Editorial Calendar
Writer's Digest 2025 Editorial Calendar
We urge writers to get creative in their interpretations of our 2025 issue themes. We offer a brief description of how we interpret them, but look forward to ideas we weren’t necessarily expecting.
Find out more about our submission guidelines here.
Editor’s Note: We’re trying something new in 2025! Instead of emailing editors or a general submission inbox with your pitch for the print magazine, we ask that you use the links below to submit pitches for each issue. Each link is specific to that issue and will ensure we collect all the info we need to stay organized. We will close each form after an issue is fully booked. If you have a pitch not directly connected to an issue theme, please use this form. Thanks in advance for submitting your ideas using these forms!
March/April 2025
THEME: Pushing Boundaries
Sometimes, the most exciting writing is that which confounds expectations. Writing that combines tropes, ideas, or different genres in unexpected ways to create something entirely new (e.g., romantasy, comedic horror). Or novels that mix interactive elements with traditional storytelling to guide, or even misguide, readers (think: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr). In this issue, we’d like to see articles about writers, stories, and techniques that effectively mash up seemingly disparate genres or elements of storytelling to push the boundaries of writing.
+WD Self-Published Book Awards Announcement + Profile
The March/April 2025 issue is now closed to submissions.
May/June 2025
THEME: Exploring Ideas: Inspiration + Research
No matter what they write, all writers will find themselves researching something at some point in their writing process. And, whether or not writers can identify what inspired their work, the idea had to come from somewhere! In this issue, paired with the ever-popular Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers, we aim to find articles that will help writers get inspired and find the resources to make that inspiration work for them.
+ 101 Best Websites for Writers
+ WD Self-Published E-Book Awards Announcement + Profile
+ WD Personal Essay Awards Announcement + Profile
The May/June 2025 issue is now closed to submissions.
July/August 2025
THEME: Setting the Scene
When it comes to setting the scene, all writers know it’s critical piece to ensuring readers have a clear grasp of what their reading, whether it be a physical setting in a novel or narrative nonfiction or the reason why information matters in instructional nonfiction. Setting also matters when it comes to a writer’s writing life. This issue aims to explore all facets and interpretations of how writers can set the scene.
+ WD Poetry Awards Announcement + Profile
Click here to submit your pitch for July/August 2025: https://forms.gle/F7YYh5eVfU94RNqAA
September/October 2025
THEME: The Art of Making Connections in Storytelling
Connections make up all parts of writing—connecting characters to each other, connecting readers to stories, and writers connecting to agents/publishers/readers, and more. In this issue, featuring our annual roundup of literary agents and how best to connect with them, we also would like to see articles on all the types of connections mentioned here, and other ideas inspired by how our contributors connect with this theme.
+ Agent Roundup
+WD Short Short Story Awards Announcement + Story/Profile
Click here to submit your pitch for September/October 2025: https://forms.gle/cwS5u83xxnuRkkVSA
November/December 2025
THEME: Celebrating the Whimsical & Weird
From the time we’re children, the whimsical and weird draws us in and makes us imagine worlds beyond our own, creatures that exist only in our imaginations, and endless possibilities. In this issue, we celebrate whimsical and weird writing by exploring fantasy writing, magic, talking animals, monsters, unusual writing formats, and much, much more.
+ WD Annual Competition Announcement + Profile
Click here to submit your pitch for November/December 2025: https://forms.gle/ibiDsRMvKw7Ko8eZ6
January/February 2026
THEME: Advice for Your Writing Success
One of WD’s goals is to provide all kinds of writing advice so writers can find what works for them, because each writer has different goals, different ways of working, and different lives. So, in this issue, we aim to offer plentiful writing advice on both the business of publishing and the craft of writing to help writers find success—no matter how they define it.
Click here to submit your pitch for January/February 2026: https://forms.gle/JARxJXNJNPpxbGiu6
