It’s extremely difficult to get an op-ed published.
I read thousands of op-ed pitches during my time at Fortune. I probably passed on 95% of them.
Why? Even if they were well written and argued, they didn’t break through the noise—that is, the dozens of other pitches I’d received that day.
The reality is this: A lot of people are writing op-eds, but there aren’t nearly enough opinion pages to publish all of them.
“B+” op-eds aren’t gonna cut it.
Are you wasting time on a bad op-ed?
If an editor doesn’t like your pitch, they’re not going to publish your article. There’s no point in writing an op-ed draft if you have no chance of getting it placed.
But despair not! There might be hope.