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To Pitch An Article
Idea,
Start With This Page; Study
The 'What We Need Most" List |
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Do
You Want To Write For Creative Screenwriting Magazine?
You're Invited By The Editors To Pitch Article And Regular
Column Ideas
Dear Reader,
Creative Screenwriting Magazine is seeking reporters, bloggers,
and feature writers on certain topics. We invite you to pitch to
be a one-time or regular contributor.
At the risk of dampening your enthusiasm or sending you away from this
page discouraged, please understand this: we need what we
need, which may not be that article you are just dying to see in print
below your byline. So please do study our "What we need" list if
you are interested in writing for us.
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THE ''WHAT
WE NEED NOW" LIST
We continue to receive a lot of "interview with a writer" and
"Q&A with a producer" proposals. We're currently
overstocked
with
ideas in those two areas. Here is...
What
We Need Most And Now-- See Below For Details:
- #1
A regular (possibly weekly)
reporter/blogger to cover new feature script sales, hot scripts, and
script subjects being sought.
- #2 A regular
(possibly weekly)
reporter/blogger to cover new scriptwriting opportunities
in TV:
new shows just sold, when to seek writing work where, and script
subjects being sought.
- #3. For our May-June issue:
Articles on screenwriting contests. An overview of the major
contests, sidebars listing contests and their deadlines and contact
informations, success stories arising from contests (we have several
ourselves from our own contests).
- For our
July-August issue: articles on screenwriting education, the film
schools, scriptwriting schools, and other articles on the value of
formal screenwriting education.
- Needed soon For an upcoming issue:
articles covering all the other (non-contest, non-school)
resources for screenwriters: software, web sites, services, online
script services of all kinds, great web sites for writers.
- A new regular bimonthly
column on craft, by an expert.
- More "Know Your
Show" articles and updates.
- Reporting
On/Analyzing The Niche Scriptwriting Markets
- New
resources: brief descriptive reports (reports, not
book reviews) on
new books, software, and other resources.
Your best
chances of writing for us lie with the
subjects above. Please see the "What We Do Not Want" list before pitching your favorite idea. Also, be aware of our deadlines.
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To pitch an article to us,
please read all of this page, then fill out the pitch form.
(Why a pitch form?)
Please
do not email article pitch ideas to any of our editors unless
asked.
You will be redirected to this page.
Have
the following ready before you start to pitch
an article:
- A synopsis or
description of
the article, blog, column, or series you are pitching.
- MOST
IMPORTANT: A draft of the lead
paragraph of your article or a sample article in the series.
Base it on the facts as you know
them
today or what you think will be when the research is done.
The
facts may
change as you research, of course. Here is what we
are
looking for: (a) Can you write a good magazine lead article?
(b) Can you write in our style? Download
back issues first if
you don't have any--see below. (c) Do you really have the idea
nailed down well enough? (d) How good is your grammar? NOTE: the pitch
form has a field for this parargaph.
Put this draft of the lead there. Do not write
anything in that field other than this lead paragraph.
Do not
give
us a note or
an explanation in this field. Put ONLY the draft lead
paragraph
itself in this
field. If you choose not to follow this instruction,
or if
your
lead paragraph is not a reasonably good magazine or newspaper-style
lead paragraph, you are wasting your
time pitching an article idea.
- Your bio, in our style, as it
would appear on our "Contributors" page.
(Download an issue below and look at our bio format; do not give us a
200-word bio.)
- A working
knowledge of our
magazine and the types of articles we seek, as outlined below.
You'll need an issue or
two of the magazine for guidance on our style. You
can download these three issues:
March-April
2010 issue
November-December,
2008 issue
January-February
2009 issue
January-February
2008 issue
Know
Your Show, Part 1 of the original series
Know
Your Show, Part 2 of the original series
Read the contract
summary and the full contract terms
terms under which you are pitching an idea.
Don't submit if
you don't understand or if you don't agree with the contract
terms.
Kinds
Of Articles We Want And Don't Want: Please Read Carefully
We urge you
to also study the content of our magazine for the
kinds and quality of information we seek.
We Do
Regularly Want These Kinds Of Articles (Gold-Starred Items Are Highest Priority):
URGENT: see item #6 for the May-June Creative Screenwriting issue
 #1--Latest Feature Script Sales, Hot Scripts, Hot
Markets:
a blog or report on new script sales, hot scripts, and script subjects
being sought. Weekly or biweekly basis; pay to be negotiated. You will
also need to capture this
information in a spreadsheet or database.
#2--Similarly, What Is Hot In
TV:
a blog or report on new
scriptwriting opportunities in TV: new shows just sold, when
to
seek writing work where, and script subjects being sought..
Weekly or biweekly basis; pay to be
negotiated. You will also need to capture this
information in a spreadsheet or database.
#3-- How-To Column On Craft:
we are seeking to add another regular column, report, or blog about the
art and craft of screenwriting. We would also be interested in similar
coverage of the business, and
legal issues of screenwriting and the screenwriting life.
Caveat: you will need to have
proven credentials for the topic.
#4--"Know
Your Show" Articles On TV shows: We want more
articles on what
individual TV
shows want and how to scope them out and spec them. Important:
study prior "Know Your Show" articles in our Jan-Feb.
2008 and Jan-Feb 2009 issues so you know what we want.
