How to Write an Article Pitch to an Editor
Before writing to an online publication or a print magazine, it’s first necessary to research the organisation you wish your writing to be published in and have prior work experience and samples that prove your capabilities concerning your writing.
When selecting a writing niche, it is first necessary to understand where your interests lay, that certain niches are highly competitive and that multiple skill sets are often necessary.
If you know the mediaeval history and contemporary history, the history niche is one niche that is divided into many subcategories.
With this being as it is, it will be wise to also look to developing knowledge and experience in other nations, for example, entertainment and trade journals.
Research
When researching an article for publication, it is first necessary to understand the editorial guidelines on what kind of style you will need to write and if that style works for your time dedicated to writing articles for publication.
The APA referencing and Harvard referencing are far more difficult to use because you will need to research academic articles, which would cost £25 per article; easier styles are the Associated Press Style, and the Inverted Pyramid is far simpler to use.
The Associated Press style is more to do with understanding the culture and the language of the press because journalists do not address a female as a female or woman unless they are specifically demonstrated in the past that you can use the word Miss or Mrs.
This may be alien to many people, but it’s important to keep your work within the Associated Press guidelines and within the organisational culture.
As for the Pyramid Style, that is putting the main point of your argument top of the article just so it captures the reader’s attention and then throughout the body of your article, you back up your claims with evidence.
The Inverted Pyramid is so common because of the rise of online media and the fact that people now get information through small bite-size articles.
Human memory is predisposed to maintaining and gathering information within the timeframe of four minutes.
This is why songs tend to be 3 to 4 minutes long and why Titoki videos are usually less than a minute long to maintain people’s attention.
We now live in the age of information and de-centralised media, meaning there is much competition which requires writers to be knowledgeable of Search Engine Optimisation, the use of keywords and conducting research and putting that research on the page so that the average reader can understand.
Please also be aware that different markets in different nations have different reading ages. In the United Kingdom, the reading age is nine years old, and in the United States, it is 12 to 14 years old.
Templates of Article Pitch to Editors
Dear editorial team, my article should you accept, will be on how America won the Cold War. This will provide a comprehensive understanding of the American strategy after World War II to defeat the Soviet Union.
The American plan for success was establishing a global economic free trade order that did not exist before World War II. The Americans guaranteed free trade within the Western alliance block and neutral nations.
The USA enabled everybody who trades and for nations to begin the process of industrialisation and specialisation, leading to the prosperity that exists today.
In the article itself, I will write about the world before 1945, which had the European continent as a battleground since the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
In East Asia, China has only had a few centuries of political stability and border security, primarily under the Communist party and the Han empire.
This history will not be the article’s focus, but it is important for the readers to grasp what the world truly was before 1945 because, in many ways, it will be very alien to contemporary people.
The article will also have information on why the Americans fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and other conflicts like Vietnam during the Cold War to show American commitment to its allies’ strategic foreign policies and priorities.
The USA also deliberately sacrificed working-class manufacturing jobs for nations in East Asia and other developing countries to industrialise.
To sum up, the American strategy to win the Cold War was truly novel. The USA, rather than building a traditional empire, opted for global asperity and prosperity to defeat the USSR and win the Cold War.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I will leave you with my links and CV if you want to look into my ground and experience.
History article I have written https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-marshall-plan-the-american-strategy-to-win-the-cold-war
LinkedIn Link https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-riley-b463881b4/
Medium Link https://jonathanrileywriter.medium.com/
My Blog Link https://renaissancehumanism.co.uk/
My Writing Portfolio Website https://jonathancopywriter.wixsite.com/jonathan-riley-write
Templates of article Pitch to editors sample 2
Dear Edward Zapletal, if you are interested in and historical article set in the high mediaeval ages, I would like to write a piece for history magazine focusing on the causes of the Hundred Years War; it will focus on Philip II of France and up to the death of King Charles IV of France and their rivals Kings of England.
The article will focus on the impact and significance of the battle of Bouvines and the establishment of the French and English monarchies in their respective kingdoms. Much economic and political development happened from 1214 to 1328, contributing to the Hundred Year’s War. I will now break down the headings for each section of the article.
Legacies of King John of England and Philip Augustus of France in this chapter, I will focus primarily on the legacies King John left with the creation of Magna Carter and King Philip II and Louis VIII called the lion legacy in France. This will be the establishment of royal authority in France and England and the collapse of the king’s power, which was centralised with the Crown until the disasters of King John’s reign.
