The Bias is currently closed to pitches. We are committed to paying writers promptly, so we only buy articles when we have the cash in hand. We’ll update on twitter as soon as we reopen.
We’re looking for articles that examine geek culture from underrepresented and marginalized perspectives. We are especially interested in purchasing work from marginalized women, including women of color and trans women, as well as non-binary women and femmes.
Topics
We take a broad view of geek culture. We spend a lot of time under the pop culture and fandom wedge of the geek umbrella, but welcome pitches about other parts of the geek community as well–including math, science, history, academia, and tech.
We encourage you to send us articles to which you bring a unique or underrepresented voice. You do not need to be willing to spill your soul or your most closely held secrets, but first-hand experience matters to us. We want to hear about your experiences within the geek community.
When in doubt, pitch us. The worst that’ll happen is we’ll tell you it’s not the right fit for us.
We’d Love To See:
- Introductory “___-ism 101” breakdowns written for the geek community that folks can then link to later when they need to explain introductory concepts
- Reviews of shows, movies, books, comics, games, or other geek media that examine the work from an underrepresented perspective
- Articles about how a particular person or fictional character has inspired you
- Celebrations of a person’s or group’s contributions to geek culture
- Stories about navigating geek communities as a marginalized person
- Essays on how a current incident or issue in the geek world affects you
- Breakdowns of a current incident or issue that folks can link to when writing about what’s happening and how it’s affecting them
- Case studies of particular companies, communities, conferences, etc that are succeeding or failing at diversity and inclusion
- Your awesome topic that we didn’t even know we wanted until you sent it to us. When in doubt, pitch us.
We’re Note Likely To Buy:
- Any article that assumes that all geeks are (white) men. Especially those which assume that all geeks are men who are attracted to women.
- Articles that are advertisements or PR for your work or a project you’re working on
- Articles from allies speaking about a marginalization they don’t personally experience
- Articles about how you are a good ally
- Articles from white cis men celebrating a marginalized person for supporting their creative work (“My wife is so inspiring for taking care of the kids so I can pursue my geeky passions.”)
Length
We don’t have hard word-count limits, but most of our articles fall in the neighborhood of 1000 words–800 to 1500ish. We’re happy to consider longer work.
Payment and Rights
We pay $100 for articles of roughly 1000 words. We pay on acceptance–when you turn in the article and we agree that it’s good to go.
We buy First World English Language Rights, which means we want to be the first people to publish the article in English. We buy exclusive rights for six months, and non-exclusive rights indefinitely–basically we want to be the only ones publishing it for the first six months, then afterwards we want to keep it in our archives, but you may reprint it elsewhere. Our contract is based off the Science Fiction Writers of America Model Magazine Contract.
How To Pitch
A Good Pitch
Hi, I’d like to write an article introducing Marvel Comics character Misty Knight to fans who may be seeing her for the first time in Netflix’s Luke Cage. The article will include a history of the character and what she means to me as a black woman comics fan.
I can turn this article around in seven days from approval. I’ve written for The Daily Planet, CatCo Worldwide Media, and The Daily Bugle. I co-created the #RelevantHashtag hashtag on twitter, and I frequently discuss representation in media there: [link to twitter account].
A Bad Pitch
Hi I’m a feminist who’s loved comics since I was a teenager and I’d love to write anything about comics. I’m also into science fiction novels and would be happy to write about those, too. Let me know if this interests you and we can discuss specifics!
We’re looking for specific pitches that include the article topic, a little about how you’re going to approach it, and when you can get it to us after we approve your pitch. We’re happy to consider pitches from writers still building their portfolios, but if you’ve written for other blogs and/or magazines, please let us know.
While we understand that folks may want to bounce ideas off of us or ask us what we’re looking for in order to refine their pitches, that’s not something we’re able to do with writers with whom we don’t already have an established working relationship.
Please submit your pitch via the form below. The pitch form will return when we re-open for pitches. We expect to re-open in February.
The Bias 