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Young writers looking to get their work published may realize that a lot of publications don’t offer payment. The good news is that paying markets for young writers are out there. In fact, some of them are even run by other young writers!

Check out seven such paying markets below.

While some of these paying markets accept submissions from writers of all ages, others only accept work from a specific age group. Some of these markets accept submissions all year, while some are only open to submissions during the school year.

Afterbodies

Guidelines: https://www.afterbodies.org/submit

“We are currently accepting submissions of poetry and prose from all writers under the age of 25. Our reading periods are May 10th—July 1st and October 10th—December 1st. We seek writing that tacks, cajoles, and resurfaces the unseen.” They accept up to 10 pages of writing and allow only one submission per writer during each reading period. Payment: $20 to each contributor.

Blue Marble Review

Guidelines: https://bluemarblereview.com/submit/

They accept submissions from writers who are age 13-22. “Blue Marble Review is published four times a year and accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essays, opinion pieces, travel writing, photography and art on a rolling basis.” Payment is $30 for each published piece and $75 for cover art.

Cast of Wonders

Guidelines: https://www.castofwonders.org/submissions/

While they welcome submissions from writers of any age, they state in their guidelines that they are very interested in receiving submissions from writers age 18 and under. They accept submissions of young adult flash fiction and short stories ranging from 1500 words or under (for flash fiction) and up to 6K words for short stories. Stories must be science fiction, fantasy, and horror (see their guidelines for horror stories). They pay 8 cents a word for original fiction and a flat rate of $100 for reprints of short fiction and a $20 flat rate for reprints of flash fiction.

Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things

Guidelines: https://emberjournal.org/submission-guidelines/

While their audience includes readers of all ages and identities, they prefer receiving submissions from writers age 10-18. They accept submissions of poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. They pay 2 cents per word or $20 per accepted piece, “whichever is more,” for poems of up to 100 lines, short stories of up to 12K words, flash fiction up to 1500 words, and creative nonfiction of up to 12K words.

The Echo

Guidelines: https://echolitmag.com/submit/

“We accept submissions from teenagers 13-19 year-round.” They are interested in works of science fiction in addition to nonfiction/memoir pieces. They accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, graphic stories, scripts and art. They prefer work of under 5K words. They pay $15 for poetry, $30 for other forms of writing, $20 for interior art, and $50 for cover art.

VoiceBox

Guidelines: https://voicebox.site/how-to-submit-content

“VoiceBox is an international, youth-led content platform and social enterprise. Our mission is to amplify the issues that truly matter, ensuring that young voices are heard by key decision-makers and contribute to meaningful, real-world change. We feature content from young people aged 13-25, in a variety of formats.” Their guidelines don’t state what kind of material they accept, only that it is in a variety of formats. They prefer written material be a maximum of 1000 words. “We pay £20 for every piece published on our site.”

Youth Communication

Guidelines: https://youthcomm.org/teens-write-for-us/

They accept submissions from teens age 15-19. “We are especially interested in working with teens whose stories and experiences are less likely to be heard in other media and whose stories contribute to a more kind, fair, just, and equitable society.” They are interested in true stories and they pay $125 for each published article.

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Dawn Colclasure is a Deaf writer in Eugene, Oregon. She’s a freelance writer, book reviewer, and columnist. She is the author and co-author of several books, among them poetry books such as Touched by Fire, April Showers, We Will Never Have Enough Days and Nature Therapy. Her poetry, articles, essays and short stories have appeared in magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. She publishes the SPARREW Newsletter online each month. Her websites are  https://dawnsbooks.com and https://www.dmcwriter.com. She’s on Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok, tumblr under the name crankytruthseeker, and Instagram under @dawn10325.

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