Pitching: Specifics and Travel Pitching

Besides pitching style (below) and introductions, there are other details I had to learn about pitching.

First, there are two types of pitches:

(1) There's the as-is pitch, where you've already written an article and you include it as an attachment that you're pitching more or less as is.

(2) There's the big-britches gamble pitch, where, having written exactly jack squat, you pitch an idea for an article that you'd like to write, if they're willing to accept it.

The upside of a big-britches pitch is that you don't waste your time drafting an article that will never get published. If editors don't like it, you just don't write it.

The downside is that it's tempting to pitch articles that you think are interesting, but, when an editor bites, you actually have to write it. Thus, it's important that you're certain you can actually write the article you're selling. You need to know where to research it, where to go to find someone to talk to, and the extent of the information that you are capable of digging up about the topic. If you can't write it; don't pitch it.

Big britches pitches involve a bit of a hoodwink; an ideal pitch makes you sound like you know a lot more about the topic than you really do.

When I was getting started, all of my pitches were of the first kind. I got started in travel writing so I would write up a destination I had been to and pitch a trio of articles to publications I thought would be interested.

Nowadays, I most of my pitches are big-britches pitches.

Now I'm convinced that the important divide between big-britches pitches and as-is pitches is whether it's a travel or news/feature article. Travel articles are the only pitches that should be as-is. Travel articles aren't often taken as idea pitches and, unless you're well established, publications aren't going to sponsor your travel, so it doesn't help to pitch in advance. Furthermore, it's hard to know in advance that a particular destination is worthy of an article, so you don't want to trap yourself into writing about a destination if that destination turns out to be a dud.

It's important to note whether you will include pictures or not. Pictures are helpful, if not absolutely necessary for most travel pitches. Also, I like to lay may stories out using Apple's iWeb application, which lets me lay out text, pictures, and captions and convert it into a PDF. As a PDF with pictures and a semi-finished format, the article looks more professional.