Pitches / writers wanted to write about rap albums | $3,000 for 3000 words

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: HALFWAY BOOKS 

I’m Shea Serrano. I’m a staff writer at The Ringer and also I’ve written three New York Times bestsellers and also I’ve self-published a few things too. I’m starting a new project. It’s called HALFWAY BOOKS. Here is some information about it.

What is halfway books?

This is going to sound dumb, but: HALFWAY BOOKS is a pretend publishing company. I started it because I want to hire some freelancers to write about some rap albums. (I’ll give you some more information on this in a moment.) The name “HALFWAY BOOKS” is a play on the “ain’t no such thing as halfway crooks” line from Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Part II.”

Why are you doing it?

Well, because writing for money is a thing that I greatly enjoy and I would like to help other people do it. Too often, talented writers are elbowed out of the game because they can’t afford to work an unpaid internship somewhere or they can’t afford to write for free for a few months somewhere to build up a portfolio. I think that fucking sucks. So I want to try and help, even if it’s just a few people.

How does halfway books work?

The way it works is: a writer will pitch a rap album that they want to write about. If that writer (a) has a good and smart idea for an album, and (b) is selected from the pool of applicants, then that writer will be paid to write their thing.

After the writer has written their essay, a professional editor that I have hired will edit it and make whatever suggestions there are that need to be suggested. The writer will address the notes and then turn in a final version of the essay. Then a professional layout person that I have hired will design the essay into a proper book layout (including a cover, which will be designed by a professional designer that I have hired).

Basically, we’re going to treat it like if you signed a book contract, except but instead of writing a full book you’re only going to write one chapter.

So what all does each writer who is selected get?

Each writer selected will receive:

• $3,000 to write 3,000 words about one album.
• Access to a professional editor.
• A month-long mentorship with me. (The five writers and I will do a once-a-week Zoom meeting for four weeks while they work on their essays.)
• A fully built PDF version of their essay that they can sell on Gumroad. (That’s the site that I use to sell my self-published stuff.)
• A free Gumroad Pro account for a year.

Wait, you’re paying all the writers $3,000 to write 3,000 words?

I will pay each writer $2,000 to write their essay. Additionally, Gumroad has agreed to provide a bonus $1000 grant to each writer. So, all told, each writer will get paid $3,000 to write their essay. Also, they’ll get to keep whatever money it is that they make from selling their essay.

Do you take a percentage of the profits once a writer starts selling their essay? Like, is your plan to bundle the five essays together into one thing and then sell them all together as a thing?

No. That’s not my plan. At no point during this process will I take any money out of the pockets of the writers who get chosen to operate under the HALFWAY BOOKS flag. All money is theirs to keep. Each writer will retain the full and exclusive rights to their work. Nobody will be able to sell it but them.

That sounds like not a good way to run a business. How is HALFWAY BOOKS a viable and profitable company if you’re paying writers and editors and designers to make things but aren’t receiving any of the profits on the backend?

Well, HALFWAY BOOKS isn’t a viable and profitable company. It is, as I mentioned, a pretend publishing company. The point of it isn’t to make money for me. The point of it is to invest money into writers so that they can make cool shit. I’ve gotten very lucky in my writing career and I’m now in a spot where I can do stuff like this so that’s why I’m trying stuff like this. The best case scenario is that one day a few years from now some young writer emails some established writer to ask about how they made it, and that established writer says something like, “It kind of all started when I get picked for Shea Serrano’s HALFWAY BOOKS program.” The worst case scenario is that this all ends up being a total bust and I end up wasting $20,000 or whatever, lol.

How for real is this?

Very for real. You’ll have to fill out a Form 1099 for tax purposes and everything. Again: we’re going to treat this like if the writers were working on proper books. They’ll get paid half of the money once they sign their paperwork, and then the other half once the project is completed.

Why 3,000 words? and how long do i have to turn it in?

Because 3,000 words is about the standard length of one of my traditional book chapters. And, one more time: I very much want you to treat this like you were writing a book chapter. I want you to take it as seriously and professionally as possible. That’s why I’m providing a proper paycheck and a proper editor and a proper designer. I want for you to look at everything after it’s been built and say, “Yeah. I did the fuck out of that. I’m proud of this.”

As far as deadlines are concerned, the first draft of your essay will be due no later than one month from your start date. If you’re late, I’ll fucking sue you.

I’m just kidding. If you’re late then you’re late. No biggie. But let’s try and keep it somewhere around that month.

What are the things i can do to increase my chances of being selected?

The most important thing you can do is submit a good, smart, compelling pitch that has real and actual legs.

I’m less interested, for example, in reading stuff about, like, how Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly was playing in the background at a party where something crazy in your life happened or whatever. I’m more interested in reading stuff about how, say, Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly recontextualized rap forever, like what Doreen St. Felix wrote about a year and a half ago.

And I’m less interested in reading stuff like a track-by-track breakdown of an album, or stuff like, “If the members of the Wu-Tang Clan were characters from The Office this is who they’d be.” I’m more interested in reading stuff like when Brandon Perkins wrote about Wu-Tang in 2007 and talked about the math of the situation collapsing on itself.

We’re aiming for those two sorts of things.

The best possible outcome of this pilot program of HALFWAY BOOKS is we end up with five essays that talk about albums and musicians with the same sort of warmth and familiarity and insight that Joan Morgan talked about The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with in her 2018 book She Begat This or that Hanif Abdurraqib talked about A Tribe Called Quest with in his 2019 book Go Ahead in the Rain.

Got it. Thanks. Where do I apply?

Right here. The application deadline is August 10th. If selected, you will be notified via email on August 17th.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: Via the webform