Write for Bitchy

Everything you need to know about becoming a writer at Bitchy.

Welcome to Bitchy

Bitchy publishes thought-provoking essays on gender, identity, and culture through the feminist lens.

Who is a feminist? If you believe in equal rights and opportunities for all genders or that one gender is not better than another gender, you’re a feminist.

We foster dialogue and not exclusion against certain groups.

We encourage submissions from people of all genders. Personal essays are welcome, too.

We publish controversial topics as long as they follow the Medium rules (the obvious one being no hate speech).

Join our Discord channel to get support for your writing and to chat with fellow Bitchy writers and editors.

If you’re new at writing opinions or persuasive essays or want a refresher, get our free guide on writing persuasive essays and opinions people want to read. It’ll also help you get more eyeballs on your stories and monetize on Medium.

P.S. I’m also the owner of The Point of View, a Medium publication that publishes opinion pieces, also known as Op-Eds, about culture, society, politics, gender, and everything in between. If you feel like your essay better suits The POV, go here and I’ll add you as a writer.

We are proud to be part of Sista Publications, a collective of women-led publications where we have something for everyone. Find out more here.

Our goals are:

1. To create a writing community for discussion and debate.
2. To raise the voices of all genders.
3. To help indie writers improve and get published.
4. To help writers build a niche in topics related to gender, equality, identity, and culture.
5. To create an independent magazine with an equalist/feminist angle.

Examples of stories we publish:

Our editing process:

Three things could happen after you submit your essay, and we will notify you.

1. Rejected — If your submission needs extensive developmental editing, has many spelling and grammatical errors, doesn’t follow our submission guidelines (below) or editorial style sheet (below), and/or doesn’t adhere to Medium rules.
2. Accepted but need work — If your submission shows potential, we’ll tell you how to improve your essay (we can’t edit extensively, however).
3. Accepted — If your submission needs minor changes or no changes.
4. Quality is important to us and, therefore, we have a two-stage editing process. First, an editor will edit your work. You’ll check the comments and let the editor know it’s ready to publish. Then, the chief editor does the final check. She may make further edits, which will be communicated to you through the first editor. You’ll check the edits again, and when all the parties are satisfied, we will publish your work.

Submission guidelines:

• Submit your drafts directly to our publication.
• We don’t accept advertorials, poems, or fiction.
• Read time of 4–7 minutes.
• Switch up long sentences with short sentences so it’s not text-heavy.
• Turnaround time is 1–3 days.
• Please proofread your draft (use a spell checker) and ensure you’re following Medium rules.
• Please make sure all the photos are credited, including your own.
• Please don’t submit stories that have already been published on your page or another pub on Medium. Medium doesn’t allow duplicate content on its platform.
• Use a headline analyzer to write an effective headline (not an affiliate link).
• Always include a subtitle and a picture for your article
• Titles are formatted with a big T format
• Subheadings should be in lowercase with a big T format (reason: the font shrinks when published).
• Cut up chunks of paragraphs. No more than 2–4 lines in one paragraph (depending on the length of the sentence).
• Vary the length of your sentences (long sentence, then short, then long, etc.)
• Don’t write your sources below your article. Post them as a link on your article.
• When linking, highlight no more than four words.
• For image usage rules, go here.
• Here’s an excellent guide on how to format your essay.

Tagging:

• One of the tags should be “Bitchy” so it’s easy to find articles published here.
• The four other Medium tags should be at least one or more of the following so it shows up on our front: Feminism, Women, Men, Equality, Identity, Society, Politics. This will allow your story to appear on one of these tabs on our homepage.
• The rest of the tags should at least have one of the Explore page tags, mainly because tagging matters when it comes to getting more eyeballs on your article.

Become a Writer For Bitchy

• Due to a large number of writer submissions, we are changing the way we add writers.
• As of November 1, 2023, to become a writer, email a draft link of an article you want to submit to Bitchy to [email protected] and include your Medium handle (eg. @megkirri). Draft link means it hasn’t been published anywhere else.
• Some writers may be added through recommendations.
• Going forward, this is the only way to be added as a writer at Bitchy.
• Please read our submission guidelines thoroughly before you send in your draft link
• Follow us on Medium.
• As a start, get our free guide on how to write persuasive essays and opinions people want to read. It’ll also help you monetize on Medium.
• It may take 1–3 days to review your draft and add you as a writer.