The following is a very comprehensive list of publications in the health and wellness niche. All of these publications accept submissions from freelance writers.
Payment rates vary, depending on the publisher, and may need to be negotiated. If you want to learn how to negotiate rates, build a solid base of clients, and earn a living as a freelance writer, I highly recommend The No B.S. Class on Freelance Writing.
For more opportunities, check out this list of fitness magazines and websites.
— Jacob Jans
Better Humans offers a collection of self-help and self improvement articles. They accept pitches for commissioned articles, which usually pay $500. To learn more, read their submission guidelines. (See section 4.)
Folks is a daily online magazine focused on publishing the stories of “remarkable people who refuse to be defined by their health issues.” Editors look for strong personal essays offering “a unique hook and a strong takeaway” that would challenge readers’ perspectives about the issues of health conditions. Editors prefer to receive queries first. Editors buy exclusive publishing rights to published essays for a one-year period and consider only original submissions. They pay $400 for essays, $600 for reported profiles, and $800 for reported features. To learn more, read the writers’ guidelines.
Healing Lifestyles “focuses on integrating healing remedies, alternative medicine, natural living, spa wisdom, and nature into our lives, providing tools and inspiration to lead a more healthy and healing lifestyle. ” According to Writer’s Weekly, they pay up to $500 for features. They don’t have guidelines available, but you can contact the editor here.
Brain & Life, formerly known as Neurology Now, is a consumer friendly magazine “for people with neurologic conditions, their families, and caregivers.” They publish research based articles that are well sourced. They pay 75 cents per word, up to 1,500 words. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Experience Life is a progressive “healthy-way-of-life magazine.” It comes out 10 times a year and has a circulation of 700,000. They aim their content at 30 to 45 year-olds. Payment reports suggest that they pay $1.00 per word. Further information can be found on their writer’s guidelines page.
Healthline is a health information website that wants to be the most trusted ally of people in their pursuit of health and well-being. Payment reports indicate that they pay up to $0.46 per word. To contact them, visit this page.
Vibrant Life is a bimonthly magazine that publishes family-oriented health pieces from a Christian perspective. Their Nutrition section adheres to the vegan lifestyle and helps readers eat more nutritious foods. They pay $100-$300 for articles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Wellbeing is an Australian publication about holistic health, sustainability, and spirituality. They look for articles that are empowering, informative, and entertaining. They pay AU$600 to AU$750 for feature articles 2,000 to 2,500 words long and AU$150 for shorter pieces. https://www.wellbeing.com.au/contribute
Organic Lifestyle Magazine and Green Lifestyle Market are sibling publications that cover the topics of natural health and healing. They pay 10 cents per word, up to $150, plus potential social media bonuses. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
The Aquarian is a Canadian publication that accepts articles about health and wellness, spirituality and the environment. They are looking for well-researched articles that enlighten, entertain, and inspire. The print version of the Aquarian pays $25 to $100 per 1000 words. http://www.aquarianonline.com/print-writers-guide/
Arthritis Today – Published by the Arthritis Foundation, this publication is for people with arthritis and arthritis-related conditions. Articles average 1000 to 4000 words. They prefer to work with freelancers who have experience writing for consumer magazines but will consider first person accounts of people living with arthritis too. Contact the editors here.
Common Ground accepts articles on health, wellness, the environment, transformational travel and personal growth. Articles are usually between 600 and 1500 words. They pay $0.10 per word and prefer that you query the editors before sending in submissions. http://commonground.ca/contributors-guidelines/
Cure Today explores the latest in cancer research and treatment. They accept personal essays no longer than 700 words and well-researched evidence-based articles. Writers must have medical writing and interviewing experience. http://www.curetoday.com/write
Diabetes Health caters to people who have diabetes and their caregivers. They publish personal essays and medically based articles. https://www.diabeteshealth.com/contact/
AnxietyFoundation.com publishes help, information, and advice about anxiety. They pay $50 for the article they publish. They prefer pitches instead of completed articles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
The Health Journal is read by a wide demographic of people who are interested in health and wellbeing. They want strong, entertaining, and compelling articles that will hold the reader’s attention. They publish feature length articles as well as shorter pieces. Baseline pay is $0.15 per word. http://www.thehealthjournals.com/editorial/
Spirituality and Health covers a broad spectrum of topics that fall under spirituality and health. They accept personal essays, recipes, how-to articles, investigative reporting and narrative journalism. http://spiritualityhealth.com/submission-guidelines
The American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) Blog publishes informative articles on “holistic health and wellness.” They’re looking for graduates, students, and industry experts with experience in the healthcare field. They pay $50 per post (600-1,000 words). To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Forge is Medium.com’s home for personal development articles. They cover productivity, self-improvement, optimization, personal progress, mindfulness, and creativity. They don’t specify pay rates, though other Medium publications pay up to $1 per word or more. To learn more, read their guide to pitching.
ProHealth is a nutritional supplement company. They are accepting pitches on fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Lyme disease, natural wellness or longevity. They are also accepting pitches on adjunct topics including EDS, POTS, MCAS, or other conditions that might overlap. They will pay $150 to $200 per piece (at least 750 words). Pitches should be sent to jenny.prohealth@gmail.com. For details, read this Twitter thread. For more contact information, visit this page.
