PopMatters seeks intelligent and open minds to review books covering the entire spectrum of popular culture, from the big guns of the megapublishers to the edgy voices coming from the radical indie presses. Ideal reviews provide contextual commentary and bring an historical awareness to the piece—PopMatters book reviews are far more substantial than the average “liked it / hated it” review.
***Although we love fiction at PopMatters, we’re presently looking for more coverage of non-fiction titles, particularly coverage of a range of topics in cultural history.***
Standard book reviews average 800 words, shorter reviews are published on our books blog, Re:Print. Longer, in-depth essays are encouraged for worthy books, and the best pieces—those that set the subject matter in a culturally and historically relevant context, and are written in an informed and entertaining manner—will be considered for placement in the Re:Print column or features.
We are happy to arrange author interviews when possible, as well.
Many of our writers are called upon for their opinion by notable members of the media such as the BBC, NPR, MSNBC, Radio Australia, and VH1. Publications such as USA Today.com, Alternet.org, and Movies.com regularly pick up links to PopMatters articles and post quotes from PopMatters writers. Many PopMatters stories are carried across McClatchey-Tribune’s wire services with more than 60 US newspapers and 1,200 media clients worldwide and MCT Campus, a national wire service reaching more than 1,000 college and high school newspapers.
Interested parties should send a query with your background and areas of interest, along with three samples of your writing, including one review of a book not in our archive that would be your first published piece at PopMatters if you are accepted, to:
Interested in writing for the PopMatters’ books blog, Re:Print? In Re:Print, we are especially interested in covering new vistas in publishing (eBooks, web-exclusive publishing, hypertext projects) and book-related issues, such as censorship, rights arguments, and the struggle for essential truth in memoir and non-fiction. Send your application to:
Note: we are unable to pay you monetarily for your work at this time. However, you are not uncompensated in some form; your ‘pay’, as it were, is the privilege of publishing with this reputable magazine, wherein you are rewarded with this platform to broaden your readership, currently over 1.2 million unique readers per month, and counting.
