How to Write for Elemental

Our mission, the process, and some tips

Thanks for your interest in Elemental! We are very grateful to you — and all of our wellness-hungry, science-devoted, ever-curious readers and writers. If you don’t already receive our weekly brain newsletter, follow our Coronavirus Blog, and/or follow us on Twitter and Instagram, today is a great day to start.

Now for the nuts and bolts.

First off, Elemental is Medium’s health and wellness publication. That means the pub is staffed by a small team of editors and writers who work directly for Medium. Our mission? To publish fresh, smart, science-backed health and wellness stories that help educate readers about their bodies and minds and how to best care for them.

In Elemental, you’ll find thoroughly reported features and explainers, as well as some personal essays and Q&As. Here’s a look at some of our favorites. Medium’s Coronavirus Blog, also led by our team, is a real-time resource for Covid-19 news, advice, and commentary.

Below, we gathered (and answered) some of the questions we most often hear from platform writers and interested contributors. Let us know if we missed yours!

Can I pitch Elemental? Of course. You can email your detailed pitches to elemental@medium.com. We look for science-backed stories that help people become more informed about their bodies and minds and live healthier lives. We also look for expert perspectives on health and wellness topics. You can also pitch our column, My Therapist Says, a series of essays about advice from therapy. At this moment, we’re incredibly focused on advancing a broader understanding of Covid-19 (symptoms, emerging research, public health recommendations, mental health concerns, and so on) and the many ways health and well-being is impacted by a global pandemic.

Can I share a Medium draft or published story with Elemental? Yes, please do! Our email works for that too. We frequently feature health and wellness stories that were previously published on Medium in both Elemental and the Coronavirus Blog. We’re partial to original pieces that are relevant to the moment, well-shaped, and richly sourced. If you send us (or we find) a story that stands out as a great fit for Elemental or the Coronavirus Blog, we’ll reach out. Learn more here about how you can earn on stories through the Medium Partner Program.

Can Elemental add me as a writer? We don’t “add” writers to our publication (meaning list them publicly on our staff roster upon request). However, if we run your story, we welcome you to identify yourself as a writer for Elemental on your own channels. Please don’t email us with a request to add you; we won’t reply, as that just isn’t something we do. Instead, write a fantastic story and send that our way.

Do the Elemental editors respond to all pitches and stories? We read everything that comes our way, but unfortunately we’re not able to respond to every pitch and story sent to our team inbox. Each week, we receive far more pitches and submissions than we can accommodate. Therefore, we only reach out to writers whose work is a fit. If you haven’t heard from us after two weeks, we encourage you to submit your story elsewhere.

Can the Elemental editors provide feedback on a rejected piece? In a perfect world, we’d love to. But no, we generally cannot — there are just too many stories and too few of us. However, we do encourage you to follow Medium Writers to learn some tricks of the trade. If writing for Medium is entirely new to you, we recommend starting here.

If Elemental doesn’t accept a draft I submit, should I go ahead and self-publish the piece on Medium? Absolutely! Your story may still attract a sizable audience of readers, and of course you can earn on anything you publish through the Partner Program. That is the magic of this platform. If you want to understand a bit more about self-publishing and curation on Medium, this might help.