To pitch an article, send one editor a short email that sells a specific story: what happened or what you found, why their readers should care now, how you will report it, and why you are the person to write it. Most pitches run three to five short paragraphs, with "Pitch:" and a working headline in the subject line, the text in the body of the email and your clips as links. If you hear nothing, follow up once after about a week, or within a day or two if the story is tied to the news. A full example pitch and a follow-up are below.
Pitch a story, not a topic
When The Open Notebook, a site about science journalism, asked editors what goes wrong in pitches, one called pitching a topic instead of a story the most common mistake. A topic is a subject: school lunches, remote work, the housing shortage. A story has a shape. It has particular people in a particular place, something that changes or is at stake, and a reason to read it this month rather than any month. An editor can assign a story, because they can picture what you will turn in. A topic could become fifty different articles, and most of them would not fit their pages.
A quick test: can you write the nut graf now, the paragraph that says what the piece is about and why it matters? If you cannot, you have a topic. Make a few calls, find the person or the decision at the center of it, and try again.
| Topic | Story |
|---|---|
| TopicSchool lunches | StoryA district's cooks rebuilt the menu after a student survey. A year on, what kids eat now. |
| TopicRemote work | StoryThree years after a small city paid remote workers to move there, who stayed and why. |
| TopicLoneliness in old age | StoryA retired mail carrier still walks his old route on Tuesdays, checking on the people he served. |
| TopicAI in classrooms | StoryOne English department's first semester grading essays with and without AI, and where teachers split. |
Pitch, finished draft or query?
Not every piece is pitched the same way. For reported work, editors want the idea before you write it, so they can shape the angle and length. For opinion and first-person writing, the writing itself is what they are judging, so they usually want the finished piece.
| Piece | What to send |
|---|---|
| PieceReported feature | What to sendA pitch, after enough pre-reporting to know the story holds |
| PieceNews or short front-of-book item | What to sendA short pitch, one or two paragraphs |
| PieceOp-ed | What to sendA short note with the finished piece pasted below it |
| PiecePersonal essay | What to sendOften the full draft (guidelines vary by outlet) |
| PieceBook | What to sendA query letter to a literary agent |
Op-eds have their own rules. Most national newspapers will not consider a piece you have sent to another paper at the same time, and their windows are short: The New York Times tells opinion writers to assume a piece will not be used if they have not heard back in three business days. See these op-ed examples for the form. For books, the pitch is a query letter, a different document with different conventions.
Find the right editor
A good pitch to the wrong person goes nowhere. Start with the outlet, then the section, then the name.
- Read the section you are pitching. Go through the last few months of it. Note how long the pieces run, how much is first person, and whether it uses freelancers at all. Then search the site for your subject to make sure they have not already run your story.
- Check the submission guidelines. Many outlets publish a page saying what they want and where to send it. Follow it exactly, including word counts and whether to paste or attach.
- Read the masthead. It lists editors by title. At magazines, the short pieces at the front of the book and the long features are often edited by different people. Pitch the one who edits what you are proposing.
- Watch where editors post. Many editors say on social media or LinkedIn what they are looking for, and some list their email address there.
- Ask writers who have published there. They know which editor actually answers.
A named editor beats a general inbox, which works like a slush pile and may be checked rarely. Use a pitch form or a general address when the guidelines ask for it or when you cannot find a name. If you are unsure which of two editors fits, choose one. Editors forward pitches to colleagues all the time. What they dislike is getting the same pitch as three of their colleagues.
