How long is the perfect pitch?

One sentence? Three paragraphs? Here's the truth...

I’ll be honest: there is no such thing as the perfect length for a pitch (apologies if I drew you in with my clickbait headline on this one). But perfecting the length and structure of your pitch can make the difference between it being ignored or accepted.

How do you do this? Well, here are some of the rules I use for structuring my pitches - which you can try on yours. And in the second half of this week’s newsletter, for paid Get Featured subscribers, are some examples of successful pitches I’ve sent, so you can see how these rules work in real life.

Just some perfectly normal ghost hands sending the perfect pitch… Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

The Magic 3

All editors are different but, whatever their personal preferences, your pitch email needs to tell them three key things:

1. What’s the story?

2. Why does it matter now?

3. Why are you qualified to pitch this idea / write this story?

Let’s break these down:

What’s the story?

When you’re pitching, you need to summarise the whole story in a headline and a few explanatory sentences (I aim do this in no more than 3-6 lines).

This can be hard - but if it feels impossible then you’re probably trying to pitch an idea that’s too broad or too complicated. I often find that the process of writing the pitch helps me nail down what I’m actually trying to say with the story.

Headlines should look just like any other headlines in the publication you’re pitching to. Read it, take note of their style and copy that in your pitch.

Explanatory sentences should briefly summarise the most important points of the story and any background or context key to understanding what it’s about.

Why does it matter - and why does it matter now?

Either within those few explanatory sentences, or in bullet points underneath, demonstrate why this story needs to be published by this publication - and why now. Points to make here include:

• Why is this timely? (Is it a topic in the news? Have some new stats just come out? Is it hooked on an event/TV show/trending topic/court case/etc that’s happening at the moment?)

• Why will readers of this particular publication be interested in this? (e.g. if you’re pitching to a women’s magazine, highlight a relevant stat showing how it affects women.)

What qualifies you to pitch this?

Exactly how you answer this third question depends on whether you’re pitching for publicity (i.e. you’re suggesting the journalist write about something in order to get publicity for yourself/your client), or as a freelance journalist (i.e. you’re asking to be paid to write this story).

But in either case, you need to include a sentence briefly setting out who you are (or who your client is) and any relevant experience. You don’t need to give a full bio but a link to somewhere the editor can get more info is helpful (your website/portfolio is ideal).

OK I get it, but how does this work in real life?

Here are three examples of pitches I’ve sent that worked. These ended up being published by guardian.com and the I news. You’ll see they’re all different lengths (I explain why below) and yes, one of them is just one sentence!