Sunday, 17 July 2022

Over To You

 

Womag news

Do you have any womag news?

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Any other news?

Feel free to use the as a picture prompt. If you'd like other writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

Free entry writing competition news

I'd love to hear your competition news.

Do you have writing tips to share, questions to ask, or suggestions for this blog?

29 comments:

Sharon boothroyd said...

We're in July now, and the YOU mag fiction window is still closed.
Does anyone know what's happening there?
I'd be interested to find out if anyone has entered the TPF or the MW story competitions.
In the MW comp, the vague term 'entrants must not be published' isn't very clear.
Not published in what area, exactly?
What if you've had non- fiction published?
Their T&C's don't explain this very well - in fact, it's not explained at all.
In the TPF comp, all the entries belong to TPF, so they can do what they like with them - even re-draft the stories and publish them using pen names, if they fancy it.
If an entrant recognises their story in the mag, 2- 3 years down the line, there's not a damn thing they can do about it!

Julie Day said...

I had a SF story rejected by a magazine, but still have four out to others, and two to competitions so there's still hope. Finalising another for an anthology. Had a letter in Writing Magazine. Tip is to not give up and find other markets that don't take all rights.

Bubble said...

I'm trying to get covers sorted out for 3 books I want to self-publish. Totally uncreative and it's so expensive to get someone to do it for you.

S

Anonymous said...

Gosh, surely MW mean that 'entries must not be published', though wouldn't that read 'must not have been published'? Another conundrum! I'm trying to write a story for PF but not doing very well - it's so hot I keep dozing off over the computer!
Julia P

Anonymous said...

I had a rejection from WW, but an acceptance from Yours Fiction to be published in their September issue, which I’m pleased about. I still have stories out with both WW and YF, and I’m busy tweaking a few others.
Michael D

Sheelagh said...

Well done to anyone who manages to write in the intense heat, I'm using all my free time to work in the garden, it's not quite so hot here though. On the writing front I have 3 stories out there for consideration & an entry to the Green stories competition & that's it for now which is a vast improvement on last month when I had none! Congrats Michael on the Yours Fiction acceptance, will buy the September issue

:-) Lexi said...

I had a story in the July issue of Yours Fiction and another published in August's Your Cat - which has been nice after a very quiet period! I have a few submissions still out there... fingers crossed. Does anyone have advice on whether Ireland's Own take a long time to send rejections? or if they send them at all?
I've not entered the comps so far...but will take a look at the rules.
Hoping to get some words polished during the upcoming heatwave, but we'll see.
Good luck to all.

Sharon boothroyd said...

Ireland's own don't give out rejections so asume it's a no after 3 months.

Lindsay said...

Well done to all those who have had stories published lately. Nothing for me. No competition placements either. One in which I had hopes of at least hitting the longlist haven't published a longlist, just a short shortlist - nil. I need to earn some money to pay for future entries! Feeling a bit disheartened.

Marguerite said...

Still plugging away at sending to WW (even though the rights issue is there - cos I don't seem to be remotely matching PF criteria). As if to prove the point ;) working on a spooky for Crowvus - ghost story for Christmas by end of September, small fee. Well done those who have had acceptances :)

Liz said...

I'm mostly focused on features at the moment, though I am still writing and submitting the occasional short story. Waiting times for short stories are very protracted at the moment, so I'm glad I really enjoy writing features as well. I have a long crime read bubbling away that I'm not fully on top of research-wise yet, so hoping I can finish that in the not-too-distant future.

New girl on the block said...

Lexi... interested to hear that Your Cat publish fiction. I've done pieces for them in the past, but not stories. Do you have the contact details please?

Eirin Thompson said...

Highly delighted to have had a Christmas story accepted. Congrats to all those who have had recent successes. To those who are currently disappointed - please don't give up; we're all with you. Thanks, as always, Patsy, for facilitating chat.

New girl on the block said...

Me again.... just had an email ifrom Andrew Shaw at WW to say that one of my stories is suitable, but they have no place in the schedules at the moment. They'll let me know if one comes up, but in the meantime feel free to submit elsewhere. A sort of semi-acceptance, I guess!

Anonymous said...