The next chapter will focus on the legacy of the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1259 between King Henry III of England and King Louis IX of France in this peace treaty which was the origin of the conflict of the hundred years war, will be signed in this piece. I would also discuss the nature of feudal power and the relationship between Kings.
The third main chapter will be on the impacts of the reins of King Edward I of England and Philip iV of France; in the case of King Edward I, will be writing about his re-establishment of royal authority and that with him being the fifth Plantagenet king of England he had advantages which his early ancestors did not possess. Also, I will be discussing the feudal relationship between Edward as king of England and Duke of Aquitaine and how that relationship quickly deteriorated with King Philip the fourth of France. The wars in the 1290s put the kingdoms of England and the kings of France on a collision course, which would have meant that even if Edward III of England did not claim the French throne, the war still would be prevalent between the kingdoms. I would also add the geopolitical aspect and national security themes to the chapter though this could mean I may have to split the paragraph into two. There are many historical, political and economic reasons why England and France have been fighting from the time of William the Conqueror until the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Though these dates can be argued upon, they will not be the scope of this article.
These are the broad strokes of my plan for the overall article. I shall leave the links to my LinkedIn profile and a history article I have written for a different magazine so that you can see my samples and experience. I am also looking for financial compensation for this article and can commit to writing 2000 words.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and I wish you a great week ahead.
Article link to The History on the Net article I have written https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-marshall-plan-the-american-strategy-to-win-the-cold-war
Linkedin link https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-riley-b463881b4/
My medium link https://jonathanrileywriter.medium.com/
My blog link https://renaissancehumanism.co.uk/
My portfolio link https://jonathancopywriter.wixsite.com/jonathan-riley-write
Bibliography where I got my information from.
Brown, E. A. R. (2012). Moral Imperatives and Conundrums of Conscience: Reflections on Philip the Fair of France. Speculum, 87(1), 1–36. https://www.jstor.o rg/stable/41409273?searchText=Philip%20iV%20of%20France&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DPhilip%2BiV%2Bof%2BFrance&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A53cb91140781cd8dbcae9f5db0030351
Bates, D. (2018). William the Conqueror (The English Monarchs Series) (Reprint). Yale University Press.
Gold, C. (2019). King of the North Wind: The Life of Henry II in Five Acts (Reprint). William Collins.
Hallam, E. M., & West, C. (2020). Capetian France, 987–1328. Routledge.
Higham, J. K. (2022). Summary of Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages By Dan Jones. Independently published.
Jones, D. (2014). The Plantagenets: the warrior kings and queens who made England. Viking Penguin Books.
Jones, D. (2015). The Hollow Crown (Main). Faber & Faber.
King, A. (2016). Edward I (Penguin Monarchs). Penguin UK.
Morris, M. (2016). A great and terrible king: Edward I and the forging of Britain. Pegasus Books.
Morris, M. (2016). King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta. RANDOM HOUSE.
Rothwell, H. (1927). Edward I’s Case against Philip the Fair over Gascony in 1298. The English Historical Review, 42(168), 572–582. https://www.jstor.org/stable/552416?searchText=French%20and%20English%20war%201294%20to%201298&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DFrench%2Band%2BEnglish%2Bwar%2B1294%2Bto%2B1298&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A39802e10c624f58a2f9bb666a21bdb4a
Strayer, J. R. (1956). Philip the Fair — A “Constitutional” King. The American Historical Review, 62(1), 18. https://doi.org/10.2307/1848510
Sumption, J. (1999). The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle (The Middle Ages Series, Volume 1). University of Pennsylvania Press.
Wood, C. T. (1979). The English Crisis of 1297 in the Light of French Experience. Journal of British Studies, 18(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1086/385734
van Gorp, D. (2011). Historical introduction: The War of Bouvines. Medieval Warfare, 1(1), 6–9. In- https://www.jstor.org/stable/48579318?searchText=Philip%20II%20of%20France&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DPhilip%2BII%2Bof%2BFrance%26efqs%3DeyJjdHkiOlsiYW05MWNtNWhiQT09Il19&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A3364281838a88ad84064941ed698cf13
Zeihan, P. (2020). Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World (Illustrated). Harper Business.
Zeihan, P. (2022). The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. Harper Business.
