Most of our stories will run between 1500 and 3,000 words. We are particularly interested in stories from smaller towns and underreported regions or stories about queer people from historically marginalized communities such as Dalits and Adivasis. These stories should advance society’s understanding of LGBTQIA+ persons, break existing stereotypes or cover underreported identities and conversations in the queer culture. queerbeat doesn’t shy away from reporting about the problems within the LGBTQIA+ community. Those stories are welcome.
Some of the themes we are considering for next couple months:
I. Geography/Place
II. Asexuality
III. Body
IV. Caste
Feel free to suggest ideas outside of these themes.
What queerbeat is currently not inclined toward covering are stories/topics that are already getting enough attention in the media. For example, conversations around same sex marriage and coming out.
We are giving preference to LGBTQIA+ journalists/writers.
queerbeat is a very small magazine with limited funds but we try to pay our writers well. We cannot afford per word rates so we are currently paying flat rates.
If a story goes beyond 3000 words, we’d still pay Rs 42,000.
Pitching is generally a three-step process at queerbeat. In your first pitch email, just tell us what the story is about (avoid pitching topics), what the angle is, how the story helps advance public understanding of LGBTQIA+ persons or break existing stereotypes or cover underreported identities and conversations in the queer culture. None of this needs to be super detailed. Just enough for us to understand what the story could look like. No need to detail the characters or other intricacies at this stage. If the editors like the pitch, they will get in touch with you to explore further, which is when you might need to collect additional information. We will talk again after that, and decide whether or not to go ahead with the story.
If your story requires extensive travel then we might not be able to fund that but we are happy to work with you to figure out ways like reporting fellowships to support the travel. queerbeat can potentially pay for short 2-3 day trips to nearby cities/towns.
The best way to pitch us is to email hello@queerbeat.org. If you don’t hear from us within two weeks, please feel free to take your pitch elsewhere.
Should you have questions about the pitching process or any other thing that the pitch guide doesn’t answer please feel free to email. Give us at least a week to respond.
