Humor Me: Writing Resources and Tips

6 Takeaways From the Erma Bombeck Conference

Julie Vick — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:56:05 GMT

Today’s post is part of my “Writing Resources and Tips” section. Friendly reminder that if you are not interested in writing topics, you can adjust your subscription preferences by visiting this link and unselecting any sections that don’t interest you.

Last month, I attended the Erma Bombeck writing conference in exotic Dayton, Ohio, and today I am sharing a hodgepodge of takeaways.

Craft advice

There were lots of good tips in the sessions I attended, but a few that stuck out for me included:

Don’t self-edit too much in the creation stage. This was the essential takeaway of the Improv on Paper session I attended with Kathy Kinney and Cindy Ratzlaff. We were given prompts and told to write without overthinking, and then did some sharing. This was not comfortable all the time! But it was a reminder that sometimes you just have to try things and not immediately worry about whether they are good or not. I’m doing some daily writing challenges this month and reminding myself of this frequently.
Have you picked the right point of view for what you want to convey? Melissa Balmain included this question in her session on editing humor. When writing satirical pieces, I do tend to consider different formats, but I don’t always consider if my POV is the right one for what I want to say. This is something I’m going to add to my editing toolbox.
Is this only funny to you or people you know? Wendi Aarons mentioned this as a way to test out ideas. I have gone down the rabbit hole of overly niche pieces in the past, and I think this is something good to remind myself of when writing or revising. Something being relatable is also often what draws me to other people’s jokes or pieces, too, so asking this question makes sense.

Best animal sighting

As I was watching World’s Worst Assistant Sona Movsesian deliver a funny lunch keynote, I saw a beaver-like animal emerge from the water shown below:

You are going to have to imagine the animal here because I did not get a picture of it.

My internet research on semiaquatic rodents of Ohio leads me to believe it was either a beaver or a muskrat, although a muskrat was maybe more likely. was sitting next to me, so maybe she can weigh in on what it might have been? Either way, I always appreciate a good random animal sighting.

Book and newsletter advice

I went to two of Jane Friedman’s sessions and got some good info from both. One was on publishing trends today, and one of the big takeaways is that authors and publishers are getting creative about how to get their books in front of people. This is understandable as readers now have a lot competing for their attention.

One example was authors putting their books on YouTube as an audio listening experience, and another was a company partnering with influencers to promote books they love.

I have been thinking about how any potential future books could reach the right audiences, and I’m guessing this conversation will continue to evolve.

A chart Jane showed in her newsletter session.

Jane also presented on newsletters, and one point that I appreciated was that writers don’t need to send newsletters that often — she recommended monthly or even every other month. If you are pondering newsletter frequency (especially when starting out), I think it’s better to start less often and then add more if you and your audience have the bandwidth for it.

She also mentioned a newsletter writer who offers paid subscribers a shorter version of his newsletter. This made me think of some similar paid tier ideas:

Paid subscribers get a post that is a quarter of the size of the full post
Paid subscribers get a bulleted list that sums up your newsletter
For a small fee, the newsletter writer reads all the newsletters you haven’t had time to catch up on and then summarizes them for you.

(Feel free to steal any of these groundbreaking ideas.)

Market leads

Light verse: Melissa Baiman’s session clued me in to the journal she edits for light verse — fittingly called Light. So keep it in mind for humorous poetry.
Short prose: Grant Faulkner’s session on the Art of Brevity mentioned a market for micro pieces — 100-word stories. He also mentioned the market SmokeLong for flash pieces, and while I had heard of Smokelong, I did not completely realize they focused on the flash form.
Humor markets: I heard some questions about humor markets during the conference, too, so this is your friendly reminder that I’ve also got a list of humor writing market leads here.

Best part of writing conferences

I am an introvert, and conferences do drain me, but I still really like going to them.

While I enjoy keynotes and sessions, the best part of the conference for me is often just getting a chance to talk to other writers. While at Erma, I got helpful intel on some publications and appreciated the chance to talk about things like rejections and submitting with other writers.

I’ve gone to this conference several times and have met a lot of writing friends, which led to things like feedback and accountability partners. So I’ve found conferences to be a good way to find community.

I particularly appreciate that Erma is a well-run conference created in honor of a woman humor writer, and the majority of attendees are women, which is not something that is always common in the comedy/humor world.

It was great to see so many new and old writer friends there, and I am already looking forward to my next writing conference (which will likely be AWP in Chicago next year).

Best conference keepsake:

gave me the above friendship bracelet at the conference, and I now think all writing conferences should feature friendship bracelet exchanges. Maybe all conferences in general? I can see friendship bracelets that say “Northeastern Mid-Market Office Supply Convention” being a big hit, too.

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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One Quick Technique to Add Humor to Your Writing

Julie Vick — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:23:46 GMT

When I am writing something that I am (trying) to make funny, one technique I often use is the funny parenthetical. This is essentially the use of parentheses for comedic effect.

I like this technique because it can be applied to many types of writing (books, satire pieces, notes to your coworkers), and it is easy to try out if you want to add humor to something you are writing.

Some ways to use funny parentheticals

Add a parenthetical that includes a commentary or a funny explanation to the middle or end of a line.

Examples:

“The summer after my freshman year of college, a friend and I psyched ourselves up to try a free stand-up open mic at a Best Western (where dreams are made).”

-Aparna Nancherla, from her book Unreliable Narrator

“The first few years of the 2000s (I still don’t know what to call that decade—oughts? aughts? oots?) were a whirlwind.”

-Wendi Aarons, from her book I’m Wearing Tunics Now

The Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won’t Answer to, Anyway)

-Title of a book by Bob Eckstein

Sometimes the parentheses can also comedically answer a question:

“How old should your child be before you let them eat a hot dog without being under your watchful eye? (The answer is eighteen. And make sure it’s cut into tiny pieces.)

-From Shelly Mazzanoble’s book How to Dungeon Master Parenting

Inserting a single word strategically can also work:

“Make sure the house is spacious enough to accommodate everyone (technically) but also no one (comfortably).”

-From the McSweeney’s piece “How to Ensure Your Annual Beach Vacation Destroys Your Relationship with Your Extended Family” by Talia Argondezzi and Jeff Bender

Sometimes a funny question can also be inserted into parentheses — something my book title does:

Babies Don’t Make Small Talk (So Why Should I?)

Bonus tips

Reading funny books, satire publications, and newsletters can also give you more examples and ideas for how to use parentheses to add humor to a piece.
Sometimes it works to add the funny parentheses at the editing stage rather than the drafting stage. If something isn’t coming to you in the first draft, you can go back and look for opportunities to add it when you edit a piece.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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First-person formats beyond the personal essay

Julie Vick — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:03:28 GMT

Hopefully, you’re continually impressed by these newsletter graphics that I make in Canva.

The personal essay is a popular format for many writers, but if you want to publish first-person pieces, it can help to consider other formats to widen your publishing possibilities.

While watching editor panels, I’ve also heard editors say that they would like to get more pitches with humor in them, so thinking about different formats for humor writing can be useful, too.

When might you want to try a different format?

At the idea phase: When I get an idea for a piece, I often spend some time cycling through what format it might work for — essay, satire, micro piece, etc. Sometimes you can spin an idea into more than one piece or try it out in different formats to see what works best.
If you have been submitting a piece and haven’t had luck placing it somewhere. Shifting the form might help you to get it picked up.
When you want to try something new. Trying a new format can be an interesting challenge or motivation for writing a piece.
When you know a particular pub wants a certain type of piece. If you see a call for submissions for pieces in a particular format, then it might be worth trying out.

Potential formats

Product reviews. Many sites run reviews of products based on personal experience. Reviews can also have funny or voicey elements to them. Places like Business Insider accept pitches for these.
Recommendations/advice pieces. Some first-person pieces are essentially recommendations for something that worked well for you that might help solve a problem for others. Maybe you have a hack for getting kids to eat kale or for enjoying doing your taxes (if you have the latter one, please also let me know). Self is one venue that runs these types of pieces.
Travel pieces. Many travel pieces have first-person elements, and these pieces can be infused with humor. Reading travel pubs (and submission guidelines) for places like AFAR and Fodor’s can give you an idea of their voice and formats.
Micro pieces. Sometimes, rather than a full-length first-person piece, you can write a micro memoir. If you have an essay that isn’t working in a longer format, you could try it in a shorter format for places like The New York Times Tiny Love Stories.
Culture essays: Some first-person pieces can weave personal experiences into thoughts about books, TV shows, or films. Electric Literature runs of some of these pieces.

There are lots of other formats you can try, too! Reading writers or publications you admire can be another way to find different formats.

If you are looking for more info on publishing funny personal essays, this post might help.

If you are looking for more venues for pitching, then perhaps I can interest you in this paid subscriber benefit — my publication pitching guide.

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Slate, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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2025 Writing Year in Review

Julie Vick — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:47:42 GMT

Welcome to my annual year-in-review, in which I reflect on my writing year. Let’s get to it…

Substack

I’ve been on Substack since *checks notes* 2022, and I have continued to enjoy writing this newsletter this year, so it is still a priority for me in the whole writing platform industrial complex.

Here are some quick stats:

Subscriber count: It looks like I’m ending the year with over 3100 subscribers (Thanks for being here!)
My most-viewed posts of the year included:

I have been trying to be aware of how the Substack/Newsletter space is evolving, too. One quote that has been living rent-free in my brain recently is this one from Ann Friedman’s newsletter:

“As literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer has written about book publishing: ‘It’s an ecosystem, not an arena.’ That’s how I feel about newsletters. Ecosystem mentality means you consider how you coexist with others and keep the system in balance. Arena mentality is about grabbing the most attention and the most money possible. The arena is short-term competition; the ecosystem is long-term co-existence.

As a newsletter writer and reader, I’ve been trying to consider the ecosystem when it comes to things like email frequency and paid subscription costs, and what people can reasonably keep up with reading. I don’t have answers to all these things, but I’m trying to pay attention to the ecosystem of Substack and newsletters and how things might change going into 2026.

Freelancing

This year, I wrote pieces for McSweeney’s, several Medium pubs, The Pomegranate, Yahoo, and AAA.

I did not spend as much time submitting as I have in previous years, in part because I was spending more time on this newsletter and in part because I had some people reach out to me to write something, but next year I’m going to try to pitch a little more (ghost of newsletters past interjects: looks like you said this last year too, Julie! Yes, but maybe 2026 will be the year?).

In any event, here are some of my submission stats:

Pitches/submissions sent: 22 (Some of these include sending the same idea multiple places)
Number of different pitches/pieces sent out: 12 (some of these were seasonal pitches/submissions that I had written the previous year, so not all were new)
Acceptances: 6
Rejections/non-responses: 16

Income from freelancing pieces continues to be a moving target. A lot of humor writing continues not to pay a lot, but for me, writing humor is often more about doing something I enjoy or having an idea I want to get written rather than the pay (more on this topic later).

I think Medium pubs are still a good place to send humor, but the pay is unpredictable (looks like my highest-paying story this year made about $95, and my lowest-paying one made less than $1). I also started writing for Yahoo Creators this year and don’t have a ton of data to go on yet, but the pay is based on ad/affiliate revenue and also seems to be pretty unpredictable. But I think the upside to some of these places is you have the freedom to write different things and can reprint stories in multiple places, giving you the chance for more readers/potential pay.

Social Media

I have been spending less time on social media this year, although I do go through phases where I’ll be on there more. I currently seem to be spending the most time on Threads and Instagram. I still generally like Substack Notes for several reasons (including the community on there, the fact that you can edit posts, and posts seem to stay around longer), but I recognize that the bigger platforms often reach wider audiences and serve other purposes, so it still feels useful to be on them a bit.

