Most of the writers for Eidolon are academics, and most academics have never written a pitch for an online publication before. As a result, we receive many pitches that make one of the following mistakes:
- the pitch is too short, giving us little idea of what your approach will be and what sources you plan to use
- the pitch is too formal and therefore doesn’t fit our tone and style
- the pitch isn’t a pitch at all, but is instead an email with a long essay attached
But don’t despair! These pitfalls, while common, aren’t hard to avoid. This is exactly what we want to see in a pitch:
- Be engaging. Remember: we’re judging your writing based on the email itself, because that’s our best (sometimes only) guide. If your writing feels stodgy, it makes us worry that your article will, too.
- Be a part of the conversation. A few links to articles around the web that relate to your topic always help!
- Be concise, but specific. Your pitch should be 2–3 paragraphs: one or two sketching out your topic, sources, and argumentation strategy, and one telling us who you are.
- Tell us who you are. That means, first of all, your academic affiliation and rank. Neither of these pieces of information will ever count against your article. We’ve published articles by everyone from high school students to full professors, including independent scholars without affiliations. The purpose of the information is to give us a better idea of where you’re coming from and why you can do a better job with your topic than anyone else. You should also tell us about your relevant research interests, outside interests, and other work on related topics. If you’ve previously written something for a broad audience, link to it!
- Do not send a complete essay as an attachment. This is especially true if the essay is long and in a scholarly style; it is next to impossible for us to see how you plan to transform it into a 2.5K word article in a less formal tone. The only circumstance in which you should send a complete article is if your piece is already under 1.5K words and written for a broad audience. (In that case, don’t send it as an attachment. Include it in the email itself.)
- Please read a few Eidolon articles before pitching to us. It’s clear to us when writers haven’t done this, because their proposed articles don’t fit our journal.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably an academic, so you want to do more research. We hear you. There’s a ton of information about this topic. Feel free to read up. Some of those links are to articles about pitching in specific fields, but much of the advice will be widely applicable. (Some also give conflicting advice, but if you’ve ever had dissertation advisers or submitted an article to a peer-reviewed journal, that sensation should be disquietingly familiar.)
As one final guide, here’s an example of a successful pitch by Eidolon editorial board member Helen Morales:
Dear Editors,
Would you be interested in the following?: a piece on how modern health and dieting misappropriate Hippocrates, and how, if we want to look to the ancient world for validation of modern health practices, then Aristotle’s ideas about eating and gluttony are much closer to the ‘intuitive eating’ (ie anti-dieting) approach to health, than the ‘war on obesity’ (pro-dieting) approach. I might float the idea that it was the Romans who invented ‘fatness’ (the association of large and fleshy bodies with transgression and disapproval), and will interweave the argument with reflections on what it is to be a fat classicist. (‘Fat Classics and the Hijacking of Hippocrates’ is a possible title but I’m not wedded to it).
By way of introduction, I’m a Professor of Classics at UCSB, worked formerly at the University of Cambridge in England, and enjoy writing for different audiences. My most recent book is ‘Pilgrimage to Dollywood: A Country Music Road Trip Through Tennessee’ (Chicago).
Detailed, clear, part of an existing (and controversial!) debate about dieting. And the proposal to include personal reflections in the article is the icing on the cake — we love a strong authorial voice. This pitch tells us exactly what the article will look like and transmits confidence that the writer will handle the topic well. The resulting article can be found here. Unfortunately, we can’t all be Helen Morales, but we can do our best to emulate her.
When your pitch is ready, send it to us here, and don’t be offended if you don’t hear from us immediately. We try to respond to all pitches within a week or two. If you haven’t heard from us by then, you can send a follow-up gently asking if we’ve had a chance to read it yet.
