I round up a few stand-out pitches I recently commissioned at the Telegraph across music, film, books, TV and popular culture, as well as my top pitching do's and don'ts
This is super insightful and thank you for demystifying the process for fairly new writers like myself!
A question from me is about timings/lead-ins. How much advance notice would you expect for a piece? For example, I have an idea pegged to a big anniversary of a very popular song coming up this August. It feels too premature to pitch it now, but then again it would require a good bit of prep work and I'm also afraid that some other writer may think of a similar idea first ('early bird catches the worm' and all that). Appreciate there's no hard and fast rule, but curious for your views!
I’ve never not commissioned anything because it’s too early when it comes to big features that require a lot of prep - an oral history of titanic for 25 yr anniversary I commissioned a year in advance! So I think pitching now for august is fine, as if it’s a big anniversary titles will want to go early so as not to be the last one to be cover. Obviously celeb interviews can’t be too early as then they feel very dated, and reviews tend to be pretty short lead too - maybe one week to two weeks prior to the gig/ release. Good luck!
Great post - always looking for new perpsectives on pitching to different publications - cheers for putting this together, Eleanor.
This is super insightful and thank you for demystifying the process for fairly new writers like myself!
A question from me is about timings/lead-ins. How much advance notice would you expect for a piece? For example, I have an idea pegged to a big anniversary of a very popular song coming up this August. It feels too premature to pitch it now, but then again it would require a good bit of prep work and I'm also afraid that some other writer may think of a similar idea first ('early bird catches the worm' and all that). Appreciate there's no hard and fast rule, but curious for your views!
I’ve never not commissioned anything because it’s too early when it comes to big features that require a lot of prep - an oral history of titanic for 25 yr anniversary I commissioned a year in advance! So I think pitching now for august is fine, as if it’s a big anniversary titles will want to go early so as not to be the last one to be cover. Obviously celeb interviews can’t be too early as then they feel very dated, and reviews tend to be pretty short lead too - maybe one week to two weeks prior to the gig/ release. Good luck!