Sometime this year I read a post on Medium (that I can now not find!) that essentially said that despite all the problems with social media and other sites, the magic of the internet is that you can still get your work in front of people in a way that didn’t used to be possible. And I think this is still true despite there being a lot of competition for people’s attention now.

Writing advice I’ve found useful this year

A piece of writing advice I frequently return to is, “Do some things for art and some things for commerce.” I think about this as I’m deciding what I want to work on — if pay is a priority, then the things or places I submit to may differ from when art is the priority.

Sometimes, both of these things magically combine! The most I’ve ever been paid for humor pieces were print magazine pieces (said outlets/sections, unfortunately, no longer exist). But I do have different goals for different projects, and I think it’s often about asking myself if I’m doing something for art or for commerce.

The other thing I often thought about this year is the question, “What would you work on if you knew it would fail?”

If I get too focused on outcomes, it’s often problematic. So when it comes to projects I’m doing for art, I’ve been thinking about what I would want to work on regardless of outcome, too.

Goals report and a January writing challenge

I made annual and quarterly goals this year, and in looking back at them, I think I had roughly a 50% success rate in completing what I wanted to. But I did finish or make progress on some things and will transfer some goals to 2026. I still like setting goals, so I’ll do it again next year.

To that end, I’m going to run a January writing challenge (slightly different than the ones I did the past couple of years). This one will be a DIY challenge where you can set your own monthly goal and won’t have prompts. But it’s an opportunity to get a start on your creative projects for the year.

You can get more details on the challenge here — and if you want to opt in to the challenge emails, you can do that under “Notifications” here.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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10 Tips Editors Often Give About Pitching

Julie Vick — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 20:57:42 GMT

One useful tool for learning more about a publication you want to write for is to hear directly from the editor on what they do and don’t want.

I’ve attended (or watched) editor panels and interviews for several years and always find them useful.

While not all editors want the same things, some tips come up frequently, so in this post, I’m highlighting some of them.

1. Editors get A LOT of pitches

I’ve always known this to be true, but I’ve heard some editors quantify it — in a recent webinar, a National Geographic editor said she gets 300 to 500 pitches a week. In this humor editor panel, Christopher Monks said McSweeney’s gets around 200-300 submissions a week, and New Yorker Shouts editor Emma Allen said she directly gets around 500 submissions a week, and additionally, there are about 1000 submissions in the open submissions inbox (!).

This is a lot of pitches! Not all pubs and editors will get this amount, but knowing the volume of submissions some publications are getting helps me when writing a piece or pitch (more on this later).

Knowing this also helps when I get a rejection or don’t get a response because I realize the competition is stiff (and for places like The New Yorker, that competition sometimes involves people like Steve Martin or Samantha Irby).

2. Email subject lines matter

I’ve also heard several editors say that email subject lines matter and that you should use the working title of the piece as the subject line of your pitch email. Additionally, that title/subject line should be something that matches the style of the publication you are pitching to.

This makes sense as it can show an editor that your idea is a good potential fit and can get a busy editor to click on an email in a crowded inbox.

Editors also say that if you can’t distill the crux of your pitch or piece into a good title for the publication, then you may need to rethink your pitch. It can be hard to come up with titles, but the process can help you refine your idea or piece.

3. The tone of your pitch should match the tone of the piece you want to pitch

If you are pitching a humorous piece, then the pitch should have humor in it to show that you know how to write humor. If you are pitching a more serious piece, then the tone should reflect that. In a pitch, I will sometimes write what could essentially be the opening lines of a piece to give a sense of the tone/approach I plan to use.

4. Search the publication before pitching it to make sure your piece hasn’t already been done

This is a step that editors frequently recommend because if they have just run a piece with the same basic angle, then they won’t likely run another one again.

5. Read and follow the submission guidelines

Editors frequently say that some writers do not follow submission guidelines. So if a publication lists guidelines, you can put yourself ahead of other writers just by reading and following them.

If a publication doesn’t list submission guidelines, you can still research what an editor may be looking for — sometimes they have tips in their social media profiles or have given interviews that can help.

6. You may want to pitch a piece even if you are submitting the full thing

When writing personal essays, you can sometimes submit the full piece rather than pitching it. But if you do that, it’s still a good idea to come up with a title for it that fits the publication and to pitch the piece in your email. Why? Because the editor won’t automatically want (or have time) to read the full piece, but pitching the idea in an intro email (talking about what it’s about and why you think it’s a good fit for that pub now) can help sell a piece.

Most satire and literary pieces do not require this type of pitching, as the editors tend to read the full piece to evaluate it. But if there is some sort of timely tie-in for a humor piece I’m submitting, then I try to include it (e.g., “I thought this piece on cat hugging would be a good tie-in for National Hug Your Cat day on…”).

7. You need a unique angle

Editors often say that they get pitched similar ideas or ideas that are too generalized and don’t have an angle.

After years of writing essays and humor, I’ve also realized that people sometimes come up with the same idea at the same time, and some angles have probably been pitched a lot. So finding a unique angle on your topic (and searching the pub to make sure that approach has not already been done there) is a good idea.

8. Pitch via email and not DM

Editors have also said that they do not like getting pitches via direct message on social media. They more often want you to follow submission guidelines or pitch to their work/publication email. This helps them keep track of pitches in a consistent workflow.

Even if editors are frequently on social media, that doesn’t mean they want to receive your pitch via DM. So, finding the appropriate email addresses is best unless an editor specifically requests pitches via DM.

9. Don’t be afraid to follow up

Since many editors say that their inboxes are flooded, they also often say you should not be afraid to follow up after a reasonable amount of time. Reasonable varies based on how timely a piece is, but I think a couple of weeks is a good rule of thumb.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. Some publications list longer response times, and some editors and publications say that no response after a certain amount of time means it’s a “no.” So also consider those details when deciding when and if to follow up.

10. Different editors have different preferences on some things

In editor interviews and panels, it’s also clear that some editors can have different preferences. I’ve heard some say that they only want one pitch per email, and others say they are open to multiple pitches. Other editors have preferences for things like getting a pitch vs. a full piece.

Things like pay, lead time, and rights also vary by publication. So if you are trying to break into a particular publication, I think it is good to do some research (and perhaps watch an editor panel or interview) on the pub that interests you.

So, where can you find out about editor interviews?

For freelance writing: Estelle Erasmus interviews some editors on her podcast Freelance Writing Direct and does a quarterly editor-on-call virtual interview (which you can get info on in her Substack)
For humor writing: This is a great panel to start with.
For travel writing: TravMedia hosts periodic ones with different travel pubs and has past ones online.
Conferences (either online or in person) can also be a good place to watch or attend an editor panel.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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Tips for Writing Satirical News Headlines

Julie Vick — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 20:00:26 GMT

You have probably read satirical news headlines on sites such as The Onion and Reductress and may be interested in writing them yourself.

Submitting to satirical news sites is a little different than other satire sites because you often submit batches of headlines rather than a full piece (and sometimes the sites only run a headline without a full article).

My experience with satirical news writing is limited (and by limited, I mean I submitted one batch of headlines to Reductress several years ago, and none of them were picked up). So, I asked other writers to weigh in on this topic.

In this post, five writers — Jeff Bender, , Heidi Lux, Katy Maiolatesi, and — share the backstory behind one of their published headlines and additional tips for this type of writing.

Since I know many people may also wonder about the process for writing for The Onion (which does not have open submissions that anyone can submit to), Jeff also shared some intel on The Onion and his experience doing a headline trial for them.

I picked up lots of good tips from these writers, and I think you will too.

Ysabel Yates

Ysabel Yates is a humor writer and co-author of Jokes to Offend Men. She writes Humor Science, a newsletter about humor writing.

What is the backstory to one of your headlines?

My first headline that was accepted for Reductress was, ‘I Couldn’t Imagine Living Outside the City,’ Says Woman Who Only Leaves Her Apartment Once a Week. It was actually the headline that got me accepted as a contributor, because you submitted a packet with multiple headlines, and that was the one from my packet that got chosen for publication.

I know exactly the moment I thought of it: my partner at the time and I were talking, and he said, "I couldn't imagine living outside the city" and I said, "...says the man who only leaves his apartment once a week." At the time, we were both workaholic homebodies living together in Brooklyn. I thought what he said was really silly, but I could relate to it as well. So I guess he gets half the writing credit on that one.

Any headline writing tips?

Write a bunch of headlines and brainstorm continuously. I wouldn't have thought of that headline if I weren't actively putting together a packet at the time and hadn't already spent a few days brainstorming.

I think that's really the key with satirical news writing — at least for me, I have to really shift into that zone where I'm refracting every thought I have through the lens of, "Could this be a headline?" Once your brain is in that zone, the ideas come naturally and you'll be able to capture them as they come.

Heidi Lux

Heidi Lux a Los Angeles based screenwriter and satirist who has written for sites including Eater, Business Insider, Reductress, and McSweeney's and is currently a managing editor of The Belladonna Comedy. Her screenwriting credits include Tubi (Crushed) and Nickelodeon (Dora the Explorer, The Casagrandes). She's on instagram at @fabulux.

What is the backstory to one of your headlines?

I wrote the Reductress headline Studies Show Women Have Happier Relationships When Their Partners Aren't Massive Douchebags, which I wish I could say came out of a personal frustration, but was born because I had to force myself to come up with a 10th idea to be able to submit to Reductress.

I came across an article about a study on women's relationships, which felt a little obvious. Like, no shit Einstein, you needed a study to figure that out? I thought of what would be dumb, obvious thing you don't need a study to know, and came up with this idea.

It ended up going crazy viral, which was surprising (and on some level, frustrating because the pieces I worked hard on or were based on something personal didn't get as much traction).

But I think it spread so fast because it's simple, relatable, and it sparked a debate. Somehow, people have a lot of strong opinions on whether or not women want someone who doesn't treat them like dirt, unfortunately.

Any headline writing tips?

The formula that I used for this headline that I find helpful is to go to the source material for the thing you're making fun of, take the first half of a real headline, and use it as the setup, then fill in the end with a funny twist, which serves as the punchline - if that makes sense?

It's helpful to mimic the "normal" thing (e.g., using similar wording, matching tone), because it sets up the context, then your funny, silly, imaginative idea breaks the context with something unexpected. You basically have to make the reader think they're walking into something normal, then hit them with a surprising twist to find the humor.

Kelley Greene

Kelley Greene is a chronically online satirist and writer, currently working at BuzzFeed. She has a weekly Substack newsletter called TMI - Too Much Internet, and you can find more of her work at kelleygreene.pizza.

What is the backstory to one of your headlines?

Here's one of my most recent headlines, published by The Hard Times: Hooters Closes Stores Amid Bankruptcy as Younger Generation Favors Bespoke, Craft Titties

I saw a news story about Hooters closing stores due to bankruptcy, and the first thing that crossed my mind (and made me laugh) was, "Oh, look, millennials are killing another industry!" so I knew it was something I thought could be funny.

The original headline on that story says, "Hooters abruptly closes dozens of restaurants amid bankruptcy restructuring," so I wanted to keep enough of that headline to give context (and make it feel like a real news headline), and then end with a funny twist. "Hooters Closes Stores Amid Bankruptcy" felt short and snappy, and got the point across.

I solidified that as the first half of the headline. Next, I spent some time brainstorming about the things that have been said in the past when something falls out of fashion with a younger generation (what all have millennials "killed" these days, and why does the media say it's dead...?). One thing that came to mind is the craft beer movement, and people's desire these days for a more unique experience versus something commercialized.

