Friday 7 August 2020

Woman's Way guidelines

Here are the latest guidelines for Woman's Way. This Irish publication don't pay for the stories they publish. Personally I don't think it's fair that readers pay for the magazine, yet none of that money reaches the writers. I'm including the guidelines here because my aim is to provide as much information for writers as possible, and allow them to decide what they want to do.

Woman’s Way Fiction submission guidelines
·         We only accept stories via email and we cannot accept stories by post
·         Stories must be previously unpublished. 
·         We will not accept poetry, scripts or an opinion piece
·         Stories will not be considered if they are offensive to gender, sexuality, religion or race.
·         We will not consider stories that contain unnecessary or graphic violence or language
·         We will not accept serialized stories – the story must stand on its own
·         Word count: One page stories of a maximum of 800 words
·         All stories must be in English
·         Stories may edited to Woman’s Way’s house style
·         Woman’s Way will not enter into any discussion on stories that are not chosen for publication

By sending Woman’s Way a story you are agreeing that:
•              You are the original creator of the work submitted   
•              You are the copyright holder of the work

We currently have stories as far as January 2021.

I've added more to the womag information on my website, do let me know if you have suggestions for improvement, or if you know of other publications which could be included.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No payment at all? - not even a token few bob??

How on earth can they/do they justify that?

Louby Lou

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Not fair if their regular contributors get paid.

Patsy said...

@ Louby Lou – No, nothing at all. A token payment or reward of some kind (subscription?) would be a lot better than nothing, wouldn't it?

@ Alex – I'm sure the editor and printer get paid. Not sure why they feel the magazine is of value when the content isn't.

Sharon boothroyd said...

The only way you can clear this non- payment policy up is to contact the editor and ask.
I expect there's no allocated budget for fiction writers. The big clue is in their headings - 'Reader fiction.'
It's the writer's choice to submit or not. The ed of W way is probably completely unaware that you've featured W Way here.
Love Sunday also don't pay anything at all, and the story must be 1, 500 words exactly.
If it isn't, it's thrown out instantly, with a sharp retort thrown in for good measure.
Quite often,L Sunday don't give a decision until 3- 4 months later, despite promises to read the story soon. I've been forced to politely chase.
I've had 2 stories published there.
The first included a plug for our charity e- book - the next story didn't include it, even though this was supposed to be part of the deal.
So for me, with the recent experience of this year, it's not worth the hassle.
I feel I've been treated pretty shoddily by Love Sunday. I have the distinct impression that they are doing you a fantastic favour.

Sharon boothroyd said...

Just to add - on your mag database on your website, you state that Love Sunday don't forget the include a plug for the book... in my experience, they do forget.
Our e- book raises money for a charity.
Not to include it, when I'd provided all the info, plus a book cover image, I feel, was pretty uncharitable myself, but there you go.

Patsy said...

@ Sharon – It's extremely unfair to agree to mention your book, and then not do so. If it was an oversight, they should put it right in another issue.

I've tried to make the situation clearer on the website, as I'd meant they do it if they don't forget, rather than they never forget.

Jenny Worstall said...

Heard today from Woman's Way they are no longer taking fiction. Another opportunity for USM lost...