From Pitch to Published: How to Sell Your Article Ideas to Magazines

We show you how professional writers sell their article ideas to magazines read by millions.

Maybe you're a budding freelancer who dreams of seeing her byline in a magazine like Redbook or Women's Health. Or you're a mid-career writer who can't seem to break out of the pack and clinch the assignments that other writers seem to nab with ease. If you want to start scoring assignments from top magazines like Smithsonian, Inc., mental_floss, and Fitness—not to mention trade and custom publications—From Pitch to Published: How to Sell Your Article Ideas to Magazines is the guide you need to take you there.

You'll learn how to craft winning article pitches that pique interest from editors and lead to lucrative assignments. Included are over 20 actual pitches that sold to magazines such as Women's Health, Parenting, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Entrepreneur, and more plus interviews with the writers and their assigning editors. You’ll learn from these insiders:

• What every editor is looking for in a story pitch...and if you think it's a list of your writing credits, you're wrong.

• Why your writer’s voice is more important than you think.

• How to sell your idea to a national magazine even if you've never been published before.

• What to do if you have no clips, samples, or credentials.

• How to stand out from the competition with your very first sentence.

From Pitch to Published also includes a comprehensive Q&A about the art and science of selling article ideas to magazine editors...everything from how to structure a winning query letter to how to sell a “killed” article. If you're a beginning writer, you'll learn how to land your initial assignments with more ease and less angst, and if you've been around the block a few times, you'll find dozens of tips to help you improve your sales ratio.

Written by two top freelance magazine writers who authored the freelancing classic The Renegade Writer, From Pitch to Published will guide your way to freelance writing success.

Note: This book was previously published as The Renegade Writer's Query Letters That Rock. It has been revised and updated for 2017 to reflect changes in the publishing industry over the last ten years.

Linda Formichelli has written for over 150 magazines, from Pizza Today to Woman's Day; authored and co-authored over a dozen books, including Commit: How to Blast Through Problems & Reach Your Goals Through Massive Action; and guest posted at top blogs like Copyblogger, Tiny Buddha, and Write to Done.

Diana Burrell is a Boston-based food writer, recipe developer, and author who has written for Parenting, Cook's Illustrated, The Boston Globe, Kiwi, Family Circle, Psychology Today, Writer's Digest, and many other national, regional, and closed-circulation publications.