- March 27, 1 p.m. ET
A big feature in a glossy magazine can bring more than financial rewards. Writing for top publications strengthens your platform and boosts your chances of receiving a prestigious fellowship, or even a book deal. On the practical side, working with highly skilled editors will boost your writing and reporting skills. However, breaking into top-tier magazines takes an exceptionally good pitch letter.
In this webcast, a panel of editors will explain what they need to see in a top pitch letter. (Hint: you’ll need more than a winning idea.) A great pitch also needs to include the right information about yourself to convince the editor that you have the chops to pull off the story you’re proposing.
Finally, the panel will also detail exactly what they expect of writers in one-on-one pitch meetings, such as AHCJ’s annual Freelance PitchFest.
Participating editors:
Jihan Thompson has covered health for O, The Oprah Magazine for more than two years. She handles front-of-book wellness stories that range from nutrition pieces to medical trend stories to scientific breakthroughs to first-person narratives, as well as edits well features on a range of topics. Prior to joining O, she was an editor at Redbook and Marie Claire magazines. She enjoys running half-marathons and testing out new fitness classes.
Becky Lang is a senior editor at Discover Magazine, where she’s worked since early 2013. She moved to the magazine world from newspapers after 11 years as the health/science/environment editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She’s been writing and editing as a job since high school, where she covered minor league baseball in Helena, Mont. She’s a graduate of Northwestern University. She loves skiing, hiking and camping with her 11-year-old son, and hanging out with their two dogs.
Anna Miller is a consumer advice reporter at U.S. News & World Report, where she covers fitness, nutrition, mental health and more. She also edits the popular “Eat Run” blog and manages U.S. News Health’s social media accounts. Previously, she was associate editor of Monitor on Psychology and gradPSYCH magazines, and has freelanced for The Washington Post and its weekend magazine. Miller earned her master’s degree in interactive journalism from American University in 2014.
The webcast will be moderated by Jeanne Erdmann, an award-winning freelance health and science writer based near St. Louis. Her stories have appeared in Discover, Women’s Health, Slate, Aeon, The Washington Post, Nature Medicine, Nature and many other outlets. She also co-founded and co-produces The Open Notebook, a craft-focused website for science writers.
How to participate
Click here to go to the webcast page; a link will appear on that page about 15 minutes before it begins.
NOTE: This is exclusively for AHCJ members; you will need to be logged in to the website. If you’re having trouble logging in, please email info@healthjournalism.org.
