WRITING
Become A Contributing Writer At Ellemeno Magazine
A Medium publication devoted to the lives and stories of writers for writers
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: I strongly urge you read this entire article before you bother submitting anything. Completely disregarding the instructions will not do you any favors, and leaving a comment will get you nowhere.
When I began this publication, the idea was for it to be a journal of the lives of writers, without resorting to it being about how to write. Like most creative ventures, it has evolved over time to include travel, philosophy, religion, history, science, and memoir. But when I take a broader view, I realize that the common thread is always human endeavor, life experiences, and a story well told. This is a place for writers by writers. A place to be inspired and challenged.
The Kind Of Stories We’re Looking For
This is always the hardest part. Years ago, when I was directing commercials, an editor would ask me what type of music I wanted as a bed. My answer was always the same: The good shit. It sounds trite, but I was always open to a great many styles, so it didn’t matter that much to me that it was this type or that type, as long as it was catchy and fit the mood. It was more of a matter of feeling and spirit than genre or technicality.
While we are interested in attracting writers, we don’t actually want to read anything about your writing. We want to hear about your life as a writer, if that makes any sense. This is a place for writers to write about their lives when they aren’t writing. The flotsam and jetsam of life that leads to good writing. Consider categories such as home, travel, food+drink, language, reading, nostalgia, dreams, family, and friends. The good stuff.
We are not interested in travel guides. We want to know your story, not a description of a place. Whatever you’re writing, make it personal. We are also no longer accepting poetry or politics. There are better outlets on Medium for that.
This is also NOT a place for articles on the business of writing. We are not interested in “Six Things You’re Doing Wrong To Make Money Writing” or “How I Got Rich Writing.” It is not a place to write about your writing, nor is it a place to write about Medium. Let’s look outside ourselves and broaden our horizons.
Tell us a good story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Don’t forget the end. Beginnings are critical, but a good ending is sublime.
Formatting
Just because Medium offers a lot of options with regards to formatting, doesn’t mean you need to use them all. They should be used to make a story easier to read, not harder. We believe a light touch is best when employing these formatting tools. One or two callouts are fine, but if every other paragraph is a quote, a headline, a photo, or a list, then it becomes impossible to read, and it’s not for us.
Your stories should look and feel like a magazine article, not stereo instructions or a blog entry. Keep your paragraphs short and use the separator tool to break up sections. This makes everything, but especially long pieces, easier to read.
From a technical standpoint, we require all three elements at the top. A kicker, title, and subhead. If you’re unfamiliar with these elements or tools, I suggest you read this article. The kicker should correspond to one of the topics we cover. It’s not a place to further editorialize your piece. That’s what the subhead is for. Titles are tricky things. They can make or break an article. Make it too literary or obscure, and you risk no one reading it. Make it too blunt, and you lose your creative spirit. We recommend a balance between an attention-getting headline (no clickbait), and a descriptive subhead.
Kickers are all caps. Titles are title case. Subheads are sentence case. No ending punctuation on any of them, except for question marks.
Last but not least is your featured image. Every story needs one, and it’s equally critical to your article’s success and that of our magazine. Aesthetics are important to us, so quality photography is a must. All images must be sourced from royalty-free stock or open copyright platforms. Unsplash. Creative Commons. Elements. Vecteezy. The rule of thumb is, if you didn’t take the picture, someone else owns it, so to protect yourself and our magazine, you must use images you have the rights to use, and you must credit your source.
All images should be either a 3:2 or 16:9 aspect ratio. No vertical images as featured images, as they won’t read in our format.
Length
This is another of those impossible questions that have no good answer. Someone once said that a good movie is never long enough, and a bad movie is never short enough. The same goes for writing. If it’s captivating, then the length is never really a problem. However, as a rule of thumb, we’re looking for stories between 750–2500 words, with most coming in right around that 1200–1500 word mark. Obviously things like fiction and poetry could be either shorter or longer.
Style
First and foremost, we seek unique, authentic voices that can engage the reader and take us on a journey. Beyond that, it’s wide open. Personally, I don’t subscribe to the theory that writing must be dumbed down to reach a mass audience.
Your writing shouldn’t be obtuse, but there’s no need to spoon-feed the reader, either. Let’s begin with the premise that you’re writing for an audience of well-read people who can comprehend complex subjects and advanced vocabulary. Don’t get out over your skis, but don’t be afraid to bring a little literary flair to your writing. This isn’t technical writing.
Artificial Intelligence
It is a strange time to be a creator. The humans are apparently fighting the machines for control of humanity’s collective soul, and it’s honestly not clear who will come out on top. I believe in the sanctity of intellectual property and believe that an artist’s work is an extension of that soul. Therefore, allowing a bunch of computers to Hoover up those souls in order to create an abomination is morally repugnant to me.
Ellemeno will have a zero-tolerance policy against AI-created or assisted writing. We do not want it, nor will we allow it. It doesn’t matter whether you reveal it or not. If it’s discovered, the story will be removed, and the submitter permanently banned.
Originally, I was more agnostic about artwork created artificially, but not anymore. Art might be the last bastion of humanity and as artists we shouldn’t be rushing to meet our end. If you cant find a decent photograph taken by a real person to help illustrate your story, even though they are allowing you to use them for free, maybe you shouldn’t be an artist.
Becoming A Contributor
At this time, we are not interested in adding a ton of writers. We just want a select few that view this as a suitable repository for a portion of their work. Everyone has their favorite pubs. We would just like to be one of them. If you would like to be considered, drop us a note at submissions@ellemeno.us. Include a link to an unpublished draft of a story you think would fit well in Ellemeno.
We’re open to new writers, but we have high standards. Your work needs to be authoritative, well-constructed, with a clear purpose, and a unique voice. We will help you edit your piece if need be, but we don’t want to spend any time proofreading your work. You should make every effort to make sure it’s ready for publication before you submit it.
Current Needs
We are currently looking for fresh voices to promote. People with an interesting take on life, starting with their own, and who have mastered the craft of storytelling. We are actively looking for stories on personal essays, memoir, lifestyle, and culture. This is an opportunity to tell the world about your life and your individual take on the world. Where have you been? What have you seen? What have you learned? Above all else, make it personal. We don’t need a travel guide or stereo instructions.
The Medium Boost Program
Ellemeno is now part of a pilot program (one of only about 60 pubs) that enables and encourages us to seek out new writers with authentic voices and nominate their stories to the Medium curation team for consideration. If we recommend a story and it is chosen for further distribution, what they call boosting, then we are financially compensated.
Boosted stories can generally expect to enjoy an additional 500 views at least, but have the potential to go viral. One such recent story garnered nearly 40k views, resulted in 1800 new followers, and earned the author over $2,000, so it can be quite dramatic when they go viral.
We intend to look to our own writers first for nominations, but also to go out and seek new writers who might like to join us. We are limited to five nominations weekly, so only the best will do. We have a further incentive to choose only the best stories, because if we nominate too many stories that are not accepted, we lose the privilege to do so altogether. We will only nominate those stories we believe fit the guidelines set before us. You can read them here.
