How to pitch to editors- Jacqui Thornton's tips

Pitching a potential story/ feature to an editor can be one of the hardest things. The ability to deliver in a pitch includes: you need to know how you should write it (the style of the publication you are writing for). You need to show you have access to the people you want to interview for your piece. The best position to be in is to have already done the interview and know exactly what you are going to write.

You need to think about the whole package, from the text to the images. If you can get a 'collect' of images to illustrate their story it will improve your work largely. If you pitch something and the editors like it, there is a high chance they will want it within a couple of days completed. This is why it is best to already have the images ready as people can take a long time to get them to you. 

In tabloid newspapers, there is usually money offered to someone if their story is particularly good as it prevents them from going elsewhere. However a lot of magazines such as 'Take a Break' offer money for stories that get published as this is the majority of their content. 

If you are a freelancer it can be a lot harder to get the work in as you will always need an exclusive story to offer the commissioning editor. You also need to remember that if you are freelance you don't necessarily have any legal back up so your work always needs to be accurate and libel free or you could end up losing your house! To be cautious you can always get 'copy approval' by sending your copy to the interviewee for them to read it and check that they are happy with your version. Whereas national newspapers very rarely show the person their copy as they believe it is 'against their ethics' and that what they write will always be accurate. However if you do send your copy, some people will try to change your style and wording of your writing, which is not what they should do. Instead you want them to check your accuracy; but it is individual judgement weather to send a copy to the person before it is published.

Jennifer Khan is a good American freelance writer who has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times. She says to look at the format before you start to write your pitch and says that it can be effective to mention in your pitch the section your work would fit into in the magazine. She also mentions the idea of writing a pre-pitch email that is a couple of sentences long summarising your idea before you send the actual thing over. It is also important to think about the time you are going to send the pitch and what the commissioning editor may be doing at that time. 

So when it comes to actually writing your pitch you should follow this type of layout as advised by Jacqui Thornton:

1. The first paragraph is really important and needs to gain attention and highlight that your pitch is different to everyone else. In this paragraph you should summarise what your work is about.
2. The second and third paragraph is what Jennifer Khan calls 'the nut grab' where you  about why readers of the publication should care about your story and want to read it. You should also mention how it is relevant to the readership/audience. For example cosmopolitan target audience is women in the 20s. 
3. The next paragraph should include your plans for interviewing your person or informing them that your interview has been completed. Be to the point of who the person is, when, where, why and show that you have access to them if you have not yet interviewed them.
4. You should highlight the importance of your story, why it is new and how it gains viewer attention, how it is relevant.
5. You should end your pitch with a little bibliography of who you are. You can include blog websites that you work for or links to previous work. However when copying and pasting your links into the email make sure that you have a headline next to them so that they are aware of what each one is. You can also include references from other contacts if it is your first time of pitching so you do not have a lot of work to show.

It is interesting to know that most features are re used and re- written from previous years. So if you are stuck for ideas you can always look at a publication from around the same time a few years before and use the idea to make your own. An important bit of advise Jacqui told us about is never to use an attachment to send your pitch as editors will not open it. You should also include your images in the email as low resolution images so that they can be seen. The subject of the email also needs to be engaging and short to catch the editors attention. 

You should always get someone to check over your spelling before sending it. When it comes to following the email up if you don't hear anything you should leave it1/2 weeks for monthly magazines and 1/2 days for daily newspapers. You should always read the publication that day as they may already have something similar to your work so it could be used online if they do not publish it. It is better to be used online than not at all or you could take it to another publication. 

Getting ideas can be one of the hardest parts and it helps if you read papers and magazines daily. You should always talk to people and find out as much as you can about them as this could lead you onto a potential idea. Talk to family and friends and get their opinions on current issues.

If you are unsure who the editor is you can always ring the switchboard and ask them. A good tip that Jennifer Khan suggested is to ring out of hours and see if the editor has a voicemail. This will help you distinguish weather they are male/ female if you cannot tell from their name (most probably don't have voicemails in the UK though).

You should avoid sending your pitch to more than one editor at a time even if it will be published at different times. If something has gone wrong with your work it is called 'falling down' in the journalism jargon. 

The Guardian have a set pay for freelancers which isn't that high. When you see your article published you can work out roughly how much you will get paid by the amount of words. Some publications set fees or commission 500 words but they may actually only publish 200 words. You should always ask a commissioner how much it is a word if they agree to your pitch. If you are VAT registered you can make up your own invoice to use for your accountant. You should always get a contributor number which you can use to keep track of payments. You should always try and get a 'kill fee' which is money paid even if your work does not get published ('spiked'). 

Another good freelance American writer suggested to write for other markets than national magazines such as trade publications. This is because the people are excited and want to talk to you and it can be a lot easier to gain ideas from them. You should always build a relationship with the editor even if they do not want your pitch. You should not hassel them and make sure you leave it a couple of weeks before following it up. You should aim to do the article early and if you can't get hold of sources or if something isn't working you should inform the editor early on. When sending your pitch you should always send it in priority order. If you do send it to other publications you need to remember to edit your pitch to suit the style of each magazine. 

If your story is 'exclusive' make sure that you mention this in your pitch, if you are going to send it to other news desks you will mention that it is going 'all round'. It is easiest to record your interviews on a voice recorder so that you can go back through and transcribe it afterwards. It is also a good tip to note down any main quotes whilst doing the interview. This also covers you from legal issues if you are a freelancer especially if someone says they didn't say something; so keep all recordings. It is also a good idea to write the interview straight after whilst it is all fresh in your mind.