What goes in a pitch
Build the email like a news story, an inverted pyramid with the most important information first. Editors read pitches between other work, often on a phone. If the first two sentences do not say what the story is, a scenic opening will not rescue it. One editor quoted by The Open Notebook named the two-paragraph anecdote before the idea as a pet peeve.
| Part | What it does | Length |
|---|---|---|
| PartSubject line | What it doesSays it is a pitch and names the story | LengthOne line |
| PartThe story | What it doesWho, what, and why a reader should care | LengthTwo to four sentences |
| PartWhy now, why here | What it doesThe news peg, and the fit with this section | LengthTwo or three sentences |
| PartHow you'll do it | What it doesSources, access, format, length, timing | LengthThree or four sentences |
| PartWho you are | What it doesRelevant experience and two or three clips | LengthTwo sentences |
| PartClose | What it doesThanks, and openness to another angle | LengthOne line |
The subject line does more work than it looks. "Pitch:" separates you from the press releases in the same inbox, and a working title shows you can write a headline. Add the format and length in brackets if there is room.
On length, the safe rule is one screen. One editor interviewed by The Open Notebook preferred about three brief paragraphs. Another put it bluntly: a pitch should never be longer than the story it proposes. A front-of-book pitch for a 300-word item can be a single paragraph.
Clips go in as links, two or three, chosen for relevance rather than prestige. Do not attach PDFs or the full draft unless the guidelines ask for it. If you are short on clips, a simple writing portfolio gives you one link to send, and the pitch itself is a writing sample: editors judge how you write from the way you describe the story.
An example pitch, annotated
Here is an original pitch for a reported feature in a regional magazine. The people, places and outlet are invented. The structure is the point.
Subject: Pitch: The ferry log of Calder County (feature, about 2,500 words)
Hi Dana,
On May 12, Calder County's commissioners will vote on whether to retire the Millbrook ferry, a two-car cable ferry that has crossed the Tess River since 1931, and borrow $14 million for a bridge two miles downstream. The two people who run it, a retired machinist and his niece, have kept a handwritten log of every crossing since 2009: about 60,000 trips, each with a time, a vehicle and a note.
I'd like to write a feature for Field Notes that uses the log to show what a small crossing holds together: the school bus that waits for the 7:10, the night in 2019 the operators ran until 3 a.m. during a flood, the farm families who plan harvest around ferry hours. The vote gives the piece a deadline. The log gives it a spine. It would pair well with your March story on rural post offices, with the difference that this decision has not been made yet.
Both operators have agreed to let me ride along for a week and photograph the log. I've spoken with the commissioner who proposed the bridge, and I would also interview the county engineer, two east-bank families who cross daily and the curator of the county historical society. I can file by April 28 so it runs before the vote, or write a shorter piece after it.
I'm a reporter in Harlow, 20 miles from the ferry, and I've covered county government and rural roads for four years. Two recent stories: [link: a bridge closure and the businesses it cut off] and [link: a week with a county road crew].
Thanks for considering it. I'm open to another length or angle if that suits the section better.
Best,
Jordan Reyes
[phone]
What each part is doing:
- Subject line. Labeled as a pitch, with a working title, the format and the length. The editor knows what it is before opening it.
- First paragraph. The whole story: the decision, the date, the people, and the detail nobody else has, which is the log. An editor could stop reading here and still know what is on offer.
- Second paragraph. Why now (the vote) and why here (a section that already covers rural life, without repeating its last story). It also sketches the structure, so the editor can picture the finished piece.
- Third paragraph. Proof of access. "Have agreed" and "I've spoken with" are what make it safe to assign a piece to a writer the editor has never worked with.
- Fourth paragraph. The bio: two sentences, only what bears on this story, clips as links.
- Close. One line. Offering flexibility costs nothing and tells the editor you can take direction.
Write and send it in six steps
- Choose one outlet and one section
Decide where the piece would run and how long pieces there are. A 2,500-word idea pitched to a section that runs 600-word items gets turned down on length alone.
- Pre-report until you know the story holds
Read what has been published, make one or two calls, and confirm you can get to the people at the center. Writers describe spending an hour or two on a short pitch and most of a day on a feature.
- Write the story in one sentence
Who, what, and why now, in a single sentence. That sentence, or something close to it, becomes your first line.
- Draft in order, then cut
Story, why now and why here, how you will report it, who you are. Then cut every sentence of warm-up and anything the editor does not need to decide.
- Check the details twice
Spell the editor's name and the publication's name correctly, check that the links open, and read it once on your phone, which is how many editors will see it.
