🗞️How to Get Paid to Write About Work (Behind the Pitch)

Read the pitch that got my entrepreneurship essay in Business Insider

I’m Tawny, author of Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze, co-author of The Sobriety Deck, co-host of the Recovery Rocks podcast, and co-founder of the non-alc spirit, (parentheses). I also teach classes about publishing and DIY PR. And yes, I’m an exhausted Capricorn.

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Welcome to the third issue of Behind the Pitch, where I take you through my pitching process—from concept to publishing—so you can learn how to pitch, too.

March’s column showed the actual press release I wrote that landed my non-alc spirit featured in Men’s Health.

This month, you’ll see an annotated screenshot of my pitch about starting a non-alcoholic drink for Business Insider. Writing about your creative process can get you paid AND promote your work. Win-win!

In this issue, you’ll see:

• How to be your own publicist by pitching the media about your book or product

• How writing an essay about your creative process gets you paid AND gets promo for your work

• How to write a subject line that editors will actually open

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The Pitch

Let’s acknowledge that pitching is freaking hard. It’s exhausting. It’s emotional. It’s hella confusing.

One way to make the pitching process smoother is to actually read the publication you’re pitching. This may seem obvious, but so many people don’t do it. Editors appreciate it when a pitch conveys the tone of the publication and implements the style of their existing headlines.

Editors are hella busy, receiving countless emails each day. Your pitch must stand out from the crowd if you want it to be read and then accepted.

The Screenshot

Below you’ll find:

• An annotated screenshot of the pitch that landed my entrepreneurship essay in Business Insider.

• How a Business Insider editor and I tweaked my pitch to make it fit for BI readers.

• A bulleted list that showed the editor why my pitch is relevant and why BI readers will benefit from reading it.