good experience with xoJane

Congratulations! Glad to hear it went smoothly for you. I think they're exceptional with regards to how they handle freelancers; the only negatives I've heard have been about the community of commenters.

Yeah, that's their standard rate, unfortunately. I've heard they can go up to $100 or so depending on the length of the piece, but that may be an outdated bit of information. I'm pretty sure they're always accepting pitches, and Mandy even wrote a "how-to" guide once.