Congrats those who have had acceptances, I have a story coming out in WW mag in August - which I’m happy about and just had another acceptance from them today for another story, got stories out there with YF but just a waiting game and given up hope with PF - too picky. Charlie.

Sharon boothroyd said...

What the heck's YF?
I've subbed most of my Xmas/ New year stories now.
Rejects from WW - I think a semi acceptance is better than an outright no.
Best mag has a current comp - a Halloween theme max 1, 200 words- it's free enter and writers keep copyright.
Has anyone had an acceptances with Stylist mag? I keep subbing but I'm getting nowhere fast. I'm not even sure if they want commercial fiction.

Patsy said...

@ Sharon – I'll try to find out about YOU.

I can't enter the MW one as I have been published - would have if I could. Definitely not interested in giving up all my rights simply to enter a competition, so that's TPF one out (and Prima).

You're right, if we give up all the rights to our stories they might be used in any way, at any time, with or without changes. Or never used at all. Either way, as you say, it's completely out of our hands. We may as well never have written it.

Thanks for passing on info and answering people's questions.

@ Julie - Bad luck on the rejection. It's sensible to try to always have stuff out, so you still have hope.

@ Bubble – Have you thought of marrying a photographer? That worked for me! (I've also paid to have covers designed and you're right that it's expensive.)

@ Julia P - They do make clear they want unpublished authors. What's less clear is if they just mean those who've not had fiction commercially published, or if it's all publishing of any kind such as having a letter in the local paper or something in the school newsletter 40 plus years ago.

@ Michael – Well done on the acceptance!

@ Sheelagh – Well done for having stuff out there. You're right that it seems harder in the heat.

@ Lexi - well done for the publications.

As Sharon says, IO no longer send rejections. I wish they, and all other mags who don't routinely send rejection emails, would give a definite cut off period after which we could assume our story is rejected and submit it elsewhere.

@ Lindsay – Sorry you're feeling disheartened. It's so frustrating to get no kind of response at all, isn't it?

@ Marguerite – Good luck with the competition.

Patsy said...

@ Liz – Yes, the waiting times are very long. Good idea to write other things too.

Good luck with the crime!

@ New Girl – The guidelines for Your Cat, and every other magazine which takes womag type stories that I'm aware of, are in my submissions database. There's a link at the top of the page, or you can copy this in – https://womagwriter.blogspot.com/p/magazine-guidelines_11.html

Sort of congratulations for the sort of acceptance!

@ Eirin – Well done for the Christmas story.

@ Charlie – Well done for the acceptances.

I think all the mags can afford to be very picky as, between us all, we write far more than they can publish.

@ Sharon – Yours Fiction?

I've never had a reply from Stylist and don't know of anyone who has.

Marian said...

I haven't heard anything about my stories lately, but I'm so pleased to hear everyone else's news. Congratulations to those who have had acceptances.

Sheelagh said...

It says on Ireland's Own website that if you haven't heard from them in 3 weeks it hasn't met their editorial requirements, that said I have had acceptances couple of months after submission

Anonymous said...

Yours fiction

ados123 said...

Thank you as ever for all the womag news and the updates to the data base. I use it often. Lots of stories with TPF - not much else out at the moment. Everything is soooo slow...
Alyson

Patsy said...

@ Marian – Hope you get some good news soon.

@ Sheelagh – I've always assumed the three weeks only applied to articles, although I don't know why. Wouldn't it be great if we always knew if it was a yes or a no within such a short time?

@ Alyson – Yep, very slow. I'm finding it really disheartening to keep sending stuff out and not hear back.

Alexis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lexi said...

@New Girl on the block. To submit fiction to them, I just used a generic email address which I found inside the magazine.

Kathrin Spinnler said...

My first womag story is coming out in WW in August. But just had a rejection from them today.

Also, I submitted to Green Prints Magazine, and they bought my story and only took First North American Rights. Not sure when it will be published, though. Many thanks to the commenter on here who wrote about this magazine a few months back.

Patsy said...

@ Kathrin – Well done!

Sheelagh said...

@Kathryn re GreenPrints info, you are welcome & congratulations on having a piece accepted & on WW story next month

Anonymous said...

Well done on the story sales, Patsy. Well done for helping us allwith your information and advice, too. Good wishes Kate Hogan