no. 3
note: this was delivered to subscribers on 20 October.
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hi there.
Welcome back to another week of writing.
If you follow me on social media, you’ll know I’m using my current layoff status to start working on a new book project. I just passed the 10,000-word mark a few days ago and am projected to finish this draft by the first week of December. If you’re in the market for songs with a New England coastal gothic vibe, this playlist is what I've been listening to while I write.
I'm really excited about a few new articles coming out soon from Collective. World. I haven’t written about horoscopes, tarot, or the zodiac since my days at The List, and I was excited for the opportunity to revisit this topic. I’ll be sure to include them next after they’ve gone live.
A note about resources: as more are added to the page, I’ll let you know in this newsletter. This week, I found a NaNoWriMo replacement that writers can use year-round. You can also customize the target project length and how long you want to spend on it. Read on to find out more.
Have a great week. See you next Sunday.
— Cole
calls for pitches,
jobs for writers/editors,
+ paid writing opportunities
Reminder: Vet each opportunity before submitting.
Inclusion does not equal endorsement.
Each opportunity is remote unless otherwise stated.
c a l l s f o r p i t c h e s
Abigail Wise is back at Outside Magazine and open to pitches. The magazine pays $.50 a word.
VegNews is looking for pitches on plant-based lifestyles. Contributors are paid and receive a free year’s subscription to the magazine.
Steve Dinneen at CityAM is looking for feature pitches. The pay is £.30 a word, and the deadline is October 23. Send pitches to steve.dinneen@cityam.com.
Stephanie Pitera Statile is looking for lifestyle (travel, fashion, moving, food, interior design) stories for Business Insider. Typical rates are $200 for 600-word essays.
Frank Olito is looking for stories about generational differences at the workplace and lavender marriages for Business Insider. “Have you struggled to connect with a coworker or boss because of an age difference? Is your work wife from a different generation? Are you confused by your adult child's remote job? Are you the oldest employee in the workplace and struggling to connect with your coworkers? Are you the youngest employee in your workplace and struggling to keep up?” Pay rate: $250. Send pitches to folito@businessinsider.com by October 21 for the fastest response.
Frank is also always looking for pitches for Business Insider of first-person essays "from someone who got married to a friend just to cut costs and/or deal with loneliness. These are called lavender marriages, and they seem to be taking off on TikTok among Gen Z." The Pay rate is $250. Send pitches to folito@businessinsider.com by October 21 for the fastest response.
p a i d c r e a t i v e o p p o r t u n i t i e s
Witness is open to fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions. The pay is $50. The window closes on October 31.
Flash Fiction Online is accepting literary flash fiction submissions until October 31. The pay for accepted pieces is $100.
The Spectacle’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submission window closes on October 31. Pay for accepted pieces is $50.
Mukoli: The Magazine for Peace is open to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Pays $75. The window closes on November 15.
The Forge is now accepting fiction and nonfiction submissions. Published pieces earn $75.
Electric Literature will accept non-member submissions for The Commuter (fiction, poetry, graphic narratives) from October 28 until November 10 or until it receives 750 submissions, whichever comes first. The fee is $100.
River Teeth's Nonfiction Book Prize submission window closes on October 31. They seek literary nonfiction manuscripts between 35K- 85K words. The winner's manuscript gets published through the University of New Mexico Press and a $1000 honorarium.
w r i t i n g + e d i t i n g j o b s
The.Ink needs a freelance journalist to report and write Q+As, roundups, and short essays & freelance pros for photo research, editing transcripts, and audio/video editing. $30-$70/hour depending on role, scope, & experience.
Mystify Entertainment Network seeks Court/Legal Editors or Court/Legal Journalists. Ideally, candidates will have 3+ years of experience breaking legal news. The pay range is $70k—$100k.
Red Ventures is looking for a Senior Editor to manage strategic projects and lead Broadband content coverage for our USAToday partnership. This position will leverage SEO best practices, with a strong focus on transactional content and advanced editorial expertise to create new content and optimize existing content. $75k - 120k, DOE + location.
For the TikTok and Reel enthusiast. Lonely Planet seeks a Social Contributor Manager who brings community-building experience and enthusiasm for travel to this dynamic role, which focuses on identifying, casting, commissioning, and collaborating with creators on social-first video content for Lonely Planet’s channels. $70k - 110k, DOE + location.
WebMD is looking for a copy editor. The pay rate is $13 per 500 word article.
The Points Guy seeks an Aviation Reporter to join its team. The position requires someone with "extensive knowledge of the airline and aviation industry along with a network of contacts and sources." The pay range is $60,000-$80,000.
The Points Guy is also looking for a Senior Credit Card Editor. The ideal candidate has "5+ years writing/editing experience, ideally with an emphasis on travel and/or points and miles content creation/execution." The pay range is $75,000 - $120,000.
U.S. World & News Report seeks Freelance Insurance Writers and Editors.
Upworthy wants to add an Associate Editor to their team. This is a freelance position (35 - 40 hours a week, no benefits) and requires editors to be able to move through 5 - 10 articles per shift. The pay range is $35 - $40/hr.
The Week is looking for a Senior Editor for their books and arts coverage. Pay range is $65,000—$70,000.
writing
+ marketing tips
c r a f t
Everyone says "show, don't tell" without explaining the difference. Janice Hardy stops by Writers in the Storm and breaks down the many different ways we tell stories in our writing.
Author Kirstin Melville is on Jane Freidman's blog looking at what makes middles so hard to write and how we can strengthen the center of our stories through stake-shifting.
