Member-only story
How to Write a Letter to the Editor that Gets Published
Amplify your voice and put the “participation” in participatory democracy!
© Linda P. Falcao, Esq., all rights reserved
What’s the most unique thing about you?
It’s your point of view.
What you think.
How you express yourself.
I’ve had 50+ letters to the editor published in the last few years, mostly in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and LA Times, and more recently in battleground state newspapers in MI, WI, NC and GA. It’s fun, it’s fabulous, and it’s a way to shape this amazing country we call America.
So here are some thoughts on how to write a letter that gets published.
Tip 1: Grab their attention with a good opening sentence
The LTE editor at WaPo sought me out at a live event at their offices a few weeks ago to tell me she looks forward to seeing my email in her inbox (out of the 400 submissions she receives a day) because she knows what she’s going to see from me will be well-written and “spicy.”
Learn from this. Papers are trying to get and keep readers. You have to grab people’s attention in the first line, because people have the attention span of gnats. I blame…
