I am having a pitching challenge with my friend Liz over at Brooklyn Home Companion, each of us trying to pitch a story once a week. So, for a little inspiration and accountability, I thought I would post these submission guidelines from Freelance Writing Gigs You really should be subscribed to this feed.

Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly is a publication covering politics, government, culture and the media. Before you pitch a story to us, we recommend you read through a few of our back issues online or in print to get a feel for the type of investigative, system-analysis journalism we value and promote.

The magazine is published Bimonthly and includes investigative and opinion-based feature articles (2,000 to 5,000 words), occasional short news items and humorous sidebars (500 to 1,000 words), and book reviews of recent political and cultural titles (usually about 800 words). We occasionally print excerpts from forthcoming political books. We never publish fiction, poetry, or celebr

Over on A Photo Editor, Rob Haggart links to a great list of successful pitches made by writer Dan Baum and his wife Margaret Knox, the same list Jackie wrote about a couple posts ago on this blog. An important thing that Haggart points out is that it’s not just a skill for writers – a photographer should be able to write a good pitch as well.

So my pitch for City Scoops might have been successful and all, but what about pitching some of the big boys?

Dan Baum, a former New Yorker staff writer has a bunch of pdfs of the pitches that worked for Wired, LA Times, Playboy and the likes. The lengths of each pitch vary but all put my quick e-mail to shame. One proposal for a series in Rolling Stones is a whooping 15 pages! That is longer than all but one of the papers I wrote in college.

Most of the proposals read very well with plenty of liberties taken with creativity while still laying out the article in very technical terms. It’s a nice refresher course (although I am not sure I can say I ever had a course to begin with) in making the editor curious about the story while proving it is also feasible. Interestingly, he also shares the pitches that failed, although I do not see anything that immediately sets them apart. Just goes to show you editors are individuals with personal opinions and while a pitch for killing and cooking a whole bull might

I started my journalism career as a writer, and, like Martha Gellhorn bemoaned, always felt as if the “bloody words would not walk straight.” I constantly have to read my writing out loud and even then Serena has some serious editing to do if I want a nice flow and rhythm to my piece. My tendency to write awkwardly, however, is not enough to stop me from trying to make my words walk straight.
I subscribe to the NYCWriters mailing list and while it’s mainly garbage and self promotion, occasionally there are leads. The editor from City Scoops, a small magazine published in NYC, e-mailed the listserv asking for pitches for their June/July issue. The magazine is free with a circulation of 600,000 and with writing that I match on my good days. So, with my fingers cross and pitch edited again and again, I sent this to the editor:
Hi Larry,
Madonna’s recent injury inspired me to look into horseback riding options in the city. There are actually quite a few of choices and I think a story breaking down the differen