061: How to Pitch & How to Submit
Also, the difference between pitching and submissions
Hey everyone,
Whew, the last few weeks have seen me hurtling from task to task, place to place, like some firecracker with no sense of directional accuracy. I didn’t even realize today was Wednesday until someone texted me saying, “How is the week only half over?” Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Wait, the week is half over already? It isn’t Monday?”
I’m stepping out of my usual comfort zone of craft essays with a personal bend to tackle a topic that affects me all the time and also drives me a little crazy: Pitching versus submissions, and how to do each. As a writer, I pitch and submit constantly, and as an editor, I receive both frequently (though I’m usually only asking for one). So let’s crack into it.
If you are a writer trying to make money or get noticed, you’re going to encounter pitching and submissions. Both are ways to get your work in front of an editor and potentially make money from them. But they are not the same thing and should not be treated as such. I’m going to go over what they both are and how to approach each one.
What are Submissions?
If you’re writing fiction, you’ll probably run into calls for submissions a lot. Lit journals and small presses put them out a lot, for instance.
Basically, you write a short story, a creative non-fiction essay, a piece of flash fiction, et cetera. You edit it and polish it up. Then, you keep an eye out for when a publication (a journal or press) opens for submissions. You might write the piece to a specific theme for a specific place, or you might write the piece with no idea of where it will go. When submissions open, and your piece is the right theme and word count, you submit the finished piece.
This is the key: Submissions rely on a finished piece that editors or judges will then read and either accept or reject. Some editing can happen after the fact, but it may not!
If you’re thinking this kind of sounds like auditioning for a movie/tv show, you’re not entirely wrong. You go in, perform something that’s already prepared, and hope they accept you. A good director will direct an actor to change things though, and you never prepare the entire script, so I actually think of auditioning as more akin to pitching.
What about plagiarism, you might be asking. Usually, only editors and judges are reading your piece, and they know better. In cases where your piece is published publicly for open judging, that’s usually enough of a paper trail to deter plagiarism (though, not always). I suspect it’s rare that plagiarism comes up in these cases, though not impossible. But that is always going to be true of publishing your work for others to read! So I wouldn’t say that threat is any higher submitting than it is at any other time.
What is Pitching?
Pitching a story is kind of what it sounds like—you toss an editor a ball (a story idea), but it’s up to them to figure out what to do with it. Pitching mostly applies to non-fiction work published in magazines, with news sites, or on blogs. You don’t pitch Penguin Random House, you do pitch The LA Times.* Think news articles, social commentary, event coverage, interviews, book reviews.
The key phrase here is a story idea. A pitch is not a full story, and you should not attach an already-written story to your pitch. Most editors hate this and often will delete pitches with attachments unread for fear of being accused of plagiarism.
Though I do think pitching is similar to auditioning, as I mentioned above. It’s not a complete story but it’s a mostly-finished idea—your take on a role. An editor will act like a director and shape the story.
What about plagiarism, you might be asking again. I get the fear. I myself got very suspicious recently when an editor rejected several pitches I sent in because she “wasn’t interested in them,” then ran the exact same stories a few months later. Can I prove she “stole” the ideas though? No. They were stories about life in LA, and a thousand people were bound to have similar ideas. Maybe the other writers did a better job of pitching them to her and made her interested. A good pitch does that.
*Technically, you could pitch Penguin Random House if you are submitting a non-fiction book proposal. But proposals are very different from pitches.
Okay, How Do I Submit my Work?
The thing about submitting is that there’s not really a hard and fast rule. Well—actually, there’s one and only one: Follow the submission guidelines for each pub.
Every place prefers to read submissions differently. Some don’t want names, some want 10-point font, and some only want submissions for ten minutes a day. You’ll have to go find each individual place you want to submit to and figure out their specific rules. I know this is a pain, but the more you do it the more you’ll start to remember. It often helps to follow the places you want to submit to on twitter because they’ll announce open submission windows (and reminders).
Okay… How Do I Pitch?
Again, editors also prefer to read pitches differently. A lot of places have pitching guidelines you can check out. Here is a set of pitching guidelines I wrote for Calibration Notes. Here are more pitching guidelines for Gastro Obscura. As you’ll see, they’re different! Despite both being loosely food or food-adjacent publications, we want different things. 🥲
However, there are a few rules of thumb:
Send your FULL idea in 3-5 sentences.
A pitch is not is a movie trailer. Your pitch should not leave the editor wondering what happens next. It needs to answer all the key questions and give the editor a solid idea of what a story will contain. I get these pitches a lot—I do not want to be in suspense in my inbox, of all places. (I don’t know if anyone does.) Tell me what you’re going to tell me. If you think that’s boring, start your own publication.