Alena Bruzas, author of To The Bone, explores the defining elements of literary horror for CrimeReads.
Don Roff dissects the narrative of the Halloween classic Carrie and explains how the story evolves beat by beat on Save the Cat.
Our other creative endeavors can inform our writing, whether we realize it or not. Rebecca Nagle discusses her background in visual art and working with textiles—and how they helped teach her how to build stories on Lit Hub.
Lynette M. Burrows is also on Writers in the Storm for the first in a two-part series on character relationships in fiction. This week, she looks at the types of relationships characters can have, how many, and ways to create a dynamic cast list.
Jason Keath is also on Jane Friedman's blog discussing the Bad Idea Method for sparking creativity and getting words down on the page.
m a r k e t i n g + b r a n d i n g
Piper Bayard stops by Writers in the Storm to discuss the pros and cons of hiring professionals to handle your book marketing and what to avoid wasting your money on when trying to get people to buy your book.
Reminder: No one will care about your work as much as you do. No. One. This is why you're the best person to shout about it. Ann-Marie Nieves and Randy Susan Meyers discuss why all writers are—and must be—their own PR champions on Writers Unboxed Unboxed.
K.E. Semmel is on The Millions, exploring what success means for debut authors at big and small publishing houses in today's erratic climate and the work that goes into marketing first books.
agent updates,
contests,
+ new MSWL alerts
Reminder: Vet each literary agent and/or contest before submitting.
Inclusion does not equal endorsement.
c o n t e s t s + u p c o m i n g p i t c h e v e n t s
Midway Journal's annual poetry contest submission window is now open until December 31. $300 grand prize, $150 second prize, $50 third prize. Poems can be of any style and any length. Unlimited entries.
Epiphany Magazine is accepting applications for The Fresh Voices Fellowship, which supports emerging BIPOC writers without an MFA who are not currently enrolled in a degree-granting creative writing program. The program includes a $2k stipend, publication in Epiphany Magazine, and more. The submission window closes on November 1.
l i t e r a r y a g e n t n e w s
Literary Agent Kesia Lupo is returning to Donald Maass Literary Agency. When she re-opens to queries, her MSWL will focus on middle-grade and YA fiction.
Literary Agent Natalie Edwards of Trellis Literary Management has updated her MSWL. She is looking for fiction and nonfiction in a variety of genres and themes, including queer stories in small towns, speculative fiction like Station Eleven, complex family and/or friend stories, literary thrillers, workplace sendups and satire, memoir hybrids, mental health, hidden histories, fun cultural essay collections like Cultish.
Literary Agent Angeline Rodriguez from WME Book Management has updated her MSWL. Right now, she's especially interested in fantasy manuscripts.
Literary Agent Stuti Telidevara of Park and Fine Literary & Media shared her fall MSWL this week. She is looking for speculative heist novels similar to Leigh Bardugo, Scott Lynch, or Margaret Owen, psychological horror, and stories with blended genres. Also, big and epic SFF without sacrificing character work. “Touchpoints I’ve been thinking of lately are THE STARS UNDYING, BARU CORMORANT, and INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE. I love intricate worldbuilding and being tricked by the narrative!” Plus, YA SFF (romance should be B plot) and horror.
industry news
+ interesting reads
The 2025 Luxury Travel Trend report is here. Wellness travel is still in as travelers book "silver bullet" and "fuck it" trips in 2025.
AI detectors like ChatGPTZero and Copyleaks are notorious for their false flags—but how incorrect are they, really? Bloomberg reports show 1%- 2% false positives, especially from English-second-language writers. But even when students are using AI, teachers need to be careful.
The Black List recently expanded to include fiction. This platform allows writers to showcase their projects to industry professionals and get high-quality evaluations from vetted readers. Writers can submit their work to be included in the list's yearly awards and pay to get their work in front of publishing and film industry professionals.
Author median incomes have dropped 60% since 2006, and for many writers, what used to be their profession now pays as if writing were a hobby. The Guardian looks at the financial realities of being a published author today.
To celebrate the re-release of the late writer's book, Lit Hub published Anthony Bourdain's essay exploring who "Typhoid Mary" was and why her story is, first and foremost, a cook's story.
New addition to the Resource List: Writers looking for the functions of NaNoWriMo's website but want to write outside of November—or want to part ways with the company after they announced the contest's stance on writers using AI—need to check out Pacemaker. Besides novels, writers can use Pacemaker to set project goals, including articles, thesis, screenplays, or workout routines. There are also "plan" and "checklist" features, plus premium options (though I haven't looked into those).
recommendations
As I get deeper into my new book project, I’ve been revisiting writers I love and looking for new-to-me books that would make good comp titles when it comes time to query.
I re-read Mandy Matney’s Blood on Their Hands this week, a great ‘How to Investigate Shady Behavior 101.’ Plus, it’s an inside look at how the House of Murdaugh finally fell.
I also started re-reading Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, her sophomore novel, following the best-selling The Girl on the Train. While the book begins in August, the story has many elements perfect for October, like witches and witch hunts. If you loved True Detective: Night Country, you’ll like this one.
Fans of any of the above should also check out On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel. I found it today after finally downloading the Libby app, and I’m hooked. An atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the state of Ohio and the Chillicothe River are characters in their own right—something I haven’t experienced on this level since reading White Oleander.
p o d c a s t s
If you’re stuck on what to listen to, try one of the many podcasts I’m subscribed to that have new episodes in production.
Culture, News, Politics, History
Books, Movies, Writing
True Crime
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