How would you like to get paid to write essays? To earn money sharing your thoughts or stories about your lived experiences? From personal essays to issue-based ones, freelance essay markets might be a good fit for you.
Below you'll find a collection of websites and other publications that pay for essays.
Get Paid to Write Essays for These Publications
AGNI
AGNI accepts stories, essays, and poems that are previously-unpublished. There are no word limits "though space is at a premium and length sometimes affects decisions." They do not publish romance, horror, mystery, or science fiction but are open to fiction borrowing elements of them. They don't publish academic essays or purely journalistic pieces, and they pay $30 per printed page for accepted prose and $50 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $300. Submissions are considered for both print and online publication. Free submissions may be made via mail.
American Educator
American Educator is a professional journal published by the American Federation of Teachers. It covers "research and ideas from early childhood through higher education," such as essays explaining the significance of a research project and its findings. International affairs and labor issues of interest to AFT members may also be accepted. Articles run 1000-5000 words.
Atlanta Parent
Atlanta Parent is a locally-owned print and digital magazine for Atlanta area parents. They accept personal essays of 400-500 words, practical articles of 400-600 words, short articles of 300-600 words, and longer feature articles of 800-1200 words. Payments vary with the writer's experience.
Audubon
The National Audubon Society accepts freelance contributions for Audubon magazine and its website. They accept shorter pieces up to 1200 words for both print and online publication in addition to some longer investigations, profiles, features, and essays from 1500-4000 words. They prefer these to run around 3000 words. Online and other shorter pieces pay $.50 / word. Longer essays pay $1.00 / word. Features, print and online, typically pay $1.50 / word. A feature package (equivalent to a six-page print story) starts at $2500 per project.
Briarpatch Magazine
Briarpatch Magazine publishing work of political importance on topics such as grassroots activism, electoral politics, economic justice, labour, gender equity, indigenous struggles, and more. They accept submissions from new and experienced freelance writers alike. Pay is $150 for profiles, short essays, reviews, blog posts, and "parting shots" under 1500 words. Pay is $250 for feature stories and photo essays generally running 1500-2000 words. And pay is $350 for research-based articles and investigative reporting typically running 2000-2500 words.
Broad Street Review
"Broad Street Review is an online arts and culture journal serving the greater Philadelphia area." They publish reviews, features, previews, profiles, and essays around theater, music, visual art, exhibitions, dance, books, film, television, and design. This includes pitches for personal essays tied to life in the Philadelphia area and those related to grassroots social and political efforts, the creative economy, and public spaces. Reviews run 500-850 words, essays 750-1000 words, and previews run 300-500 words. Fees are $50 for previews, profiles, and reviews up to $100 for some longer profiles and features. Payment covers first publication rights (exclusive for 30 days), then non-exclusive rights to maintain pieces in the publication's archive.
Cineaste
Cineaste is a quarterly publication covering the art and politics of the cinema. They accept feature articles, interviews, film reviews, book reviews, and columns. Payments are $18 for "short take" reviews, $36 for book or DVD reviews (in print only), $45 for film reviews, short articles, columns, sidebar interviews, and essays, and $90 for feature articles and feature interviews.
Contingent Magazine
Contingent Magazine is "a magazine about history and the process of doing history." They prefer contributors who have completed postgraduate work in history and are working outside of tenure-track academia. They accept different types of submissions at different times, so check their guidelines to see what they're currently accepting pitches for. They pay $150 for 400-500 word mailbag columns, $50 for research and conference "postcards," $300 for reviews, $300 for shorts, $300 for "field trips," $50 for "How I do History" interviews, $150 for mini-essays, and $500 for 2000-3000 word features.
Defector
Defector is a subscription-based sports and culture website. They accept freelance pitches for stories covering "sports, politics, TV, movies, science, weird shit that happens on the internet, and anything else that catches [their] attention." According to their freelancer policies, they pay a minimum of $1000 for longer essays and a minimum of $500 for shorter pieces.