Make sure you’re sending it to the right editor by finding editors on Twitter or checking their mastheads online. Most places that accept pitches will have how to pitch clearly outlined somewhere.
Use the editor’s name! Show you aren’t just avalanche submitting this pitch but actually want this story in their publication.
If the pitch is timely, note that.
If you’ve never worked with the editor, send a link to your portfolio (or to previous stories) so they can read your work.
Use good grammar and be polite. You’d be amazed by how many pitches I’ve rejected even though the story was interesting because the person emailing me came off rude as hell. The editor/writer relationship is very close, and no one likes working with an asshole. (And if you’re reading this, you’re probably not famous enough to make up for being a dick.)
FAQ:
If I haven’t written anything anywhere, how will an editor know I’m a good writer just from my pitch? Shouldn’t I pre-write my story and attach it?
Well, first of all, a lot of times an editor can tell from a pitch if you’re a decent writer. A well-written pitch is very different from a badly-written one.
But this is also a very reasonable fear. It’s hard to get your foot in the door. My advice is:
Craft your pitch meticulously. Make it sound interesting. (But again, not like a trailer!)
Self-publish some work. Sign up on Substack then write your best damn essays, articles, etc. They can be made up (and you can say at the end that they’re a work of fiction). I did this once when I wanted to get into writing profiles; I made one up for a fictional coffee person and sent the editor the link. She liked it so much that she assigned me a profile of a real person.
Again, don’t pre-write a real story and submit it. For example: Say you want to write about oat milk supplanting almond milk in coffee shops. Great—it’s relevant and timely. But, they might already have a story similar on their site or in production. The editor might want to hire you to write about the next big alt milk that will supplant oat instead (my money’s on macadamia nut milk). You will have wasted all that time pre-writing the almond milk story, and your editor isn’t going to pay you for that!
Is this also how I get an agent for my book?
I have no idea, I don’t have an agent. (You don’t need an agent to have a book published, it turns out.) I recommend checking out Agents & Books for more info on finding an agent:
When should I follow up?
With submissions, you usually don’t. Maybe with smaller journals or presses you can, but get a feel for them first. In their submissions guidelines, they generally mention what silence means (usually: rejection) and how long to wait for a response.
With pitching, I give it two or three weeks. If there’s still no response, follow up one more time. After that, cut your losses and move on. Some editors can’t or won’t respond to all pitches. 🤷🏻♀️
Do not—I’m serious here—DO NOT threaten the editor. “I’m going to place it somewhere else if you don’t respond!” Great, do it, and never email me again while you’re at it. You might think it comes off as playful, but in stark black-and-white pixels, it does not. It sounds rude and manipulative.
One thing you can say is, “Hey, this story is kind of timely [repeat date] and if you’re not interested I’d like to try to place it somewhere else before then. If you can, please let me know by [date].” Editors understand that there are lead times for publishing a story! They still may not respond, but at least they won’t remember you as a jerk.
Wait… Lead Times?
Publishing is so so slow. I’m currently working on a piece that will go live at the end of June. So if you have a story about a holiday tradition that has to go live next week to be relevant, no you don’t. You have a story that can go live in 53 weeks.
Holiday pitching starts around Halloween, Halloween stories are pitched around August, Fourth of July stories are pitched in April… You get it.
You need this lead time because it might take a while for a story to find a home! Then you need to research, interview, write, and edit. You’ll submit the story to the editor, they’ll edit it, you’ll edit it, and there might be another round of edits or two. Photography or art needs to happen somewhere along the line. And this might be the only story on your desk but it’s certainly not the only story on theirs. It just takes time! Take that into account when pitching.
In Conclusion
Pitching and submitting, while they may seem similar, are incredibly different. To know whether your story will be a pitch or a submission, ask yourself these questions:
Is it fiction or non-fiction? The first is usually a submission, and the second is usually a pitch, though creative non-fiction pieces vary.
Am I reporting on something, doing event coverage, or interviewing someone? It’s a pitch.
What does the publishing editor want? Do whatever they say.
If you’re ever in doubt, reach out! I know people think Twitter is dead now, but it is perfect for moments like this. Reach out to journals, magazines, or editors if you ever have any questions about pitching and submitting to them.
Okay, that’s pitching versus submissions. Did I miss something? Do you have any more questions? Drop them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them soon.
Also, this week I’m in
talking about how much money baristas actually make (and other people in the coffee industry). It's a great conversation, come check it out!
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Have a good rest of your week, loves! (It’s Wednesday?!)
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