Long Now Foundation Is Accepting Pitches/ How To Submit (Pay: $25 – $600)

Long Now Foundation is a non-profit organization that fosters long-term thinking. They want stories that explore the ‘long now’ of climate change, the rise and fall of civilizations, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, economics, architecture, and more.

They are accepting pitches of essays, reported features, interviews, book reviews, shorter articles, fiction and poetry for Ideas, their living archive of long-term thinking.

Below, you’ll find information on the kinds of stories they are looking for, how much they pay, and how to pitch them.

Submission Guidelines For Long Now Foundation

• They want stories that apply this civilizational lens to inspire, educate, and surprise their readers across a variety of subjects and disciplines. Some of these subjects include climate change and the environment, the preservation of knowledge, the rise and fall of civilizations, the longevity of institutions, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, the history of science and technology, architecture, design and urbanism, the nature of time, space travel, globalization, migration, economics, governance, maintenance, and infrastructure (both physical and intellectual).
• While they endeavor to respond to pitches and submissions in a timely manner they cannot guarantee a response to all inquiries.
• If you do not hear from them within a month, it is likely that they are not interested in your submission.
• However, it might interest you to know that they are hoping to expand their topical range — and the kinds of stories they publish — considerably.
• That’s another way of saying that just because you might not see the kind of story you’d like to pitch represented below does not mean they wouldn’t be interested in publishing it.

What They Want

Some of what the Long Now Foundation publishes includes:

Essays

Reported, argument-driven, or photo essays (1,200 – 3,000 words).

Essay topic examples:

• Some two billion people now live in countries where the population is smaller each evening than it was in the morning. Are we ready to normalize depopulation?
• Welcome to the age of the commodification of air.
• In 19th century Iceland, reframing aggressive nature as a source of belonging shaped a myth that built a more resilient future. We can do the same.

Long-form reported narrative features (1,200 – 3,000 words)

Essay topic examples:

• Without maintenance, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades. How might we secure our data so that it survives for generations?
• A new genetics study is shedding light on the deep legacy of colonization on the people of Brazil.

Conversations

Interviews with the thinkers, artists, and makers whose projects and ideas foster long-term thinking and responsibility (2,000 – 3,000 words)

Short-form Science Journalism, News, and History

Articles breaking down the latest long-term thinking news (scientific papers, studies, projects, trends), profiling fascinating and forgotten examples of long-term thinking from the past, or exploring how today’s technological interventions are being applied to the past to make people reconsider what they thought they knew (500 – 1,200 words)

Science Fiction Stories

Imaginative speculations at the timescale of civilization. They are interested in stories that take unexpected angles on the future and the past, honing in on details that you only see when you take a longer view. (1000 – 4000 words)

Poems

Work that engages with long-term thinking and time in whatever ways you see fit. No restrictions on form or length. Do not submit more than four poems.

Additional Information

• For non-fiction pitches: send an email to ideas@longnow.org with “Pitch” in the subject line followed by a proposed headline.
• In the email, describe what you’re hoping to write about and how it’s relevant to Long Now’s topical and temporal focus.
• If you’re pitching an essay, give them a sense of the argument you’re making. If you’re pitching a feature, give us a sense of the narrative structure, who you plan to speak to, and any other key logistical details.
• If your pitch is time-sensitive, let them know. You’re welcome to provide relevant bylines and a brief bio.
• For fiction and poetry, send an email to ideas@longnow.org with a subject line noting whether your submission is fiction or poetry.
• Attach a draft of your submission to the email. Feel free to contextualize the work with a sentence or two in the body of the email.

Pay Rates

At The Long Now Foundation, payment varies depending on the kind of story, the reporting involved, and the time commitment.

Nevertheless, rates begin at $600 for features and essays and range between $300 and $600 for interviews, reviews, science journalism, and news articles. Rates are $100 for science fiction stories and $25 for poems.

More questions? Visit their website.