That felt like the right angle, and after a few tries writing it out, both "bespoke" and "craft" seemed the right descriptors and read the funniest to me. It was the same with the word choice of "titties" over "boobs" or something else — my rewrites included a few different options, but that ultimately sounded best to me.

Any headline writing tips?

My best tips for writing satirical headlines are: the shorter the better. That means sometimes taking out even syllables that feel unnecessary. Read your headline aloud to yourself a few times.

Do you find yourself stumbling over any of the words, or slowing down? Is the portion of the headline that's there for context so long that it's taking away from the joke? Shorten it!

And secondly — try to go beyond the first thing that comes to mind. As I mentioned in my headline, my first thought was "millennials have killed another industry," but rather than writing that directly, I spent some time figuring out how to get at that joke from another angle.

It's still ultimately the same joke, but with another layer on top that makes it feel more news-like versus more like commentary or opinion. Finally, think about what makes YOU laugh, and write the headlines you want to see. Chances are, a lot of other people are going to resonate with the same thing!

Katy Maiolatesi

Katy Maiolatesi is a comedy writer and artist with work in Reductress, McSweeney’s, Jenny Magazine, and The Belladonna, where she also does social media. Find her on Instagram @kmaiolatesi, Bluesky @kmaiolatesi.bsky.social, and at katymaiolatesi.com.

Katy shared this Headline Backstory, which she originally wrote about in this piece:

I workshopped this published Reductress headline: “People-Pleasing Woman Gives Soul to Devil Without Him Even Asking.” Initially, I went through several ideas:

I LIVED IT: I Sold My Soul to the Devil Immediately After He Said I Had Nice Eyes
Woman Immediately Sells Soul to Devil After He Compliments Her Hair
Wow! This Woman is Such a People-Pleaser She Handed Her Soul to the Devil Without Him Even Asking
‘Here, Take It!’ Says People-Pleasing Woman to Devil Without Him Even Asking About Soul

I ultimately decided to use fewer words, like deleting “the” in front of devil, placing “people-pleasing” in front of “woman,” and eliminating an unnecessary “wow!”

Jeff Bender

Jeff Bender writes comedy for The Hard Times, McSweeney's, Electric Literature, Points in Case, and Slackjaw. He's a Senior Writer at Sports Riot. He is also teaching a 6-week course on this very subject called News-Style Satire for Hugo House (Seattle) that starts next month.

What is the backstory to one of your headlines?

I went to The Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA, while my car was being worked on and saw a couple dads breezing through the galleries, like, yeah, yeah, I get it. I thought about how dads (men?) like me are so scared to confront art and their feelings, and I wrote the headline "Nation's Dads Get Through Art Museum in 6 Minutes," which was published in The Hard Times.

In the article, the 6 minutes of course includes a stop at the men's room and a visit to the cafe. For Sports Riot, I wrote "Bengals In Talks With Jaguars About Cat Sex," which did well online and which I still don't really understand.

Any headline writing tips?

Yes, from Scott Dikkers, former editor of The Onion: Write 10 jokes a day. Not all of them will be news-style satire, and definitely not all will be funny. I do it on the Notes app on my iPhone.

Also: When you want to submit a headline, WAIT a few days. The Hard Times lets you pitch whenever, and it's tempting to get trigger happy with a new idea. I recommend waiting three days to see if it's still funny.

You also mentioned doing a headline trial for The Onion. Can you talk more about that?

From what I know, there are 3 ways to write for The Onion:

Apply through their "Careers" site when jobs are posted. Jobs are posted once every two or three years, but if you join the Facebook group How to Write Funny (another Scott Dikkers' creation), you should be well informed. A lot of the full-time jobs necessitate living in or moving to Chicago, though I know some people who were offered remote headline / features trials based on the strength of their applications.
Get recommended for a trial by someone who already writes headlines or features for The Onion. (This is how I got my headline trial.) "Features" just means you write jokes on a premise, like "All The Demands Trump Is Making Of The Smithsonian."
Attend the Diverse as Fuck workshops in person (Chicago) or online.

My experience: There's so much I hope to do differently next time, but I was very lucky to be recommended for a 4-week headline trial. In the trial, I submitted 10 headlines every Thursday. These were added to the general pool and then sifted by the editors into the Shortlist (1st Round) and then the Roundup (final round). The headlines from the roundup made the website.

It was a lot of fun writing for the editors, and I hope to do it again. For two days I was really kind of broken up when I didn't make the headlines staff, which has about 50 writers. But then my wife tried to cheer me up saying, "It's not that great a job." (She was referring to the remote-headline-contributor.)

She has a point: You barely make any money, it's highly impersonal, and many groups of 10 headlines are unceremoniously rejected. That said, it is The Onion! The power of the brand can't be understated. I still want to do it.

But I really am enjoying writing for The Hard Times and Sports Riot. Sports Riot is a small group of writers, some of whom write for The Onion and one writes for The Daily Show. We're incorporated on Instagram and have a growing mass of 85-87K followers, depending on who we offend (mostly bowling fans). We meet every Wednesday night and spend the first half hour talking about our lives. In other words, highly personal.

Back to me, Julie, here.

I appreciated all these insights, as one thing on my writing goal list this year is to submit a batch of satirical headlines somewhere (and I still have a few months in the year left to do it!)

If you are looking for places to submit satirical news, I’ve got a few places listed in this humor markets list.

One other final note, I have for many years been referring to the type of piece we discussed here as “fake news” pieces, I think because that is how I first heard them referred to several years ago, and because that’s how some satirical venues have referred to them.

But I believe that term started before fake news came to mean something different in the Trump era. Jeff mentioned this when I corresponded with him, and I can see why confusing these two might be problematic! So, I will probably try to refer to Onion-style headlines and pieces as satirical news in the future.

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When Writers Have the Same Idea

Julie Vick — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 21:46:56 GMT

I recently saw a piece on a humor site that made me pause because I had written a humor piece with the same basic premise for a different site several years ago.

If you are a writer, you have probably also encountered this phenomenon of someone coming up with a similar idea to you. Sometimes I just have an idea jotted in my notes app, and then I see it come out in a publication, or do a search of the archives and see that it has already been done. Since said writer is likely not a time-traveler/mind reader, there was no way for them to steal my idea.

I have been writing long enough to know that this sort of thing happens. I actually know the writer of the piece I recently saw, and do not believe in any way, shape, or form that that writer took my idea. There is a lot of humor on the internet, and odds are that the writer had never seen my piece.

But, it still stings a little when you see your same idea and can sting even more if your idea was previously rejected from the site that is running it.

This is actually something that was touched on in this recent editor panel of satire editors at the New Orleans Festival of Books. In short, people send the same ideas all the time, and they may not be accepted for a variety of reasons, including timing, being too similar to something that has just run, or the execution of said idea.

That last one is probably a harder pill to swallow, but no two human writers will write the same piece the same way, and sometimes another writer will pull off a better execution than you.

And, as much as it pains me to admit, I think that is the case with the piece I recently saw. After the other one came out, I went to look back at mine to compare. In my head, my title had been very similar (it was, in fact, very different). My structure of the idea was also different, and in retrospect, I probably jumped around a bit too much and could have benefited from more editing/streamlining. The other writer’s piece was honestly probably executed better overall.

This isn’t to say that idea theft doesn’t happen sometimes (although I think it is rare). Also, word-for-word copying of a piece or a part of a piece or a social media joke is just straight-up plagiarism and problematic in a different way.

But people coming up with the same idea at the same time happens. So what can you do when you see an idea run that you have been working on?

I think you can first think about ways to differentiate your piece from the other one. Maybe you can change the format or angle on it, or zoom in on some particular aspect of the topic, or find some way to make it more timely.

Sometimes, when I post a published humor piece on social media or in a writing group, another writer will tell me that they had been working on a similar idea. And my response to them is typically that they should still write the idea because there is room for more than one take on things.

As long as you can find a different execution of said idea, there is probably another way in. I’ve also seen different pubs run similar ideas, so one pub running one thing doesn’t necessarily mean a different pub wouldn’t take it.

And in the world of short essays, some pubs will want more essays on similar things if one on a given topic does well. The same can go for books.

I’ve heard the advice that you should try to write the pitch or piece that only you can write, and I think doing this is a good way to approach some pieces. I imagine that editors at publications do tend to see the same things over and over again (and I suspect this may happen even more in the age of AI), so working to find your own unique approach is, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.

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5 Title Writing Strategies

Julie Vick — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:49:12 GMT

I made this image in Canva and feel like the typewriter sort of has eyes?

I used to not spend a lot of time working on the titles for the pieces I wrote. I almost always wrote titles as a last step in the writing process and figured an editor could work with me on the title if a piece was accepted.

But I’ve come full circle to working harder on titles, and I think it’s a good practice.

Why titles are important

They can make a difference between someone reading your piece or not

I think this is even more true in the current attention economy, where your words have to compete with so many other things. I realize this in my own reading habits now. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters and Substacks — more than I ever have time to read. So what often gets me to read a piece (either in my inbox or on social media) is the title.

There are some exceptions to this (writers I read regardless because I enjoy their work), but it’s more often that I am not reading everything, and I assume this is true for my pieces too.

If you do not write a good title, one will be assigned to you

In mainstream publications, editors often write titles for your pieces, and those titles often reflect the voice of the publication, which may not be your writing voice.

After having some titles put on personal essay pieces that I did not love, I started trying to get better at writing titles. This is not a guarantee that the title won’t get changed, but I have had editors use the same basic title I proposed. For humor, I also think a good title can help it reach a wider audience and help make it clear that the piece is humor or satire.

For more literary pubs, my experience has been that titles can have more variation/be more artistic than “clickable,” however, I would also argue that literary pieces with engaging titles can help a piece reach more readers — I think The Commuter on Electric Lit is one literary pub that often runs pieces with intriguing titles.

5 Title Writing Strategies

Even though I know title writing is important, I still find that titles can be hard to write. But these are different strategies I use.

1. Read the publication and mimic existing titles

For both mainstream publications and humor publications, I try to scan the titles of the places I’m submitting to and write a title in the same style. For example, titles for essays on Business Insider are typically pretty long (often two sentences), and they often state the main points of the article. So I would mimic that style in the pitch.

I’ve heard more than one editor say that it’s a good practice to include one (or more) potential headlines for a piece in your pitch, and that if you can’t formulate a good headline in the style of that pub, then you may not have a good pitch. I think this exercise can help you distill what your piece is actually about too.

Also, it may help you realize that the pub is not right for your piece. Sometimes when I scan titles of a pub, I realize that that pub is probably not a good fit for my writing or the piece I want to pitch.

Once you’ve got your title, it’s good practice to use it as the subject line in a pitch. I’ve heard more than one editor recommend this because it can help the piece stand out in a crowded inbox and help them see the piece on their publication.

I also have thought of making a document for myself with a list of title “types” I see on publications I frequently submit to, so that I can go through it when I’m trying to come up with a title. Alas, time has not allowed for me to do that yet, but maybe it will for you?

2. Think about what types of titles get you to read a piece

Whether you are writing on Substack or for other publications, I think it’s useful to pay attention to what titles are engaging enough for you to want to read the piece. If you find titles that speak to you, then pay attention to what they are doing that makes you want to read. Is it because it is answering a question you are trying to solve? Is it because the headline was relatable or made you laugh?

3. Pull a line from the piece to use as the title

If you are stuck on what to use and you have a completed piece, sometimes you can use a line from the piece as the title. I think this can work particularly well for some literary pieces and humor pieces.

