$399.00

Dates and Times: April 8 - May 6

The Secrets to Pitching Essays That Get Published

Are you filled with ideas for essays you could write, but you have no idea who to pitch and how? Or maybe you have a slew of finished pieces saved on your desktop, but don’t know the first thing about marketing yourself?

Writers need to pitch editors to get their work noticed, but the skills needed to pitch an essay or article are vastly different than those needed to write one. You not only have to explain what your essay concept is about, but you have to explain it concisely and in a way that will grab an editor’s attention.

In the class that meets on April 29th you will learn the basics of pitching from how to know what editors are looking for to how to know which publications will be the best fit for your work. We will walk through examples of pitches, for both literary outlets (Guernica, The Rumpus, etc…) + ones for mass market outlets (NY Times, Glamour, and more).  You’ll then have one week to work on an essay outline/pitch that you will present to a panel of editors on May 6th. You’ll have the exclusive opportunity to hear feedback about what works/what doesn’t from an insider’s perspective. Our all-star panel will include: Denne Michele Norris, editor in chief of Electric Literature; Noah Michelson head of Huffington Post Personal, Christina Amoroso Editorial Director of Bustle; and Patia Braithwaite, senior staff editor at The New York Times Well.

You'll be in good hands. Ruthie has worked with hundreds of writers to turn their ideas into narrative gold. Her clients have received major non-fiction book deals with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and more. They’ve gotten agent representation by Aevitas Creative Management, Park & Fine Literary and Media and Janklow & Nesbit. And her clients’ essays have been published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, HuffPost Personals, Vogue, Cosmo, Catapult, Tablet, Health Magazine, New England Journal of Medicine, Well + Good and more.

Ruthie’s not only an accomplished editor, she’s a writer too. You can find her essays in Vogue, Glamour, O Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Salon, Slate, Newsweek, and more. Most recently, she was the Deputy Editor at ForbesWomen.

What You’ll Walk Away With…

• You will receive feedback from Ruthie and a community of peers on your pitch

• In class exercises that will help you distill what you’re trying to say so you’ll be ready to pitch your idea 

• An understanding of the tone/voice to use in pitches, what to include and what not to include and how to grab an editor’s attention from just the subject line

• An invitation to my community of writers on Substack for resource sharing, edit exchanges, book/essay recommendations, first dibs on future classes and so much more

• The opportunity to pitch your idea to a panel of editors and hear feedback about what works/what doesn’t from an insider’s perspective

The Fine Print

• Writers of all levels are welcome.

• Class will meet twice and will take place on Zoom, on 4/29 for two hours and on 5/6 for an hour and a half.

• Please bring a notebook to write in.