Photo modified from an original by Tony Webster. Image reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
If you are reading this post on our “internet site” or via “the microblogging platform and social network Tumblr”* you will know that a) we have a website/Tumblr and b) that we put all sorts of good stuff up on it. What you might not know is that we are perpetually looking for more good stuff to put up on this very website. Content! It is delicious; we must have it.
So: in order to facilitate our acquisition of this delectable content, we have opened up pitch submissions for commentary pieces via our Submittable.
What kind of things are we looking for? We’re looking for pitches for commentary pieces that are topical but timeless, that respond to contemporary events, thinking, articles, artworks, exhibitions, and beyond. We want pieces that speak to an international audience but retain an Australian perspective; that surprise, that blend genres and push boundaries (technical, artistic, moral …), that you couldn’t get published anywhere else. We want you to be bold, to look at the big picture, to stir up controversy wherever it needs to be stirred. We want you to be as funny, incisive, and smart as you possibly can. If what you’re trying is a little odd or untested, that’s fine! Please send us your most ambitious ideas; we are forever eager to be convinced.
We’re also open to commentary in other forms: photo essays, videos, comics, visual art, and other forms we haven’t heard or thought of. We’re especially interested in things that could only live online: innovative things with digital media, creative transformations of social networking tools, etc. The weirder the better!
Here are some examples of work we love:
- ‘A City Romance: A Response to CHART Collective’s “I Was Here” Project’, by Molly Lukin, with photos by Alan Weedon
- ‘Everywhere and Nowhere in Particular: Alt Lit in Australia’, by Connor Tomas O’Brien
- ‘Boiling the Pot’, by Ellena Savage
- ‘Disrupting Songlines: Some Thoughts About the Triple J Hottest 100’ by Hannah Donnelly
- ‘The Shape of Things to Come’, by Sophie Allan
Length: We generally publish pieces between 1,200-4,000 words, though for the right piece we will happily break all our own rules.
We pay our writers. Online pieces are paid at $75 each.
We use a Tumblr-based platform which supports a wide range of HTML and CSS. If you’re thinking of doing something playful with code (which we encourage), get in touch.
There’s no limit on the amount of pitches you can submit, but be sensible. You should only submit your best ideas at any time.
Please send us pitches only rather than completed pieces. This saves everyone time!
If you have any questions, please email them to online@theliftedbrow.com, or you can ask us over Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
We look forward to reading your pitches!
* If you are reading this post via some other thing that is not our website or the popular microblogging platform and social network service Tumblr, how even are you reading this, you wizard?