Welcome to the Salient quick and dirty guide to pitching. Do you have an idea for a news article, feature, review, podcast or column? This is how you get the editors to publish it. ​ If you have no idea what to write but know that you want to get your work into Salient’s pages - best to come see us in the Salient Office in the Student Union Building, and we can have a chat about where and how you can contribute to Salient. ​ Already got a draft? Send it in with a quick pitch following the guide below. ​ Before You Pitch Take a look at our themes for the year, and see where your idea might fit best or come up with ideas to align with a theme. Find the themes here: Issue Themes And this should go without saying - but have a read of Salient. Look at what has been published in past issues, and you’ll get an idea of the work that fits in Salient. Introduce Yourself If we’ve never met you, we wanna know who you are and why you want to write this pitch. Keep it brief. Make sure you include your name, pronouns, and iwi/hapū affiliation. Elevator Pitch A short paragraph outlining the kaupapa of your piece. This should include what the main point of the piece will be - the crux of the article, what kind of article it is (investigate? Personal essay? Listicle? if you’re unsure, see our writing guidelines), and any stylist notes, such as the tone of the writing. If you have any title ideas, here is the place to let them loose. ​ Target Audience Who are you aiming at with this piece? Who is most likely to read it and be interested in it? This is your target audience - and it must align with Salient uni student readership. ​ Why? Persuade us - why does your column/feature/review/nudes/finsta etc belong in Salient? What is it bringing to the magazine that is new, or hasn’t been done before? If you pitching to a specific issue, how does your article align with that theme? ​ How? This involves execution. We want to know that you can follow through with this piece and that you have a plan to do it. Especially if it’s a feature article, include a list of three to four people or places you can go to for interviews, and research you intend to carry out. If you haven’t left your desk, you haven’t written a feature. ​ Final Tips  It can be awkward learning to vouch for your writing for the first time, but back yourself and be confident. No one else is gonna vouch for your idea but you. ​ Feel free to come in and meet us first if it’ll make pitching easier - we always love meeting new contributors. The Salient Office is deep in the bowels of the Student Union building - down the stairs, past the bubble, through the doors and up the stairs to the right. ​ Finally: Don’t be boring. Other than that, go forth, write, keep writing, and come back to us soon. Send your pitch to editor@salient.org.nz, with PITCH and a working title in the subject line. News If you want to write news, go straight to horse’s mouth news@salient.org.nz. ​ Podcasts If you want to pitch a podcast, send it to podcasts@salient.org ​ Features Send us a pitch to editor@salient.org.nz. Features are around 1000 - 2000 words and can be about anything. They generally cover a specific, researched topic. ​ Column  Send a pitch to editor@salient.org.nz. Tell us what you want the column to be called and what you want to write about. You can write about anything. ​ For example, ‘Liquid Knowledge’ broke down things like cryptocurrency and OnlyFans so you could use them for pub chat. Word count: 250 (half page) or 500 (full page). You could submit on a weekly bi-weekly or just semi-regular basis. ​ Reviews Send a pitch to editor@salient.org.nz. We look for food, film, music, fashion, TV reviews or sports chat. You could also review your flatmates or the bus system.