I welcome guest contributions year round from authors, industry professionals, and others associated with the writing and publishing community. There are two opportunities:
- Be a guest contributor of freely available content at this site. All new articles are sent out via email to thousands of subscribers and include your byline. I do not pay for content made available for free, but you will reach a very engaged audience of readers I’ve been serving since 2011.
- Be a freelance contributor to my paid newsletter; all articles are also posted behind the paywall at this site. You will be paid.
If you want to contribute a guest post that’s freely available
- Posts that appear at my site must be previously unpublished, unless it’s a book excerpt (see below).
- Minimum length is 800 words. There is no maximum length. Longer posts do very well at this site.
- I take no rights to your material, but I do ask for one week of exclusivity before you repost or republish elsewhere.
- All posts are sent via email to subscribers (nearly 10,000) and shared on my social media accounts.
- All guest posts include your photo and bio, credit line, and links to your website and/or book.
- Most guest posts go live within two weeks of receiving and/or approval. Or, guest posts can be scheduled on any date in the future you prefer.
- I love to excerpt books at my site if I get to choose the excerpt. I excerpt only nonfiction books related to writing and publishing.
- How to pitch: reach out through my contact page and describe the guest post you’d like to contribute. If the post is already written, I’ll ask you to send it as a Word attachment or to paste it into the body of an email.
Check the guest post archives to get an idea of what type of guests and guest posts I typically accept. My standards are high, and I sometimes ask for revisions. If you want guidance on pitching a guest post, try this advice from Copyblogger, or this advice from Problogger. Both methods are acceptable.
A note about AI use
I am not averse to writers using AI to help them with their contributions, but it’s incredibly easy for me to spot when a writer has used AI to wholly or mostly generate an article—or even just outline an article. The results tend to be generic, breezy, and without deeper meaning. Articles that succeed at this site showcase the personality and voice of the writer. They are rich with examples and experience. The more your article relies on simple, informational points (and lots of them), the less compelling it will be.
I can’t prove when someone has used AI, but I know what it feels like when AI is excessively involved. If you manage to get an article that’s heavily reliant on AI accepted by me, congratulations. You’ve used AI effectively.
If you’d like to write for my paid newsletter
My paid email newsletter is primarily read by professional authors, but it’s also followed by people from across the book publishing industry, including literary agents, editors, marketers, and service providers. People read it to stay up to date on market trends and to understand business issues in the book publishing industry. I take a “no drama, no hype” stance: rather than inflame emotions, I hope to offer a nuanced understanding of what can be complex problems, without right or wrong answers or solutions. Most stories are a minimum of 800 words; on average, they run between 1,000 and 2,000 words.
The readership of my paid newsletter is advanced; they don’t subscribe to get 101 articles on how to self-publish or how to find an agent or how to query a publisher. Rather, they look for insight and analysis of thorny challenges, like how changes at Barnes & Noble and Amazon might affect book sales and marketing; or how AI might affect authors and the larger publishing industry.
Types of stories I’m interested in include (but are not limited to):
- Demonstrable trends in what publishers are buying or what agents are looking for
- Emerging best practices or new trends affecting book marketing and promotion, like BookTok
- How authors are using new tools or platforms to increase earnings or sell books
- Reviews or coverage of new software or services for writers (this must include actual testing of the software or service)
- Write-ups of industry panels or conference sessions that focus on a specific aspect of the publishing business (e.g., the growth of subscription services)
The paid newsletter is not appropriate for:
- Craft and technique pieces
- Personal essays, opinion pieces, or columns
- Interviews or profiles of specific individuals, unless there is a timely and important angle
- Coverage of book launches or book awards, unless it sheds light on an important and demonstrable trend
- Anything that might look like a promotional piece in support of a specific author, publisher, or book
All material is edited, fact-checked, and proofread before being published.
Paid contributors should have some familiarity with conversations in the book publishing industry and/or concerns of authors. For example, if you know that audiobooks are the biggest growth area right now for the industry, or there’s a growing debate over how much a novelist should focus on platform building, then you’re probably a good fit.
Payment, terms and rights
- While I am happy to look at and consider finished pieces, I typically make assignments and issue a simple, one-page contract.
- I pay a flat fee for pieces upon acceptance, starting at $500. Fees are determined by the nature of the assignment, the experience of the writer, anticipated length, and the amount of original reporting involved. I pay a kill fee of 25 percent.
- All material must be previously unpublished unless a special exception is granted. I require exclusivity for one month; thereafter, perpetual, nonexclusive rights are required to keep the material available to readers as part of the online archive at this site.
How to pitch
For the Bottom Line only, send your pitch via email to newsletter@janefriedman.com. Put “Query” or “Pitch” in the subject line. Be sure to include the following information in your email (no attachments, please).
- Anticipated article length
- How soon you could complete the piece
- Who you intend to interview or what research you have conducted
- Links to your website and recent clips if you have them; if you have no clips, describe your experience or credentials to write on the topic
Thanks so much for your interest in writing for me.