5 tips for pitching your article to magazines

Having an idea for a masterpiece of a travel article is only the first step. Now you need to get it noticed by busy, stressed, harried editors up against hard deadlines – who receive dozens, if not hundreds, of article pitches each day.

So how do you do it? Here, Wanderlust editor-in-chief Lyn Hughes shows how to get your pitch noticed and possibly published...

Make sure there's a reason for your piece

Give the editor a reason to run your piece. Look ahead to the next year. What are the events and anniversaries that you may be able to build a pitch around?

Are new flight, ferry or rail routes going to make somewhere more easily accessible? Are there any new national parks or long distance trails opening?

Keep your pitch short and sweet

Keep your pitch brief and to the point. You should be able to sum up the subject in a sentence or two.

Perhaps give two or three different possible treatments for the destination or theme. Your email or letter shouldn’t be longer than a couple of paragraphs in total.

Know the answer to: 'Why you?'

Why you? If the editor has received a dozen proposals on the same idea, why should they choose your idea? Is there something you can bring to it that the other writers won’t?

Think outside the box

Don’t just think about proposing ideas for main features. All magazines have regular departments of smaller features and tidbits. You may find it much easier to get something published there.

Choose a catchy subject line

If sending by email, give a lot of thought to the subject line. At Wanderlust we get a couple of dozen proposals a day... and that’s on top of the hundreds of other emails we get.

Which email would you be more tempted to open and read: “Wanderlust Proposal” or “Beyond Mandalay – off the beaten track Burma”? It also means that, even if we can’t open it straightaway, we’re more likely to go back to it later on.