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Pitch

Pitch

Table of Contents

Deadline: March 1st, 2026

Issue: Spring

While our digital publication maintains a perpetual presence, we materialize into print four times annually. Rather than confining ourselves to prescriptive themes, our issues are seasonal. Each release captures the preoccupations, curiosities, and theories on our minds as we crossed the threshold into that particular season of that particular year.

We want: Work that is personal. Work that is kind. Work that is decisive. Work that is specific.

We have a particular weakness for opinionated reviews, essays on your obsessions, recommendations for overlooked films/music/writing/art, reflections on culture moments long passed, and profiles. We seek personality, not perfection.

Important Information:

  • Pitches are accepted on a rolling basis. There is usually a deadline posted on this very page, assuming we've remembered to update it, which we almost certainly have.
  • Every pitch is read and considered by a real, live human being with opinions and anxiety and a caffeine habit. We're a small team, and for better or worse, we respond to every pitch. It may take us a little time to get back to you. If you haven't heard from us in two weeks, you're welcome to nudge us. If you haven't heard back in a month, you can safely assume the emails have defeated us, and we encourage you to resend with our sincere apologies in advance.
  • If we accept your pitch:
    • You retain copyright to your work
    • We receive first publication rights and a standard digital archive license
    • We edit collaboratively
    • Some pieces are print-exclusive, some digital-only, and many appear in both. We'll tell you where yours will be published before the issue goes to print
  • We are still in our humble beginnings, and this is mostly a for-fun project. That said, we do pay all of our writers. Rates depend on the length and style of the piece.

What to Pitch:

We currently commission three broad categories of work-

• Reviews

Reflections on books, films, performances, or cultural artefacts of any kind. Our reviews are brief, highly personal, and anchored in the writer’s lived experience (or curiosity, or obsession). They don’t need to be timely.

• Love Letters

A love letter is, for us, a personal, impassioned, articulate letter to anything that has your heart. To the TV series that ended many years ago, but is still your personality. To the bridge of a song. To a page in a book. To a shade of nail polish that was discontinued in 2019. To a film with a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes you only saw once (but still think about). To an old t-shirt you lost in a breakup. To an aesthetic. To a sound. To a photo. To a place. To an era.

• Essays

Personal essays, cultural commentary, and examinations of the systems we live in, online and off. This might be an analysis of online behaviour, media dynamics, celebrity culture, or the places where public performance meets private reality.

We accept fiction if it also crosses over into one of these arenas.

How-to:

Please email pitches to editorial@thoroughbredsmag.com with the subject line: PITCH / (your pitch subject)

Send:

  • A few working titles
  • 2-3 sentences on your idea
  • Your bio
  • Links to any previous work (published or self-hosted)

Tips:

  • As a rule, we like when a pitch is short and sweet!
  • We prefer final length of a piece to hover around 1,000 words.
  • If you already have a draft ready to share with us, please link it in a Google Doc that you have given us access to. We will only publish with an agreed rate, and with your permission.
  • Show us who you are. Show us what you care about. Make us care about it too.