How to get your freelance story published on Upworthy.
10 tips straight from the editor who reads your pitches.
By Jenni Whalen Gritters, Editor
At Upworthy, our mission is to drive massive amounts of attention to the topics that matter most.
We’re telling stories for a better world because we believe that we’re all part of the same story.
So far, we’ve inspired thousands of people to read about standing up to bullies. We’ve held big banks accountable, tackled tough topics like climate change, and challenged the world to do better when it comes to the stigma surrounding mental illness. And we’ve done this through surprising, emotional stories that have a visual element and are both meaningful and shareable (that’s the definition of “Upworthy”).
Did someone say emotions?
But to make the kind of difference we want to make in the world, we need to go even further. This year, we’re investing heavily in original storytelling that supports our mission. And that’s where you and your talents come in.
If you’re a content creator and you want to join us in this mission to make the world better together, we want you to pitch us!
Send us your best ideas for written stories, comics, and photo roundups. We even take personal essays. In fact, here’s a guide to what we’re looking for. It also explains how to pitch us.
As the lead editor for Upworthy’s freelance program, it’s my job to sort through all the story pitches that get sent our way.
Right now, we get more than 100 pitches each week, but we only pick a handful of those stories to be created and featured on Upworthy. So as you dream up your best Upworthy pitch, we want to explain why we pick certain story ideas and not others.
Key things really make certain pitches stand out from the crowd for us. Here’s a look at some of those things plus my best tips for landing a story on our site:
1. Read Upworthy before you pitch.
Even reading three or four stories will give you a sense for our unique tone, story structure, and the kinds of stories we’re interested in running. This is also covered in our pitch packet: We’re specifically looking for stories that are surprising, meaningful, visual, and shareable. Not every story we run will check all four of those boxes, but most stories will check at least three.
How we feel when your story checks all the boxes.
This goes hand in hand with writing your pitch. We can generally tell from just two sentences whether or not you’ll be able to nail the Upworthy voice in a story on our site, so read a few of our stories before you jump in, and make every sentence count!
2. We’re looking for stories, not topics.
We get pitches about topics all the time:
- “I really want to write about why lilies look beautiful in the spring.”
- “I want to talk about how hiking improves health.”
What we’re really interested in — rather than just topics — are pitches that contain narrative stories.
To move from an awesome idea to a topic to a story, you’ll want to read the competition’s work on the subject, do deep research, search for characters and conflict, and find something truly surprising and emotionally moving.
Instead of reading about lilies in the spring, we want to hear about the guy who stood on the street corner and handed out lilies to everyone he met for a week for an incredibly surprising reason. Give us excitement, surprise, and feelings by showing us in your pitch specifically and concretely what you’d like to publish on our site.
3. Pare down your “pitch description” to three incredible sentences.
Pretend you’re standing in an elevator with us and we only have 30 seconds to talk before our next meeting. What would you tell us about your story in those few seconds? Ideally, you’d start with the coolest and most surprising details — the things that make the story incredibly fascinating. By the time we hop out of the elevator, we should feel like we can’t miss your story.
GIF from “The Office.”
This goes for written pitches too. Be concise and spend time explaining your story in three carefully crafted sentences. By the time I get to the end of those sentences, I should be itching to learn more.
4. Spend time on your sample headline.
Our Editorial Director, Amy O’Leary, often says we’re in a “street fight for human attention” and that we need to give our stories their best shot at success by packaging them with care.
The same goes for your pitches: When we’re reading through a lineup of 50 pitches, we often scan headlines first to pick up on the highest potential options. If we read only your headline, would we want to read more? And if we dive deeper, does your pitch deliver on the promise of that headline?
5. If you’re pitching a list, give some item samples.
Ah, the listicle. We really love smartly written listicles and have published a number of great list-structured pieces from freelancers.
But if you’re pitching a list, give us a sample of two to three of the items so we can get a sense of where your story is headed. If the list items aren’t surprising and unique, we probably won’t take the story.
6. If you’re pitching a personal narrative, consider surprise.
We’ve also seen great success from personal narratives by freelancers who bring unique expertise or experiences to Upworthy’s readers.
However, we hope you’ll think hard before you pitch us a personal narrative. We only publish a few of these each month, so we look for people who can offer:
- A surprising new take on an experience we’ve all had
- A special level of expertise on a topic that’s currently in the public consciousness
- A fresh take on a surprising personal experience that people don’t usually talk about
This baby is so surprised and joyful! Help us be like this baby.
7. If you’re pitching a story that’s been covered elsewhere, explain your secret sauce.
Sometimes we get a pitch for an excellent story — then we’re sad to find that it’s already been covered 10 times in the past week by 10 different publications.
It’s almost impossible these days to run a story about a topic that’s NEVER ever been discussed on the internet. We get that. But if you’re pitching a story that’s already been covered elsewhere, think through how you’ll give us a fresh take on the story and what the “Upworthy angle” might be. We don’t just want to repeat someone else’s work!
8. Always include information about visuals in your pitch.
We have lots of data to prove that visual stories generally do better on the interwebs; people love to SEE what they’re reading. This is a big part of the pitching process, so please don’t pitch us if you don’t have photos to include in the piece or at least ideas for photos (that you have access to) that could work in the piece.
9. Read through your pitch before you submit it.
This might seem like a “duh” item, but lots of typos come through our freelance airwaves. Please, please re-read your pitch before sending it through. Edit for grammar. Do not send us pitches addressed to “Unworthy.” (Yes, we know Upworthy autocorrects to Unworthy.) Make sure your pitch is a piece of strong writing in and of itself.
How we feel when we get “Unworthy” emails.
GIF from “Glee.”
10. Don’t get discouraged if and when your pitch gets rejected.
We reject so, so many pitches every day, and there are many reasons for those rejections. Usually it’s not you, it’s us. We have a finite budget, so we have to be incredibly picky.
Sometimes your story will almost make it to the pile of chosen stories, but another pitch will edge it out just slightly. Sometimes we’ll have written on that topic five times already this month, so we’ll prioritize other pitches. Sometimes the tone of your pitch might not be just right. Sometimes the story won’t be surprising enough. Sometimes there won’t be visuals included in the pitch.
Whatever the reason, every person who has written for Upworthy as a freelancer in the past has had a pitch rejected by us at some point. Even our staff writers have story ideas rejected on a daily basis.
The most important thing is not to give up after that rejection. Take our notes, read the site, and come back with polished pitches that are even stronger. It can take a while to get the hang of the Upworthy way, and we hope you don’t get discouraged or take it personally.
GIF from “Full House.”
And remember: This is just how things work at Upworthy.
Other publications have other rules and recommendations; this is just our best rule book for pitching Upworthy with your most awesome work.
We look forward to seeing your pitches in the coming weeks!
If you’re a PR professional or someone looking to have a campaign covered, you can email pitches@upworthy.com. We get so many of those emails that we can’t always respond, but we do our best.
At this time, we aren’t looking for original video pitches within this program. If you’ve already made a video that you think could be a good fit for Upworthy, you can email that video to links@upworthy.com for potential licensing opportunities.
