Magazine - contributor guidelines

Pitch to Backstory, the independent bookshop magazine

Backstory is an independent bookshop + bar in south London.

We publish a biannual magazine, also called Backstory. It is not a highbrow literary journal, but a lively, playful books mag that bursts with colour, designed to be cherished by people who love good books and great bookshops. Like the shop, we hope our magazine is approachable, informative –  and just a little bit cheeky.

The magazine is stocked in independent bookshops throughout the UK and Europe, in Waterstones and in most branches of Barnes & Noble in the US. 

Our first two issues have featured new and exclusive writing from some of our favourite contemporary writers, including Ed Caesar, Hollie McNish, Jessica Andrews, Alice Winn, Sophie Mackintosh, Julia Armfield, Alice Vincent, Tim Shipman, Colin Walsh and Tom Crewe.

To get a flavour of issue 2, you can read a copy online. And why not subscribe to the magazine in print for as little as £8.91 a year?

Issue 3 will be published in October 2024. We are now accepting pitches for original features and columns. The deadline for pitches is Friday 21st June. Read on for more information on what we're looking for and how to pitch.

 

 

What we will be commissioning for issue 3:

Columns 

Typically 450-500 words.

Fee: £150.

We are looking for punchy columns driven by a single strong idea. They could be written by novelists, non-fiction writers, journalists or others in the book industry with an interesting story to tell.

So far we've run columns ranging from a week in the life of a book-to-TV-scout and what not to read when you're writing to an ode to re-reading a book.

Features

Typically 1,000-1,500 words

Fee: £500.

We are looking for original reported features about emerging trends in books, the business of books (everything from multinational publishers to indie presses through distributors to authors and agents), profiles of the characters in book world and anything and everything about bookshops. 

These could be written by established or debut novelists, non-fiction authors or journalists.

We are especially keen on ideas that are sparky and fun. We are also open to data-led stories or ideas for picture essays.

We are NOT looking for pitches for interviews with authors or book reviews.  

So far we've run features on how to write good sex, the inside story of Penguin Random House's fightback against US book bans, how to teach Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood to prisoners, the Irish book boom and imagined blind dates between big-name authors.

How to pitch

Please send a short summary of the column or feature you propose, together with a summary of your writing experience.

Email pitches to magazinepitches@backstory.london with "issue 3 pitch" in the subject line. You will not receive an acknowledgement until early July when we will review all pitches and get back to everyone at the same time. (We're a tiny team, so please bear with us! We think this is the fairest and most efficient system.)

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