WRITE FOR AGE OF EMPATHY / SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submission Guidelines

Updated Info for New and Existing Writers: Everything You Need to Know

Welcome to Age of Empathy!

AoE publishes personal and humorous essays as well as expert pieces and interviews on the profession of writing. Our goals are:

1. To provide relatable, riveting content for our readers — writing that makes us think, connect, and grow.
2. To provide a supportive community to writers interested in intelligent, heartfelt work with a true purpose.
3. To create the best forum for the personal essay genre on the Medium platform.

Considerations

• If you want to submit a memoir — a narrative story from your past — please consider our sister publication The Memoirist instead.
• Absolutely no meta Medium articles. We understand they’re popular, but we don’t wish to publish them here. We aren’t looking for anything Medium-related, tech-related, data-related, etc., etc.
• Please follow our publication and our newsletter. I respectfully ask all writers to please follow our publication on Medium as well as on our social media platforms. We will be cross-promoting published pieces and will be utilizing our Facebook Group as an internal community for networking, calls for content, contests, and more.
• Join our Facebook group here. Follow us on Twitter here. Follow us on Instagram here.

What We Want…and Don’t Want

What we don’t want

• A third-person narrative — that’s not personal.
• Listicles and “How I made 4K on one story” articles.
• Family histories, autobiographies, biographies, etc.
• Stories that are too personal and may be off-putting to others — use your better judgment.
• Rants — we want thoughtful, considered, reflective essays that examine rather than bitch.
• You may submit an opinion essay only if it relates to you in a personal way. Please…no political or religious rants. We do not want anything that will alienate any population or that is fueled with hate. We come from a place of empathy here.
• Short-form stories. We are not strict here but personal essays involve more depth and are usually a minimum of 4 minutes of read time. Unless we are running a special short-form event, any pieces under two minutes will not be accepted.
• Please don’t submit pieces that are out for review with another publication.
• Please do not submit more than one piece a day.
• Please avoid multi-part essays. Each piece should stand alone.
• We only accept submissions as unpublished drafts

What we welcome

• Fun ways of storytelling.
• Humor/humour (that’s for our managing editor Sally Prag).
• Vulnerability — honestly, the more vulnerable you are with your audience, the more relatable and interesting your essay is.
• Anything that aligns with the personal narrative and creative nonfiction explanations Sally Prag outlines in her piece Here’s What We Are Actually Looking For at Age of Empathy. Her guide is very helpful — I encourage all current and new writers to give it a read.

Requirements

• Tags: All submissions must use the “Nonfiction” tag. For the On Writing tab, use both “Nonfiction” and “Writing” for your primary tags/topics. For the Humor Essay tab, please add “Humor” as a tag. We reserve the right to replace your last topic with a custom-made tag. This will allow your posts to appear on our featured pages.
• Time Limit: Essays should be between 4–10 minutes in read time.
• Trauma/CW (Content Warning) Content: As humans, we often experience varying levels of trauma. We are willing to consider essays addressing trauma but they must not be explicit. They should also come with an appropriate Content Warning italicized at the top of the essay addressing what the trauma concerns.
• Links: You may include up to two personal links at the end of your story. Be judicious with self-promotion. It’s an important part of the platform, but posting too much will turn many readers away. We think a short bio/blurb about you plus 2 box links will allow sufficient self-promo.

Become an AoE Writer:

Due to the recent Medium Partner Program changes and a large influx of readers and writers to the platform, and to avoid AI/bot content, we are changing the way we add writers for Age of Empathy. We are an established and reputable publication on the platform and will be more discerning about who we add.

• * We are temporarily unable to accept new writers as of 9–28–23. We will update this post ASAP. If you email us at the address below, it may be some time before we can get back to you. To become a writer, email a draft link to [email protected] and include your name and your Medium handle (aka @crsarmy7 or Christopher Robin). We cannot add you as a writer unless you do so.
• We may accept writers on a referral basis from our team of editors.
• PLEASE follow the publication and our newsletter. I respectfully ask all those asking to contribute to please follow us on Medium as well as on our social media platforms.

It can take some time for us to review your draft and for you to be added to the publication, so please be patient with us.

I’m a Writer Here, So NOW What?:

• Submit your drafts directly to the publication and wait with great anticipation.
• Please make sure all photos are credited — even your own!
• Please carefully edit and proofread your piece prior to submitting it to us.
• We try to turn around pieces as quickly as possible, usually within a day, unless specific edits or content updates are required.
• One of our editors will leave you a private note upon beginning the editing process. In most cases, this editor will see your submission through to publication. Once an editor has begun working on your piece, please do not make any changes until the editor is finished/asks you to.
• Again: Please proofread your work and ensure you’re following the rules of the Medium Gods. We work with writers through the editorial process as quickly as possible. We may fix any glaring spelling errors or grammatical errors and may get back to you with suggested edits or feedback prior to publishing or let you know if your particular piece isn’t right at this time.
• 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 is in need of more refinement.
• Engage! It’s important to our team that we continue building AoE into a supportive community. We hope all AoE writers will actively participate in the growth of our publication. 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!
• Follow! Click on the links below to follow our sister publications The Memoirist — a fine place to share your personal memories — and QuickTalk — the go-to spot for bite-size writing tips, pub info, discussions, and interviews.
• Please be polite and respectful to each other and to our editors. If you disagree with something someone wrote or dislike it, remember to be kind and empathetic. We have our own experiences, thoughts, and ways of looking at things. Everyone has something to share and something we can learn from if our hearts and minds are open.
• We will not tolerate bullying of any kind. Bullying will result in automatic removal from our publication.

A Few Notes About Style

• We follow AP style for title and header capitalization. Title Case Converter can be a great tool for this.
• Use sentence-case for your subtitle; make sure your subtitle is not PART of your title. Your title should stand alone.
• We accept both American and British spellings. If one of our editors is mistaken with a regional spelling, please go easy on them — sometimes it’s a learning process.
• You see this one everywhere, but we still have to ask it: make sure you have a proper header image with photo credit. Try Unsplash, Pexels, Pixaby, Wikiart, or other free-use image websites for your front image.