3 Ways to Make Your Nonfiction Article Pitch Stand Out

Here are three ways to make your nonfiction article pitch stand out and find more success as a freelance writer for magazines, websites, and other media that uses shorter nonfiction writing from an editor who's assigned articles in various media.

Writing nonfiction articles for magazines, websites, and other media is unlike nearly any other form of writing. That's because so much of a writer's success and failure is determined at the pitching stage. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good because you don't have to start writing until it's already been accepted or assigned; bad because many writers would rather write than pitch their writing.

(5 tips for a successful freelance writing pitch.)

Regardless of where you fall on the pitching/writing spectrum, it's a fact that writers who can pitch well and write well are the ones that editors (like myself) turn to over and over again for new articles. Eventually, some writers begin to find that editors are pitching them (the writers!) on ideas, because they've become such a trusted part of the team.

It’s a great time to be a writer – because there are more places to tell stories, and more ways of telling them, than ever before. With print and online publications covering virtually every subject area today, and editors constantly seeking stories to run, along with dependable writers to write them, anyone with the right combination of skill, creativity and diligence can become a valued ongoing contributor and generate a reliable income stream from writing articles.

In online lectures, supplemental readings, and written assignments and exercises, we’ll talk about ­how to source, prioritize and develop topic ideas; compose and refine pitches to multiple outlets; stay tightly organized about submissions, follow-ups and correspondence; and execute assignments brilliantly – as well as why writers who query well, deliver on time and prove easy to work are gold to editors everywhere.

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While there are several ways to pitch nonfiction articles for magazines and websites, here are three I know stand out.

One last tip: Always end your pitch with one last idea. Just include a sentence at the end that reads something like, "If that idea isn't a fit at the moment, you might be interested in (headline of another article) that covers (whatever the article covers)." Sometimes, these one-line pitches are the ones that get me to say yes—or, at least, ask for more information.