Sunday 28 April 2019

Bits of news and stuff

Thanks so much to those people who've passed on information, asked questions, or made suggestions, as comments to recent posts. It was also lovely to see people answering questions others had asked and offering encouragement. 

Here's a quick news summary, along with some stuff from me.

Your Cat magazine seem to be buying true cat stories and fillers at the moment (thanks New Girl on the block). I believe they have enough fiction, so any submitted there will have a long wait before publication (and you'd be required to give up copyright).

The People's Friend editor would like 'event-specific' stories, such as Christmas, Valentine's, Mother's Day etc. (Thanks, Beatrice) This is a market which anyone can submit to, regardless of whether or not you've been published before. They don't take all rights.

37,000 word cosy crime novels are wanted for The People's Friend pocket novels (thanks, Sharon Boothroyd.) Anyone may submit one of these.

Woman's World in the U.S. want fourth of July stories. These need to be submitted by 2nd May (which gives you some idea of how far in advance you'd need to submit any other seasonal stories to them.) (Thanks, Carrie) Anyone may submit to this market. Pay is great, competition fierce. I think they require all rights – can anyone confirm or deny that?

Some blog readers have asked for more information on pocket novels. This isn't something I know a lot about so I've persuaded a lovely friend who does, to do a guest post on the subject. Do you any specific questions for Susan Jones?

The automatic acknowledgement system at My Weekly is now working (thanks J.S. and Fancypants) so if you've submitted and not got one, it might be an idea to try again. This market is still closed to new writers.

Love Sunday are still open to submissions. (Thanks Jenny Worstall) This is a non paying market, but it does have a large readership and they'll include a very short for a book, website etc if you ask.

Some people are unsure of which magazines acknowledge submissions, how and when they respond and what to do if they don't hear back. I'll be doing blog posts on these things in the near future. 



No one asked about this, but I'll tell you anyway – I'm the People's Friend writer of the week, and Keep It In The Family, a collection of 25 of my short stories, most of which have previously been published in womags around the world, is currently reduced to 99p (99c)

Thank you for all the recent comments! 

Apologies if I missed anything or anyone. If I've got anything wrong, or you have more information to add, please do say.

Friday 26 April 2019

I need help

Thanks to the dozen or so people who responded to the last post saying you find this blog useful and wish it to continue. I want that too, but I simply can't do it alone.

You're probably familiar with the writing advice to show rather than tell – that applies here. If you value the Womagwriter blog, please show your support for it by sharing information. If we pooled our knowledge this really would become a valuable resource. You can contribute by leaving a comment, either on my monthly posts requesting such information, or by adding your experiences or anything you've learnt, to any other post.

Click here if you're not sure how to leave a comment.

Examples of useful information are –

* Details of what editors are looking for, e.g. particular story lengths, genres or themes. You might learn that from feedback on your own work, or their websites, social media etc.

* Reasons given for rejection and how long after submission these are sent.

* The types and lengths of stories being accepted and how long after submission this takes.

* Any 'big' news about market changes is also welcome. Especially if it's positive! (I'm an optimist at heart.)

Should you be willing to share how a particular story came to be published, your first success, or pass on writing tips and encouragement these might be better as a guest post (which needn't be long or formal). If you'd like to do that, please contact me. It's fine to put this sort of thing in a comment if you'd rather.

If any editors, or anyone else involved in producing womags would like to contribute a guest post, sharing any insights, news or tips relating to the industry I'd be delighted to host you.

I'd also find it helpful to know what sort of posts are useful and/or of interest. When one receives no, or very few, comments I can only assume it's not something you want to read about and it's therefore not worth making a similar post. A comment showing either that you did appreciate the post (my own or guest posts) or saying what you would like to hear about would help me get that right.

Sorry this was a long post (not too whiny I hope!). Are you still with me? Do you have any news you're willing to share? 

Monday 22 April 2019

Over to you

Here's a random photo for use as a story prompt. (If anyone writes, or even better sells, a story inspired by one of my photos, please let me know.)

This month's discussion topic – What have you been up to writing wise recently? 

One thing I've done is to introduce a new feature on my other blog – the Friday Freebie. Each time it runs there's a chance to win a paperback, just by leaving a comment (one of mine is currently featured). There will also often be links to free ebooks. As well as offering free reads, this is an opportunity for writing friends to promote their books.

Talking of which No Family Secrets is on special offer at 99p/99c.
It includes 25 family related feel good stories, most of which have been previously published in womags around the world.

Please comment on the discussion topic, share success (or otherwise!) report any womag news, tips, advice you may have, make womag related comments or observations and ask questions – and answer them too if you can help.


Without your input, via comments on here, by sending me news, or offering appropriate guests posts, this blog won't continue.

Thursday 11 April 2019

My Weekly's new system.

There's a new email address for subbing fiction to My Weekly. If you're one of those who are permitted to send work you should have been notified of this – contact the fiction editor on the old address if not. (I'm not putting it here because that will result in subs and queries from those not on the list and defeat the purpose of this change.)

The idea is that submissions will be acknowledged automatically, saving Karen time. Unfortunately there's a technical glitch with that aspect at the moment. Hopefully it'll be sorted soon. The stories are still getting through though and you should hear back in the usual way.

Update – I've been told the same issue currently applies to subs to The Weekly News too. 

Tuesday 9 April 2019

Price promotion

A new collection containing 25 of my family themed short stories will be available soon. I've already published three and these will each be on price promotion for a few days.

The first to go is Keep It In The Family, which is currently on sale for 99p/99c. 

One result of the shrinking womag market is that I have more time to spend on putting these collections together – and for working on novels. How's that for looking on the bright side?