How to Get Your Personal Essays Published (For Real)

In January of 2026, I helped celebrate the launch of Amanda Holden’s book How to Be a Rich Old Lady. On page 9, she mentions my story, A Story of a F*ck Off Fund, which came out 10 years ago. 

That one essay led me to living in New York with one of the personal finance influencers I met through it, writing for The New York Times, and gaining a friend group among some of the wisest and most ambitious women I know.

It all started with being sad I wasn’t publishing enough. A friend and I were lamenting about it, and said, AM I EVEN A WRITER? So we decided to exchange essays once a month, and the F-Off Fund came out of that.

Your words can’t change the world and can’t change your life if you don’t get them out there. 

But how does publishing essays even work?

At the beginning of my writing life, publication felt like something other people did. I would read essays in The New York Times and magazines I loved and think, how do I get published? There was no visible path. Just the sense that everyone else had been let in on something I was still standing outside of.

I sent essays too early. I sent the right stories to the wrong place, waited too long to follow up or didn’t follow up at all. I took rejection personally and assumed silence meant no forever.

What I didn’t understand was that publication has a pattern. It is a skill you need to learn. Writing the essay is art. Getting published is sales.

Over time, the things that once felt impossible started to feel ordinary. Writing an editor. Pitching an idea clearly. Sending the essay again after it didn’t land the first time.

That work, done consistently, is how I’ve now published 20 pieces in The New York Times, with bylines in Vox, Elle, and other national publications. None of it came from shortcuts. It came from learning how publication actually works.

I keep thinking about that shift; when something stops feeling mystical and starts feeling like work you know how to do. That’s why I have hosted webinars with titles like “How to Get Your Personal Essays Published (For Real).” And when you join The Finishing for Writers, you get access to past webinars so you can start building your publishing knowledge immediately!