Paid Call for Personal Essay Submissions
Writing guidelines for essays about work, relationships, parenting and family, health, grief, LGBTQIA+ life, finances, identity, and our relationship with our belongings for Open Secrets subscribers
Open Secrets Magazine is now accepting submissions of unpublished first person 1,000-2,000 word personal essays written entirely by the author without use of AI and based on the author’s life experience ONLY from Open Secrets Magazine free or paid subscribers from anywhere in the world in the following categories. If we are interested in publishing your essay, you will receive a response within one month. If you haven’t heard back after one month, we weren’t able to publish your essay.
Read our full guidelines to learn about the submission process.
We don’t consider essay pitches, but all essay submissions that follow the below guidelines will be considered.
Work (all things work and career)
Stuff-ed (about our complicated relationship with our belongings)
Relationships (about dating, romantic and sexual relationships, friendship, and other personal relationships)
Essays must use first person point of view (“I” statements) and should give insight into the author’s life and show a major change or lesson they’ve learned between the start and end of the essay, rather than simply rotely recounting an experience they’ve had. For an idea of how this works in practice, see any of our published essays via the above links.
We are open to essays that fall under any of the above categories provided we haven’t covered the exact same topic before. Essays on the following topics and in the following styles are especially welcome:
Essays about accessing abortion and reproductive care in the U.S. post-Roe v. Wade, especially in states with bans or restrictions on abortion and reproductive care, or accessing abortion care outside the United States
Essays by teachers and educators about their professional lives
Essays by those who’ve personally experienced the impact of book bans and restrictions on reading materials
Essays relating to timely news stories, ideally submitted within 48 hours of their related news story (for these, put “TIMELY Submission” in the subject line)
Essays about being a minimalist, a hoarder, or collector for our Stuff-ed vertical - like all of our essays, these must be meaningful first-person essays, not simply an account of what makes the author a minimalist, hoarder, or collector, but how their minimalism, hoarding, and/or collecting has impacted their lives
Essays by writers outside the United States exploring life in their country (see “Out and About in Zambia” by Katherine King" as an example)
Essay about the author’s experience with Ozempic or another semaglutide drug that doesn’t glorify weight loss or diet culture
Essays about underreported aspects of work and career, especially by teachers at all grade levels, and healthcare workers (see Rob Hart’s essay about book publishing for a prime example of the type of work/career essays we’re seeking)
Essays using humor to share deeply personal truths (see “How to Be a Hero” by Katina Corrao as an example)
No part of the essay can have been published, posted, or appeared anywhere, including in newspapers, magazines, websites, personal or other blogs, paid or unpaid Substacks, and newsletters. Essay submissions must be written entirely by the author without the use of AI (artificial intelligence).
How do I submit an essay to Open Secrets Magazine?
Only submissions from Open Secrets Magazine subscribers that include ALL of the below requirements will be considered. Submissions of only an essay without a headline/subhed, photo, and bio will not be considered. If you reference a website, article, book, or group or organization, please embed a link to that entity (for books, you can link to the publisher, author’s website listing, or a major retailer).
Make sure you are a free or paid subscriber to Open Secrets. Then submit the following 3 items in a single email to opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Submission” in the subject line:
Word document or RTF with 1,000-2,000 word unpublished essay with headline, 1-line subhed (a tagline elaborating on the headline), and author name at the top
Include 1-paragraph author bio with links embedded at the end of your essay
Attach a horizontal photo you own the rights to to accompany the essay OR a URL of a stock photo from Unsplash. Include the photo as a jpg attachment.
Do you accept pitches or queries?
No. We only accept full essay drafts in the above format.
Can authors use pseudonyms?
Yes, provided they’ve indicated they’re using a pseudonym in their cover letter and include a bio for the pseudonym with their submission. The bio can be as short as one sentence.
Can authors who’ve previously published essays with Open Secrets Magazine submit a new essay?
Yes, but priority will be given to authors we haven’t worked with yet.
Will I receive acknowledgment that my submission has been received?
No. You will only hear back from Open Secrets Magazine if your essay has been accepted for publication or if the editor has a question about your submission.
How much does Open Secrets Magazine pay?
Open Secrets Magazine pays $50 for each original essay published. Payment is made once text has been finalized and author has approved the preview link in Substack provided by Open Secrets Magazine.
Why is payment only $50?
Open Secrets Magazine is funded by paid subscriptions, so our financial resources are currently extremely limited. We have chosen to prioritize publishing new essays rather than taking further breaks from publishing to acquire additional funding. If you’d like to help fund future essays, consider becoming a paying subscriber or making a donation.
Who can submit an essay to Open Secrets Magazine?
Authors who are Open Secrets Magazine free or paid subscribers located anywhere in the world are welcome to submit their essays. Submissions must be made by the author, not an agent or representative (book publicists, see exception below). Authors whose work is accepted for publication will be paid $50 via Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle upon finalization of the text and approval of the draft in Substack. If you can’t receive payment via Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle and wish to submit without receiving payment, you may opt for a comped 1-year paid subscription.
Authors retain the rights to their essays, though we ask that any future reprints credit Open Secrets Magazine as the originating publication. Open Secrets Magazine doesn’t issue contracts to authors.
What is the deadline to submit an essay to Open Secrets Magazine?
The deadline for submitting to this round is Open Secrets Magazine is December 31, 2024. Earlier submissions have the best chance of acceptance.
Submissions are currently free. Starting in 2025, we nay charge a small submission fee to help sustain Open Secrets Magazine.
When will I hear back about my submission?
Due to time constraints, Open Secrets Magazine will only respond to authors whose work we want to publish. If you haven’t heard back within one month of submission, your essay has not been selected for publication and you’re free to submit it elsewhere.
When will an accepted essay be published?
Essays submitted in December 2024 that are accepted will be published in June-December 2025.
Why is this call only open to Open Secrets Magazine subscribers?
During our previous open submission periods without this rule in place, we received numerous submissions from writers who clearly didn’t do any research into the work Open Secrets Magazine publishes and likely had never read a single essay we published. These submissions often read like the work of AI, weren’t personal essays and/or didn’t follow our guidelines or meet our word count.
To save authors’ time and our editor’s, for this submission period, we are only accepting submissions from Open Secrets Magazine subscribers, who are more likely to be familiar with our needs. We strongly recommend reading at least two of our published essays prior to submitting yours to get a sense of what we publish.
How many essays can an author submit?
An author can submit up to two essays. Send each essay as a separate email following the above guidelines.
Do you publish excerpts from memoirs?
We very occasionally publish 1,000-2,000 word excerpts from recently published memoirs (published within the last four months) that read like standalone essays. These can be submitted by authors or their publicists following the guidelines above and also including a jpg of the book cover. Excerpts should read as complete essays comprehensible to the reader without the context of the rest of the book. Memoir excerpt publication is at the direction of our editor.
I have a question not answered in this call for essay submissions.
Email opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Submission question” and we will respond ASAP. Make sure your question isn’t already answered above.
You’re welcome to repost these guidelines in full provided you link to his post.
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That we now need to specify that you cannot use AI is horrifying to me. I understand why, but that anyone would even consider it, especially for a creative piece is just so....disheartening? depressing? I can't even.
I've tried AI for generating images, mostly to side step copyright issues, but honestly, I don't want to know any more than I do. I want it to away. But, Pandora's box...
Thank you for opening submissions. I'm keen!