Slate Fare

Send Us Your #SlatePitch

Enter the 2020 Slate Plus pitch slam.

An open laptop next to a mug of coffee, a notepad and pen, and an iPhone.
Time to send us your best ideas. Andrew Neel/Unsplash

Got an idea for something you’d like to write for Slate? During the Slate Plus pitch slam, we’re inviting members to pitch Slate editors with stories they’d like to write for us.

How it works:
Post your idea for a story you’d like to write in the comments section below. You can submit up to three ideas. Please put each one in a separate comment so we can follow up appropriately. Check out your fellow members’ pitches. Like your favorites; ask questions; make suggestions. Slate editors will jump into the thread to discuss the most promising ideas. When we find an idea we like, we’ll commission the piece, edit it, and run it on Slate! (And pay you for it, obviously.)

The editors will begin commenting in about a week, and we’ll close submissions on March 20. So start pitching!

Wait, what if I’m not a Slate Plus member?
Everyone is welcome to pitch Slate—refer to this guide to learn how.

The pitch slam is an opportunity for members to interact with Slate’s editors, to refine their pitches, and to vote for their favorite ideas—and a way for us to learn about Slate Plus members.

Some tips for the pitch slam:
• Check out this guide to pitching Slate.
• Foreground the argument you want to make, not just the topic you want to tackle.
• Use your pitch to demonstrate that you can write something we’ll enjoy reading.
• Google your idea to make sure that other publications (or writers for Slate) haven’t done it already.
• Look through the ideas and advice offered in our first, second, and third pitch slams.
• Learn from previous winners Diana Martinez, Haley Swenson, and Steve Kraus.

Good luck, and thanks for helping us make Slate.