4. Brainstorm titles before drafting

I now sometimes brainstorm titles for a humor piece or essay before I actually write it. This doesn’t always work, as sometimes I need to write a draft to figure out what I want to focus on, but I think it can also help you to focus on a piece from the start. So brainstorming titles for humor pieces or essays can be a good first step.

5. Write a lot of titles

For humor pieces, I frequently brainstorm several different titles and often ask people I trade feedback with which title they prefer. For essays and Substack posts, I also usually brainstorm different titles. I wrote a few different options for this post and am not sure I landed on the exact best one, but I think the process of thinking through options is helpful. I know that Substack also allows you to A/B test titles/subject lines — something I have not tried out yet, but could see being good.

A few final things:

Tips request: I am thinking of doing a future post focused specifically on writing “Fake News” Titles. If you have published headlines in places like The Onion, Reductress, or Hard Times and might want to contribute to it, reply to this email or reach out here to let me know.
Do you have other strategies that work for writing titles? Feel free to share them in the comments.

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How to Write and Parent During the Summer

Julie Vick — Tue, 20 May 2025 11:28:31 GMT

Trying to write or create over the summer while also trying to parent can be a challenge. Every summer, I feel ambitious about the writing I’m going to get done while I’m not teaching, but every summer it feels difficult to get much done when my kids aren’t in school.

Summer break is almost upon us where I live, so I asked for tips from other parents handling the summer creating conundrum, and I’m sharing those today.

, who writes the Substack Nebula Notebook, said:

I give myself permission to skip marketing during the summer. I can still work with clients if they come to me and it's a good fit, but I'm not actively networking, speaking at conferences, going on podcasts, hanging out on Instagram, or posting on Substack.
It frees up a shocking amount of mental energy and time, but I think it's also helpful because once I make the decision to skip those things, I feel less pressure to do it all. It's also a chance to reset and decide how I want to market my work when I come back in the fall.

Liz Alterman, who is the author of several books, including the upcoming Claire Casey's Had Enough, said:

Though I hate this phrase because of how much it reminds me of corporate America, I try to "manage my expectations" and accept that I may get less done in the summer….When my kids were younger, I'd try to institute "artist hour" in the afternoons where I'd bust out Play-Doh, markers, construction paper, and I even went as far as to buy a giant inflatable easel, which I'd set up in the backyard with watercolors and finger paints. I'd tell them we were going to each work on our own projects, and when the timer went off, we'd share our art.
I'd be lucky if I got 15 minutes in (it typically took me longer to gather supplies and inflate the easel!), which I guess goes back to managing expectations, lol.

, who writes the Substack Heretic Hereafter, offered this sage advice:

I write in the morning and let my kids brainrot in front of screens for a few hours before dragging us all (unwillingly) out of the house.

[Editor’s note: My kids tell me the current brain rot of choice is Italian Brain rot.]

Author Amran Gowani’s debut novel Leverage comes out this summer, and he outlined these plans:

I've got a unique challenge this summer in trying to promote my forthcoming novel Leverage while also maintaining forward momentum on my current novel-in-progress and email newsletter.
My expectation is failure on all fronts, but my delusional plan relies on two key tactics. For Leverage promotion, I've enrolled my kids in a "full-day" (e.g., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) summer camp for the all-important two weeks leading up to pub day. This should free up crucial bandwidth without breaking the bank.
As for continuing to create new material during the summer, I intend to maintain a vampire schedule, writing from either 9 p.m. to midnight or 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., depending on my insomnia.

, who writes the Substack Not Normal, said:

I call them “baby bites” or “snacks”- writing for tiny chunks of 15-20 minutes at a time and (most importantly) being OK with that. I used to think I could only write if I had 2-3 hours, but that’s just not possible much of the time, especially in the summer.
Along with “done is better than perfect,” “something is better than nothing” is the mantra I live by! I do try to get one “snack” in before the kids wake up—but if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay. That just means more time to accumulate life, which ultimately turns into the stories that fuel my writing.

, who writes the Substack One Tired Mother, said:

I'm a huge fan of waking up early. I know it's difficult, but waking up 90 minutes before my daughter does ensures I have half an hour for coffee/yoga/staring at the sunrise/doomscrolling... and then a solid hour once I'm awake to get my creative work in.
I start the day feeling good about what I've accomplished and ready to take on the chaos (and fun) that is having a child home for the whole summer.

Julie Vick, who writes this Substack, is still trying to figure out her best plan of attack, although I think it may involve a combination of a lot of the above tips.

I’m going to try to work on some things, but I also want to take some time to recharge a bit. It helps me to think about the summer as a whole and realize that certain portions of it (like July) are not going to be super productive because of travel and holidays. August is also hard with back-to-school. So basically, I’m looking at you, June.

But even when things are busy, I’m going to try to fit in what I can. I have been interested in writing more micro, and that seems doable in small chunks of time, so I think I’m going to try to follow along with some of the prompts that Darien Gee shares on her Substack.

I’ve got a long list of other potential things to work on that I’ll try to whittle down and prioritize at the beginning of the summer so that when I do get a bit of time, I’m not spending it trying to figure out what to work on.

But I am also going to embrace the fact that I won’t be able to get everything I want done.

How do you handle writing (or creating) in the summer? Feel free to share in the comments.

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6 Takeaways from the AWP Writing Conference

Julie Vick — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:16:17 GMT

Today’s post is part of my “Writing Resources and Tips” section. Friendly reminder that if you are not interested in writing topics you can adjust your subscription preferences by visiting this link and unselecting any sections that don’t interest you.

A few weeks ago I went to the AWP conference in LA, which if you don’t already know is a big conference for writing programs and writers held in a different city every year. It is a huge conference (sometimes getting 10,000 attendees) and the size of it is honestly not ideal for this introverted writer as it can be overwhelming.

However, my teaching job often has some funding to send me and I always get useful things from attending.

So today I am bringing you some highlights from the trip in the form of awards I made up.

Best airport

I have typically flown into LAX when going to the LA area; however, I do not love how huge it is. Last year I read a novel in which one of the characters mentioned they prefer to fly out of Burbank, so this time around that’s where I went in and out of and I can say I preferred it too. It had smaller/classic airport vibes (We got on and off outside! They let us board/deplane from both the front and back of the plane! There was no taxi line!).

In the future, I will probably try Burbank or one of the many other Southern California airports in the area (shout one out if you recommend one).

But the main takeaway is you should take travel advice from novels.

Writing tip that resonated

Several panels I attended talked about the benefits of constraints in your writing (things like word count, writing to a prompt, or in a certain format). This idea spoke to me as I’ve realized that I am often drawn to constraints but sometimes hesitant about using them for some reason.

But I think operating with constraints in things like formats for humor writing can be helpful. So I am going to embrace constraint.

Best writer transparency in a panel

I was impressed by the transparency on income numbers in the panel “The Bottom Line: Comparing Book Sales to Overall Earnings” hosted by Jane Friedman which featured Laura Portwood-Stacer, Allison K. Williams, and Russell Nohelty.

They were very transparent in sharing numbers of their book sales vs. other income streams and there were a lot of great takeaways, but two included the fact that book sales are a small portion of their income and that newsletters have been an important component of their careers.

The event outline also included a pdf with their numbers, which is worth looking at.

Best hotel perk

I stayed at the Residence Inn near the convention center, thus allowing me to make jokes about being a Writer in Residence.

One unexpected perk was that they provided a free breakfast buffet every day. Was it the best breakfast buffet ever? No. But did it give me a solid breakfast in a pleasant environment without me having to wait in line and/or make a decision about where to go? Yes.

I also have a special affinity for breakfast buffets while traveling which I will perhaps write more about one day so maybe the real perk of the Residence Inn is writing inspiration.

Best thing about writing conferences

The highlight for me is always talking with other writers and this was no exception. I went to meetups for Substack writers and satire writers, which were great. As an introvert, I do get drained by the end of a conference but it is worth it to talk to other writers IRL.

However, it seems that there are always people I miss seeing despite them being nearby, so that is why I came up with the app idea (which as you can see from the number of people who liked this post, is a wildly popular idea):

And finally, the award for best street graffiti

I spotted this outside the hotel and it wins this category for obvious reasons.

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How I Got Publicity for My Book

Julie Vick — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:24:33 GMT

If you are trying to promote a book or build a platform for a book, you will likely be pitching your writing or yourself at some point. Before I got a book deal, I was publishing humor and freelance pieces (and I think those published pieces did help me sell the book on proposal).

When my book was coming out, I did a bigger push for publicity pieces in the form of things like companion pieces, excerpts, and interviews. The publicist from my book publisher got some publicity for the book too, but I also did a lot of pitching myself.

Because authors looking to build a platform for a book or promote a book are likely trying to do similar things, I’m going to outline some of what I did here.

Placing companion pieces

A companion piece is just a piece of writing that is submitted around a book’s release to promote a book. I’m discussing things that I did for my book around release, but I think you could also strategically pitch ideas related to a book you hope to sell in order to generate buzz for it/build material for a nonfiction proposal. Also, placing pieces prior to having a book helps you establish relationships with editors that may be helpful down the road.

Types of pieces I placed

I placed a few pieces that were directly related to my book content (introverted parents) in places like Introvert Dear, Pregnant Chicken, and Frazzled. I tried to target markets that made sense for the audience of my book.

During and after my book launch, I was also writing humor pieces and essays for places like The New Yorker, Today’s Parent, Electric Lit, and McSweeney’s that weren’t directly about the book content but as these came out I tried to make sure the book’s name (and ideally a link to it) was mentioned in my bio that accompanied the pieces. Sometimes a chance to mention the book was offered up and sometimes I had to ask for it — so it can be worth it to ask.

Further down the road, I also wrote some more “my experience with publishing a book” type pieces—one for Jane Friedman’s site and one for Brevity’s blog. These are often run in writing pubs and can be an option for authors of a variety of different types of books.

How I actually pitched/submitted

The vast majority of these pieces were placed by just writing the piece and submitting it, following the submission guidelines on the website. In some cases where I had already written for the pub/had a relationship with the editor, then I submitted directly to them.

Not all my pitches found a home, and I had to submit a few around to more than one place before getting an acceptance on some of these.

What about excerpts?

I also had a few excerpts of my book run. One my publisher placed, one came about because of a relationship I had with an editor at a humor pub, and one came out as a result of my book placing in a category of the Colorado Authors League Awards.

I honestly think excerpts can be great because they give readers a sense of the book, and they don’t require you to write something new. I have also bought books after reading excerpts of them, so I do think they can lead to sales.

How to find publications for companion pieces or excerpts:

Think about what publications would have audiences that overlap with your book. Not every pub will be a good fit for every book, so considering who is reading and who you want to reach helps. Since my book is a humorous advice book aimed at introverted parents of young kids, I initially tried to focus on pubs that would reach these audiences
What publicity have authors of other similar books gotten? In researching potential outlets I could submit to, I tried to reverse engineer publicity on other books that were similar to mine by seeing where they were placing companion pieces or excerpts. Reading author websites, social media, or newsletters around the time of a book’s launch can give you ideas of where an author is placing things that you may also be able to pitch.
Follow pitching newsletters. I subscribe to Study Hall and which aggregate calls for submissions from publications. I read these pretty regularly as a freelancer, but if you are looking to place companion pieces, I think they can be helpful as sometimes an editor puts a call out for an idea you are already working on or could write.

Interviews

The other thing I pitched myself for was podcasts and interviews. My publicist got me booked on a bigger parenting podcast (One Bad Mother) but I cold pitched the others I appeared on including some bigger ones like The Minimalist Moms Podcast and Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books.

