On Writing An Op-Ed For A Major Publication

Photo courtesy of AbsolutVision on Unsplash

You’ve decided to write an op-ed and want it to land in a major publication. How can you increase your chances?

Publishing an op-ed in a well-known national news outlet was one of our goals at #MovingForward this year. It happened! The piece got shared hundreds of times and made a social media splash that propagated our ideas throughout the country and the world.

I learned a ton along the way. Details and takeaways here:

On Writing

• In journalism, you only get one shot. Use the shot only when the piece is perfect. Editors might view 1000+ submissions per available op-ed slot.
• The writing process can take months. I did multiple big, structural revisions and considerable additional research to get my piece in shape before pitching editors.
• I hired my own freelance editor for the project — because it was my first op-ed, because I knew I was in deep on my topic which made it hard to distinguish general vs specialized knowledge, and because I knew I needed help learning “how to play the game”.
• I asked 15 subject matter experts in my network to provide comments and edits on my drafts.
• Many advise having a timely news hook for op-eds; I removed the time hook from mine to create more flexibility when pitching.

On Pitching

• Most news outlets expect to see your complete op-ed essay when you pitch.
• I drafted four versions of my pitch letter and asked three journalist / editor friends for edits between drafts.
• Every news outlet is different, I researched op-ed requirements for each news outlet before pitching and adjusted my submission accordingly. For example, different publications have different word limits for op-eds, so I tailored my piece to meet word limit requirements.
• I researched to determine which editor was most likely to receive my submission, and networked to reach them directly. In some cases, this meant sending my submission to contacts who worked at relevant news organizations and asking them to forward it to the editor. I also asked contacts who worked at relevant publications for the email address of the editor I should pitch.
• I copy/pasted the op-ed text itself into the body of the email below my pitch letter so that editors could skim without opening an attachment, in addition to attaching the piece in .docx.
• I included my phone number in the email signature and kept my phone on ring in case an editor called.
• I only wrote to one editor at a time.
• I sent my submission at 3:30am Pacific time / 6:30am Eastern time because I had heard submissions are more likely to land if editors see them before or on their commutes into work.
• I sent my submission on the first day of the week to maximize the chances of there still being space in that week’s publication.
• I followed up Wednesday evening offering 48 hours before taking the piece elsewhere.
• Pitching took a month total and I got responses back from three of the four editors I pitched.
• I did not ask editors for feedback on rejections. Editors receive hundreds of pitches a day and feedback is out-of-scope when they pass on a piece. Worse, the ask will annoy them.
• I wrote a full marketing plan in the dead time between pitches so I could act quickly when an editor decided to bite.

On Editing

• Responding to editors promptly makes a difference; I dropped everything and prioritized it.
• I agreed on exclusivity and on a price before the editing began.
• I was asked to complete two intense rounds of edits in 24 hours.
• I was expected to turn around a 1099 form and rights to the piece within 24 hours.
• I had no say whatsoever in headline, nor did I get to see headline options before the piece published.
• The editor told me his best guess of when the piece would be live. It was up to me to keep an eye out for it and catch when it published (he did not notify me).

On Marketing

• Pieces often publish early AM Eastern Time. I live in California, so I woke up at 4am Pacific Time to check that it was live. It was.
• I started marketing outreach at 4:30am Pacific Time so the west coast would wake up to see it already seeded on social media (most of my professional contacts /community live on the west coast).
• I sent personalized, individual emails saying thank you, which I had pre-drafted during the pitch process.
• I provided sample social media copy for almost every email and politely asked people to share.
• I provided my handle and asked to be tagged on Twitter so I could help amplify their posts.
• I texted 3–5 close friends and asked them to tag specific reporters who might pick up on the op-ed in their tweets. We did see pile-on coverage by the reporters we targeted — though hard to know if that was due to our outreach or other causes.
• I sent emails to: my collaborators, everyone who helped revise the piece (20 people representing 6 organizations), peer organizations (24 people representing 18 organizations), journalists I’d taken op-ed workshops with in the past, journalists who helped me find contacts for pitching, 5 influencers (asked friends in my networks with better connections to the influencers to send over), 4 conferences where I’m speaking, my mentors, friends, and family.
• In total, over 100 people received a personal email / note from me about the piece.
• Others were publicly meaner about the piece’s argument than I was willing to be, which helped with social media virality.
• Most people shared from their personal accounts in addition to their organization’s social media accounts, which helped amplify further. They did this naturally without my asking.
• Having my own marketing plan was crucial for creating buzz, as every publication has different marketing practices and there is no guarantee the news outlet will promote your piece day-of. Often news outlets build in a lag between publish and promotion, and some publications strategically wait for organic buzz to die down before promoting on their channels.

If you would like to see my pitch letter, sample marketing outreach, sample social media, etc, tweet at me and I’ll share with you.

Happy writing!

Big thanks to Aspen Tech Policy Hub for encouraging this post.