Tag Archives: freelancers

Freelancers: AHCJ’s 36 market guides can help you craft your pitches

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It’s that time again when I provide a snapshot of the latest market guides that have been added to The Freelance Center. There are three new ones: Philadelphia magazine, Nature and Men’s Health.

Each guide always includes an interview with at least one editor and usually their direct emails, which can sometimes be challenging to find on a publication’s website. Even when the publication wants writers to submit pitches through a web-based form, I recommend sending the editor a heads up and quick introduction.

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With new market guides, freelance center is up to date

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Most of the guides in the Freelance Center are now current. I hope to update the remaining two by the end of the month and will continue reaching out to editors for new market guides.

Let me know if you would like to see pitching instructions from a particular publication or if you have a contact for a publication that you think I should approach. You can contact me at freelance@healthjournalism.org.

The latest additions included revised guides for Cosmopolitan, Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News and Nature Medicine and a new guide for Prevention. I’d like to thank freelance medical writer and editor Erin Boyle and AHCJ board member Jeanne Erdmann for their help.

Cosmopolitan pays $2 per word for print stories, but the print magazine is published only nine times a year. Not every issue will have a health story, according to Lifestyle Director Ashley Oerman. The fee for digital stories depends on the amount of reporting required and the writer’s experience level. Those story ideas are often generated by Cosmo’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) team. Nevertheless, Oerman said she welcomes freelance pitches for both print and digital, especially around mental health and the health care system. Story ideas should be tailored to the target audience, women ages 18-35.

Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News is a monthly print magazine and website aimed at a specialized audience of health care providers. Managing Editor Adam Marcus said freelancers have the most success pitching him feature stories, which typically range from 900 to 1,200 words. Fees start at 75 cents per word and can go higher depending on the amount of research and the number of interviews. “One thing that many freelancers don’t understand, initially, when writing for us is that we’re not looking for consumer-oriented news or features,” Marcus said. “We’re looking for things that are directed at practicing gastroenterologists.”

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Freelance market guides updated


Freelancers make up roughly a third of AHCJ’s membership, a percentage that has remained stable as the organization’s overall membership has increased by about 45 percent over the past decade. We are an important force in the organization, and AHCJ’s Freelance Center is dedicated to helping freelancers succeed in their work. The market guides, which can be found on the Freelance Center, are a part of that effort.

In June and early July, updated guides for Medscape and Costco Connection and new guides for The Atavist Magazine and New Scientist were added to the AHCJ website. Continue reading

Year in review: What journalists have been reading

ListIt is perhaps little surprise that the most-read blog posts on Covering Health this year were almost exclusively about the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic.

Since we first reported about the “mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China” on Jan. 10 and followed up with a post urging “Use caution when reporting on pandemic potential of Wuhan coronavirus” on Jan. 23, the topic has been top-of-mind for health journalists.

Here is a list of the top-10 blog posts, plus a bonus: Continue reading

Two more medical organizations recognize AHCJ membership as credential

People at meeting

Photo: Luis Quintero via Pexels

The Association of Health Care Journalists has secured two recent successes in its ongoing effort to persuade medical societies to allow freelance journalists to use membership in AHCJ as a credential to attend meetings and media briefings.

The Gerontological Society of America and the American Gastroenterological Association have joined the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other organizations that have agreed to recognize professional-category membership in AHCJ as sufficient credential for admission to their meetings. Continue reading