Dwell
Dwell publishes home tours, reported pieces, interviews, and essays related to smart design and "new ideas about where and how we live." They feature homes with noteworthy stories from around the worlds (from sustainability to affordability). The print magazine publishes six issues per year. Online stories start at $.50 / assigned word. Print stories pay $1.00 / word. Some sections have flat per-piece rates. Dwell+ Exclusive home tours pay $400 for 600-800 word stories and the Design News section pays $350 / story. Most print stories pay $1000-2000.
High Country News
High Country News is a nonprofit news magazine covering the Western U.S. They pay $.50 - 1.00 per word. They accept in-depth news and analyses, features, short-form reported stories, and essays about life in the West.
HowlRound
HowlRound accepts submissions to its journal from "contributors who are deeply invested in and committed to the theatre field." They accept pieces on theatre commoning, ideas that challenge the status quo, lesser-known or marginalized aesthetics, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility for under-represented theatre communities and practices, and theatre practice and process. They pay honorariums of $200 per single-authored essay and $400 for multi-authored essays and interview pieces.
Longreads
Longreads accepts submissions of essays and curated reading lists from freelance contributors. Essays and columns run 2000-6000 words. Personal essays should be pitched on-spec, and they pay $500 per essay. Researched and reported essays, critical essays, and columns may be pitched. They also pay $500 per essay. Curated reading lists pay $350.
Military Families
Military Families is a monthly magazine for members of the military and their families. It's published by U.S. Military Publishing. They accept essays, interview-style profiles, news reports, and more. Pay ranges from $75-300 per piece.
Ninth Letter
Ninth Letter accepts one essay or other creative nonfiction piece up to 8,000 words for print submissions, with flash prose allowed in shorter grouped submissions up to 4000 words combined. The publication pays $25 per poem and $100 for prose upon publication.
Notre Dame Magazine
The Notre Dame Magazine is a quarterly publication of the University of Notre Dame. It covers alumni activities, institutional events, people, trends, and cultural issues. They accept both features and departments as well as essays in their "CrossCurrents" section. Payment is not detailed in their writer's guidelines but is said to be "comparable to fees paid by some national publications."
Religion Unplugged
Religion Unplugged covers "religion in public life and in people's lives." The publication accepts freelance contributions of news features, opinion pieces, and book and movie reviews. News features running under 1000 words pay $200, and those running over 1000 words and pay $300. Opinion columns, essays, and analysis pay $100. Film, TV, art, and book reviews pay $200.
Sasee
Sasee accepts contributions from freelance writers including essays, humor, satire, personal experiences, and features on topics of interest to women. Articles are 500 - 1000 words. This is a paying publication, but payments vary.
The Gay & Lesbian Review
The Gay & Lesbian Review publishes essays, reviews, interviews, poems, and more. Feature articles should fall in the 2000-4000 word range, and reviews should be 600-1200 words. Payment for feature articles is $250 and payment for book reviews is $100. They also accept interviews, artist profiles, art memos, and International Spectrum column submissions.
The Malahat Review
The Malahat Review accepts poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction submissions from writers at all levels of their careers. Poets should submit 3-5 poems up to 10 pages maximum. They accept flash fiction up to 750 words as well as other short fiction up to 8000 words (though allowed words counts vary based on whether the author is Canadian or an international writer). Creative nonfiction can run up to 5000 words and cover any subject matter including personal essays, memoirs, travel writing, historical accounts, and biographies. Payment is $70CAD per published page.
The Offing
The Offing is an online literary magazine that accepts essays, fiction, and poems. For 2026, guidelines state there are no submission fees, and contributors are paid $25 to $100 depending on department and length.
The Sun Magazine
The Sun publishes essays, fiction, and poetry. Payment for all submission types are $200+.
The Washingtonian
The Washingtonian is a general interest magazine for residents of the DC area. They're open to freelance submissions for profiles, personal essays, true-crime, and narrative journalism.
Trails Magazine
Trails Magazine is a quarterly print publication covering backpacking, bikepacking, canoe camping, mountaineering, and related topics focused on being "human-powered" and involving overnight outdoor sleeping. The publication focuses mostly on North American destinations. Features run 1000-5000 words and sometimes longer. Pay is $.50 - $2.00 per word depending on difficulty, experience, and commitment required. Shorter columns and rubrics pay $.50 per word. These shorter pieces include recipes, trip reports, essays, gear reviews, opinion pieces, and more.
Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure accepts freelance pitches for both the print magazine and digital publication. Digital news stories run 300-500 words and digital travel stories and listicles run 500-2000+ words. Print stories can include 100-500 word Discoveries, 700-1500 word Experiences essays, Intelligent Traveler contributions under 600 words, and 2500-4000 word Features. They pay a flat rate per piece, not based on word count.
U.S. Catholic Magazine
U.S. Catholic accepts freelance submissions across a wide variety of magazine sections including features, reviews, poetry, essays, and different columns throughout the publication.
Whole Life Times
Whole Life Times magazine covers topics such as natural health, alternative healing, conscious business, green living, sustainable and local food, social responsibility, the environment, personal growth, and spirituality. They pay $75-150 per 800-1000 word feature. They also have departments, a City of Angels front-of-book section, and personal essays section which are open to freelance contributors.
Yankee Magazine
Yankee is a magazine for the New England region covering topics like travel, food, and home. They also accept personal essays related to the New England experience. The magazine pays on acceptance of freelance stories and purchases all rights.
More About These Paying Essay Writing Markets
Like all market lists on the All Freelance Writing blog, the list above pulls from the site's overall directory of writers' markets.
This is done automatically, meaning whenever a new market is added to the database, one is removed, or a listing is updated, this post will simultaneously update to reflect those changes.
Because of this, be sure to bookmark this page and check it again later if you're interested in changes to these essay markets.
If you find a dead link or outdated market information in the summaries here (based on currently-linked writers' guidelines), then you can click "report link" below that market in order to notify me. This lets you send an auto-generated email that will prioritize that market for review, and it also helps keep market listings here up-to-date.
Submit Your Essay Markets
Do you run a publication that pays for essay submissions from freelance writers? If so, you can submit your market for free.
Free market submissions will add your publication to the writers' market database as well as relevant specialized market lists like this one.
Note: For your market to also appear in these lists, they must include the appropriate category or contain keywords related to niches or content types. For example, descriptions mentioning essays pull into this post via a custom search, not by categories. Otherwise they will appear only in the market database and not these blog lists.
Hi, I’m wanting to learn more about getting paid to write reviews, essays or articles on just movie films. I’m also new to this and would like some advice on what and who my best options are out here to pick from. I’d appreciate it so kindly if someone is willing to be a leader and lead me in the right direction. Thanks for your time in reading this and hope to have contact from someone soon. Thanks
Hi Sheritta,
Your best bet if you don’t already have an audience of your own with a site you can monetize when sharing reviews is to look for clients that publish them. Publishing things like movie reviews might be tougher to break into. If you’re open to product reviews, you’ll find more opportunities with less competition. Many sites publish reviews, product comparison articles, round-ups, etc. that all fall under this umbrella. So think about what you’re qualified to review (think things you personally use and know a decent amount about). Then look for niche sites focused on products in those areas. Some sites will hire writers for broader reviews, but they’ll often pay less than niche outlets because they’re relying on affiliate income from those reviews and round-ups. They’ll review practically anything, and they care less about the review quality unfortunately than they do about getting as many affiliate links in there as possible. Those kinds of sites might be a good entry point, but they don’t generally pay very well, so it’s something you might look to move beyond after you have your first few portfolio samples.
I was recently offered a writing job at EssayPay. Decent salary, flexible hours, sounds good on paper. They’re pitching it as strictly writing/editing “example essays” for students – nothing shady, allegedly lol. But idk, something feels off? Like… are these actually used as examples or are students just submitting them as their own work? Can’t really shake that thought tbh. Has anyone here worked for a company like this before? What was your experience?
Hi Vela. This post features markets that pay for professional essays, not academic ones. So if you’re interested in the former, these markets might be good for you. I would never encourage freelancers to get involved in “academic writing” where they’re essentially writing for students looking to cheat. For feedback on specific services, I’d recommend looking for people sharing reviews and experiences on sites like Reddit. I just searched EssayPay there, and students are indeed submitting the essays they buy as their own work. So it sounds like your gut instinct was right!