How to: Sell my story to a newspaper or magazine

If you’ve arrived at this page, you’ve probably been thinking about selling your story.  Perhaps you’ve typed ‘sell my story to a newspaper’ into your search engine, or you’ve been looking for a press agency to represent you? If you do have a story and you’re wondering what the next step is, read on.  Talk to the Press are here to help.  We are award winning, and we are free for you to use.

Approaching the media with a story can be a daunting experience, and Talk to the Press is there to make sure it’s as straightforward and stress-free for you as possible.

Talk to the Press will contact all the national newspapers and women’s weeklies on your behalf to help you share your story. We act as the middle-man between yourself and the media, to make sure you stay in control of the way it is told and secure you the highest fee possible.

If there’s a human interest angle to your story, there’s every likelihood we can place it somewhere. The features we work on cover a range of topics, from sensitive pieces for victims of crime, to weight-loss and love-rat stories. We also deal with celebrity exposes, whistle-blowers, cosmetic surgery stories as well as rare conditions or disorders.

Every day, we work closely with charities to raise awareness about different issues or causes, and we are always able to include links to any relevant fund-raising pages or events in our features, as readers will often choose to make a donation after reading a touching story.

What’s more, we have helped countless clients’ stories hit the front pages of all the national newspapers including the Sun, the Sunday Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Sunday People. Many of these go on to make headlines internationally.

Once your story has appeared in print, we are able to arrange television appearances for you, if that’s something you would like to do (we work closely with This Morning, Loose Women and Good Morning Britain).  As always, you stay in control and you decide what you do and don’t want to do.

The process of selling your story to the press

As an internet agency, our process is designed to be convenient for you. If you submit a story via our website (using the ‘sell my story to a newspaper – story valuation form’ on this page), one of our writers will be in touch within 24 hours to find out more and let you know if it is something we can help you with.

If you are happy with the estimate we give you (i.e. what your story is worth based on similar stories), we will then do a more detailed interview and ask for relevant pictures and documents to be sent over –  before pitching your story to the publication we think is most suits.

Once we’ve secured you an offer you’re happy with, one of our writers will write the copy, before reading it back to check you are happy with the details before it’s sent to print.

To read more about the story selling process, see our Sell My Story to a Newspaper page.

Making sure you’re happy with the final story

A lot of people selling their story can be wary of journalists and fear their words will be twisted – but you don’t need to worry about that with us.

Our aim is to make sure you’re 100 per cent happy with the finished piece. As a reputable press agency, a priority for us is keeping you involved and sharing your story in a way you are comfortable with. This is why we offer a full read back of any copy before it’s printed, which offers you a chance to amend any inaccuracies and gives you an idea of how your story will appear.

After the story has run we can invoice for your payment to be processed, and in eight weeks you will receive your fee – sometimes we can speed up this process depending on our client’s circumstances.

What’s more, coming through an agency like Talk to the Press with your story means there is opportunity for multiple media deals, all of which you will be paid for. For example, we could place your story in a newspaper and at least one magazine deal, and potentially secure you an appearance on a daytime TV show such as This Morning or Good Morning Britain.

Not only does this maximise your total fee, it also means a wide audience range will be able to see your story.

If you have any questions about selling your story, the story selling process, or Talk to the Press, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the Contact Us page, or by using the form on this page.

You can also read more on the sell my story to a newspaper -how it works page.