Will Editors Buy Your Average Life Stories? The Simple Answer is Yes

Here are two paying $200+

No-one will care about my boring life.

Can’t you only sell true-life stories if you became an Olympic Gold Medalist, survived in the wild, or grew up in a cult?

No-one cares about average, right?

I’m going to stop you there. Average is far more important than we realize. We need to hear about from average people, because most of us are.

Average is the new orange. (Or the new PANTONE Classic Blue, or whatever the latest new color is. I can’t keep up.)

Dozens of editors buy stories every day about unexceptional, incredibly average lives.

Exceptional stories are interesting and exciting — I like a good survival story — but readers also need stories they can relate to.

They want to see their world echoed on the page.

Can you sell average?

Heck Yes! But only if you do it right

When people sit down to write about their life, they often try to include too much, like they’re writing their autobiography. But here’s the honest truth:

Very few of us are famous enough to sell an autobiography. (Your mum might buy a copy, though.)

If you’re not an A-lister, it’s best to start small.

Start with a personal essay — a real life story.

Personal essays are stories, not the whole picture

We think we understand stories because we’ve been reading them forever. Beginning, middle, end. A classic plot arc. How hard can it be?!

But we often miss the mark.

Stories need one thing. Without this one thing, you’re just writing about your life. You’re not telling a sell-able story.

What’s the one thing? Inner conflict.

If you don’t have conflict, you don’t have a story.

Even average people have conflict

I tend to avoid conflict. I hate it. I’m “nice” and a bit of a people pleaser. But in a story, we can’t write “nice”.

No-one wants that as feedback from an editor: “A nice little story.”

I know. I’ve had that feedback!

The kind of conflict we want to find in our everyday average lives is the inner one.

That little voice nagging at us.

Mine sounds a bit too much like an old grumpy school teacher: “You’ve been scrolling for far too many hours, get up and do some exercise!”

And then the other whiny voice: “Aw, not fair! Just 5 more minutes!”

Inner conflict is where we find the emotion for our stories, and emotional connection is what readers really care about. It’s what editors want to buy.

Learn more about personal essays, or expand on your skills to write deeper, more timely essays.

2 Publications buying personal essays:

Nota (Update — Nota do not seem to be working with writers as of 2023)

Nota is a new publication (called The Doe previously). They publish personal essays and have monthly themes on a wide variety of topics.

Nota love to hear stories from different perspectives so readers can get the full picture on a topic — whether it’s drugs, or parenting, or identity, Nota want to hear what average people have to say.

Essay Length: 500–700

Pitch or full story? Pitch an idea first using their pitch form

Pay: $300USD

What are they like to work with: Easy! Colin, the editor, is friendly and professional and their system is set up to make pitching, writing, and getting paid an easy process.

Insider

Insider (Formerly Business Insider) have expanded and now want health, parenting, and lifestyle essays as well as work-related ones.

They want timely, real-life stories. Read what they’ve published recently to work out which section your story fits into (and if they’ve already run a similar one) before you pitch.

Length: Around 600

Pitch or full story? Pitch your ideas first to the appropriate editor

Pay: $200USD approx.

What are they like to work with: I worked with two of the Health editors and they were both very friendly and professional.

Expect to do some work editing your piece if your pitch is accepted. Insider have their own system set up for payment and invoicing which is relatively straightforward, even for non-US residents like myself.

Kelly Eden has been telling and selling real-life stories for over 14 years.

Join my writing family: a space where we can indulge in writing-talk and no-one rolls their eyes. You can even grab a pitch template to impress editors.