Write For Us

We commission from people who have done the thing they are writing about. The pieces that work here are the ones a reader cannot get from a search result: the engineer who ran the migration, the founder who has negotiated the term sheet, the compliance lead who took a company through the audit. If that is you, we would like to read your pitch.

This page sets out what we accept, what we decline, and how to pitch. It sits on top of our editorial guidelines, which we will hold your piece to.

What we publish

Our beats are AI and LLM engineering and policy, startup fundraising mechanics, software engineering and infrastructure, security and privacy compliance, growth and unit economics, and Canadian tech policy and funding programmes. Within those, four shapes of article work best.

Analysis grounded in your own operating or engineering experience

An argument you are entitled to make because you lived through it. What you tried, what it cost, what broke, what you would do differently, and what generalises beyond your case. Specific systems, specific constraints, specific numbers where you can share them. Where an employer’s confidentiality limits the detail, we will work with you on ratios and shapes rather than absolute figures.

Explainers with real worked numbers

The piece that finally makes a mechanism legible because it does the arithmetic in front of the reader. A stacked SAFE converting on a real-looking cap table. An option grant valued through to exercise and tax. Inference cost per thousand requests broken into its components. CAC payback computed honestly across two channels. Show the inputs, show the working, let the reader substitute their own numbers.

Teardowns of a mechanism

How something actually works underneath: a consensus protocol, a rate limiter, a vector index, an authentication flow, a billing system, an exploit class, a fraud pattern, a regulatory reporting obligation. Diagrams and sequence-level detail welcome. The test is whether a competent reader could reimplement or audit the thing after reading you.

Policy and programme explainers

What a rule or funding programme requires in the concrete, sourced to the statute, regulation, guidance or rulebook rather than to commentary about it. Which obligations attach to whom, in which jurisdiction, from which date, with which artefacts and deadlines. Canadian programmes and privacy law are especially welcome.

What we decline without discussion

  • Thin listicles: "10 tools for", "top 7 trends", roundups assembled from vendor websites.
  • Undisclosed promotion — a piece whose real purpose is to advantage your employer, your client or your product.
  • SEO link-building placements. If the pitch exists because a link is needed, the answer is no.
  • AI-generated drafts submitted as your own original work. We check, and it ends the relationship.
  • Rewritten press releases, funding announcements and product launch copy.
  • Pieces with no sources, or only secondary commentary.
  • Generic advice: productivity habits, leadership platitudes, "why every company needs an AI strategy".
  • Anything already published elsewhere, unless we agree a republication in advance.
  • Investment recommendations, price predictions, token or trading content.

Who should pitch

Practising engineers, architects and SREs. Technical founders and early operators. Finance, growth and pricing people. Security engineers, privacy counsel and compliance leads. Investors and programme staff who can write about mechanics rather than their portfolio. Researchers who can translate their work for practitioners. You do not need publication credits or a following; a clear argument and evidence you can show beat a byline history. You do need to be willing to be edited and fact-checked, and to disclose any interest in what you are writing about.

We do not accept pitches from agencies on behalf of an executive who will not do the writing; if a piece is to be ghostwritten, say so at the pitch stage and we will almost certainly decline.

How to pitch

Email [email protected] covering these six things, in this order. Half a page is plenty; do not send a finished draft on spec.

  1. Working title. Specific enough that we can tell what the piece claims.
  2. The argument in one sentence. What the reader will understand or be able to do afterwards that they could not before. If it needs a second sentence, the pitch is not ready.
  3. Why you specifically can write it. The experience, role or access that makes this yours rather than anyone’s, plus any conflict of interest.
  4. The primary sources and data you will use. Name them: filings, specifications, code, datasets, benchmark configurations, programme documents, interviews. Say which numbers you can publish.
  5. Target length and structure. A rough word count and the sections you expect.
  6. Timeline. When you can deliver a first draft, and any date it is tied to.

A link to something you have written or a talk you have given is useful but optional.

House style requirements

  • Length. Most commissioned pieces run 1,200 to 2,500 words. Longer is fine if the subject earns it; we agree the range before you start.
  • Sourcing minimum. Every factual claim you did not observe yourself is sourced, with at least five to eight substantive citations in a typical piece, weighted towards primary sources. Contested claims need the corroboration our guidelines describe.
  • Numbers. Dated, with currency and units stated, and with the calculation shown where the point depends on it. No unattributed vendor performance claims.
  • Links. Relevant, to primary sources, pointing at the specific document rather than a homepage. No affiliate or paid links, and no client landing page in place of a real source. Undisclosed commercial links get the piece pulled.
  • Code. Samples must run. State the language and version, keep them minimal, and say where the full example lives. We test what we publish.
  • Voice. First person is welcome. Write plainly, lead with the point, cut the throat-clearing introduction.
  • Original. Written for us and not published elsewhere, including on your own blog or newsletter, unless agreed in writing.

What happens after acceptance

If we take the pitch, an editor sends a commission note setting out the angle, the agreed word range, the deadline and the terms, including payment if the piece is paid. You write the draft and submit it with your sources attached: links, documents, transcripts and any spreadsheet behind your numbers, mapped to the claims they support. Drafts without sources go back unread.

The editor then works on structure and argument, which may mean a revision request rather than line edits — usually one round, occasionally two. A reviewer who did not edit the piece fact-checks it claim by claim and comes back with queries; answering them promptly is part of the commission. The copy desk handles style, headline and subheadings, and we may retitle for clarity, though never to a claim your body does not support. You see the final version before it publishes. We reserve the right not to publish a piece that does not survive fact-checking; where a commission was paid, the agreed terms govern what happens then.

Bios, links and what we do not sell

Every published piece carries your byline and a short bio of roughly 40 words, with your current role and any disclosure a reader needs. The bio may include one do-follow link, to your personal site, your company or a profile of your choosing. That is the whole link policy.

We do not sell links, we do not sell placements dressed as contributions, and we decline guest posts bought for backlinks. This is not a paid-post service. Offers to pay for publication, to insert a client link into an existing article, or of a "content partnership" that amounts to the same thing are declined. If you want commercial exposure on Adsy Media, that is what advertising and sponsored content is for, and it is labelled as such.

Rights and licensing

You keep copyright in what you write. By publishing with us you grant Adsy Media a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to publish, host, edit for style and length, translate, syndicate and promote the piece, including in newsletters and on social channels. We ask for a 30-day exclusivity window, after which you may republish elsewhere provided it credits Adsy Media as the original and links to it. If we want to syndicate your piece, we will ask first.

Payment

Some of what we publish is paid and some is contributed. Rather than quote a rate we might not honour, fees and terms are agreed per commission, in writing, before you begin work, and we say at the commission stage whether the piece is paid and on what basis. If it is unpaid, we tell you up front. We do not ask writers to pay us, and never will.

Response times and where to send it

Pitches go to [email protected] with the working title in the subject line. We aim to reply within ten business days; if you have not heard back by then, a follow-up is welcome. Pitch one idea at a time, and please do not send the same pitch to several addresses. Other routes are on the contact page, and our team explains who handles your piece once it is in.