Some other podcasts I did were a result of me knowing the podcaster previously and one came about after meeting someone at a conference.

One podcaster also reached out about me appearing after another writer posted about my book on Twitter. I think about this when I see people discussing how useful social media can be. There are no guarantees, but I think social media can help to get your book seen by the right person sometimes.

I also heard a guest on the Publishing Rodeo podcast mention that the value in posting on Twitter used to be that a lot of writers and journalists hung out on Twitter and they may see your book and want to include it in something like a book roundup. I don’t know that this is true of the current state of Twitter/X, but may be true of other social media.

Additionally, I did some written Q&A style interviews for different newsletters and websites. Most of these came about as a result of me having some sort of relationship with the writers or publications. A couple were a result of writers seeing me post about my book in Facebook writing groups I’m in.

So building relationships with writers/finding writing communities can be helpful.

But does this stuff help sell books?

This is the million-dollar question as I know many authors want to know how they should be spending their time on book promotion. As a traditionally published author, it’s hard for me to track everything, and since some of these pieces hit at the same time around launch, it’s hard to tell what led to what in terms of sales. I did see some sales bumps at times, but I don’t have great data on what led to what.

I’ve heard other writers say that big publicity pieces did not sell a lot of books, but I know they sometimes do. But I don’t think you can count on it. I think the point a lot of the time is to make people aware of your book even if it doesn’t lead to an immediate sale.

Some of the pieces I published also led to a bump in newsletter subscriptions or social media follows, which down the road might lead to someone buying a book. I also saw people coming to my website via things like a piece I was quoted in in Self, which may have led to it getting on their radar.

Some part of publicity is about the long game for your writing career, and these publicity opportunities can help with that. If it also helps you get a byline you have been seeking or some extra money, then I think that’s worth taking into account.

I think that is most of it! For more on things I tried for book marketing/publicity and how well they worked, check out this piece from the archives:

Thanks for reading! I’m considering doing another post that is related to some of this. If this is of interest, weigh in on this poll on which you would prefer to see:

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Backstory to a Humor Piece: Writer Envy Helpline

Julie Vick — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:09:50 GMT

Today’s post is part of my “Writing Resources and Tips” section. This is a friendly reminder that if you are not interested in writing topics, you can adjust your subscription preferences by visiting this link and unselecting any sections that don’t interest you.

I tend to have more ideas for humor pieces than I have time to write, but one thing that sometimes inspires an idea for me is format.

I keep a document with a running list of potential humor formats. I regularly read satire publications and pieces from fellow humor writers, and if I see a format that I haven’t seen before (or that just generally speaks to me), I add it to the list.

When I get an idea for a satire piece, I often look through the list to see what format might fit well with that idea.

One format that I added to my list a few years ago was the helpline format — essentially a call tree helpline with a series of choices.

Initial Idea

As a writer, I am not immune to feeling envy. When you are struggling with rejections or writer’s block and your social media is full of people announcing all their writing wins it can cause some feelings.

At some point, while scrolling social media, I realized that it might be a good topic for a humor piece. This is a strategy I often use when I realize something is bothering me — can I spin it into a humor piece?

I thought it could work well since writer envy is both a common feeling and one I hadn’t seen focused on in humor pieces. There are some common topics for writer-related humor like rejection, so I think finding a unique angle on a topic can help your chances of getting an acceptance.

When I looked at my list of formats I felt like the helpline might work well, so I wrote a draft of the piece.

Drafting and Revisions

In a piece like this one, I try to map the format onto the existing form (in this case a call tree helpline). However, I usually find it better to not *exactly* follow the form. A typical call tree structure is to announce the thing and end with the number choice (e.g. “For help with your existential dread, press 1”).

However, in humor, it’s often better to end a line with a joke, and if each line just ended on a number it would be repetitive. So one thing I tried to do was mix up the endings to get lines like this one:

To hear a recording of your mom listing all the reasons why someone out there might actually be jealous of you, say “Replay middle school pep talk.”

One thing I also debated with the piece was how much of an intro to give it. If I’m writing for a satire-only site I keep it satirical, but if I’m writing a satirical piece for a place that also runs non-satire pieces, I sometimes add (or have had an editor add) an intro that essentially explains that what you are about to read is humor.

I had seen Electric Lit occasionally run humor pieces and was interested in submitting to them, so I decided to aim the piece at them and thought some explanation might be helpful since they are not a satire-online site.

I initially had this intro paragraph when I submitted it:

Writers are, of course, happy to see their friends succeed and other people’s accomplishments can be pretty motivating. But wouldn’t it be great if there was a helpline to assist in your jealousy emergencies?

However, when the editor accepted the piece she worked with me on some edits and one thing she wanted was the intro to just stay in satirical form. So I ended up changing it to this:

You’ve reached the Writer Envy Helpline, where we are happy to assist with all your jealousy emergencies. Our helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has extra staffing between midnight and 2 a.m., when we always see a surge of calls. Please note that this helpline is intended as a quick fix and is not a replacement for getting therapy or an MFA.

Whether or not you would add a more explanatory intro depends on the pub and editor — but I would not add it to straight satire sites like McSweeney’s or Points in Case.

I also had a writer friend I often trade feedback with give me some notes on it before submitting it (thanks, Sally!).

Because I’m not typically a fast writer and had other stuff going on, this whole process took a while. It looks like I wrote a first draft in March of 2019 and didn’t submit it until July of that year.

Submitting and Publication

When I went to submit the piece to Electric Lit it was not immediately obvious what section it should go to since they don’t have a dedicated humor section and they run humor in different places (including the main site and The Commuter). They have good guidelines on where to send what, so if you have a short story or literary essay you should follow those guidelines.

But humor can be tricky as it sometimes falls under a category of fiction, flash, or essay, depending on the piece. After looking at what sections other humor pieces had run in and reading their submission page, I ended up submitting to the general “editors@” email listed and the site.

I’ve written before about how I have had good luck with general email addresses for submitting when I don’t have a relationship with a pub, and this is one example of that.

The piece was accepted and here is the final version of it.

When the piece got published a lot of people shared it and it did well, but not so well that it made the most-read pieces at the end of the year (Yes, I noticed and yes it would have been helpful if I could call the Writer Envy Helpline at the time). But I was still happy with the way it turned out.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking to write a humor piece in a certain format I think it is also helpful to read other pieces in that format and study how they are working.

Some other helpline pieces include the Toddler Feelings Helpline, The Skin Care Hotline, and You Have Reached The Turning-Thirty Helpline.

Also, Electric Lit does run humor but it tends to be writer or reader-focused since that is the focus of the site. If you are thinking of submitting there, it can be helpful to read previous pieces they’ve run to get a sense of what they are looking for. The most-read pieces from last year are a good place to start.

And if you feel like you sometimes need to call the Writer Envy Helpline, you are in good company.

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2024 Writing Report

Julie Vick — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:31:42 GMT

Maybe an exaggeration, but I continue to spend too much time creating visuals.

Hello and welcome to my 2024 writing report!

I’ve been doing these annual reflections on how my year in writing went for several years now — first on Medium and now on Substack.

Before we get to my annual breakdown, I want to mention that the One Funny Line Challenge where we write one funny line a day will be back in January. You can get more details on it here. If you want to get the daily emails when it starts, you need to adjust your preferences to opt in to that section here.

Okay, now onto the report…

Submitting report

I submitted fewer freelance/humor pieces this year than I have in the past because I spent more time writing this Substack and focusing on other writing projects (like book ideas). I think I’m following a trend with a lot of writers who are freelancing less as publications are continually cutting back.

But I still enjoy freelancing, so I think in 2025 I will aim to submit a bit more, although I am trying to be much more thoughtful about why I’m doing it—e.g., to break into a pub, for the payday, to help grow my Substack, or because I just can’t stop myself from writing something.

Between my teaching job and parenting, I continue to have limited time, so I feel like I need to pick and choose what to prioritize.

Here are some quick stats on my submitting year:

I sent 21 pitches/submissions this year and I may end up sending a couple more pitches/submissions before the end of the year. (Several of these were submitting the same piece to multiple places so I didn’t write 21 separate pieces!)
I got 5 acceptances and 16 rejections or non-responses. I had pieces run in McSweeney’s, Slate, Jane Austen’s Wastebasket, Frazzled, and one travel piece for AAA will run next year.
In terms of the types of pieces I was submitting/pitching, it looks like it included 4 satire pieces, 4 essays, and 1 travel pitch. Some of these were seasonal things I wrote the previous year that I was trying to look for homes for and I often do have success holding pieces when I run out of time. (And I of course thought of two new holiday satire ideas this week that I think I need to wait until next year to try to write/submit, so it goes.)

I have not been writing as much short satire lately in part because I was feeling like I wanted to focus on other writing projects. I’m sure I’ll continue to do more in 2025, but it’s just a balancing act of what to focus on.

Social media report

The current landscape for social media feels tricky because with the Twitter meltdown, people have gone to different places and I’m still deciding where to spend my time.

I (like a lot of other humor writers I know) have been duplicating jokes across different platforms because who knows when a platform is going to implode! This is not necessarily super time-consuming but it does split my focus which is not ideal.

I’m also very aware that social media can be a time suck that takes away from other writing I want to do, so I’m just generally trying to spend less time on it/be intentional with it. A lot of what was in this piece on Culture Study resonated with me.

I also have started to not link to social media handles in my freelancing bios (RIP all those Twitter links that are in existing bios out there!). I’ve been linking to my website and/or Substack instead.

Caveats, aside this is where I’ve been spending time on social:

Threads: It feels Twitter-like and since I am more of a words person than a visual or video person I have been posting there a bit. It does feel like a place you can get jokes seen but it seems to suppress links, so I don’t feel like it’s great for sharing things like Substack posts and published pieces.
Blue Sky: I’ve just started checking it more despite having had an account since 2023. One big plus to this platform is that it does not seem to suppress links as much as others, so it can be a good place to share links to your published stuff.
Instagram: It feels a bit quieter on the main grid there these days but I do still really like Instagram stories so will post on Insta at times.
Substack Notes: This is one of my favorite places to hang out on social media currently. It does not require me to be on it all the time and posts can be seen a lot longer than on other platforms. I do think Notes has helped some people find my Substack too.

Places I’m not really hanging out:

Twitter/X: I didn’t delete it all together but I set it to private and will probably mostly only lurk there for things like freelance opportunities. I just don’t want to be posting there anymore.
LinkedIn: I think this is actually a good option for some people, but I just don’t find that I want to hang out there. It does seem like there are freelance opportunities that pop up there now though.
TikTok: I think this can be good for platform/promotion if you want to spend time on it, but I am just not a video-first person. That said I may try to experiment with it a bit more in 2025 (assuming it doesn’t get completely shut down).
Facebook: I don’t really post to the main feed or my author page here very much but I do continue to find some of the private Facebook writer groups useful. I’m usually only logging in to read those currently.

I’m curious where others are at with this, so feel free to weigh in in the poll or in comments.

Substack report

One of the bright spots in my writing year has been Substack. I now have over 2000 subscribers (thanks for being here!) and enjoy that I can set my own pace and content and I really like the Substack community. So I will continue to make it a writing priority in 2025 and will probably try out some different types of posts in the new year.

Since I know some of you reading this are also Substackers, these are the things that I think most helped contribute to my growth this year:

Posting on Notes. I had a few notes take off and I think this did help with subscriber bumps.
Recommendations: My stats tell me a good chunk of my subscribers are coming via recommendations for other Substacks, so thanks to those of you recommending me!
Google: I have a few posts that have gotten good SEO traction and those have led to new subscribers.
Shoutouts/freelancing: I try to include a link to my Substack in relevant freelance/humor publications and that does lead some people to find me. Getting shout-outs from other writers on their Substacks or other places has also helped.

And these look like my 3 most popular posts of the year in terms of views:

Finance report

I have a full-time teaching job and write on the side for some additional income (and because I enjoy it). Making a little extra money from writing helps me not feel like I have to maintain a really heavy teaching load (and *fingers crossed* perhaps early retirement?) But it’s definitely a small portion of my overall income.

In any event, here is a rough breakdown of writing-related income percentages for the year:

In the past, freelancing had made up a bigger chunk and Substack a smaller one. I do like the control Substack gives me and so I’m okay trading some freelance income for Substack income.

This year I thought I would try to do more one-off teaching and possibly even try some coaching, but I felt like my time was just too stretched with other things to do a lot of it. I think this may be something I’ll be able to do more of in the future, but for now, I don’t want it to eat up the time I have to do my own writing.

One pleasant income surprise this year was making a little extra money on some boosted articles on Medium. Since humor writing does not often pay much, Medium still feels like a viable option for some humor pieces (with some caveats).

I have been writing on Medium since 2016 but have never devoted a lot of time to it. The partner program you can potentially get paid through has changed over time and will likely change again in the future. While I don’t plan to go all in there, I’ll probably try to publish a few more pieces in the publications there in 2025.

I’m curious what others think about Medium currently, so I’m including these bonus polls:

Final Thoughts

Going into the new year I have some things I want to focus on including this Substack, a picture book idea I’m excited about, a few half-written pieces I need to finish, and talking to more writer friends in real life since I’m experiencing some Zoom fatigue.

A local writing group I’m in that had met pre-pandemic started up again and we are only meeting once a quarter but that feels like the right thing for me this year. Setting quarterly writing goals also worked well for me this year so I’m going to do that again in 2025.

Finally, thank you to anyone who has read, shared, or supported my Subsack this year, I appreciate you!

I’m also the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

If you enjoy this Substack and want to offer one-time support for my writing, you can do that here:

Support Humor Me

Funny Book Report: How to Dungeon Master Parenting

Julie Vick — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 13:51:55 GMT

It has been a week and I, for one, have been watching a lot of the British Baking show and wondering what happens to that tent when they aren’t filming. Is there some way they could host an extended writer’s retreat getaway in it? Maybe just with a little cot with warm blankets and retro freezers full of any leftover baked goods? Hopefully, someone can make that happen.

I’ve also been welcoming anything that makes me laugh and fits that bill. Shelly’s book How to Dungeon Master Parenting: A Guidebook for Gamifying the Child Rearing Quest, Leveling Up Your Skills, and Raising Future Adventurers comes out next week. I read an advance copy of the book and enjoyed the funny and informative take on parenting and Dungeons and Dragons (so much so that I blurbed it).

D&D is new to me as I didn’t play it growing up but my kids have gotten into it (and my middle schooler has also been perusing my copy of the book so maybe think about getting it for a parent-child book club).

Shelly is a humor writer who started playing D&D when she began working for Wizards of the Coast. She has since written several D&D-related books and has helped set up D&D clubs at schools. You may also know her from her funny Substack Middle-Aged Lady Mom.

In the following conversation, we talked about structuring a humor book, book publishing, and a D&D spell for writers.

As someone who has struggled with the best way to structure a humor book, I’m always curious about how other writers arrive at structure. How did you decide on the structure you used for How to Dungeon Master Parenting?

I really wish I had an elegant answer here, but this book was all over the place. I followed the book proposal and table of contents closely and I was very thankful to have done so much of the planning during the proposal stage. Typically, I’m a planner. I like structure. I like a book to make sense in the proposal phase because that makes it easier for me to write. It’s probably a placebo or a crutch but it’s mine and I’m clinging to it!

The idea was to write it sort of in chronological order on the parenting journey starting with that “Holy crap!” moment when you find out you're pregnant and ending with the acknowledgment there really is no end because this is your life now but hopefully you’re more prepared!

Even though this book (and other nonfiction books I’ve written) is a collection of essays, I try to imagine it as if I’m telling one long story. Where would I want this story to begin, how can I keep the reader (or listener) interested, where can I dial up the emotion or add a surprise, and of course, how do we give this story a satisfying conclusion? That’s the hardest part for me— ending it! See how long this answer is???

Even writing is a lot like how a Dungeon Master would run a campaign. There is literally nothing Dungeon Masters can’t teach us!

One thing you talk about in the book is the popularity of D&D clubs at schools (and I can report that at my kid’s middle school, the D&D club is very popular). What do you think has led to the increased popularity? Does my theory that the popularity of things like Stranger Things may have contributed to it hold any water?

Amazing, right? Gen Alpha is the most digitally immersed generation in history and yet there’s something unquestionably attractive about a game that takes place face-to-face (traditionally) and involves a pencil, paper, and math. I think it all stems from our basic human need to connect through shared storytelling.

D&D is collaborative which can be a refreshing change for kids who are always feeling like they’re competing either academically, socially, or athletically. Self-discovery and self-expression is also a huge part of the game as you get to create every facet of a hero from how they look to what they do to where they come from and experience new worlds through their eyes and actions.

You are right about Stranger Things boosting awareness and interest. The best way to learn how to play D&D is to watch it being played. Even if you’re watching those imaginary beasts come to life and destroy your school’s science lab!

I also credit teachers and other educators who have long recognized the educational benefits of D&D. It’s been called one of the most innovative teaching tools in the world because math, reading, and writing are inherent to playing, as well as honing soft skills like teamwork, listening, empathy, and strategic thinking. Part of what I do at my day job is create tools for teachers and therapists to incorporate D&D into their everyday practices. D&D can make you smarter and happier!

A page from the book. Number 8 really speaks to me.

What is a D&D spell that would be helpful for writers to have?

Bardic Inspiration. Bards are magical masters of art and performance. If you grant Bardic Inspiration to another player mechanically you are giving them an additional die roll to add to their die roll, which could be the difference between success and failure. Inspiration in game comes in the form of music, dance, or words and I think every creative person loves the idea of inspiring someone through their work.

You’ve written several books now—do you have any advice for aspiring authors about the book writing or publishing process?

Sounds trite perhaps and definitely easier said than done, but you have to keep going. Writing is subjective. Someone’s “no” is another person’s favorite book. I queried agents for years with a book proposal project. YEARS! I was constantly researching, rewriting that damn query letter, going to workshops, getting feedback, resubmitting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, after years of rejections, THREE agents asked for sample chapters-- all within days apart. I guess it’s true when it rains it pours. I signed with one of them and had to kindly reject the other two! It was bananas!

You also need to have a lot of patience because publishing is the slowest-moving business in the world. Writing a book takes forever! Revisions take forever! Selling a book takes forever! Editing a book takes forever!

And finally, while you’re working on your manuscript or querying agents and editors, keep finding ways to build your audience. Maybe that’s a Substack newsletter, maybe that’s bylines in other outlets, maybe that’s through speaking engagements. When you finally do sell that book, a built-in audience, and strong network will make the self-promotion part a lot

I love all of that advice. Finally, what is a funny book you recommend?

The funniest people are moms. (I said what I said.) And Natasha Leggero is one of the funniest as evidenced by her book, The World Deserves My Children. Yes, she’s a comedian, actor, and podcaster and therefore very practiced in the humor arts, but she’s also a neurotic, anxious, slightly unhinged mother which makes her totally relatable. Us Weekly was right— Stars are just like us!

Each essay in this collection is funny, endearing, and rooted in real-world fears all moms obsess over like geriatric pregnancies or the possible collapse of civilization before your child is old enough to legally rent a car.

You know— the heady stuff all moms crave to take their minds off boring things like clogged milk ducts and Googling “where to buy more of those high-waisted, meshy, hospital-issued underpants.” (I really loved those underpants and still think about them so if you got a lead on where one might procure mesh underwear I’m all ears.)

Forget the burp cloths and butt creams. Be the real hero of the baby shower and arm moms-to-be with this literary must-have.

Thanks for these great answers, Shelly! Get Shelly’s book, check out her Substack and find her on Instagram at @shellymoo.

Also please enjoy number 2 in my series of “Julie attempts to take photos of a book with a cat”:

Muffin is interested in becoming a dungeon master. Biscuit is interested in something in the corner.

Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Fourth Quarter Writing Goals

Julie Vick — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 19:54:03 GMT

Guess who spent a lot of time searching for funny to-do list gifs online before just creating this one in Canva?

This year, I have been making quarterly writing goals.

I’ve found that quarterly goals work better for me than monthly goals as some months are a complete wash for me but I can usually get some chunk of things done over the quarter.

This month marks the start of the fourth quarter, which feels a little more pressing as it’s my last chance to check things off my annual to-do list and the end of the year is the ultimate deadline. But the fourth quarter is also tricky for me because of the various holidays and the fact that my kids have approximately 50% of it off from school.

Keeping both of these things in mind, I reviewed my list of annual goals and created one for things I want to finish before the end of the year.

Here are a few things on my list:

Pitch or submit 5 more times. I had a goal of 20 for the year and am at 15, so this still feels doable.
Submit some holiday/January essay and humor ideas. I had some seasonal ideas last year that I thought of last minute and couldn’t place so I’m trying to start early to see if I can place them this year. (In the next few months, I am sure I will come up with new last-minute ideas I won’t have time to place, but I will just tell myself I’m actually ahead of the game for 2025.)
Substack. I’m planning to do a shorter version of the One Funny Line writing challenge I did last year in January 2025 and then a different humor writing challenge in April for National Humor Month. (If you are going to want in on these, you can opt-in to receive emails for that section here.) By the end of the year, I want to have the basics of the challenges together. I’ve got a few other to-do items for Substack I want to check off too.
Check off one “other” writing to-do thing. I’ve got a few other things on my to-do list I’ve been meaning to get to all year (a micro-memoir piece, a short e-guide, and setting up some writing-related merch) and my goal is to finish one of these by the end of the year. Is this a bit of a cop-out to not say which one? Maybe. But I’ve found goal-setting works better for me if I have a bit of flexibility.

What about you? What is something on your writing to-do list by the end of the year? It can be short or long! Feel free to share it in the comments.

Tips for Pitching Author Interview Pieces

Julie Vick — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 17:23:23 GMT

One freelancing piece that is open to writers at a variety of levels is the author interview piece. This type of piece, as perceptive readers may have guessed, involves interviewing an author in some way (often as a Q&A but sometimes in other forms).

I’ve written these for places like The Rumpus, Electric Lit, and Bustle. While I am not currently pitching many of these pieces (mostly because I’m focusing on other things like this Substack), I think they can be a good byline for some writers.

Upsides to submitting author interview pitches

You don’t need a lot of published clips to get a pitch of this type accepted. I had some clips under my belt when I started writing these but I don’t think that is a requirement and know people who have done them when just starting to submit/publish their work.
Guidelines for how to pitch/submit these pieces are often straightforward and posted on publication websites. Some forms of freelancing can feel like you need to know the secret name of an editor to pitch in order to get anywhere (which I think is sometimes less true these days), but it’s often easy to find straightforward submission guidelines for these.
These can be a good way to be a literary citizen and help you build relationships. If you are looking at publishing a book down the road, having a community of writers will be helpful for support, questions, and the occasional vent session. One way to help build community is to support other writers who have books coming out by pitching author interviews. This also gives you a chance to build relationships with an editor/publication for future pieces.
They can be a good way to get a clip in a goal publication. I’ve broken into publications like The Rumpus, Bustle, and The Millions with these types of pieces so they can be a good way to break in or check off a goal pub.

