This HuffPost vertical publishes “real stories from real people about real experiences,” says founder and director Noah Michelson. He rarely accepts pitches; almost all essays are accepted on spec.
Fees: HuffPost Personal pays a minimum of $150 per story, though “we often pay more than that,” Michelson says. Most final pieces are 1,000 to 2,000 words.
Michelson acknowledges the fees are low. That’s largely because most contributors aren’t writers by trade. For “people who are writing for a living, who are paying their rent or mortgage with words, I might not be the right person for you,” he says. But some full-time journalists find writing for the site is worth it for the reach: HuffPost Personal essays often get millions of views, and some writers’ essays have landed them book — and even movie — deals.
Submit to: Michelson at Noah.Michelson@huffpost.com
Website: huffpost.com/section/huffpost-personal
Owner: BuzzFeed
Readership demographics: HuffPost Personal’s readers are a “very, very, very diverse and very, very, very large” bunch, Michelson says. “This is not some people who are just reading about health care or just reading about anything else. They are looking for a good story, primarily.”
Frequency of publication: The section publishes about six essays a week.
What Michelson looks for in a pitch:
- He assigns essays on spec.
Michelson says he almost always has to see a draft of an essay before he’ll commission it. Again, that’s because contributors’ writing experience is often minimal. However, he’s happy to workshop an idea with a writer before they dedicate too much time to fleshing out the piece. “You don’t have to start with the draft; you can feel me out with your pitch first,” he says. “A lot of people do that, and I love the collaboration.” - A personal essay should have a universal takeaway.
Submissions should be personal with a universal appeal. “You get hooked with that good personal angle, but by the end, there’s something in there for the readers that maybe applies to them as well,” Michelson says. “It’s not purely a personal essay. There should be a perspective.”
Michelson advises journalists to “zoom out” when pitching their ideas. “I want you to give us a little bit of packaging at the end where you tell us what you learn,” he says. “That’s the difference between a good essay and a mediocre essay, or an essay that enrages someone versus an essay that someone just says, ‘OK, I get it.’” - Michelson welcomes newsy stories, but most HuffPost Personal essays are evergreen.
Most of the vertical’s essays are evergreen — especially when it comes to health, Michelson notes. There are exceptions. For example, on the day Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia, a woman submitted a piece about her experience with the condition. “We put it up the next day,” Michelson says. “That feels timely to me because everyone’s talking about it.” An awareness month, by contrast, is not “timely.”
Lead time:
Super timely pieces, like the aphasia one, can go up within a day or three. But the average time between acceptance and publication for an evergreen story is 14 to 18 weeks, Michelson says.
The editing process can involve a few back-and-forths, where Michelson may ask the writer to add some perspective or answer a few questions. There’s also a copy edit and, on Michelson’s side, a brainstorm with the audience team to solidify a headline.
Writers always get to see a final copy before their piece goes live. “With personal essays, people are entrusting us with their experience, so I never want anything to go out the door without someone signing off on it,” he says.
Common mistakes in pitches:
- Pitching a topic, not an angle.
Sometimes people tell Michelson they want to write about breastfeeding or pain management. Those aren’t stories; those are topics. Stories, he says, have something at stake. Maybe there’s a surprise, a reckoning, an understanding. To nail down your story on a particular topic, ask yourself: What did you learn? How did this change your life? What do you regret? What were you wrong about?
“What’s gonna make it interesting to me and the reader is: Why are you the right person to write this and why right now?” he adds. “If you can’t answer those questions, you might not be ready to write it or maybe it doesn’t need to be written.” - Sending an attachment with no teaser.
With about 200 submissions to read through each week, blank emails with the subject line “pitch” and an essay attached won’t catch Michelson’s eye. Emails that say “pitch” followed by a captivating potential headline, however, are prioritized.
For example, Michelson once saw a pitch while lying awake at 3 am that said, “my mom was the leader of a cult and at her funeral, one of her members put a curse on me.” “I couldn’t open that pitch fast enough,” he recalls.
In the body of the email, writers should include a few more lines teasing the essay or, if they’re feeling out an idea, lay out what they think the story is. “The easier you make our job and the more attractive you make your pitch, the better it’s going to be for you. That is the number one piece of advice,” Michelson says. “Even writers who have been doing this for 20 years, that’s good to be reminded of. It’s a seduction.”