Building solid relationships with the press is the golden ticket to getting that story published. Here are few tips to help you become a trusted member of the media:

Be Mindful of Language Blunders

Spelling counts, as does grammar and professionalism. You鈥檙e not sending a text to your best friend, your kid or your mom. One of the biggest pet peeves of journalists is misspellings, text abbreviations (鈥淟MK鈥� in lieu of 鈥淟et me know,鈥� for example) and incorrect grammar.

These blunders spell laziness in the mind of a journalist. Take the time to run a spell check; use Grammarly, on online tool that essentially proofreads your copy and alerts you to errors; and read your e-mail, press release or document out loud to ensure that it鈥檚 properly structured and flows with ease.

Don鈥檛 Pitch the Wrong journalist

You鈥檝e crafted a thoughtfully researched, compelling, error-free pitch and you鈥檙e anxious to see the fruits of your labor in print or on a website or blog with a robust, high-traffic readership.

And then you send it off to a journalist who doesn鈥檛 write鈥攁nd will never write鈥攁bout the topic at hand. It鈥檚 imperative to do your research, and that means reading a journalist鈥檚 work before you press the 鈥渟end鈥� button or pick up the phone.

There鈥檚 nothing that journalists hate more than receiving useless information. If you鈥檙e going to pitch a writer, make sure it鈥檚 someone who covers the relevant subject matter.

More important: Make sure your pitch is newsworthy. Another tip: read mastheads of magazines, newspapers and digital sites to determine the beat of their writers. 

Avoid Pitching Stories on Weekends

Unless you know for a fact that the reporter is a weekend writer or editor, avoid sending communication on Saturday and Sunday.

Journalists, like the rest of us, have lives, and it鈥檚 important to respect their time off the clock. Weekend pitching has other pitfalls: If you send an-mail on a Saturday, and it鈥檚 read, the journalist may well have forgotten it by Monday morning. By then, it鈥檚 often buried beneath a deluge of other pitches. Every reporter and publication has different deadlines, but according to a  of more than 600 members of the media, Tuesday morning is typically the best time to pitch a story.