Downsides to submitting author interview pitches

There is a lot of competition. There are lots of books coming out all the time and publications that run book coverage are getting pitched by publicists, authors, and freelancers and there aren’t spots for everyone. So these can sometimes be hard to place.
The pay is frequently low. Author interviews (especially in the more literary publications) sometimes don’t pay at all or pay very little. If your primary goal is pay, then these may not be the best option for you. But if you have other goals like those mentioned in the previous section, they might be an option.

Tips for pitching author interview pieces

How to find authors to interview. I first started doing author interviews for authors with new books coming out that I had connections to through online writer groups. Once I published a couple of pieces I found that authors and publicists started pitching me to see if I would pitch an interview. But when you are just starting out, you can keep an eye out for new books on the horizon and if something interests you reach out to the author or the book’s publicist about getting an advance copy. Places like Substack and Facebook writing groups can be good ways to learn about upcoming books and most authors (who are not Stephen King-level famous) are trying to get coverage for their books so they are often happy to have you pitch something.
Start early. Most publications want to run author interviews pegged to a new book coming out and they typically want to run them around the time the book comes out. And it can take a while to get a reply to a pitch. This means you’ll want to get an advanced copy of the book as early as possible so you can start pitching well ahead of the pub date. There are some exceptions to this, but you’ll likely have more success/options if your pitch is tied to a new book.
Figure out the format. Some pieces run author Q&As (like these ones I did for Electric Lit or The Millions) and some do more of an article about the book and author with quotes interspersed like this one I did for Bustle. Reading submission guidelines and the publication to see what types of pieces they are currently running should help you select the best format.
Pitch the interview. The majority of the time for these pieces, I pitched rather than conducted an interview first and submitted the full thing. Some publications will take a full interview submission but I typically tried to stick with ones that take pitches. While I’ve had luck getting some author interview pitches picked up, I’ve also pitched author interviews and not managed to find a home for them. Because of this, I typically stuck to pitching when I was doing these.
Think about what will make your pitch stand out. As I mentioned, there are lots of books coming out and I suspect these pubs are getting lots of pitches. So just as with any type of pitching, thinking about a unique angle can help. I think I’ve had more luck placing interviews with humor writers because I am a humor writer and could pitch that angle. Also, if other people are pitching author interview pieces for the same book, I try to ask the author what pubs have already been approached so I can avoid duplicating them. Sometimes you can also just find a unique approach to a book piece — I pitched Livability a list of authors recommending the best places to read their books and they took it. So sometimes thinking of a unique approach or format can work.

What publications run author interview pieces?

There are lots of them out there, but I think this list that Adam Morgan put together is a pretty good one to start with.
Spend time reading the publication before pitching. Some publications that run book coverage lean more literary and some more mainstream. So spending some time reading the publication and looking at the types of books they cover will help you target the appropriate place.
You can also look at where other freelancers who’ve done these types of pieces have placed them to get ideas for pubs to pitch. I keep an eye out for these in writing groups I’m in and sometimes look at freelancer websites to see where they have published author interviews.
Pay attention to coverage other new books are getting. When a new book comes out that is similar to a genre I write in or might want to interview an author for, I sometimes take note of what coverage the book is getting in different publications. This can be useful for potential author interview pitches and also places to pitch your own book if you have one coming out. Following authors on social media (or even better signing up for their newsletters) can help with this.

What do I include in a pitch?

I have a basic pitch format that I use for most pitches (which I talked more about and gave an example of here).
For book-related pieces in particular, I think you’ll want to cover the basics about the book (title, synopsis, author, when it is coming out) as well as what you plan to talk about in the interview. I try to brainstorm some questions before writing the pitch to help inform it.

A few other things

If you are looking for more example pitches, I just started a paid subscriber benefit that includes some more pitch examples which you can check out here. I am putting them behind the paywall in part because I think they make a good paid subscriber benefit and in part because I don’t want to share them with the entire internet/AI training machines.

Have other questions about pitching or writing author interview pieces? Feel free to ask them in the comments.

A Collection of Successful Pitch Letters

Julie Vick — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 16:36:48 GMT

I know that it can be helpful to see successful pitch letters, so as a paid subscriber perk I’m going to use this page to add some of mine.

I’m putting this behind the paywall because I don’t want to open this up to the entire internet (and our AI training overlords) and I think it makes a good paid subscriber bonus in addition to the pitching guide I put together.

And yes it’s okay to sign up as a paid subscriber for just one month or dip in and out of a paid subscription periodically — I will likely not notice and get that everyone has different reasons for doing so.

My plan is to update this page periodically, but it currently includes:

The query letter I used to find my agent.
Two pitches for author interview pieces (one for The Millions and one for Bustle)
A personal essay pitch for Slate.
A travel pitch for AAA’s The Extra Mile

A New Yorker Cartoonist Walks into a Museum

Julie Vick — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:33:12 GMT

You may know Bob Eckstein from his New Yorker cartoons, New York Times bestselling book, or excellent Substack .

Bob’s newest book is Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums: Stories and Memorable Moments from People Who Love Museums, which profiles 75 North American museums and includes 155 of his illustrations.

The book covers a variety of museums from the well-known (Chicago’s Field Museum) to the niche (New York’s National Comedy Center, which I have now added to my museum bucket list). It intersperses illustrations of the museums with fun facts and stories (like one about a visitor who tried to enter LA’s the Broad Museum with a duck in his pants). Reading the book offered me a good mix of museum-visit nostalgia and bucket-list options for future travels.

I got a chance to meet Bob in person at this year’s Erma Bombeck writing conference and today I’m bringing you a conversation with him. In the below Q&A, we discussed a range of things including his process for creating his new book and some of the current realities of the book publishing industry.

I think some people may have the misconception that gift books are easy to write, but I can see that a lot of work went into the museum book. Can you talk about your process for researching and creating the book?

Every book is different, and each has its challenges. And nowadays every book’s hardest part is after the last word is written and you need to find love for your book.

This particular book was such a joy to work on. The key to its success was gathering a team of helpers. It was logistically impossible to personally visit each museum. I would have loved to…but, there’s over 37,000. I couldn’t have done that in my lifetime.

With museums so spread out I had to delegate and trust others. My system was there was no system. I saw as many museums as I could personally, sometimes going to three in one day, and reaching out to as many museum employees, curators, and visitors as humanly possible. Family, friends, and social media followers all pitched in. And then there was a front-line team of really hard workers; my wife, my agent, the publisher. There were spreadsheets and stacks of information collected.

I first narrowed the choices of museums down to the top 150 before I had to cut that number in half to fit in the book. I took into account, the museum’s beauty, historical significance, its geographical and cultural diversity, and its role in the local and arts community, like providing educational programs.

Looking back, I have no idea how I finished so many illustrations. I got very little sleep and worked very long hours. But I was inspired and fueled by just coming home from seeing some of the world’s greatest artwork.

A page from Bob’s book illustrating the whale in the American Museum of Natural History in New York

Your book intro tells a funny and relatable story of you not being very excited about museums as a kid. Is there a museum in the book that you think you would have found more enjoyable to visit as a kid?

The American Visionary Museum in Baltimore is a great place not to bring any preconceptions of what you think art is. The Field Museum and American Museum of Natural History are the first chance for kids to get that close to animals that won’t kill you when you taunt them. Kids love dinosaurs and scale.

The Wenham House has an amazing train set. Then there’s Noah’s Ark Encounter, and there’s the maritime museums and their magnificent ships. There’s something for everyone and a lot for children instead of schlepping me to D.C. when I was a kid, reading plaques.

I know you’ve had a long career cartooning and writing books. What are some of the changes you’ve seen over the years?

Like everything, since 1982 when I was first published by The New York Times, the landscape for all forms of publishing, including music, photography, and cartooning, has changed drastically.

I’m going to warn you regarding my answer to your question; things are going to get worse before they get better. I could write a whole book on the subject, a book that I could easily publish now through a multitude of means but it would be a book that would never be harder to make a living from. There are over 4 million books published a year. The average American purchases one physical book a year. The odds of making a living from cartooning are even more astronomical.

One reason for all this is a generation of reality shows convinced us that anyone can be a star. The Arts have become the amateur hour. Certainly, anyone can get a cartoon or a book published now, without having the proper skills. The bar is low so there is a glut of stand-ups, writers, artists, filmmakers, etc. It’s reflected in the quality of work out there. Established writers say to me, that they wish people everywhere would stop telling everyone they have a book in them.

Conversely, there are also many more competent writers and artists out there due to the availability of workshops, advice, and sources to learn. But those skills unfortunately mean less because the criteria for getting accepted or published have less to do with merit and more to do with your number of followers and optics.

Having a platform for your voice has become more important than your actual voice. That’s not me having sour grapes but what editors, publishers, and agents are saying and telling me, and discussing among themselves—I’ve worked closely with many different publishers from the big houses to the smaller ones, and taking risks is not anyone’s top priority at the moment. Everyone is so fearful for their job that right now is not the time to take chances or look bad optically. Being creative is about taking chances.

One of Bob’s cartoons.

What advice do you have for someone interested in learning more about the craft of cartooning? Any resources or tips for learning?

I’ve been teaching writing, humor, and cartooning for over forty years and tuition has only gone up. But my Substack newsletter could not be cheaper and I share all the advice and tips I know along with those from the best writers and funniest humorists in the world. I recently did ten podcasts on creativity and how to be funnier (notice I didn’t say, “how to be funny.” Everyone can be funnier but you can’t teach someone how to be funny.)

What is something that has been making you laugh lately?

I have been celebrating the passing of the great Bob Newman, listening to his old albums. I realize this is not the first time I am sounding like an old fart, and I don’t feel like one, I’m still the same person who feels like they are walking into a classroom. But comedy really is in a rut. People are laughing at the wrong reasons, to either be politically correct, or afraid, or worse yet, at the expense of others because of hate. Humor used to fix things and bring people together. One of the elements of humor working is a semblance of intelligence. This country has gotten really stupid. Julie, did I bring down the room enough?

I really do appreciate this and enjoy discussing humor and writing, even if some of it is critical. I respect people’s time and if they got this far then they deserved raw, honest answers and not sugarcoated platitudes. Thanks.

[Julie here again] Thanks for the honest answers in this interview, Bob. Check out Bob’s newsletter and new book and learn more about him at his website.

Also, please enjoy these photo outtakes from when I tried to get a good cat photo with Bob’s book:

*Note: This interview was lightly edited and condensed for clarity. This post may also contain affiliate links.

Let's Talk About SEO, Baby

Julie Vick — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 16:52:24 GMT

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not a topic I thought much about in my first several years as a writer but after writing a few pieces that got decent search traffic, I’ve realized its usefulness.

SEO is essentially about how users find content on the internet via search engines like Google. For writers, this means that your writing can have a wider chance of getting seen if it is SEO-friendly.

I am not an SEO expert but I’ve learned enough about it to get traffic to some posts and articles, so I’m going to share what has worked for me in this post.

When I taught a Writing for the Web class for the first time, I realized that there are a lot of SEO rabbit holes you can go down and the info can get confusing fast, so my hope is to just give you the basics here.