Self covers health and wellness. They are always seeking new writers and are especially excited to work more frequently with BIPOC, LGBTQ+ writers and writers from other marginalized groups. They want stories that will help improve personal or public health. Their main categories of focus are health, fitness, food, beauty, love, and lifestyle. Their rates start at $300 for stories with minimal to no reporting, $400 for reported service stories, and $800 for features. To learn how to pitch them a story, visit this page.
Verywell Health is an online resource for health and wellness information. They are always seeking experienced and qualified writers who have expertise and credentials in health and wellness. According to their associate news editor, they pay $200 for 700-1,000 words, $250 for 1,001-1,500 words, and $300 for 1,501-2,000 words. If interested, send an email to writeforus@verywell.com. They don’t accept unsolicited articles. To learn more, refer to this page.
Elemental is a health and wellness publication by Medium. They seek science-backed stories that educate people about their bodies and minds and help them live healthier lives. According to their executive editor, they typically pay $1 per word for commissioned pieces, though that tweet was deleted, so it may no longer be accurate. If interested, send your pitches to elemental@medium.com. To learn how to write for them, refer to this page.
You and Me Magazine publishes personal essays about experiences as a medical patient. They also publish some articles from provider’s perspectives. They pay 4-5 cents per word for articles 1,000-2,500 words. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
NutriInspector.com is a health, diet, weight loss blog that largely features product reviews with affiliate links to Amazon. They pay $120 to $180 for 3000 to 4000 word “Ultimate How To Guides”, $120 for long informational articles, and $60 for product reviews. They accept queries. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
The Phoenix Spirit is a “bi-monthly publication for people actively working on their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.” They prefer articles of 800 to 1,500 words. They pay $35 per article and $100 to $150 per lead article. They pay a kill fee of 1 cent per word. For details, read their writer’s guidelines.
EMS Wire provides the latest news about the EMS (Emergency Medical Services) industry. It was commissioned by the CEO of EMS University. They are looking for articles, exclusives, news stories, and other content regarding the EMS/Fire industry. They expect the articles to be 150 to 500 words long. They pay $0.05 to $0.30 per word. For details, read their writer guidelines.
PT Progress is a Physical Therapy blog for students and physical therapists. Some of the most in-demand articles on their blog are related to: “specific injury treatment ideas, career advice, clinical insights, health prevention, and even health product reviews.” The average word count of their articles is 1,200 words. They pay $60 per article. To learn more, refer to this page.
OC87 Recovery Diaries is an interactive website which features stories on mental health recovery, empowerment and change. They feature stories that inspire others and generate discussion and awareness. They offer an honorarium of $250 for accepted posts. To learn more, visit this page.
WhatIsEpigenetics.com is a “New York-based blog and news aggregator for epigenetics-related subjects.” They highlight epigenetic research and lifestyle. They are looking for interesting pieces on epigenetics. They pay new authors $50 for their first article. To learn more, refer to this page.
Therapeutic Thymes Magazine is a “quarterly print magazine dedicated to promoting a more natural, therapeutic, and sustainable way of life.” They accept articles of 500 to 2,000 words. They pay $50 for articles of 1,000 to 2,000 words with photos. To learn more, visit this page.
NurseGuidance.com is a blog where nurses offer helpful articles and videos to other nurses. They are looking for articles and videos for their blog. They pay $50 to $100 for anecdotes, general tips, or advice articles. The articles should be 400 to 1,200 words long. For details, visit this page.
The Fix is a daily website for news and information on addiction and recovery. They offer rehab reviews, sober living tips, and addiction recovery news. Most of their stories are of 1,100 to 2,000 words. According to payment reports, they pay an average of $0.15 per word. To learn more, refer to this page.
Cancer Network provides different views on oncology/hematology through news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and more. They pay $50 for a case with images and a short write-up. They pay $75 for a case posted in their Image IQ section. A case posted in their Image IQ section “must include an image, clinical history, a question with multiple answer choices, and a discussion of the correct answer.” To learn more, visit this page.
Patient Care offers state-of-the-art information on primary care medicine. They are always seeking good teaching cases (of up to 750 words). They pay an honorarium of $150 for a case that is accepted for online publication. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
The Paper Gown covers “health and healthcare with a focus on patient experiences — inside and outside the exam room, before check-ups and after surgery, across all states of health.” They publish stories for and about patients. One payment report indicates payment of $0.49 per word for a news story of about 1,200 words. Writers can email their story pitches to thepapergown@zocdoc.com. Learn more about them here.
The Temper is “an online publication that explores life through the lens of sobriety, addiction, and recovery.” They are “particularly interested in amplifying the work of women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ communities, people aged 55+, people with disabilities, and those in any other historically marginalized or underrepresented group.” They mainly publish personal essays, service-based articles, and op-eds. They want posts of 900 to 2,500 words. According to one payment report, they paid $75 to $100 per piece. To learn more, visit this page.
Kinnected is “a free, world-wide, social sanctuary that provides multiple avenues for members to organize their self-health information, collaborate, and share knowledge and solutions towards better health and well-being.” They pay $100 for global health practitioner profiles (interview-format Day in the Life profiles of health practitioners around the world). For details, read their submission guidelines.
Nigeria Health Watch is “a non-profit organization that uses informed advocacy and communication to influence health policy and seek better health and access to healthcare in Nigeria.” In collaboration with Maternal Figures (an open-source database of maternal health interventions in Nigeria), they are looking for pitches for solution stories about maternal health. They will pay $428 per story. To learn more, refer to this Twitter post. To contact them, refer to this page.