Name: Modern Love.
A weekly column in the
Sunday Styles Section of the New York Times.
A series of
weekly reader-submitted essays that explore the joys and tribulations of love.
Country: USA
Publishing details:
The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper,
founded and continuously published in New York City
since September 18, 1851, by the New York Times Company. It has won 117 Pulitzer
Prizes, more than any other news organization. Their slogan is “All the news that’s fit to
print.” The Modern Love column has been
in existence since 2004.
Circulation: The NYT Sunday circulation is 2.3 million,
print and online, and Modern Love has more than 100K followers on its Facebook
page.
Types of stories
wanted: The editors of Modern Love
are interested in receiving deeply personal essays about contemporary
relationships, marriage, dating, parenthood ... any subject that might
reasonably fit under the heading “Modern Love.” Ideally, essays should spring
from some central dilemma the writer has faced in his or her life. It helps if
the situation has a contemporary edge, though this is not essential. Most
important is that the writing be emotionally honest and the story be freshly
and compellingly told.
The best way to see the range of styles and subjects they’d
like to publish is to go to Modern
Love page.
They are five times more likely to publish women than
men—not because they’d rather publish women but because they receive five times
more submissions from women.
Page length and
payment: 1500-1700 words. The Modern
Love column runs in the paper at pretty close to 1500 words but about 1700
words is a good ballpark because they like to have the option to trim out
material they feel isn't as strong or relevant.
Modern Love pays its
authors $300. (I did see one site that
said $500 but the February Writer’s Digest lists the figure as $300.)
What I like: Editor Daniel Jones is one of the few
editors in the country who explicitly doesn’t want famous writers. He’s been compared to Carrie Bradshaw on Sex
and the City as he compiles some of these stories into books.
Writing credits don't matter. Mr. Jones says he pays little attention to
someone's writing background when he reads an essay. Don't feel like you are
being pre-judged if you submit without writing credits. A perfectly suitable
cover note will say nothing more than: "I wrote this essay with your
column in mind. I hope you enjoy it." So don't worry about credits or
lengthy cover notes. If your essay is rejected, it's not because you didn't
have a connection or credits. If your essay is accepted, it's not because you
have a book coming out. It's because you wrote an essay that made him stop
drinking his coffee.
Modern Love receives about 100 viable essays a week (meaning
essays that are reasonably well written and targeted to the column). Which
means, of course, that the odds of getting chosen are roughly 1 in a 100. Of roughly 100 submissions, one will get
published, about 10 will be seriously considered and reread, another 30-40 will
be interesting enough to read to the end, and another 30-40 will get partial
reads.
Some of the essays that don't find a place in Modern Love
used to get published at a quirky site called Modern Love Rejects. The site is no longer running but you can see the archives and read the rejected stories at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://modernloverejects.com/
There is also a Facebook page for these rejects that has some interesting info about other places to submit to. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Modern-Love-Rejects/194108587276172
More than 40 book deals have resulted from writers appearing in Modern Love.
There is also a Facebook page for these rejects that has some interesting info about other places to submit to. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Modern-Love-Rejects/194108587276172
More than 40 book deals have resulted from writers appearing in Modern Love.
What I don’t like: Can’t find a thing.
Submission
guidelines:
-Please attach your essay as an MS-Word compatible doc AND
paste the text into the body of the e-mail.
-Send ONE e-mail with all elements of your submission, not
multiple e-mails with various pieces and/or versions.
-No pseudonyms (including the author), composite characters,
or invented situations may be used.
-Essays must be previously unpublished. Work that has
appeared online, on blogs, etc., is considered to be previously published.
-The story at least
should be set in relatively recent times, even if it might occasionally reach
into the past for back story and context.
For the basics of how to submit and for the archive of
columns, visit the Modern Love index page at:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/style/fashionandstyle/columns/modernlove/index.html
Response time:
They attempt to respond to every submission within four weeks, though response
times may vary due to the volume of submissions.
As per Mr. Jones: “We
will notify you if you have a sale. And that's just the beginning. We will
speak on the phone. You will answer all manner of questions, both editorial and
personal. You will sign a contract. You will participate in an editorial
exchange that might be easy or difficult and can involve two drafts or five
drafts or seven (or more). Most of this process will involve cutting and
clarifying, but sometimes it also will involve asking you to add new material. If
I have fallen behind schedule, your piece might appear in two or three weeks.
More typically, though, it will run in four to six weeks. Just before it runs
your essay will get another going-over by a copy editor and the copy chief.
They might also have questions for you, either by phone or email. In the end,
you will have dealt directly with at least two editors and the essay will have
been subjected to the editorial eye of at least four.”
How to submit: Send
submissions to: modernlove@nytimes.com.
More info: For submission tips and regular commentary
from the column editor, follow Modern
Love on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/modernlove
Notes:
Tips from Daniel
Jones.
There are several tip-offs to me that an essay might be
turned down before I’ve finished reading it: if it begins with tone of blame,
if it feels shallow in terms of what it promises to explore, if it’s about the
love of animals or cities instead of other human beings (though you never
know…anything can be done well, but this is quite a hurdle), or if it takes
place a long time ago (both Styles and Modern Love imply recent trends or
happenings).
In terms of what subjects I’m sick of…I can’t say that
there’s any one subject or set of subjects that I receive constantly in a way
that would make me advise a writer to steer clear. The better advice in this
area is that we’re not likely to run a piece about dealing with a father who
has Alzheimer’s when we just ran one. Avoid subjects that have been covered in
the last few months.
- How many times can you remove "that"? (I'll bet
a lot.)
- How many adverbs can you do without? (Try cutting half of
them, at least.)
- Use "all right," not "alright."
- Change any words or phrases that are in ALL CAPS or
italics to some other means of emphasis. (Only rarely will either be used in
the body of an article in the paper.)
- Did you use profanity? (You'll have to remove or replace.)
- Don't agonize over a title. (In almost every case it will
be written by the copy desk.)
- How many exclamation points do you really need? (Not
many.)
- How many spaces do you have after a period at the end of a
sentence? (Should be one, not two.)
- You can probably find better adjectives than "amazing,"
"incredible," "fantastic," "terrible,"
"horrible," or "very bad" (even if you're having a
terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day).
Avoid These
In the many essays I read every month, certain words,
phrases, or stylistic tics appear again and again. Inevitably (and maybe
unfairly), some start to annoy or signal trouble with the writing to come. Here
are 20 your essay is probably better off without. (This is good advice for all of your mss.)
1. I’ll never forget
2. I’ll always remember
3. It/he/she was electrifying
4. If I had to do it all over again
5. Literally
6. A. Sentence. With. A. Period. After.
Every. Word.
7. Reader, I married him/her
8. Smitten
9. I felt like Carrie in Sex and the
City
10. My heart melted
11. Flash forward
12. I curled up in a fetal position
13. I curled up with a pint of Ben &
Jerry’s
14. We were alike in every way
15. We were opposites in every way
16. Truth be told
17. Amazing
18. There was no spark
19. Out of the blue
20. And I’ll never be the same again
2 comments:
This was such good information, Jody. I love the list of "don't say" phrases. The pay is good for the number of words. I wasn't aware of this, so I'm glad to know about it.
@ Tamara. I like the fact that there are still places that treat new writers like human beings and are not snotty. I also love the how-to info they dish out. Yes, this list of trite phrases should be printed out and put on the bulletin board.
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