We’ve been overwhelmed and touched with the response to our call for a new contributor, one who’ll be our voice for the Unpublished Writer, and we’re excited about adding a new member to the WU family! Our plan is to bring one new person in as a permanent member–someone who’d blog with us once monthly. But we’re also interested in developing a stable of writers who’d share a revolving post. The latter position is obviously less intimate, but it’ll ensure WU readers with a variety of unique voices and perspectives from those trekking the long road to publication.

Does it matter for which position you’d like to apply? Not at this stage. For now, we just need for you to throw your hat in the ring, officially.

But. As much as we lurve you, we don’t want you to apply unless you’re really, really sure. Here’s our tough talk:

Our goal here at WU is to be informative, occasionally amusing, and above all, empowering to novelists and aspiring novelists who write genre fiction. These are qualities we’re also looking for in our contributors.

Our contributors take their commitment to posting with WU seriously. We’ve rarely had any fail to post (there are exceptions like Real Life issues, etc., but these have luckily been extremely rare). Please don’t apply if you feel you aren’t ready to be just as professional and committed.

Still interested? Here’s how to apply:

Step 1: Answer the following questions. We want to get to know you better, but because of the number of interested contenders for the post, we ask that you don’t write novel-length answers. Think of this as a query letter: short, compelling, and with solid wordsmithing.

EXPERIENCE:
Do you have your own blog or belong to another writing/blogging community? (Please provide URL)
Do you have experience with WordPress?
How long have you been writing?
Do you have an agent?
Have you been published in any form? (Include e-publishing and self-publishing please, and indicate if this is for novel-length fiction.)

YOU on WU:
What do you think you would bring to WU that would be uniquely YOU?
Are there any writing or industry topics you’d shy away from discussing here at WU? Why?
If you write in a particular genre, how might you explore that genre on WU?
Please list five topics you’d feel comfortable discussing on WU–topics that can help empower other writers.

GOALS:
What is your ultimate goal in the publishing industry?

And, the most important question:
Milk or Dark?

Step 2: Please include a short (no more than 300 words) sample post. Finalists will get to submit a longer post later, but for now we want to see what sort of writing you can offer our readers.

Step 3: Send your answers and sample post together via e-mail to by March 7, 2010. Note: This is not our normal email address but was established specifically for this purpose. Please don’t send applications to our regular email address or leave your information in comments. And please be certain your information is complete and thoroughly checked, as we’ll be unable to replace first submissions with later versions.

We’d love to say we have a firm deadline for selection, but it’s all going to depend on the response. Plus, there’s this thing called Real Life that often interferes with our best-laid plans. But we hope to name our new contributor in time for the Easter Bunny to make an appearance.

GOOD LUCK! And thanks, everyone, for your interest and enthusiasm in this new position!

Write on.

Image by Tornaito.