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I am lucky to work with amazing writers every day, most of whom are not Citizen staff but who feel strongly enough about an issue that they send me an opinion submission. Here are a few tips for how to increase your chances of publication.
THE BASICS
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THE BASICS
- There is no need to query first. Just send the piece, preferably of about 600 words, to me at kheartfield@ottawacitizen.com, as an attachment or in the body of the email.
- Include a sentence or two about yourself at the bottom of the piece, for publication.
- If you want to make my life easy, include the word count in the body of the email.
- If you’d rather send me a pitch to gauge my interest in a topic, I will respond, but I won’t guarantee I’ll run anything until I read it. Once you’ve worked with me a few times and I know your style, I can give you a better idea of whether I’ll want a piece on a given topic or not. Early on, it’s most useful to just send a complete draft.
- You may address me as “Kate,” or “Ms. Heartfield,” or “Dear Editor”, or even just “Hi there.” If you address me as “Sir”, I will grumble.
- Don’t worry about the headline. We’ll write it.
- You may submit elsewhere at the same time, but if another editor says “yes”, please let me know immediately. It is considerate to let me know when you submit that you are sending it elsewhere.
- I will never run your piece without getting in touch first.
- You don’t need to persuade me that the piece will resonate with readers or is important. Just tell me briefly who you are, and what relevant expertise you have, and then let the piece speak for itself.
- An editorial is written by a newspaper’s staff, usually the editorial board
- An oped is an occasional opinion piece by a guest writer
- A column is an opinion piece by a writer who appears regularly, and has a photo above their byline
- A letter to the editor, for publication, is about 200 words and can be sent to letters@ottawacitizen.com.
- Your opinion piece should have, and state, a clear thesis.
- If your thesis is “people should be paying more attention to (issue)”, consider going deeper into that and coming up with either a surprising analysis, or a strong prescription.
- If you can be timely, do. But also be aware that time-sensitivity can work against you. This is when it’s good to pitch first: if there’s big breaking news, shoot me a quick email letting me know you’d like to write on it, and I can let you know whether I have something lined up for the next day on it or not.
- I am always looking for more submissions from women, who are underrepresented in newspaper opinion sections.
- I get far, far more on foreign affairs than I can use. I am always looking for opeds on local issues, and on national politics.
- I am not a fan of open letters.
- The first person is fine, when it’s justified. Don’t use it to clear your throat, in phrases such as, “I think that…”
- Please use Canadian spellings and double quotation marks. If in doubt about capitalization, err on the side of lower case (the government, not the Government.)
- Please try to eliminate jargon and fuzzy, academic language.
- If you have online sources, include them as links. These links will probably appear in the web version.
- I usually respond to submissions within three days. If you haven’t heard after five days, feel free to query by email. Please do not call to let me know you’ve submitted or ask if I received the piece. If you submit very frequently, I may choose to respond to you only when I want to accept a piece.
- I typically get about 30 submissions per day, and can accept one or two.
- Rejection can mean any number of things, including that I simply don’t have enough space that week, or that I have too many pieces on a single topic, or that it just didn’t grab me for whatever reason. Please do submit again. Please do not respond to the rejection, not even to say “thanks.” It just clutters up my already cluttered email.
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