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Last updated: May 2023

“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.” 
 ― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

We are looking for adulterers. You are out there. Stats say half of ALL people admit to being unfaithful at some point in their lives. I bet it’s higher than that. A lot higher.

Write under a pen name. Own it or don’t. Just be real. Tell your tale.

The Scarlett Letter is Adultery 101. Let’s share how-to stories, the do-nots, and the OMGs on this roller coaster ride of hot steamy extramarital fornication.

If you’re interested in having your work published please:

  1. Title and Subtitle. Have both, each in their proper case. Title Case is mostly all caps, and Subtitle Case is written in Sentence Case (like a sentence), however we’ll accept trailing punctuation as an option. Google these if you need more than that, but they look a lot like the cases used for the title/subtitle above. This title case converter will help you out, https://titlecaseconverter.com
  2. Title Analyzer. This one will score your title and let you play around with variations. I recommend shooting for 70+ https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer.
  3. Picture. Not pictures. Picture. Have a photo with appropriate credited given to the photographer (like the picture above), if you took the picture yourself then add this below your picture→(Photo: Author). Pixabay, Unsplash, Wikicommons have a lot of good pictures, but dig around because everyone tends to use the same ones near the top. Place it below your subtitle.
  4. Length. Stay between 500–900 words. Not more and not less. We are looking for three to five minute reads. Not many people read ones longer than that, so you’d likely be wasting your time anyway.
  5. English. American standard English please. Half our editors are Canadian, however most of the audience is American, and while it is painful to drop the “u” in favor, neighbor and labor etc, you’ll get used to it, I did.
  6. Self Edit.
  • Hemingway Editor. Run your work through Hemingway Editor (free online), and fix the sentences in RED. Usually cutting them in half works. Then try to trim down the number of YELLOW sentences. You can leave YELLOW sentences in, but have a look. We’re not so worried about the adverbs and passive voice, but we would like you to follow recommended numbers (or less).
  • Grammarly. Then run it through Grammarly. Their free online edition is pretty good.
  • Read It Out Loud. Your ear is a better editor than your brain. If you’re lazy like me, have the computer do it. Once I’m done with Grammarly, I return to Hemingway Editor and it’s “speech” function (my Word one is messed up, but Word has it too). Highlight the text you want it to read, right click, then correct as you as you listen.
  • PRO TIP — Editing as Hemingway/Siri/Word reads your work to you. Take small bites and if you make changes, go over the section again and listen to the changes, because fixing one thing may cause an issue somewhere else — TRUST ME.
This is where to find it in Hemingway — Right click, and select speech from the dropdown, and then “Start Speaking.” You’ll be amazed what you hear. (Screen-cap: Author form Hemingway App)
  • Or use any other editor. Unless your story is extraordinary, we may not spend a lot of time editing for you.

6. Adultery Stories Only. Your story has to be about adultery in some form or other. Any angle is fine, and it doesn’t have to be sexy, but it does need to be instructive. It could be your cheating story, or one from someone you know, but it has to be about stepping out.

7. Links at Bottom. If you have stories or other things you’d like people to see, go ahead and add them. Please limit them to two stories and one call to action (CTA). A CTA is where you you ask people to leave Medium and go to another page like a “join my email list,” or “buy my book.”

And example of a linked story —

Adding a story link at the bottom of a story is a good idea to keep them reading your work. It’s usually best to ensure the linked story is relevant in some way to the one they’ve just read. (Screen-cap: Author)

An example of a CTA —

This is a CTA. (Screen-cap: Author)

8. Right to Edit. We will lightly edit your stories. If there’s more, we will leave a private note in a section within the link you provide, so make sure your profile allows acceptance of hidden comments on your work. If you don’t agree with the suggestions, by all means argue your case.

9. Story Tags. Add your five tags, but be sure to include “Adultery” as one of them or we will add it. Of the stories where Medium provides reader preferences “Relationships” and “Sexuality” are the leading two, therefore it is recommended you add those tags as well. “This Happened To Me” is also a popular one, so if your story is real, give it a shot! As I said, “Adultery” is the only tag we insist on —

(Screen-cap: Author)

10. Following Up. Please give us 48 hours before following up by email. Not only are we both cheaters, we’re busy doing other mom/wife/working-woman shit.

11. Withdrawing Published Work. We would like you to keep your work published with us for one year after we put it up. If there’s an issue, please let us know, neither of us are bitches.

12. Unpublished/Previously Published Work. We don’t mind previously published work in our attempt to make this the one-stop shop for all things adultery, but our preference is for original stuff, too. If you publish on your blog and then send it to us, just let us know so we will know how to feature it properly. It takes a little jigging around, otherwise it will get lost because Medium orders work based on the day it was published.

13. Erotica. Send it in your fiction or non-fiction if you have some. The above applies, and be sure to tag “Erotica.” We will consider some especially hot longer stories, but not longer than 5000 words, please.

14. Forbidden. We will not publish nudity in pictures per Medium policy, so no nipples, vaginas or penises svp. We will not publish any writing where a person under the age of 18 is depicted in any sexual situation. Such material is deemed to be child pornography in many jurisdictions and is against the law in both the United States and Canada. So, if the young person in your story is young, as in school aged, you must specifically indicate in writing they are or were 18 years of age or older for the sake of clarity — without exception.

15. Pay Wall. Please be behind Medium’s metered paywall. You might earn a penny or two. We know we can’t even buy a candy bar from writing, but whatever.

16. Subscribe to The Scarlett Letter! Keep our heathen illicit empire growing, lol.

How to Write For Us. Send an email to monalisalady0@gmail.com or Teresa@tjconwayauthor.com and one of us will get back to you. The email subject line should read:

“Submission: Then the Title of Your Article.”

Or, instead of, “Then the Title of Your Article” write the actual title of your article after the word submission.

Add your Medium @handle so we can check you out, and link your most read article if you’ve written one. If you don’t have any articles because you’re a smart cheater and are using a throwaway account, that’s cool too.

Your stories will make The Scarlett Letter notorious in the best way possible and make Hawthorne roll over in his grave.

Thank you,

Mona and Teresa