Pitch Guide

Thanks for your interest in pitching to Assemblywomen. This guide will help you write your pitch. You will need to confirm that you have read the guide when sending in your completed pitch, using the form which can be found here: https://forms.gle/xCa3jLqfFNi8qNPd7

Part One: Assemblywomen

Assemblywomen is the video journal of the Women’s Classical Committee (UK), and we share the WCC’s aims.

Assemblywomen furthers the general aims of the WCC by providing an innovative platform for the open access publication of research on women and gender in the ancient world. We will accept submissions that focus on women, or take feminist or gender-informed approaches to the ancient Mediterranean world, work that undertakes comparatives studies between the Mediterranean world and global cultures or which examines global cultures in relation to the ancient Mediterranean. While we are actively working to create a platform in which we can accept work that does not have a connection with the Mediterranean world, at this point in time we do not have the sufficient breadth of knowledge in order to do this. 

Part Two: What type of pitch?

There are three types of submissions currently being accepted.

Video Essays: these are our peer reviewed submissions. These may undergo several stages of peer review depending on the submission, including review of the pitch and the final script. Video essays should present original research and be between ten and twenty minutes in length (around 2000-4000 words, depending on speech patterns).

Work in Progress Shorts: these are not peer reviewed, but undergo the same pitch development process with an editor as video essays. They should present original research, but as the name suggests this will likely be ‘work in progress’ and does not need to present firm conclusions. These should be between 5 and 15 minutes in length (1000-3000 words approximately).

Review or Response videos: These videos will vary in length but should be no longer than 15 minutes. These are videos that either:

1. Review a body of work (more like a review essay than the review of a single book). These may take the form of ‘state of the field’ type essays, and should make some general observations about the place of each of the books/articles/videos within the (sub)discipline more broadly).
2. Videos that respond to another Assemblywomen video or to an article or book. The original author will usually be given an opportunity to respond also. Please note: these are not places for criticism, but for constructive critique and/or dialogue. These may take the form of “here is another example that illustrates this point”, “this responds well to X methodology”.

Part Three: What’s on the Form

This part gives a run down of the information you will need to have ready before submitting your pitch using the form. 

Question 1 (required): what type of submission are you proposing?

If for some reason we think your submission would work better under a different category we will discuss this with you during the process, you will not need to submit a new pitch. If you are unsure what type of submission would work best for your video, please get in touch to discuss this with one of the editors.

Question 2 (required): Name and affiliation.

Please also include with your affiliation any funding bodies that must be acknowledged. 

Question 3 (required): email

Question 4 (required): 3-5 keywords

This will help us to assign an editor and peer reviewer (where applicable) to your submission, these keywords will also be used on your final submission as searchable terms on YouTube. You will have an opportunity to revise these before final upload.

Question 5 (required): Pitch

Guidance states: Please refer to the pitch guide. Length will vary depending on pitch type but please include a short background, your key points, and conclusion. For review or response videos please include the full citation of any works being reviewed or responded to, or links to Assemblywomen videos.

At this stage we need enough information to assess your pitch and to assign an editor. Some pitches will necessarily be longer than others which is why we do not specify a length. Please remember that this is not a murder mystery – tell us your conclusions upfront. Give enough information about your methodological framework, but if your work is heavily theoretical you may wish to include a specific ‘methodology’ section in your indicative bibliography (see next question) in order for us to get a sense of this. Please ensure that your pitch relates to the aims and values of the journal and the WCC. 

You may also wish to refer to the Eidolon How to Pitch Guide:

https://eidolon.pub/how-to-pitch-especially-to-eidolon-7d925eec669

Question Six (required): Indicative bibliography

Please include a sample bibliography of both ancient works and scholarship. If your work is heavily theoretical, you may wish to include a specific section here for the editors to follow up and assign your pitch appropriately. 

Questions Seven and Eight: Assistance Required

Here you will be able to indicate if you may require assistance in production or post-production. Please indicate here even if you are unsure so we can discuss this in more detail with you. While this is here for us to allocate resources, if at any stage of the process you find you need technical assistance, please let us know.

Question Nine (required): Image Permissions

Please indicate if you will need image permissions for your video. If you are unsure, please check ‘maybe’. At this stage you do not need to send us image permissions.

Question Ten (required): Confirm you have read the pitch guidelines.

Part Four: What happens next?

After we have received your pitch you will receive a confirmation within five working days from one of the editors. Your pitch will then be assigned to an editor who will contact you directly. If you are submitting a video essay, your pitch will go through peer review. Each of the editors may work slightly differently, but this will involve some back and forth working on your pitch and script. As we are aware that this is (as of now) a unique publication type and that work is not easily transferable to another format we aim to have pitches and scripts in a format where they most likely be accepted before filming. This may be a longer process for some pitches than others.