Five reasons editors aren't commissioning your pitches
What do weak pitches have in common?
Missed yesterday’s roundup?
Yesterday we shared 55+ brand new pitch calls & freelance writing opportunities! Many of these are still live, so get pitching while you still can.
I’m out of office today so your fourth edition of opportunities this week will be this Friday, rather than the usual Tuesday.
Five reasons that editors aren’t commissioning your pitches
You’re clearly using AI for ideas or the actual pitch
Editors can, increasingly, spot this.
They’ve read hundreds of pitches that sound exactly like yours because AI doesn’t invent. It can’t give you novel angles or fresh perspectives. It just regurgitates the most common takes on any given topic. And if you throw a pitch call into an LLM, you’ll be sending off the same pitch as a hundred other people.
One editor told me she got dozens of identical pitches about the same trending topic within 24 hours of a pitch call going viral. All of them sound like they came from the same exact prompt. When your ‘unique angle’ is the one everyone else is pitching, you’re not going to get any commissions.
The cadence gives you away too. AI writes in a specific rhythm that editors recognize instantly (or are starting to, even if it’s taken a while to get there).
Real writers have a voice, and it’s not that of a robot.
You’re pitching a topic instead of an angle
‘I’d like to write about mental health in the workplace’ isn’t a pitch. That’s a subject. A topic. A huge array of possible stories.
An angle answers the question: what’s the specific story here? What’s the precise argument, narrative, or investigation you’re proposing? ‘How four-day work weeks are backfiring for employees with anxiety disorders’ is an angle. See the difference? Well, I made that up, so thank me later if you land a byline with that idea.
Editors need to know exactly what story they’re getting. Not a general area you want to explore. Always ask yourself if your pitch ideas are specific enough. What’s the narrative? What picture are you painting? It’s worth giving this some serious thought.
Your ‘why’ is weak or missing
Why you? Why now? Why this outlet? If you can’t answer all three convincingly, your pitch isn’t ready.
Why you: What makes you uniquely positioned to tell this story? Do you have access, expertise, or lived experience that matters? Something else?
Why now: Is there a news peg, a cultural moment, or a reason this story needs to exist right now instead of six months ago? Instead of in six months time? Why do their readers need to read this immediately?
Why this outlet: Have you actually read this publication? Does your pitch fit their audience, their tone, their recent coverage? Does the story? Or are you spam pitching to every publication you can find?
Vague answers to these questions tell editors you’re not serious.
The format is unclear
Editors don’t want to guess what you’re actually pitching. Is this a 2,000-word reported feature? A first-person essay? A profile? A Q&A? Quick news analysis?
Each format requires different resources, timelines, and editing approaches. If you don’t specify what it is you’re actually proposing, you’re creating extra work for the editor to determine whether your idea is even appropriate.
So be explicit. ‘I’m proposing a 1,500-word reported piece’ or ‘I’m pitching this as an 800-word personal essay’ tells an editor exactly what they’re considering.
You have no plan for sources or access
You don’t always need full pre-reporting before you pitch somewhere, but you do need to show you’ve thought about how you’ll actually report this story.
Who will you interview? How will you get access to them? If you’re pitching a story about undocumented workers, for example, have you already connected with people willing to talk? If you’re proposing a piece about a specific company’s internal practices, do you have a way in?
These things really matter, as an editor will want to know you can actually deliver on what you’re promising.
‘I’ll find sources’ isn’t a plan. And here’s where AI becomes dangerous again: those hypothetical experts or case studies you mention need to be real people you can actually reach. Not made-up examples that sound plausible!
If you can’t explain your reporting plan, and it’s important to the piece, some pre-reporting and initial outreach would be crucial.