Today we’re excited to launch a new series with Longreads, the storytelling community that recently joined the Automattic and WordPress.com Editorial family. And we need your help.
We’re looking for the best long-form stories over 1,500 words, across all of WordPress—a quest that will span 22% of the Internet. It will include work from undiscovered writers, as well as the authors and publishers you already know and love.
Help us find and share the best stories
Authors and publishers: When you post something great that’s over 1,500 words, use the longreads tag on your post so we can consider it. You can also share a link to the story on Twitter: Just reply to @Longreads or include #longreads in your tweet. (If your WordPress site is self-hosted, Twitter is still the best way to reach us.)
Readers: If you find something that you love, share it with us! Reblog a link on your own site and add the longreads tag, or share it on Twitter with #longreads.
What we’re looking for
Right now, we’re searching for primarily nonfiction. This can include the following:
- Interviews: It could be an interview with your grandparents, a Q&A with your best friend about their career, or a conversation with your favorite local business owner.
- Essays, speeches and big ideas: A personal spin on an important topic, or a transcript from a talk you gave at a work conference.
- History and research: We love learning about our collective experiences, and what it tells us about the past and the future. Share your personal, professional, or academic research about topics that interest you.
- Previously published book excerpts and magazine features: If you are the rights holder for a book or magazine feature—old or new pieces are both welcome—share it with the #longreads community.
We’re looking forward to seeing your story picks!
* * *
Here are a few more examples of stories we’ve featured on Longreads from the world of WordPress:
- I Was a Teenage Narc (Michael Hobbes): Hobbes recalls being employed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board as a teenage informant who bought cigarettes and alcohol without an ID.
- My Reply to Alexander Nazaryan of Newsweek (Diane Ravitch): The public school crusader takes on a challenge from a Newsweek writer to tackle the problems with Common Core.
- Comedy and the Single Girl: An Excerpt from ‘Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted’ (Jennifer K. Armstrong): The story of Treva Silverman, and how she helped create some of the most iconic characters in TV history.
- You’re Probably Using the Wrong Dictionary (James Somers): What John McPhee and a good dictionary can teach us about writing.
- An Interview with My Mother, the One Who Stayed Home (Roxane Gay, The Hairpin): The author speaks with her mother about the decision to be a stay-at-home mom.
- Penny Pritzker’s Path from Family Tragedy to Business Success (Nina Easton, Fortune) How the Obama Commerce Secretary’s early family tragedies shaped her path to business and political success.
- The History of ‘Boy’ and ‘Girl’ Toys: A Veteran Toy Designer Wrestles With the Industry’s Gender Divide (Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Collectors Weekly): A look at the evolution of the toy industry, how Barbie changed the world, and why “girls” and “boys” toys are still so differentiated.
- A Cocktail Party In The Street: An Interview With Alan Stillman (Nicola Twilley, Edible Geography): How a famous restaurant chain got its start in New York City.
WordPress.com News 
Awesome, I cant wait to write something for this.
Well this is exciting! Usually, when I have a piece over 1200 words I break it up into a series of posts to prevent reader fatigue – but I’ll keep my next long piece together so I can participate in this!
I have a 500 word limit here 🙂
And what might be the difference between this and longform?
In addition to the longreads tag, we’re going to keep an eye on other tags that have been traditionally used for in-depth articles, long-form journalism, essays, interviews, and similar posts.
I like it! Nice idea.
OK, this might be a stupid question, but how can we tell if something is more than 1500 words? I can do pivot tables and budgets and cash flow projections up your ying yang, but ask me to judge how long a post is and I might get all hot and sweaty.
Good question! In your WordPress editor, there’s a “word count” in the bottom left.
I’m going to be writing an essay about ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen soon.
Interesting initiative. But why limit to non-fiction? 🙂 Oh. That was a question. rephrase: I believe you should open another category for short fiction. )
We’re starting with nonfiction for our roundups, but we love short stories too, and you can use the longreads tag for both fiction and nonfiction.
Max words?
No max word count—we usually see stories between 1,500-6,000 words.
Thanks Mark! I write a mix of short and long posts. Going in and tagging a few of the ones I am more proud of that fit this bill =)
Would you consider posts in other languages? Most of my posts are way over 1500 words.
We would love to consider all languages.
Ooh. This sounds reallt cool!
I’ll keep an eye out for anything that I come across, and if I write something that’s not totally heinous (more morally, not really quality wise,) I might throw the Longreads tag on it to see if it’s got any legs!
Almost all of my stuff has been around or over 1,500 words, so writing that much would be no problem!
With decreasing attention spans in readers (esp. online), I wonder what’s the inspiration behind this longform writing. I take a lot of pains to ensure that my blog posts do not cross 600 words. In my 7+ years of blogging experience, I have noticed that shorter the post, the better it goes with readers. I want to know if I am wrong.
Will this be similar to the “Weekly Writing Challenge” with a prompt each week or do we just tag what we think will be acceptable for tagging with longreads?
There will be no specific writing prompts, and no hard deadlines, so this will be more of an ongoing roundup of stories we find from those tagged longreads.
That is fabulous, thank you.
Concept of longreads is really great, it will be definately helpful
This is a really good idea! Can’t wait to participate!
1,500 words? Definitely a level of effort that should be rewarded with financial compensation.
Thanks for this, Joy. We agree that it is not easy, nor do we expect anyone to just whip up an in-depth article—you’ll see in our examples that many of the stories come from small or large publishers. Others were essays posted on the writers’ personal sites, or book excerpts from their already-published work. There are a lot of amazing stories already being published, so we just want to create another way to shine a light on it.
Great idea! I always write so much about bunch of things
I have a history of wordy essays since starting college last fall. Maybe 1500 will not be too bad. 🙂
Interesting. Will articles published on WordPress.org blogs be considered? Would love to participate in this initiative.
Stephanie, yes they will. For WordPress.org sites, you can reply to us on Twitter to share a story: @Longreads.
Love this! too bad I can’t go back and do that with my previous stories
I like this. I tend to write longer pieces, and I understand and accept the price I pay for this in readership. But I enjoy the luxury of stretching out a little in my parenting blog, and I look forward to sitting down with a cup of coffee and a good long read from a good writer. It’s a big internet. Why not a little corner of the blogosphere just for us?
Great forum, looking forward to some telling reads!
Tagged, excellent.
I think its a fantastic idea but selfishly would love for you to considering adding the humor or satire genres to this program. I write 1500 word interviews with inanimate objects. I just posted one where a bud of marijuana interviews the World Cup Trophy on my site called harryballs.com. I also plan to interview the ghost of Saddam Hussein about the very current Iraq situation.