Market Profile: It's Complicated Dot Vet!

Launched in September 2016, the website Itscomplicated.vet regularly features first- and third-person essays; poetry; and other writing and artwork that push beyond expected stereotypes of military veterans and family members. It is a paying market. Guidelines do not specify whether or not editors will accept previously published work. Editors prefer to work via electronic query.

"Mainstream media often portray veterans and their families in two categories: as heroes or as victims," write the website's editors. "Itscomplicated.vet is here to complicate that narrative. We are a blogging platform dedicated to uplifting nuanced, diverse, and honest stories from veterans and their families."

The project is underwritten by Service Together, an outreach program of the New York City-based 501(c)3 non-profit Intersections International. The relationship allows ItsComplicated.Vet to offer contributors an unspecified "modest stipend" upon publication.

Elsewhere on the site, the editors note that "opinions expressed on itscomplicated.vet are solely those of the individual bloggers and not those of Service Together or Intersections International. They are varied, provocative, and sometimes contradictory because #itscomplicated."

Editorial pitches and queries are welcome via a website form here.

Editors break website content into three categories:

• The Divide: Essays, poetry, and art about the gaps in understanding between civilians and military.

• Current events: Opinion essays about happenings and events around the world.

• It's Complicated: Essays, poetry, and art that complicate the veterans reintegration narrative beyond stereotypes and clichés.