The Learned Fangirl is looking for feature essays (2,500 words and up) about popular culture, fan studies, technology, and online culture. Our scope is wide: we publish on topics from online archiving of fanworks to activism in boy band fandom – and a whole lot in between and beyond.
We are aiming for a scholarly but accessible tone for our essays that place pop culture issues/events in a broader historical and socio-cultural context. We want the essays we post to stand the test of time – so think “long-tail”, rather than “hot take!”
There are publishers that are interested in more immediate pop-culture related essays, we do not publish articles on the latest pop culture event that just happened last week or yesterday.
We pay $250 and up for essays, and you retain the copyright in your work; you grant a first publication license grant. You will get a thorough edit from both our Publisher and Managing Editor. Multiple drafts are our friends!
Look over what we’ve previously published – we publish on lots of different subjects for an audience that is curious about things that they aren’t fans of.
So if your proposed essay is focused primarily towards an audience that already knows everything about this topic, it’s not for us. But if you want to help explain about what you know for those that don’t already know, pitch us!
We need you to include a link to your previous writing somewhere (published, on your own blog, etc) or the opening paragraph of your proposed essay.
If you have a thesis or dissertation chapter that you want to get a wider audience, please pitch to us!
We are interested in articles that reference scholarly research/writing: critical media theory, Comparative Studies, Law, Feminist Theory, among other frameworks. We will give extra consideration to submissions that focus on gender/race issues or from those in underrepresented groups: women of color, gender non-conforming, queer, and disabled writers.
No hot takes, listicles, personal essays, or recaps!
No hot takes or listicles!
No sponsored content (WE REPEAT, no sponsored content!
E-mail your pitch to: thelearnedfangirl AT GMAIL DOT COM with the subject “pitch:” plus a working title of your pitch