Pitches wanted (travel, food, etc.) | ~37 to 60 cents per word

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: EATER

Jesse Sparks, Senior Editor at Eater, is looking for pitches: 

I'm taking pitches for Eater's specialty newsletters/columns, specifically for Travel and The Move! I'll break down a few tips for pitching these NLs. Here we go!

TRAVEL 

• TL;DR: brief, passionate narratives making the case for why you should travel to a specific place to visit a restaurant, learn about a culinary tradition, or eat a dish or food.

• It's great to pitch me BEFORE you go but I'm equally open to retrospectives!

• The most successful pitches here go beyond "This is a thing" and "I did this on vacation." The key question to focus on is "How will this improve someone else's experience, or help them better appreciate the people, cultures, and foods that they might not normally have proximity to?"

• A quick way to gauge the success of this in your pitch: ask yourself, "If I were on a coffee date with a brutally honest person and told them about this pitch, would they be interested or find it helpful?"

• Are the takeaways clear, tangible, and meaningful, even to a stranger?

THE MOVE: 

• What is the best, most actionable advice you have to help other people improve their experience dining out at restaurants? We're really pushing the restaurant focus here!

• Again, even if the piece is in the first person, the focus here is ~service~ What would most help other people? What were the tips you were introduced to you that changed your dining game?

• These don't have to be life-changing each time, but they should be meaningful to you

• As always, I have so many thoughts on pitching and structure and blah blah blah but I always want to leave ya with something tangible to get started (It's not fair for me to ask all of this of you and not return the favor, right?)

Aliza Abarbanel put together a really beautiful and thorough guide for how to pitch food pubs and beyond: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HiKWkOgCblPVQK9tAsuM9wD1rlSz3MTPu8wXiz_sPJA/edit

It's a great place to go anytime you have an idea but are wondering whether your pitch is ready to send.

And of course the most important stuff: Compensation!

These newsletters typically clock in between 500 and 800 words, but typically brevity is preferred.
I’m able to offer $300 per newsletter assignment, so if you nail that 600-word mark, that’d be 50 cents/word.

This rate reflects the heavily personal angles of these kinds of pieces and the lack of formal in-depth reporting or prior expertise that a more in-depth feature might require. So, pitches should be thoughtful but don’t stress yourself out trying to find the perfect angle or idea.

HINGS THAT WILL MAKE ME IMMEDIATELY SAY NO:

• already covered by Eater/others

• too PR-y (we get the same pr emails)

• doesn’t reflect something novel

• doesn’t show the writer has sat with their idea

• no clear thesis/nut graf/clearly laid out explanation of why this matters now

• plagiarism/vomiting ideas from the TL/FYP discourses without advancing or adding thought or value

• not treating hospitality workers like people

• just a recap of your weekend

• fake PR holidays

• major chain coverage that doesn’t have a clear peg as to why we’re talking about them

• pre-written drafts/pieces

• pieces that are obviously getting blasted everywhere (nothing wrong w pitching multiple pubs, but Eater’s audience craves informed guidance and a zeal for new experiences that won’t be a tonal fit for other pubs)

• pieces that are just advertisements

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CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

• Questions/submissions: jesse@eater.com

• Website: https://boston.eater.com

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: Eater is a digital media brand dedicated to all things food and dining. Eater’s coverage ranges from extensive city maps and travel dining guides marking all the best places to eat, punchy editorials exploring the cultural significance of what and how we eat, in-depth industry investigations, and light-hearted ruminations on food fads and cooking tips and tricks. More information here.

• Read through its selection of articles/stories, categorized into: Travel, The Move

• Review the submission tips here.

• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook Database and at SuccessfulPitches.com.

• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.

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