WRITING
Black Bear Submission Guidelines—Updated 2024
And becoming a writer with our publication
Welcome to Black Bear. We are Medium’s and Medium Staff’s newest and fastest-growing publication dedicated to stories about mental health, addiction, and recovery.
Coming to you from the same publishers as The Memoirist and Age of Empathy, Black Bear has acquired an eclectic group of writers from around the world who have experienced a vast array of mental health disorders and addiction issues. Some have experienced these struggles themselves, and some are parents, siblings, spouses, and other loved ones. We also have therapists and those who are currently in recovery and sober.
A little bit about me
I have a career background in mental health and addiction as a content and creative director and am passionate about the industry. I’ve worked in the field for close to a decade. I decided during a brief gap in employment to take advantage of the time and go to an IOP for depression. It’s been a breath of fresh air, and knowing all the things I know about mental health and depression, it is the best thing I could have done to give myself a fresh start after a stressful year.
Why Black Bear?
The name Black Bear comes from a piece I wrote years ago about my grandfather, who I likened to a big black bear in how he fought for his loved ones. In the story, I thought about how I could also fight my fear and depression much the same…like a big black bear.
Who can submit?
Anyone with a story about one of our topics: addiction, sobriety, mental health, anxiety, depression, and alcoholism. If you’re a new writer to the Medium platform, we’ll help you along the way.
What to submit?
Please try to be specific with your piece and avoid general or generic stories about stress, etc. We’re looking for stories about substance use, recovery, sobriety, and mental health disorders — either from your own perspective or as the caregiver/loved one of someone with the disorder, eating disorders, autism, ADHD, etc. We’re pretty open as long as the topic isn’t generic.
We are also excited to announce that Black Bear is part of the Boost Nomination Pilot Program so send us your quality essays. Read more about that here:
Basic blanket info…
- Please don’t submit pieces that are out for review with another publication.
- We No Longer published previously self-published work. Unpublished drafts only.
- Bullying, hate speech, or anything of the sort will be immediately dismissed from our community.
- We prefer writers who are Medium subscribers.
- Please do not submit more than one piece a day.
- The average length of our pieces is 3–7 minutes. Stories over 7 minutes will be considered by our editorial team on a case-by-case basis.
- We can’t guarantee we will publish every story you submit. This could be for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with your writing or how well the piece is written.
- Please adhere to Medium standards and whatnot.
- Credit all photos, even your own.
A word on images
As a publisher, it is my personal preference that no images of hardcore drugs, needles, or any other imagery that may have a triggering effect for those with an addiction or those with eating disorders or other mental health disorders be used in articles.
Become a writer with Black Bear
- PLEASE follow our publication and newsletter. I respectfully ask all those asking to contribute to please follow us on Medium as well as on our social media platforms.
- In addition to our newsletter, we have a Twitter page and an Instagram account. Please note that I will be using our social media accounts to cross-promote pieces published on the Medium platform.
- If you’ve not been added within a couple of days, please DM one of our editors and they should be able to help. This does not guarantee that you will be published.
All requests should be made via the “Join Us” tab on our homepage OR by filling out the form at the bottom of this post. It can take up to a few days to be added to the publication, so please be patient with us. Also, we will not be able to advise you that you’ve been added, so please keep that in mind.
I’m a writer here, so NOW what?
- Submit your drafts directly to the publication and wait with great anticipation.
- As this is a different kind of publication, upon receipt, your piece will undergo an initial review. You will receive a private note indicating if it will move on to the editing process.
- We try to turn around pieces as quickly as possible, but due to the number of submissions, please give us up to 24ish hours to review your draft.
- Please don’t use all the formatting tools at your disposal. Tell us a narrative story without subtitles in the body of the story, title fonts, pull quotes, etc. Those things distract from your story instead of adding to it.
- If we do not accept your submission, please do not take it personally! Rejected submissions have been vetted through our editing team for a majority decision; In most cases, the piece is simply not a good fit for the publication at this time, does not fit any of the above guidelines, or could be in need of more refinement.
- Engage! It’s important to us that Black Bear is a supportive community for our active writers. We can do that by doing all the things we need to do to show our appreciation for the good work of others…clapping, highlighting, commenting, reading, and supporting!
- Pieces will be promoted on Twitter and Instagram by our team. In some instances, I may cross-promote on my other platforms.
- Follow! Click on the links below to follow our sister publications and editorial team.
Thank you so much for your interest in Black Bear — we look forward to your pieces!
Roar & xo — Mama Bear
Editors
Email Black Bear (but be advised we don’t check it often! You’re better off DMing one of us!): [email protected].
Sister Publications
A few of our sister publications you may be interested in.
Become a writer
Haven’t signed up for a Medium membership yet? It’s worth it! Here’s how you can get one:
