I really don’t want your alternative angle

Moderating a series of conversations about inclusion in healthcare (as part of Coldr agency’s event series Impatiently Waiting) the other week gave me much to think about – from the costs of racism in medicine to what actually makes a femtech investment uplift women’s healthcare, rather than just a founder’s bottom line.

After one exchange, an expert said that maybe she should have been less forthright in her opinions – or offered more cushioning as she landed her points. As an interviewer I couldn’t have disagreed more, and I told her as much.

And as a health editor who receives hundreds of email pitches daily, I’ll say the same to you all now. One of the most energy-sapping things about modern working life is constantly being given so many options. Editors’ inboxes, newsfeeds and timelines are full of information and possible ideas.

In this context, one of the simplest ways to neuter your story’s impact is to add to this load by offering lots of different angles in your pitch email. I’ve seen it before and the lack of conviction it implies instantly cools my interest.

It’s a natural inclination: try and make your idea un-rejectable by offering it up in various different guises. But, in the majority of cases, I’d bet the editor you are emailing will read this as they would a junior staffer’s waffly pitch: ‘You don’t believe in it, so why should I? Next.’

Instead, of this make all of our lives more simple. Just go with one option in your pitch. Commit to the strongest way in, deepen it with more ‘why now’ context, and put the time you’d otherwise waste on alternate angles into crafting a killer subject line.