How to Pitch a Magazine or Journal
Taught by Catherine Halley
Catherine Halley is the editor-in-chief of JSTOR Daily, a publication designed to provide scholarly context to the news and current events. She previously served as the digital director of the Poetry Foundation, the web editor at the Domino magazine, and senior editor of gURL.com. She is currently working on a memoir about friendship.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a magazine article and you want to get it published. How do you start? This class is an introduction to putting together a pitch. We’ll go over how to decide what kind of publication to pitch to, how to find submission guidelines, how to figure out if it’s already been done, when to reach out to an editor, the structure of a good pitch letter, and more. The class will be particularly useful for academics who are interested in making the transition to freelance writing.
This class is for you if you are: a new freelance writer or an academic making the transition to freelance writing, are relatively new at sending pitches, and you want to learn more about how to craft a pitch an editor will actually read (news pegs, editorial calendars, lead time). Bonus if you already have an idea for an article and are willing to workshop it in class, although it is not required.
This class is not for you if you are: a creative writer, a memoirist, want to submit to a peer-reviewed journal, or any type of writer interested only in self-publishing.
