✍️ How (& Why) to Pitch Personal Essays

Get paid to write about your life -- and share your stories with the world!

I’m writing to you from Big Sur, where I’m staying amidst towering redwoods and stunning ocean views. I watched the sunset from the cliffside infinity pool yesterday, so life is pretty scenic these days.

My career as a writer was built on the bones of sharing my life with the world. Publishing (and being paid to write) personal essays was the foundation that helped me grow as a writer.

My most notable personal essay was when I came out as bisexual in the LA Times, but I’ve written dozens of essays since then — both paid opportunities (often at around $1/word) and many of them I wrote for this newsletter and my own blog.

Today, I’ll share with you how (and why!) you should be pursuing publication for your personal essays — especially if you’re a novelist, memoir ghostwriter, or Substack writer.

In today’s newsletter, you’ll read about:

✨ How to get your personal essays published (and get paid to share your story with the world!)

✍️ Writing jobs you may have missed last week.

📚 Updates on The Ash Trials — thanks to everyone who has been reading and recommending the book!

✍️ Missed This Past Week’s Writing Jobs?

Did you miss it? Here are the writing jobs on this past week’s job board:

• A freelance technical writing job that pays $112 per hour

• A freelance romance fiction writing job starting at $1,250-$1,300/month.

• A freelance newsletter writing job at $75/hour

If you missed the last issue of my writing job board, check it out at the link below:

📖 Bookish News & Links

…to give you more conversation starters with your writer friends!

🍴 Emma Gannon is doing a supper club instead of a launch party for her new book, and honestly I’m here for it.

📚 Books are back in style — and brands are starting book clubs.

🙌 What are the celebrity book clubs that actually change author’s lives if their books get selected? The Cut has the full list over at their column Book Gossip.

🫖 Sunday Tea: How (& Why) to Pitch Personal Essays

This post was inspired by questions I received after posting my most recent pitch call: I’m looking for essays about a writing breakthrough, and I’m paying the chosen writer $500 for a 500-word essay about their writing breakthrough. (You can still pitch here, I’m accepting submissions through 3/12.)

But first, let’s back up: what’s a pitch call/call for pitches?

In the world of journalism, if you have a “story” idea, you go out to editors who work at publications and you “pitch” it to them. A pitch is usually fairly short (depending on the complexity of the pitch and the guidelines your editor has for pitching!) and it’s just a short summary of the full piece.

When it comes to personal essay pitches, you generally want to write a bit about who you are, what your credentials are, and then a short little summary of what your personal essay is about.

Here’s a sample pitch template to get you started:

• Hi [Editor or whoever is accepting pitches], my name is [Your Name] and I’ve written for [your awesome credentials and accomplishments]. When I saw your pitch call, I knew I had to reach out. My story is about [summarize your story in a snappy way, 3-5 sentences max]. You can also learn more about me here: [insert your Substack, website, or portfolio link]. If you have any other questions, let me know! I’d love to be considered. Sincerely, [your name.]

Writers don’t get paid for pitching (that’s the risky part of the game!) so you might need to send out a bunch of pitches until they get accepted. But you can send your story to multiple places, so if you don’t hear back from one editor, go ahead and pitch another publication.

Editors are generally underpaid and overworked, so their response time might be a bit slow. For one personal essay I had published, I pitched in the spring and didn’t hear back until 4 months later!

Okay, so now you may be wondering: why go through all this effort to pitch at all? What are the benefits of getting my personal essays published?

Here’s why:

• Reach. Personal essays published in major publications get lots of eyeballs on them, which means your story will have a pretty large impact. Getting your story out there is part of the reward!

• More attention on the rest of your writing. If you ask nicely, editors will include a link to your website or Substack in the “about the author” section at the end of the piece. This is a huge bonus, as it will increase your rankings on Google, boosting all of your other writing and boosting everything else you write (forever!)

• Editor feedback. When your pitch gets accepted, you’ll write the full piece and then be given edits from your editor. This is a great learning experience — most writers have to pay to work with professional editors! In this case, it’s the other way around. Great editors make you a better writer, so I’ve always had a great time learning from the editors who have edited my work.

• You get paid to write about your life and your experience. The pay is pretty solid for personal essays (I try and curate fairly well-paying personal essay pitch calls each week on the writing job board, and my own pitch call is priced at $1/word for the total length) but not extraordinary. Personal essays shouldn’t be your main source of income by any means, but they’re a great addition to your thriving professional writing career.

Personal essays are the lifeblood of writing on the Internet. They’re a great way to get vulnerable with your readers and share an epiphany of something you’ve learned.

Have you published any personal essays of your own? If so, would love to read them! Drop your links in the comments to share with the community.

💫 Amy’s Favorite Things

I’m obsessed with my Blundstone Boots — so obsessed, in fact, that I wrote a personal essay about them as part of REI’s “First Piece of Gear” series.

These boots continue to be my “everywhere” boots — from wearing them on the 26-mile Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu, to out to dinner here in Big Sur.

I’m not sponsored by Blundstone, but I wouldn’t be mad if they did decide to send me some free boots 🥾

📚 Author Corner: More Love for My New Book The Ash Trials

Honestly, I’m so grateful for everyone who continues to leave kind reviews on Amazon and Goodreads for my latest romantasy novel, The Ash Trials. I read every review and I’m so thankful y’all are enjoying the book — I appreciate you!

Thanks to Sabine for sharing The Ash Trials and recommending it in her “yes, no, or maybe” book roundup! I’m obsessed with your book roundups, and am so thankful to be included!

Thanks to kaitlinsreads and bookishxobsession for including The Ash Trials in your indie author rec list!

I feel so grateful to be included alongside such amazing fellow authors!!

So excited that ygkspicybookmoms just received the box of books I shipped for her and her book club in Canada! I hope y’all enjoy.

(Btw, if you’re a reader who runs a romantasy/fantasy romance book club and wants a box of The Ash Trials books, I’d be happy to sponsor your book club and send you a box!)

Also I’m glad you’re digging the map! I’ve posted about this before, but designing the map was a ton of fun.

Thank you to lkcreads for including The Ash Trials in your book haul video! Your book review videos have kept my TBR list fed and happy for so long, so it’s an honor to be highlighted on your page ❤️

Thank you to marissa.reads6 for including The Ash Trials in your book haul as well! Your bookshelves are just ✨ gorgeous ✨

Thank you to emsstoryshelf for this absolutely stunning book graphic! You have some incredible design skills. That quote is one of my favorites, too :)

Thank you to Literary Stitch Society for your review of the book and for creating this great trope image!

If you shared the book but haven’t been featured in my round-up here in the newsletter, just hit reply with a link to your post, or tag me at sutoscience on any of my channels and I’ll repost there as well!

It’s been such a dream to share this book with you, so thank you for supporting my work as an indie author. ❤️ I don’t have a big team or anything (it’s just me and my laptop!) so it’s been cool to see the grassroots growth of this book so far.

Enjoyed today’s post? Please give it a “heart” ❤️ and share or restack it.

Sending creativity and good writing vibes your way,

-Amy