#5--A
Regular "Books, Software, And Other Resources" Blog Or Column: The
key differences between traditional book reviews and what we want
are: (a) We want to inform our readers briefly and factually
about what
is there and what is not there in a book, not give your
opinions (If it is not useful, we don't want to cover it);
and (b) we
are looking for a reporter to cover the field, not just
review a book here and there. The mini-book reviews that
appear in The
New Yorker after the main book review are close to an example of what
we want. A potential side benefit: often, you get to keep the
book, software, or other resource free.
#6. Articles for the May-June Contest Issue, for the July-August Education Issue, and for the September-October "Tools of the Trade" issue.
These issues will include our regular content, but also will have
features focusing on these subjects. We'll want a contest
roundup, a schools roundup, a roundup on screenwriter resources,
success stories, and sidebars with contact information for all three.,
Also
sought:
People
& News
Articles ("The Buzz," etc.):
short (200-500-word) news articles about screenwriting and writers,
events, what people are talking
about. New ways to gain exposure and sell.
"Breaking in"
articles up to 500 words.
Writing For
Niche-Market Movie Audiences.
What is a niche? Here's a rough definition: if a
movie is
on only one screen in town or in your part of the city, it's probably a
niche movie. Straight-to-DVD is a writing niche.
Other
niches include gay-themed films; films aimed principally at
the
African-American or Hispanic middle class; indie films on "serious"
subjects aimed principally at an over-30 audiences; low-budget
sci-fi, horror, and comedy-horror (some of Roger Corman's
output,
and much of that of Troma Entertainment, for example), and such markets
as direct-to-DVD horror.
Writers Of
Foreign Films.
If you can land an interview with the writer or
writer-director
of a significant foreign film which did or might influence the U.S.
film market, by all means pitch the story to us. Caveat:
be prepared to deliver what you propose.
We
Very Emphatically and Definitely DO NOT Want:
- "My
story as a struggling, aspiring screenwriter" or variations thereof,
such as "the Unknown Screenwriter Speaks For All Unknown
Screenwriters." Yes, your
struggle IS a worthy
struggle. And yes, we DO know it is difficult. But
it is
not news to our readers. They've been there, done that, and they are
there, doing that.
- Advice from sources
without the credentials to give advice. Producers, produced
directors and writers, agents, screenwriting teachers, script
analysts,
studio execs, and studio readers have credentials. If you're
an
unproduced writer, your credentials will not "sell" your story
to
our
readers.
- Interviews
with movie screenwriters
-- especially press-junket
or press-conference interviews with writers. We
assign one-on-one interviews to writers already on
staff, on a schedule that coincides with releases. Your chances
of a green light on an article on a screenwriter are very low to
nonexistent. We have little to no room for more articles on
screenwriters.
- Scholarly
journal articles or film theory. Our principal audience is
working and aspiring film and TV writers, not scholars.
- Fan-magazine
articles or articles that read like fan magazine articles. Our readers
are writers who seek professional insights on every topic that will
help them improve and advance. If a sentence does
not meet that
standard, it shouldn't be in the article.
- Your
opinions on Hollywood, writers,
directors producers, or movies in general, especially not adoring
treatises on why Writer X is so brilliant, or the opposite, why
everything Hollywood makes is, in your view, crap. Our
readers do not want
YOUR opinions about filmmakers or TV writers.
Readers want THEIR perspectives, THEIR
how-it's-done ideas, and THEIR artistic choices.
- Movie reviews, long book reviews,
software reviews, or DVD
reviews. (However, see the item about a "Resources"
column.)
- Weak
writing, poor grammar, spelling mistakes.
This is a magazine
for
writers. They get upset with us if they see bad writing.
If the
grammar is bad in your pitch, then you will not stand a chance of
writing for
us.
- Poorly written articles.
You will need to
know how to
write a magazine or hard-news article, and especially the lead
paragraph. The pitch form asks for your
first draft of a lead paragraph. This
field is very important.
It
shows us very quickly whether you are a capable writer of a magazine
article. Please re-read item #2 above. We mean it.
Again, Know What Deadline You Are Writing
Against
Here
are the deadlines.
Next: Read
The Summary Of Our Terms, Then Pitch
Use the "click to pitch" button
below or click here
to read a brief summary of our writer contract and our terms
for pitching, then go to the Article Pitch Form.
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Why
Do We Require This Annoying Form Instead Of Letting You Email
A Pitch? Here Are Nine Reasons:
1.
By going through this process, you will have a much clearer
idea of what we want and don't want. Why
waste your
time writing up and emailing your great idea if it isn't what we are
looking for?
2.
This process captures all the information needed to evaluate your
pitch, all at
once. That saves multiple people here from multiple emails
with you later.
3. Your pitch becomes available immediately
to all our editors when you submit it.
4. This form collects the information for our
bookkeeping department to pay you, our advertising department, and our
legal advisers for contracting purposes.
5. Your pitch won't
get lost or buried in email, and our editors will have
access to it 24 hours a day.
6. It spells out the contract
terms. You will know what the deal is before you
pitch.
7. It will show us that you can (or can't) write a
magazine lead in our style.
8.
It captures your bio for the "Contributors" page of the magazine so we
don't have email you later when we're on deadline.
9.
It eliminates those exchanges of email seeking whatever
bits of information might be left out of an emailed pitch.
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