Summary

Penny Press is a Medium publication accepting submissions on topics related to Mind, Body, Life, Soul, and Light, with specific guidelines for content, formatting, and frequency of submission.

Abstract

Penny Press, a Medium publication named after the editor's late dog and the historic penny newspapers, welcomes submissions that explore various aspects of human experience, including mental and emotional health, physical well-being, lifestyle, spirituality, and lighthearted content. Contributors are required to adhere to Medium's terms of service, maintain a high standard of grammar and editing, use appropriate tags for categorization, and limit submissions to twice daily. The publication emphasizes the importance of trigger warnings for sensitive content and encourages a balance of lightness and depth in articles addressing heavy subjects. Aspiring writers are invited to follow the publication and comment on the submission guidelines article to express their interest in contributing.

Opinions

The publication values thoughtful, well-crafted articles that resonate with the themes of Mind, Body, Life, Soul, and Light.
There is a strong emphasis on respecting the audience by providing content warnings for potentially disturbing topics.
The editor seeks to maintain a high quality of writing with minimal editing on their part, placing the responsibility on writers to submit polished work.
The history of penny newspapers is invoked to highlight the publication's commitment to accessibility and inclusivity in sharing stories.
The personal story of the editor's dog Penny serves as an inspiration for the publication's ethos, suggesting a deeply personal connection to the content and community.
The publication encourages a constructive and positive approach to heavy subject matter by including actionable takeaways for readers.
By asking writers to follow the publication and use specific tags, the editor aims to foster a sense of community and ensure proper organization of submitted works.

Welcome to Penny Press

Submission Guidelines

(If you aren’t a Medium member and want to read this article in full for free, click this sentence! If you are a Medium member — thank you for your support!)

What’s in a name?

Why is this publication called Penny Press you might be wondering?

It’s three-fold.

One, the motto is ‘a penny for your (mindful) thoughts’.

Two, it is named after my dog Penny who was our beloved rescue dog that my husband and I sadly lost in December 2021 after just two amazing years due to cancer. She was so full of love and joy and she motivated, uplifted and inspired me and my husband with her infectious quirks, stubby-toothed smiles (she was a street dog) and cuddles!

And three is a bit of history. Penny Press newspapers were started in the 1830s in the US and sold for 1 cent to make news available to all societal classes— instead of costing the regular 6 cents at the time which meant the middle class were unable to afford most newspapers. They were tabloid papers able to be mass-produced when newspaper printing moved from time consuming and costly hand-made to steam-powered printing.

Want to write stories that fall under the umbrellas of Mind, Body, Life and Soul? (pretty much everything under the sun really!), then read on!

Want to Write for Penny Press?

Here are the guidelines:

Agree to follow Medium’s Terms of Service and Rules/Guidelines. Including crediting all images appropriately (even ones you have created). And add a subtitle too (in sentence case). It just looks better.
Topics. You can write on any of the four topics:

Mind— anything to do with the mind — emotions/feelings, grief and loss, trauma etc.
Body— anything to do with the body from a health and wellness perspective such as nutrition, diet, exercise, healthy recipes etc.
Life — life, well, that’s a big catch-all term, but it can be articles such as parenting, society and culture, relationships etc.
Soul — is the spirituality side of things so if you feel you’re a spiritual person that enjoys exploring that side of life, then this is for you!
Light — is for anything lighthearted and fun — poetry, fun pieces…just fun stuff!

3. Please No Graphic Content. Please try not to get too graphic when writing about certain things such as mental health issues, and if you write about topics that you think might be disturbing or upsetting to others, please put a TRIGGER WARNING or CONTENT WARNING at the beginning followed by a description of what you’re writing about — e.g. TRIGGER WARNING: Abuse (or trauma or death etc)

4. Heavy Subject Matter. If you’re writing about something super heavy, try to add some lightness to it. And I don’t mean make light of it, or turn it into something toxically positive! But, perhaps add some sort of actionable takeaway that you’ve had or experienced from your heavy situation.

5. Editing. Please try to have your articles as error-free and grammatically correct as possible. It behooves you as a writer to put your best work forward. I won’t do any major editing. I’ll fix typos or missed punctuation if I catch it on review but that’s about it. Unless your piece needs a lot of work, I’ll most likely publish it without issue.

6. Tags. Use these tags to ensure your story goes into the right section of the publication.

if you’re writing on the Mind topic use the tag: Mind
if you’re writing on Body stuff use the tag: Body
if you’re writing on things to do with Life use the tag: Life
if you’re writing about spirituality use the tag: Soul
if you’re writing about lighthearted stuff like poetry or something fun, use the tag: Light

7. Drafts or Self Published. You can submit self-published stories, but just be aware that if you do, they will appear on the date that you originally wrote it, so won’t be at the front on the Publication. Submitting a draft ensures your story is at the top and not necessarily lost in a sea of earlier dated articles.

8. Number of Submissions. Please don’t submit more than twice a day (I’m only one person — for now!).

9. Please Follow the publication as well — thank you!

And that’s it!

If you’d like to be a writer for Penny Press, comment on this article with “I’d like to write for PP” and your Medium ID.

I look forward to reading and publishing your works on mind, body, life & soul!

Wishing you well 💖

If you like what you’ve read you can join Medium via my referral link at no extra cost (I do get a small commission) which helps support me and thousands of others.

Join Medium with my referral link - Caitlin McColl

As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…

medium.com

And if you’re into writing about mental health or Mindfulness then check out my Mindful Mental Health that’s accepting writers!