As a way to increase the qual­ity of the many sub­mis­sions they receive, This Amer­i­can Life staff offer some excel­lent tips on writ­ing pitches. They go fur­ther, pre­sent­ing four pitches that made it on air, describ­ing why they succeeded:

  • Each of these sto­ries is a story in the most tra­di­tional sense: there are char­ac­ters in some sit­u­a­tion, and a conflict.
  • These pitch­ers are clear about who the char­ac­ters are and what the con­flict is.
  • Each of these sto­ries raises some big­ger ques­tion or issue, some uni­ver­sal thing to think about.
  • Finally, they’re brief.

On that last one (brevity), they offer fur­ther advice. This time I find the advice goes much fur­ther than just radio or TV pitches, but pitches of any type:

Select a short, self-contained sec­tion that might make a nice […] story and send us a cou­ple para­graphs describ­ing that sec­tion. […] Assume any­thing over 12 pages will not be read. If you have a hard time choos­ing an excerpt, then spend a page or two explain­ing what your book or doc­u­men­tary is about, and telling us a few of your favorite moments. If you have some ongo­ing project on your web­site or blog that you think might be inter­est­ing on the show, don’t just send us a link to your archives — paste a few choice excerpts into your pitch. Help us love you! Help us find your best, most radio-friendly material!