If you’re interested in pitching an article of your very own to us, read on, as we’re about to explain how to be in the first category of people. This page explains where and how to pitch, outlines our current freelance rates, and makes it extra easy for you by explaining the kinds of articles we’re currently looking for.
Where to send your pitch
We currently have one commissioning editor:
Alice Bell (deputy editor)
You can send your pitch to any commissioning editor; they’ll confer and make the decision with other editorial staff anyway. Those links go straight to their email addresses, by the way.
What to include in your pitch
Start the subject with “Pitch: “, followed by a summary of your article idea. For example: “Pitch: Why Baldur’s Gate XIII-2 was the best in the series” or “Pitch: Gears Tactics ate my dog”. Start with an introduction of who you are, giving a sense of your experience in a sentence or two if we haven’t worked with you much or at all. Explain your article idea in a couple of paragraphs. If you can’t summarise your topic or argument in that amount of space, you might need to focus your idea more. Also consider including a proposed headline. At the other end of the scale, don’t send a pitch that is just a couple of sentences. “Stray is a game with a cat in it. I want to write about how Stray speaks to my experience as a person with cat allergies” is not telling me anything about the article you want to write. Include links to writing samples, if we haven’t worked with you much or at all. It doesn’t matter if those writing samples are on a major website or your own blog, but we do need a demonstration of your ability to write the kind of work we publish if we’re to feel comfortable commissioning you. Keep in mind that the best samples will be representative of what we commission: 150 word Steam reviews or 16,000 word academic papers don’t help us to assess your ability to write RPS.
Things not to include:
Don’t write the article speculatively and send it to us in full before commission. We might say no, in which case you’ve worked for nothing, and we might have direction that would necessitate the total rewrite of the article anyway. Don’t send a description of the article idea that is as long as the article. Don’t say you’d let us run it for free: we pay for everything we publish. Don’t pitch us articles about things that aren’t PC games. Don’t send us pitches accidentally addressed to a different outlet. Don’t send us a copy-pasted pitch that you’ve sent to every gaming site you know. We can tell, and it normally means you’re sending us something we’d never commission. Don’t send us a pitch that includes a variation on the phrase, “I know you said not to do this in your ‘how to pitch’ post, but…”.
What we pay
Our standard article rate is £200 for an article in the region of 1000-1500 words. This covers most features, reviews, etc. We will endeavour to adjust the rate fairly according to the amount of work the article requires. Reviewing a particularly long game or interviewing multiple subjects might warrant £250, while an exceptionally short game might warrant us to offer £125 or £175. We’ll discuss this with you to agree on a rate. For Joy Of articles, which are not more than 500 words, we pay £60. It also doesn’t matter to us where in the world you’re based: we work with writers all over the world, and the agreed fee is simply converted to your local currency using the conversion rates at the time.
What we’re currently looking for
What’s below is a list of some article types we currently need. It is not an exhaustive list of every kind of article we’ll accept. Often our favourite pitches are for wild, one-off ideas we would never have thought of, so if what you most want to write doesn’t fit the below, don’t fret. Use the advice above and send it anyway. With that said, sending ideas of these types will increase your chances of us buying your pitch. In-depth and expert coverage on big games Do you rush to play each new Path Of Exile expansion? Are you deep into the latest Minecraft mod craze? Is no day complete for you until you’ve played a few rounds of Magic Arena? Then you should consider pitching stories about those games to us. We want to write about patches, updates, expansions and DLC packs. We want analysis of the latest meta, and recommendations of the newest mods. We want the kinds of informed opinions you can only have when you truly know a game. If it’s a popular game, and you’re an expert, then we want to hear from you - and if you’re good, we’ll probably want you to write about the game for us for months or years to come. Interview-led features We’re not interested in straight Q&A transcripts. We are interested in articles that explain elements of the industry via research and chats with interview subjects. For example: A good snowman is hard to build. We’re also like the odd retrospective “making of” kind of thing, and interviews on specific games if there are interesting thing to talk about. Also, it’s cool when people interview non-games experts about games-related things. Community-focused We want reporting on what the communities that love their games are doing, whether it’s complaining, dressing up, collecting gifs, or playing in new and fascinating ways. We like looking at popular mods, community turmoil and wider impact, and hearing all about what kind of fun players are making for themselves. Retro PC gaming stuff We like looking back at classics (like the big Quake retrospective) or re-discovering weird things about old PC gaming we didn’t know about before. Are you still playing your old favourites? Are you in love with games from way before your time? Do you have an eye for old mods, shareware or DOSBox beauties? Give us a shout.
What we’re not currently looking for
Fundamentally, we believe that all kinds of games writing are valid. That said, we’re unlikely to use our limited freelance budget for certain kinds of articles. Close textual reads We are very pleased for you if you read a lot of books or watch a lot of films, or did a degree on a certain subject. These days, however, we’re not likely to commission you doing a close analysis of the themes of a game, especially without any external input (like interviews with the devs or an expert in the field in question). Op-eds, generally If you have a unique perspective, unique expertise, and a timely take about a big game or evergreen issue, then yes, we might be interested. However, op-eds currently form the vast majority of the pitches we receive, and we say no to almost all of them because they fail to meet any one of those criteria. Think of it like this: if your article can only be written if you interview other people, or because you have played a game for a hundred hours, then you stand a better chance of us commissioning you. Reviews, or articles on short games Reviews: we choose what we want to cover and assign them to writers ourselves, and so tend not to need pitches. As for short games: if it’s something we can play and write about ourselves in 3-5 hours, then probably we’d do it ourselves. We commission freelance writers to cover things we cannot because they are prohibitively time-consuming or to fill gaps in the knowledge of our team, and short games, a lot of indie games, most art games, are not that. Don’t see what you want to write on the what we want list? As mentioned, these are suggestions for things we need more of right now, not the only things we’ll commission. See what what you want to write on our ‘what we don’t want’ list? Then think again and find a different idea - or pitch it anyway, if you think your idea is so good we should make an exception. Don’t see your question answered here? Email one of the people mentioned near the top of this article and ask - we’re happy to help.