- Send it to one person and log it
Paste the pitch into the body of the email, send it to one named editor, and write down the date. You will need it to know when to follow up.
Follow up without pestering
Silence usually means the editor has not gotten to it, not that the answer is no. One follow-up is normal and expected. A stream of them gets you remembered for the wrong reason. How long to wait depends on how long the story stays fresh.
| Kind of piece | Follow up | Move on |
|---|---|---|
| Kind of pieceTied to breaking news | Follow upWithin 24 to 48 hours | Move onAt the deadline you named |
| Kind of pieceOp-ed | Follow upUsually not needed | Move onWhen the outlet's stated window closes |
| Kind of pieceFeature or essay | Follow upAfter about a week | Move onA week or two after the follow-up |
Reply in the original thread so the pitch sits right below your note, and give the editor an easy way to say no. If the idea is time-sensitive, name the date after which you will offer it elsewhere.
Subject: Re: Pitch: The ferry log of Calder County
Hi Dana,
Following up on the ferry pitch below. The county votes on May 12, so to report the run-up I would need to start by April 21. If it isn't right for Field Notes, no problem at all. I'll offer it elsewhere after that date.
Best,
Jordan
When the answer is no
Thank the editor in one line and leave it there. A rejection is usually about fit, timing or a similar piece already in the works, and an editor who gives a reason is often telling you what to pitch next. Before you send the idea to another outlet, rework it for that outlet's section and readers. Sending the same email with a new name at the top is how pitches go out addressed to the wrong magazine.
When the answer is yes
Before you report a word, confirm the length, the deadline, the fee and which rights the outlet is buying, ideally in writing. Many outlets send a contract. With smaller ones, an email that sets out the terms is the minimum. A freelance writing contract template lists the points to settle.
Mistakes that sink a pitch
- A topic with no story in it. "I'd like to write about housing" gives the editor nothing to assign.
- The wrong outlet or section. A 10,000-word narrative pitched to a news page, or a story the outlet ran last spring. Both say you have not read it.
- A long run-up. Two paragraphs of scene before the idea appears.
- A forwarded press release. Every other writer on the list got it too.
- Attachments. A PDF per clip, or the full draft of a piece nobody has assigned.
- The same pitch to three editors at one outlet. They compare notes.
- Following up every few days. One nudge, then move on, unless the story is breaking.
Keep pitches and notes together
A pitch is short, but the material around it is not: call notes, a version tailored for the second outlet, the dates you sent it. In Strokes you can keep a project folder for each story, with the pitch, the follow-up and the reporting notes as documents saved as files on your own machine. Version history saves each version as you rework the pitch, so the original is one click away when you need it again.
Before sending, add the pitch to a chat with the AI Assistant and ask it to state the story in one sentence and say what an editor would still need to know. If its sentence does not match yours, the pitch is not doing its job yet. Then paste the final text into the body of your email.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an article pitch be?
Short enough to read on one screen: usually three to five short paragraphs, and a single paragraph for a short news item. As one editor put it, a pitch should never be longer than the piece it proposes.
Should I write the article before I pitch it?
For reported features and news, no. Pitch first, so the editor can shape the angle and length before you spend weeks reporting. For op-eds and many personal essays, yes: those are usually judged on the finished draft, pasted below a short note.
Can I pitch the same idea to several publications at once?
The safe convention is one outlet at a time, and most national newspapers refuse op-eds sent to other papers at the same time. If a story is time-sensitive, pitch one editor with a clear deadline, then move on when it passes.
How do I pitch with no clips?
Start with smaller outlets, local papers and trade publications, where editors are more likely to take a chance on a strong idea from a new writer. Lead with your access or expertise, link to your best published or self-published writing, and make the pitch itself well written, since it is your first sample.
What do I do if an editor never replies?
Send one polite follow-up in the same thread after about a week, or within a day or two for a news-pegged idea. If that also goes unanswered, treat it as a no and pitch the idea, reworked, to another outlet.
