How to pitch US editors

The US is the largest market in BRYME's database and the most competitive. Editors at national titles receive hundreds of pitches a week and decide most of them in under a minute. Nothing below is about writing better English — it is about the specific conventions that make an American editor read past your first line.

What a US pitch looks like

Subject line: `PITCH: [the specific angle]`. Many desks filter on the word. Make the angle, not the topic, the thing after the colon. "PITCH: The Lagos bus drivers who set fares by WhatsApp" beats "PITCH: Nigerian transport".

Open with the story, not with yourself. No "I hope this email finds you well." No paragraph about how much you admire the publication. The first sentence is the piece.

Two to four short paragraphs. The angle, why now, how you will report it, and one line on why you specifically can write it.

Say the practical numbers. Proposed length, when you could file, and whether you have already reported any of it.

Attach nothing. Two or three links to clips inline. Attachments get caught by filters.

150 to 300 words total. Longer reads as a first draft rather than a pitch.

How US rates actually work

Per-word is the dominant convention, which is unusual internationally. Rates in BRYME's US listings vary enormously, and the honest summary is that a stated per-word rate tells you far more than a title's prestige does.

Two things to establish before you file, not after:

Payment timing. "Net 30 after publication" is common, and publication can be months after acceptance. Ask when the clock starts.

Kill fee. If the piece is commissioned and then dropped, a kill fee is typically a fraction of the full rate. Ask whether there is one. Many US contracts include it as standard; if yours does not say, ask before you sign.

Rights, which matter more here

US contracts are more likely than UK ones to ask for broad rights. Read for:

• First North American Serial Rights — they publish first, rights revert to you. This is the good one.
• All rights or work-for-hire — you no longer own the piece and cannot resell or anthologise it. Sometimes justified by a high fee; never accept it by accident.
• Exclusivity period — how long before you can republish elsewhere.

You can negotiate these. Editors expect it, and asking does not cost you the commission.

Tax, if you are outside the US

A US publication paying a non-US writer will usually ask for a W-8BEN form. It is short, you fill it in yourself, and it exists to claim treaty benefits so that withholding tax is reduced or removed. Without it, a flat rate may be withheld from your fee.

If your country has a tax treaty with the US, the form is what lets you use it. Ask the accounts contact which form they need before invoicing rather than after.

Following up

Two weeks, once, in the same email thread, two lines. Then move the pitch elsewhere.

Silence is not rejection at most US desks, but it is not encouragement either. The writers who build a US portfolio are the ones who treat one no-reply as information and pitch the next market the same week.

Common mistakes

Pitching the topic instead of the angle. A long preamble about the publication. Attaching a finished piece nobody asked for. No proposed length. Ignoring a stated pitching window or reading period. Pitching the editor-in-chief when a section editor is listed. Following up in three days. Accepting an all-rights contract without noticing.

Practical tips

• Read three recent pieces from the section you are pitching. Not the homepage — the section.
• Find the section editor's name. Mastheads and staff pages list them.
• Use BRYME's US listings to check pay, length and eligibility before you write a word.
• Work out what you need to charge before you accept a rate — the freelance rate calculator does the arithmetic.