How to Pitch Yourself Effectively for Any Job

Including real pitch examples!

Pitching yourself and selling yourself effectively is extremely important for writers, as well as ANYONE who sells products, services, or themselves.

It’s imperative that you find your voice and create an “elevator pitch” to use when selling yourself.

What’s an elevator pitch? An elevator pitch is a sales term for being able to highlight whatever you’re selling in just a few sentences — as long a time as you’d be in an elevator with someone. You want to get them to see your value in the time it takes to get from the 7th floor to the lobby.

The dictionary defines it as “a succinct and persuasive sales pitch.”

As a writer, you need to be able to pitch yourself for guest posts, market yourself to potential clients, sell yourself and your work to agents or publishers for books, to be on podcasts and in articles, or any situation in which you’re trying to sell yourself or market your work.

When I meet someone for the first time and am doing my elevator pitch, it sounds like this:

Hi, I’m Jyssica Schwartz. I’m a full-time freelance writer and editor. I have a ton of experience in blogging, copywriting, book editing, and helping first-time authors write their own nonfiction books. I’m also a traditionally published author and I’d love to learn more about your specific writing or editing needs.

Pitching yourself via email is typically longer than just a few sentences but has the same method and approach of being succinct while giving value-add information.

Pitching for Free Work vs. Pitching Yourself for a Job

Doing a free guest post for a popular blog or site can give you some great exposure and if it’s something you’re interested in, go for it!

But pitching yourself for a job is different and will include different and additional elements (detailed in the next section).

Be careful to have BOTH types of pitches and be smart about how you’re selling yourself for different opportunities.

For example, if I were pitching an article to a site as a guest post, I’d say something like:

Hi, my name is Jyssica Schwartz, a writer and editor based in NYC. I love your site www.whateveritis.com and especially enjoyed your recent post on That Topic. I’ve written an article about This Topic and believe it would fit well with your audience. It’s an original unpublished article and I have attached it here.

If This Topic isn’t the best fit, I’ve also brainstormed two other articles on Topic B and Topic C. You can see more of my writing on Medium and my website and here are two recent articles I’m proud of: link1, link2.

I’m a published author of three books and have around 6000 followers on my blog and 5000 social media followers. I would, of course, share your site with my network and promote the post.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,

Jyssica

This gives the site owner plenty of information, which I share in a dedicated post about finding guest posting opportunities.

Pitching Yourself for a Paying Job

When it comes to emailing someone about a paying job, my approach is similar but has a few specific differences.

You’d include the same general information, but will want to have additional things included, such as:

• Your pay rate
• Timelines/deadlines
• Experience in that topic
• Ask for a phone call to discuss further

And anything they specifically ask for in the job ad.

Here is a REAL email I sent recently to a prospective client about a nonfiction writing and editing role (which I got):

Subject: Writer & Editor for [company name]

Hello, my name is Jyssica Schwartz and I’m a full-time writer and editor based in NYC.

I believe I would be a good fit for your nonfiction writing and editing role, as I already do quite a bit of blogging and ghostwriting, as well as a lot of book editing. I specialize in nonfiction editing and have worked with several different online publishers as an “in-house editor” and with many different companies as a blogger, copywriter, and proofreader.

My experience in [topic] includes blogging and maintaining the blogs for [company A] and [company B] (include links). I’m a strong editor and work collaboratively using either Google docs or MS Word track changes.

Nonfiction books I have recently edited include: Break the (food) Rules and The Spiritual Journey of Entrepreneurship.

I am also providing 2 writing samples from my Medium blog, which has over 7300 followers.

Top 3 Myths of Freelancing Debunked: https://readmedium.com/top-3-myths-of-freelancing-debunked-668839f03140

How to Get and Keep Clients as a Freelancer: https://readmedium.com/how-to-get-keep-clients-13c0f69119b

You can see more of my writing on my Medium blog at medium.com/@jyssicaschwartz and more about me and my experience on my website at jyssicaschwartz.com. My resume is attached and you can reach me at [email] and [phone number].

Do you have time tomorrow between 2–4 pm Eastern time to jump on a call to discuss your needs and how I can help?

My rate is 15 cents per word or can easily do a per-project or monthly rate if preferred. In terms of timeline, writing a 1000-word article would be a 48-hour turnaround and editing a 1000-word article would be a 24-hour turnaround.

Thank you and I look forward to working with you,

Jyssica

You can see the difference in my contact. It is similar in many ways to pitching myself for the free guest post, in that I include writing samples and general information, but it’s more specialized and customized for the role I want. It’s longer and links to related experience, in addition to the writing samples.

Conclusion

As you can see, it’s important to be able to pitch yourself but you also need to customize your approach to the specific opportunity and tailor what experience you share, the writing samples you send, etc.

Good luck with your pitches!

How do your pitches differ from mine? What do YOU find to be most effective?

Check out my brand new book Concept to Conclusion: How to Write a Book and learn everything you need to know to conceive of, outline, write, publish, and market a book!

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