Hi. I’m Bill Murphy Jr. I run a daily newsletter called Understandably...

It started with zero subscribers just before the pandemic, and it now reaches 170,000+ people every Monday through Friday.

I know how hard it can be for good writers to find an audience, and that’s part of why I like to promote other writers by paying them to share their best work. This can be original work, or even things that you've written elsewhere—on a blog, Substack, Medium, or really anywhere as long as you have the rights.

What works best? One of the strengths of my newsletter is that we run a lot of different things. But currently, for this guest writer program, I’m mostly looking for first-person stories about unique experiences with universal lessons. An upbeat or poignant message helps, too. Length is usually between 700 and 1,000 words.

Details on how to submit are below, but first, so you can see what we're talking about, here are 5 fantastic examples of truly great writers I've done this with over the past year:

• Kristine Levine, who told the story of growing up in Oregon in the 1970s, and the neighbors who saved her.

  • “I was 5 years old when my mom took off with me to the coast. She said she needed a do-over. We were starting fresh, with no belongings, no toys, no furniture. She said we had empty hands so that we could catch new blessings ...”

• Cai Emmons, who wrote about living with ALS, literally losing her ability to speak, and imagining what she might have said if she regained her voice.

  • “First, I would have to sing. Songs of gratitude and praise and pure joy. I might start with ‘Amazing Grace…’ Once mute but now I sing! …”

• Ramona Grigg, who shared what it felt like to reach a major milestone birthday.

  • “Age, of course, means nothing. Living does. At 80, my time is probably more limited than yours, but none of us survives this world …”

• Jay Alan Wolfe, on the years he spent as a "ski bum," working just hard enough to afford food, shelter and boards, and living for the slopes.

  • “A true ski bum is an artist. The medium, snow, is temporary, as fleeting as live music. ...”

• Lisa Gerard Braun, who was adopted as a baby, on how she met her biological mother as an adult, forged a relationship, and eventually faced a life-changing question about what, if anything, she owed her.

  • “Her fourth husband had passed away the same year I found her. Her financial obligations, fixed income, and declining health kept her from moving closer to people she knew. She was lonely. She was alone …”

There are many others, but these give you an idea!

Details: I pay $75 to $100 for this kind of work upon publication. Most writers also find that if they have their own newsletter, they get at least a few hundred new subscribers as a result.

Want to submit something? Fill out the form that you'll find here. Thanks for reading!

Submit Your Best Work!

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash.