76 Writing Jobs, Internships, Volunteer Opps, Fellowships, Pitch Calls, and More
Jobs for Writers (3.21.25) | How to break into Wattpad & WEBTOON; $1–$2/word for pitches on security; open opps at The Believer and The Onion; and a new, pretty pub that wants your book reviews
Welcome to Sub Club’s Jobs for Writers!
I know I say this practically every week, but there’s a lot of good good in this week’s newsletter: tons of summer internships, open opportunities at the Big 5 (as per uje), but also The Believer and The Onion, a lot of pretty publications that want your pitches, AND a chat with a publisher at Wattpad/WEBTOON.
So apply to some jobs, read through this week’s How to Break In, and then go outside and touch grass because that’s exactly what I’m about to do. Well, that and rot while catching up on The White Lotus.
How to Break In
For this week’s How to Break In, I chatted with Deanna McFadden, writer and VP of IP Publishing Strategy at Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group. So for all of y’all who spent your youth (or your present, quite literally not judging because same) on Wattpad and/or WEBTOON—this one is for you.
Deanna has been in the publishing game for a long time, but she tells me one of the most fulfilling parts of her job now is working with folks getting published for the first time. “I work with incredibly young writers who throw their dreams up on the platform,” she says. “And their energy has kept me going through my own endless rejections!”
Ahead, Deanna talks about leaving the Big 5 space for the publishing start-up space, offering mentorship and guidance to young writers, and never taking rejections personally.
rachael vaughan clemmons: What's your background?
Deanna McFadden: Currently, I'm doing a Master of Liberal Arts at Harvard in their Extension school, with one novel published and another dying on submission. But in my full-time life, I'm a publisher who has been in a leadership role and started two presses from scratch. One failed, but one's still going: Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group.
rvc: Can you tell us a little bit about the path you took to get there?
DM: My first job in publishing was created for me, so it was luck that I ended up in the industry where it's so hard now to get in on the ground floor. But what's most interesting is how I've been so lucky [from] the beginning: I was a writer for Television Without Pity, which led me to running some TV websites, which led me to working with publishers who needed someone to come in and start up the digital portion of their publicity team.
Then, I moved to HarperCollins, where they needed someone to do digital marketing from scratch. Then ebooks started and we did digital sales from scratch… and then digital publishing. And then that led me to publishing start-ups.
rvc: What was your role at HarperCollins? And where did you go from there?
DM: By the time I left after almost a decade with HarperCollins Canada, my role was Senior Director, Digital Product. We were a small, start-up like department in the sales group building interesting digital books that was quite profitable at the time.
After leaving HarperCollins Canada, I went to a small comic book start-up called Joe Books. While that press ultimately didn’t survive, the experience was priceless. I learned so much about a new industry—graphic novels—and developed a love for a kind of book I’d never really read before. It’s quite helpful too, as we built a product called Cinestories with Disney that directly correlates now to the work we do with our sister platform WEBTOON unscrolling the webcomics into print graphic novels.
rvc: Okay speaking of WEBTOON—how did you end up at the head of Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group? And what does your day-to-day look like?
DM: Wattpad was looking for someone to begin a press, and because I had just done that, my experience was singular. I've been here for six-and-a-half years now.
Day-to-day is ever-changing. There are the typical meetings that you have at any publisher—production, editorial—but then we could have a fun entertainment tie-in to work on, or I could be editing a delicious new adult spicy novel working with a young writer who has never published before. Our press only publishes authors and creators from our two platforms, Wattpad or WEBTOON, and so we source the majority of our titles from there. It’s very rare (almost unheard of) that we acquire from off-platform. So we spend a lot of time understanding how stories are working in either space with the help of our Content team. The data piece is what makes us unique.
rvc: Can you tell us a little bit about the imprints you’ve started at Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group?
DM: We have four imprints under the press now, all of which were launched in the last five years. The first, Wattpad Books, is our YA imprint. Six years ago when I started at Wattpad, that was the dominant age group: YA readers and writers. As these writers grew up, their writing aged up. Now, there’s a lot of adult romance and romantasy on the platform, so we launched W by Wattpad, which is our adult imprint. We partnered with Anna Todd, who wrote the bestselling series After, on Frayed Pages x Wattpad Books on an eponymous imprint. And finally, when we became a part of WEBTOON, this was the perfect opportunity to launch WEBTOON Unscrolled, our graphic novel imprint.
They’re all very distinct, but have the unique quality of being huge on either platform before we evolve them into print (either Wattpad, for novels, or WEBTOON, for graphic novels). The embedded fandoms are an integral part of our business. It’s a very interesting model.
rvc: You work with a lot of young writers. What’s your experience working with them? Are you able to offer mentorship or guidance as they navigate the world of getting published?
DM: Absolutely offering mentorship and guidance. Many of the writers on Wattpad are publishing professionally for the first time. And it’s an absolute joy to work with them. Every edit is like a miniature creative writing class, helping pull out that spark that gained traction on the platform to evolve the book for a print audience. It’s the most rewarding part of my job. There’s no cynicism, and every single writer I’ve edited since being at WWBG has been open to feedback and collaboration. And seeing some of our authors go on to have even bigger success is thrilling.
rvc: You have over 20 years of experience in publishing, and it seems very much like a hard place to break into now. What advice do you have for folks—as a writer yourself, and as a publisher too—looking to get into the publishing industry today?
DM: Everyone probably knows what I’ll say here, but publishing is a business. A lot of young people I speak to say they have a love of books and want to work in publishing because, well, books. But it’s really important to understand all the stuff we need to do to keep the lights on, and so I highly recommend publishing school. There are so many great programs out there—I teach Intro to Trade Publishing at Toronto Metropolitan University— that can help round out a love of books with a solid understanding of how the industry works.
And then as a writer, my advice is to fully understand that publishing is a business where each press has goals, markets, an audience, a sales team, and a marketing team. Decisions are never personal. It’s really hard to become immune to rejection, but truly, it’s not personal. You just have to keep going. Every acceptance, every bit of encouragement, every class you take will all lead you somewhere that’s hopefully fulfilling.
How did you break in? We want more stories about how people got their gigs in writing, editing, publishing, academics, or whatever else that’s writing-adjacent.
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76 Writing Jobs, Internships, Lit Mag Opps, Fellowships, Pitch Calls, and More
19 Pitch Calls from Paying Publications
11 Full-Time Jobs
1 Part-Time + Contract Job
3 Fellowships + Residencies
4 Volunteer Opportunities
8 Internships
30 Open Opportunities from Past Issues
Remember to check out the full details from each job posting before you apply. Good luck!
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