The New York Times’ Modern Love is one the best non-fiction venues available today. I call your attention to this week and last week’s columns, both of which are excellent.
When I started to submit my work, I was largely focused on literary magazines. I was not familiar with Modern Love, but fortunately for me someone in my writing group was. Some writers say you shouldn’t submit a story to a big name venue until you’ve amassed some publishing credits, but I think that’s crazy. What makes more sense to me is to look for where your work will best fit, regardless of the publication’s size or prestige.
My Modern Love story prominently features a Yankee’s cap, which (I’m sure) improved its chances for publication in the New York Times. The story explores the challenges an estranged father faces, building a relationship with his son. I submitted the story in January, which offered plenty of lead time for a Father’s Day publication, although I (oddly) hadn’t even considered this at the time.
Modern Love doesn’t appear in my Writer’s Market, which may explain why I was not familiar with it. Sometimes you learn the best place to publish your work by networking with other writers. The only submission guidelines I’ve found for Modern Love were from a Q&A, hosted by Dan Jones (Modern Love editor) on the New York Times blog site.
Here is Mr Jones on submitting:
Modern Love is open to anyone and we welcome unsolicited submissions. You can send submissions to modernlove@nytimes.com. They should be no more than 1800-2000 words in length (final run length is closer to 1700 words) and the essay should be both pasted into the email and attached as a word document.
Tags: Dan Jones, Modern Love, New York Times, submission, submitting, worthwhile places to sumbit, writing
March 18, 2009 at 5:26 am
Tim,
When I read your fine story in New York Times’ Modern Love, I never made the connection that any other of us little grasshoppers could submit there. I really appreciate your practical advice and direction-pointing to this venue.
Thanks.
March 18, 2009 at 10:51 am
Hi Beth, Thank you for the kind words about my story. I think your recent “Gravy” post on the anniversary of your long marriage would make a fine submission to Modern Love.
I think it’s important to pass on the “intel” about good places to submit creative non-fiction. More than anything else, this kind of sharing of knowledge has helped me find homes for my stories.
March 19, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Loved that story!
March 19, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Thank you, Ruth!
April 8, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Tim, writing for Modern Love is considered very prestigious. Even people who’ve been writing for decades struggle to get in. And I’ve heard that some of them are agented submissions. So I wouldn’t give all the credit to that Yankee’s cap.
Have you tried again since?
April 9, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I knew Modern Love was a big fish, but had never heard anything about agented submissions. Wow! But that just proves my point about submitting to esteemed venues, even if you’ve never been published. If the story works, they may just pick it up. Worked for me!
I certainly have tried again. My understanding is they rarely publishes the same person twice, and if they do, they wait a long time in between.
So many talented writers submit good stories, I feel very grateful that a few of mine have found nice homes. What a gift!
April 13, 2009 at 8:44 am
Modern Love is prestigious, but Dan Jones knows how to pick fresh voices. Both of the pieces I linked to from this post seem to be from writers without a published novel.
I read the past Sunday’s column and really enjoyed it, from Jane Hamilton a published author.
April 30, 2009 at 7:30 pm
So….from a hopeful writer. ….what is Dan Jones’s email? How did you submit. Thanks for the help. Faith
April 30, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Hey Faith!
Here is where I sent mine: modernlove@nytimes.com. I sent it as an Word file attachment and pasted it right into the body of the email. I used a descriptive subject header, something like: “TITLE OF PIECE by Tim Elhajj” (where it says TITLE OF PIECE I wrote the actual title of my piece).
Good luck!
May 6, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Thank you, Tim. I’ll let you know when it gets in. (Note optimistic word choice!!)
Faith
July 13, 2009 at 8:02 am
Just curious, does Modern Love pay?
July 13, 2009 at 10:03 am
Yes, Modern Love pays. Even better, I found this Observer article recently, which describes the potential of Modern Love pieces for book deals. Mridu, there is also some surprising info about Modern Love’s prestige quotient.
http://www.observer.com/2008/modern-love-breeds-book-deals
July 27, 2009 at 1:30 am
Dear Tim: Thanks so much for your most welcome advice. I am trying to submit a piece to Modernlove.com but am having problems attaching it as a file document and then pasting it into the e-mail. Can I send the word document separately or would that not be kosher? Many thanks, Jean
July 27, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Hi Jean,
I would try to solve any sort of computer problems before trying to submit a Modern Love essay to the New York Times (or really, for submitting any essay anywhere). It’s so hard for us to get our stories in front of an editor, the last thing we want to do is submit our essays in a way the editor is not expecting.
August 28, 2009 at 1:41 pm
[...] August 28, 2009 in Uncategorized Last Thursday I introduced the first assignment — a personal narrative based on the NPR series “This I Believe.” The personal narrative is in few print publications these days. It is sometimes found on the last page of magazines like The New York Times Magazine and Washingtonian. Every Sunday in the “Style” section the Times runs a column called “Modern Love.” Those essays are often extremely — sometimes embarrassingly — personal. Check out the site. Modern Love New York Times [...]
November 28, 2009 at 10:25 pm
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