5 Steps to Crafting the Perfect Pitch
You’ve stumbled across Explore Possible and it sounds like the writing opportunity you’ve been waiting for. A paid thought leadership space looking for writers with lived experience? Yep, it’s real!
Laptop at the ready, you’re full of so many ideas. But, if you aren’t sure what to type when you open up the submission page, we’ve got some helpful tips.
“The pitch” is your opportunity to tell us exactly what you want to write about. It’s short, it’s engaging, and it’s focused.
Be specific.
Thought leaders are well-informed opinion leaders and people who inspire, inform, advocate for their community and demonstrate leadership with thought-provoking discourse through first-hand accounts and think-pieces.
We want to know what it is you want to write about. What experiences do you want to share? What real-life perspective do you have? Your article pitch should have a theme and one main idea you want to explore.
Write to your audience.
Consider who will be reading your article and what you want to say to them. What do you want people to take away from your article?
Have a spicy take you’d like to share? Keep in mind our audience is made up of many ages, and we publish material that is appropriate for everyone.
When it doubt, headline it out.
Including potential headlines or titles in your pitch (or as a writing exercise before submitting) can be a great way to boil down your idea into a digestible sentence. This gets to the point of what your story is about.
Keep it short!
Aim for a paragraph, or two, to describe your article. Outline your subject in broad strokes - there will be time to get into the nitty-gritty later! But for now, keep it brief and focused.
Reference the program values.
The key to having your pitch make the cut is aligning with our programming values and submitting a never-before-published idea:
Our Explore Possible content will educate, entertain and inform the general populations of Manitoba and Canada, with an emphasis on sharing and representing those from the disability or Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities.
We amplify unique perspectives of lived experience and thought leadership on culture, social justice and societal issues.
We provide a platform to challenge assumptions and stigma.
We produce content that is suitable for all audiences and represents a diverse array of backgrounds.
We pay an honorarium for all accepted material.
Put these 5 steps into practice and catch our eye on the submission page. Whip up a pitch, or several different ones, and submit today.