Extra Points wants to publish more freelancers. Here's how to apply:

Good morning-ish, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Forgive me, this is going to be a bit of a meta-week here at Extra Points, but if you stick with me, I promise it’ll all make sense.

I just spent the last two days at D1.ticker HQ in Kentucky, chatting about this Fall season, Athletic Director Simulator 3000, EP, and a bunch of other projects.

For the next few months, my day-to-day job is going to be changing a little bit. We are formally releasing Athletic Director Simulator 3000 This Thursday, and I will be spending time supporting it, adding new features and constantly adding new questions over the next several months. I am also going to be doing more work with our college curriculum support product, D1.classroom, helping to relaunch our FOIA Directory, and supporting a few other projects. I’m also still going to be writing Extra Points.

That’s good news! But it means that I will not have time to write four newsletters a week and support a good computer game and do everything else. I need help. 

I want to publish one freelance newsletter a week, starting this month. Here’s what I am looking for:

• Extra Points freelance columns should be roughly between 1,250-2,000 words. I’m not going to throw it in the trash if it’s a little longer or a little shorter, but this is a newsletter, and we do have space constraints.

• Freelance columns do not have to include original reporting, although that’s certainly nice to have. But they should add context, unique perspective, and value to the conversation around an off-the-field story in college sports. That might include academic research, a look at historical archives, unique interviews, athlete perspectives, personal essays about sub-niches within college sports, etc. Think about the sort of stories this newsletter typically highlights!

• I will read and edit everything that is published on this site, but I cannot emphasize this enough…I will not have the time to handhold every step of the process. The cleaner the copy and the better thought-out the pitch, the better the chance I can publish your work.

• To put it another way, if you reach out to me and say something to the effect of, “I love sports, I love Extra Points, and I’d love to write for your newsletter, please let me know what I can write about!”…I can’t help you. I wish I could! But I am stretched too thin to be an assignment editor for completely new writers.

Here’s what I can pay, and how to apply:

• I can offer a base payment of $300 for a published newsletter. I can also pay a $16 bonus for every paid subscription generated from that newsletter. I can process the payment 72 hours after publishing (via Venmo, Paypal, or paper check). If you have a really ambitious idea that requires more than that, I’m more than happy to talk, but that’s the neighborhood we’re looking at for freelance stories.

• I’m also fine working with one writer for a longer-term arrangement (i.e. multiple posts a month), as well as a one-newsletter arrangement.

• To apply, please send me an email to [email protected] that briefly explains who you are, what sorts of things you’d like to write about, and why you are the person to write those stories. I’m happy to look at ideas and submissions on a rolling basis.

Am I interested in other freelance services?

Heaven knows I could use some help in lots of areas, from marketing to research to revenue, but I don’t have the budget to spend on other freelance assistance right now, and I ideologically don’t want to accept work from anybody without paying them.

If you are a Java or Construct 3 developer, a pixel artist, or have some experience in indie games (in publishing, other engines, etc) and would be interested in potentially helping with Athletic Director Simulator 3000, I would be happy to talk to you, and I do have the budget to pay for some help. If that is your skillset, I’m also at [email protected].

I’ll have a real EP column coming out tomorrow, and Athletic Director Simulator 3000/FOIA Database updates coming very soon.

Thanks for your patience and support. I look forward to hearing from you soon!