Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Joel Keith at editor@expressmedia.org.au.
We are only able to publish work by writers and artists who are under twenty-five at the time of submission. Please also keep in mind that because of our funding arrangements, we are only able to publish writers living in Australia or Australian writers living overseas.
We only consider previously unpublished work. (That means, alas, nothing published on Substack, Instagram, blogs and so on). We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
We do not accept work written by generative AI, in whole or in part.
If your submission is unsuccessful, we will notify you as soon as we can and then provide you with detailed feedback a little later. Feedback is written by a small group of volunteers and we receive a lot of submissions, so we appreciate your patience. If you think something’s gone wrong, or you haven’t heard from us three months after the submission deadline, please get in touch.
Pitching Guidelines
The best pitches include detail! Clearly lay out your angle and argument, and provide specific examples of the research and anecdotes you’ll draw upon. Submit a document addressing the questions below, along with a 300-word sample from the start of the piece if you have one.
Things to ask yourself either way:
- What is your key point or argument?
- What is your particular angle to take?
- What is the logical and structural progression of your piece?
- Why are you the person to write this piece? Personal experience, willingness to research, etc.
- If you need evidence, where did you get it from? What research have you conducted?
- Why Voiceworks?
- How long is the piece going to be?
You don’t have to know all these answers, but it should get you thinking about your piece thoroughly. None of this is a totally prescriptive guide—we want to give you direction and encouragement, not to close off the possibility of writing nonfiction for us.
What happens if your pitch is selected
If we think the work you pitched would be a good fit for Voiceworks, we will (ideally) get in touch around two weeks after the pitch deadline. We’ll provide advice and direction on how to approach the piece, and request a full draft to be submitted two-three weeks later. This isn’t very much time! Because of the tight turnaround, we prefer pitches that demonstrate some prior research, preparation and thought, so that you’re not scrambling to research and write an entire piece from scratch in a matter of weeks. Just to be clear, the full drafts we request are not guaranteed publication, but responding to our suggestions early on gives your piece the best possible chance.
Deadline: Sunday 4 January 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Gutter
Blurb by EdCommers Sharyn Sale, Stella Theocharides and Eina Tubadeza.
Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!
Rates of Pay
$120 per published piece.
Terms of Publication
Express Media publishes work in Voiceworks on a non-exclusive, irrevocable and royalty-free basis. We require writers who will be published in Voiceworks to sign a licence deed granting us permission to publish work in the printed Voiceworks magazine, on the Express Media and Voiceworks websites, and for use in promoting our magazine. Writers retain copyright of their work and are free to use in whatever way they’d like in the future. Please only submit your work if you are satisfied with these terms. For more information about this, please contact us.
Subscribe
To get a better idea of what kind of work we publish in the magazine, and to help us continue to support young writers, you can subscribe* to Voiceworks here.
*Choosing not to subscribe will not impact your submission.