Sending a pitch letter is a great way to get your story covered, with out one you might be wasting time. When I worked as a newspaper editor, one of my biggest frustrations was people who called to suggest a story idea, but couldn't explain to me why my readers should care. When I asked them why we should write about them, they would respond with ridiculous answers like "Because we've never been in the paper before" or "I'd like to surprise my mother with an article about me." Even worse were people who had no clue about what kinds of stories we covered. If they did suggest something I was interested in, they sometimes didn't have all the facts or details at hand.

Also, more often than not, the people with the best ideas seemed to call on deadline. I usually asked them to send me a pitch letter detailing their idea. Then I could spend a few minutes reading it, and take a little more time to decide if I was interested, or if there was a better angle that we could pursue. If I liked the idea immediately, I could pass the letter along to the reporter who covered that beat without having to explain all the details of what the story idea was about.

With a written pitch letter, you can get in front of an editor twice-once with the letter, then again when you make your follow-up phone call. A pitch letter doesn't need to tell the whole story. All it needs to do is attract the interest of an editor or news director. That sounds easier than it is. So to learn the steps to writing the perfect pitch letter, see Special Report # 7 "How to Write the Perfect Pitch Letter That Convinces an Editor to Write About You"