Thursday 21 May 2020

Bitter Sweet

I'm pleased to have a story in the current issue of The weekly News, but sad this is the peultimate issue. My first ever acceptance letter came from Jill Finlay when she was fiction editor at The weekly News, so it's always been a favourite of mine.

In other news, That's Life! in Australia are no longer publishing new fiction. There's some hope that this may only be temporary.

Stories sent either to Yours, or the fiction special need to be marked to show which publication they're for and something sent for one won't be considered for the other. I'll put more details in another post soon.

10 comments:

ados123 said...

It's a shame That's Life is no longer doing fiction -they used to have a fiction special with a lot of stories and have taken several from me in the past but not recently...
Weekly News - another shame and another market gone.
Please do post about the Yours requirements, Patsy. Their website seems to have taken down the requirements for the fiction magazine.
Many thanks
Alyson

Elizabeth McGinty said...

Congratulations on your story Patsy but it is sad there will be no more The Weekly News.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Definitely bittersweet.

carrie said...

Congrats on having a story in the penultimate issue of The Weekly News, Patsy. I've been lucky enough to have a number of stories published with them, so feel very sad that it will be no more :( Thanks for the updates, and be glad to know more with regards to Yours if they've changed their guidelines.

Jane Bettany said...

Congratulations on your story. It’s sad to see the small number of short story markets dwindling even further. Do you think some of the mags will eventually have a change of heart? We can only live in hope, I suppose!

Sharon Boothroyd said...

I hope, after their story competition, that Best mag will open their doors to a regular fiction slot.
I guess the top dogs at the mags must tell themselves that fiction isn't a popular feature of the women mags, even if that's not the case. Cutting fiction is cost effective too, as the writer's fee no longer has to be considered.
I'd rather have a good quality mag, and pay more, as I enjoy reading the short stories, rather than have cheap celeb gossip drivel.

Anonymous said...

Well done on your story sale, Patsy. I've sold them a few stories, and thought it quite a nice vintage paper. I'm sure a lot of readers will miss the paper, as will us writers. Good wishes Kate Hogan

Chris Sutton said...

So sad to see the demise of Weekly News, it was one of the first publications I ever sold a story to and Jill Finlay was always such a helpful ed to work with. Well done on getting one last story in there before the end, Patsy.

Anyone wanting to enter a story for the Best comp, remember it closes tomorrow - Monday - so be quick!

Kate, I looked again for the TaB's Special with your story yesterday but still came up blank. I'll keep looking, but maybe it would be worth you emailing them to see whether it's upcoming.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Chris. Maybe my story will be in next months TAB Fiction Feast, I was just surprised that they'd paid me when it hasn't been published yet, as they now say they pay on publication. Many thanks for your efforts. Thanks for the reider onthe Best Comp - I've managed to put in an entry! Good luck if you're entering. Good wishes. Kate Hogan

New girl on the block said...

I've got a story coming out in Spirit and Destiny this week, so I'm happy about that. I look forward to getting more info on the situation with Yours. I've had two stories published in their fiction special. They paid me £100 for the first one, but only £50 for the second one. When I queried this, they said that the £100 had been a one-off, as it was their first ever fiction special. I submitted both stories to the main magazine, and they got passed across, but obviously this system is changing.