no more than two sentences covering your angle and opinion, and another line about why you have a stake in the piece and should be the person to write it.
4. Wait. Bite nails. Make hot drinks as a displacement activity.
5. If you haven’t heard anything by 10.30–11, get on with your day! (Usually someone will always get back to you, but don’t take it personally if they don’t. Many commissioning editors get hundreds, if not thousands of emails every day. Just keep trying.)
6. OR the Editor emails with a commission. (I then reply delightedly and then spend another five minutes biting my nails and feeling as though I’m about to sit an exam.)
7. Open your laptop and put your phone in airplane mode. Start with a short anecdote, joke, or something personal that relates to the piece, and then briefly outline the relevant news story.
8. Argue it out. Within reason, try to preempt what people might ask/say in the comments, and be aware of how your writing might be read.
9. Make sure that you’re writing within the allotted word count, editors really don’t like it when you go over this. Save it, leave it for as long as you can and then reread and edit before the deadline is due.
10. Repeat step 4.
11. Keep an eye on your email as the editor may get back to you with edits/adds. Do not worry about this, often it’s the parts of the argument that seem too obvious to you to be put into words that the editor needs to have clarified. (Incidentally, my favourite editor email exchange was when I wrote a piece about being basic and my editor argued that Shoshanna from GIRLS was a better example than my original choice, Marnie.)
12. Thoroughly reread the editor’s final version. (Not everywhere will let you read your copy back, make the most of it when you have the option.) Confirm all changes.
13. You go live! Tweet about it, Facebook it, share it on your networks and have a celebratory biscuit.
14. Do not worry if the comments are a bit scary. The internet is a peculiar place. Focus on the positive. Some writers like to add a comment to show the other commenters that they’re human, and some avoid the comment section at all costs. (I’m in the latter camp.)
15. Start thinking about your next pitch!
Other helpful information:
1. Commissioning editors are really busy, have scarily full inboxes, but if they’re good at their job, they’re really happy to hear from new writers. They are friendly, and will be delighted that you’ve got in touch — I really had to train myself out of thinking they were going to hate me and beginning my pitch with ‘sorry to bother you’.
2. Unfortunately if you are a new writer, they will need you to pitch the piece that only you can write — so sadly it doesn’t matter how brilliant your opinion or idea is if they’ve got a staffer who can do it for free. As succinctly as possible, explain why you and your take are the only ones to do this justice.
3. Find your news/trend hook and LINK TO IT. It doesn’t have to be serious news — personally I find it useful to pay special attention to Health and Tech sections, and see if there’s a newsy/feminist angle for me to work. For example, Trump does something awful and everyone will have an opinion on why it’s awful — but most outlets will have a finite number of stories on this, written by staffers. So if you hook your story off something newsy, but less reported, your pitch will stand out because no-one else will have suggested it.
4. Never send an entire story to an editor, before they have commissioned it! I’m amazed by the number of people who do this — editors want content that has been written specifically for their publication.
5. It’s worth paying special attention to pop culture anniversaries, as they come up — eg if your favourite film is turning 30, there might be a piece in it.
6. Try to pitch as early in the morning as possible, that’s right when editors are going into conference and looking for ideas. Most teams will sit down at 930AM to decide on and commission the day’s stories. Even if they don’t pick yours, if they know you’re around and want to write they may come back and commission something else from you.