Why you might want to know about SEO as a writer

Freelancing: I’ve seen calls for pitches where editors mention that having an SEO-friendly pitch can be a positive and some pubs may want you to add SEO elements to an article you submit. I’ve worked with pubs where I needed to upload things like the SEO description into the content platform when I submitted a piece.
Substack/Medium/Website Traffic: Having content that a search engine finds can be a good discovery tool for your self-published posts as well. My most-viewed piece on Medium is a list of humor writing markets and has over 80K lifetime views and according to my back-end stats, 57K of those came from Google. I’ve also seen some decent traffic coming to my Substack from Google (something I’ll talk more about later). And if you are trying to get more subscribers or sell more books or bespoke belt buckles, SEO might help with discovery.

How you can make your writing content more SEO-friendly

What is effective for SEO is constantly evolving (and continuing to evolve more with AI). Some people say that AI is going to kill SEO and that may happen, but for now, I’m still getting enough traffic via Google searches for it to feel worth my time.

The basics that have worked for me include:

Having quality content. This is advice I’ve seen in a lot of online SEO articles and I think it’s true. In order for search engines to serve your page up to users, the first thing you need is good content that people will actually click on and find useful.
Having posts that answer a question that someone is searching for. The humor writing markets piece I mentioned above isn’t something I set out to write because I thought it would be good for SEO. I just noticed that in online spaces I was in people would often ask where to submit humor pieces that were rejected by McSweeney’s, and I realized I had a good list of pubs to recommend to people. So I wrote the piece and it did a lot better than I expected because a lot of people were also searching for that topic online. (And sidenote, I actually recently updated the list and moved it to Substack in part because of, you guessed it, SEO). So thinking about what people might be searching for that you have an answer to can help. There is some more involved keyword research you can do related to this so you can see what topics you have a better chance of ranking with, but I typically don’t spend a lot of time with this. I just think about whether or not something I’m writing might be something people might be doing a web search for (and ideally a topic that hasn’t been written about a lot already) and if it is, I try to tweak a few things to increase its chances of getting seen.
Spend time on the headline. SEO-friendly headlines need to be clear since the whole idea is to get someone to click on them on a search results page. This often means clearly stating the main idea of the article in the headline. There are lots of guidelines and headline analyzer tools out there to help with this like this one.
Publish your article in a place with good SEO traction. Bigger websites that you might be writing freelance pieces for typically have this covered. If you are posting something yourself, not all websites are going to give you good traction with SEO as it needs to be indexed and there is an authority score that can help your stuff get seen higher in results. I have had some luck with SEO traction on my website, but I’ve also built up some authority to it over years of freelancing and having bio links direct to it. However, I’ve found that places like Substack and Medium already have the authority to get seen in web searches and so are good places for SEO-friendly articles.
Use good web-writing practices. This goes along with number 1, but using some basic principles of good web writing (e.g. using headings, lists, links, and strategic bolding) can also help. Like it or not, most online content is being skimmed so making it easier on your readers can make your content rise up.

Substack-specific SEO tips

The main place I’m writing for SEO these days is on Substack and I am getting decent traffic via Google to it right now (my stats so far for this year show Google is the 3rd highest source of traffic for my Substack and has led to 57 subscriptions and over 4000 views).

So given that it does feel worth my time currently, this is what I’ve been doing:

Optimizing certain posts for SEO. Not all my posts are going to work well for SEO — e.g. my monthly links roundups are not something someone is likely going to be searching for so I don’t worry about doing anything differently for those. If I do think something might get picked up in search (for example, this article that you are reading now), then I try to write an SEO-friendly headline and then use the Substack Advanced SEO tools to adjust the SEO headline and description. (Note: My actual title for this post “Let’s Talk About SEO, Baby” is not a good SEO headline, but I adjusted the headline in the advanced settings for that post to one that I thought was better for it — “Some Basics About SEO for Writers.”)
Thinking about posts that may work well for SEO. I’m not doing this all the time but I do try to periodically write posts that people can find through internet searching. If you primarily write something like personal essays on Substack then most of your content may not work well for SEO. But you might be able to put together a one-off post that does draw writers in (like a list of books with your favorite personal essays in them).
Looking at the stats: Some amount of my posts have been picked up by searches without me intentionally trying to target SEO. For example, this post by the authors of Jokes to Offend Men seems to be getting traffic when people search for “feminist jokes.” This is not something I anticipated but is interesting to see. It’s worth looking at the stats on your Substack dashboard to see what is getting Google traffic. You can see overall traffic sources for your Substack under “Stats”; and in individual post stats, you can also see how much traffic is coming into that post via Google or other search engines. When I see that a post is getting good web traffic I will sometimes go back in to update the content on it/make sure that I have subscribe links or other things in it that may lead to subscribers.

Resources for learning more about SEO:

General advice: The Substack WTF is SEO (bonus points for that name) offers a lot of SEO explainers.
More stats: If you want more stats, it’s worth setting up Google Search Console for your Substack. Here is one guide to setting it up. This took a little bit of time for me to do but it is really nice to now see more detailed stats and the searches people are doing to find me.

That is it for today! Do you have other SEO resources, advice, or lamentations? Feel free to share them in the comments.

*This post may contain affiliate links.

The Short Humor Piece to Novel Pipeline

Julie Vick — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:10:07 GMT

Today I’m bringing you a conversation with humor writer . I first virtually met Andrew several years ago when we were both writing in similar parenting and humor spaces like Medium, Razed (RIP), McSweeney’s, and old Twitter (also RIP). He became one of my internet humor-writing friends and I can always count on his writing to make me laugh.

Andrew recently published his first novel—a second-chance romance with humor and heart called Love’s a Disaster. The book is set in Florida and follows Sadie and Caleb as they get another chance at love years after their breakup. It also features sword fighting, relatable parenting moments, and some very important library instructional videos.

I talked to Andrew about transitioning from writing short humor to a novel, writing and editing humor on Medium, introverting, and what is making him laugh lately.

Congrats on the new book! As someone interested in writing a novel in the future, I'm curious how you found the transition from writing shorter humor pieces and essays to writing a novel. Were there any resources or techniques you found particularly helpful in making the switch?

Thank you! First off, I hope you do write a novel because I would love to read it!

As far as resources go, probably to my detriment, I didn’t really utilize craft books nor did I take any classes. A couple of friends have had a lot of success with online novel writing workshops and classes but I am very hesitant about those types of things because I’m a very nervous person. Having people read and critique my work at that very direct and personal level would take all the fun out of it for me, so I decided to give it a shot on my own.

I do think techniques I’ve naturally developed over the years writing essays and short humor did help. I aimed to give each chapter a story arc with some sort of ending. And, of course, there is a lot of humor in the book so I definitely used my joke-writing experience.

Early in the drafting process, I settled on a structure that was basically one chapter from the main character Caleb’s perspective, one chapter from the other main character Sadie’s perspective, and one chapter of flashback that included both main characters. This made it easier for me to plan ahead. I would often leave myself simple notes at night so I would have ideas to work with for the next chapter when I sat down to write the next day. I think that helped me keep my momentum and allowed me to write the first draft in a fairly short amount of time.

I love that your book is a romantic comedy because I think a lot of romance novels are funny but maybe don't get the credit they deserve. Funny romance banter can be great. Did you mull other potential genres for a novel or did you land on romance pretty quickly?

I agree! There are so many smart and funny romance novels out there.

So, I had this premise of the failed marriage proposal at a rock concert in the back of my head for literally decades. Since I ultimately decided to move forward with that idea and build it into a book, I knew the novel would be at least somewhat in the romance genre and it would be funny because that’s what attracted me to the premise–-the ridiculousness of the entire situation.

As I got deeper into it and started building out the characters and plot, I wanted to create a mixture of funny and sentimental because that tends to be what I enjoy most in books. Honestly, making the romantic storyline more solid took a lot of work and I got quite a bit of help from my editor Elizabeth at Bayou Wolf Press. I got a lot of notes that boiled down to “I need to know what they are feeling here.” That was tough because I’m an emotionally stunted person, but I persevered!

Side note. I enjoyed writing the character Helen who is Caleb’s mom because she is a very straight-laced, emotionally flat character (largely, as it turns out, because she’s covering up her past disappointments and traumas). It was nice to have someone in the book I could easily relate to.

You are also an editor for the parenting humor publication Frazzled and have been writing on Medium for a long time. What tips do you have for people submitting to Frazzled? Do you find that certain types of pieces or subjects work better for the publication or on Medium in general?

This is very cliche advice, but it does help if writers read a few Frazzled stories before submitting. We get a lot of pieces that are just totally outside our scope. Everything from humor that’s not about parenting to serious parenting advice to 5,000-word short stories.

As for what works on Medium, it’s a bit hard to say because it often feels like a moving target. However, in general, humor that isn’t too esoteric, absurd, or edgy tends to get a better response from Medium readers. Sometimes pieces that you might see on McSweeney’s or similar sites which I would classify as very abstract or niche humor don’t do as well on Medium because the audience isn’t specifically a conceptual humor audience. So, personal stories told humorously or satire that isn’t super obscure tend to have the best response.

I know you have talked about being a socially anxious/introverted writer in the past (something I might relate to). But I think you are really good at sharing your work and being a good literary citizen who shares other writers' work. Do you find it easier to talk about your work online rather than directly to people's faces in real life? Do you have any other strategies that help you with the whole "marketing" side of writing?

Absolutely! I’m so much more comfortable on social media and online, in general. I’m always so impressed by your ability as an introverted person to do so many conferences and online and in-person events. I get anxious just thinking about it!

I love having the time to think and craft coherent answers. Written interviews and online interactions tend to allow that time and space. When I’m on the spot in a live event, I’m so obsessed with just managing my anxiety and making it through that it’s hard to move beyond that worry and be thoughtful or insightful in any way.

I still feel like I’m not great at marketing, but I’ve learned to focus most on doing things that I’m comfortable with and enjoy to some extent. Written interviews like this, writing an annotated musical playlist for my book, and posting on social media are all things I like to do so it doesn’t feel too stressful or overwhelming. So, if you’re anxious or introverted like me, I’d suggest starting with the types of marketing activities you are comfortable with and then trying to grow slowly from there.

As a fellow introverted parent, I am impressed that you do things that scare me like hosting sleepovers with multiple children. Do you have any introverted parenting tips to share?

So, for me interacting with children is so much easier than interacting with adults. For whatever reason, I feel more like my authentic self when I’m around kids and I can talk to them and joke around with them easily. Of course, I feel like that will probably change as my kids get older and their friends become teenagers. I’ll have to start worrying again about being judged, but for now, I’m reveling in my moment!

As far as tips for introverted parents, I would say you kind of have to play to your strengths. If you’re like me and you are more comfortable with kids, try to plan events that don’t involve other parents or focus your energy on interacting with the kids at a party instead of making small talk with adults. Honestly, most adults will love it if you’re bouncing with the kids on the trampoline so they can chill out and talk about insurance or whatever. It’s a win-win.

What is something that has been making you laugh lately?

I’m really enjoying this comedian/substitute teacher named Sam Salem who makes videos about his teaching experiences and the insecurities he feels interacting with the middle and high school kids. He also has a series of videos about making up words that sound like Gen-Z slang terms and trying to convince his students they are real. Apparently, a couple of his made-up slang words made it onto Sportscenter on ESPN. The content is funny and his delivery is great.

I believe this is the first video in the slang term series from Instagram:Making Up Gen-Z Slang Part 1.

Thanks, Andrew! Learn more about him here:

Andrew Knott is a writer of essays, humor, and fiction based in the Orlando area. He is the author of the book Fatherhood: Dispatches from the Early Years, and the founding editor of Frazzled, a parenting humor publication. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Washington Post, and Parents Magazine, among others. Love’s a Disaster is his first novel.