Any market news? Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Still waiting to hear back on outstanding submissions? Do you have a question? Can you offer tips or encouragement to other writers?
Any other writing related news, questions and comments are also welcome.
Feel free to use these photos as picture prompts. If you'd like written writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.
Don't forget to check the submissions database for details of which magazines publish fiction under what terms, and how to submit.
Other markets news
Anyone write fantasy short stories? If so, you may be interested in this call for submissions. Payment is £25, or possibly £50.
Free entry competition news
Here's a competition for micro fiction, which offers a €750 prize.
This competition has a prize of £1,000. It's for detective fiction between 15,000 and 20,000 words. No fat shaming allowed (why would anyone do that?)
Thanks to Fiona for passing on this –
This year's Love the Words competition is open and your entry (or further
entry) is warmly encouraged!
As ever, the comp is free to enter, and is part of International Dylan
Thomas Day. Any age of writer may take part, and there are some wonderful
book prizes for winners courtesy of Parthian Books and Infinity Books UK.
This year's theme is 'dream', inspired by Thomas's Under Milk Wood, the
famous 'play for voices' which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.
Find out more about the competition and how to enter:
https://www.discoverdylanthomas.com/portfolio-items/love-the-words-poetry-competition-2023-online
Thank you to everyone for your comments. As well as allowing us all to share information, help and encourage each other, comments also show editors, competition organisers and others that the blog is read and will therefore be more likely to provide information for me to share with you.
21 comments:
Hi Patsy,
Thanks for all the competition info and for keeping us updated.
Well I sent off my Christmas story to PF and asked about my two summer stories, but no reply yet.
You might remember last year I won the Nottingham Writers’ Studio George Floyd competition you listed here. I’m reading at the launch of the anthology, Earth 2.0, in two weeks time.
Unfortunately, the front cover designer decided my name (Fiona Ritchie Walker) was too long, so cut it to Fiona Walker, which changed me to the best-selling novelist (without the fame and royalties!) I use my middle name to try to avoid this confusion!
They were very apologetic and said if they sell enough copies and reprint they’ll correct it.
Wondering if anyone else has had this happen - I needed a lot of tea and cake when I opened the parcel!
Thanks for all the info Patsy. I look forward to the Sat when there is a new blog post (much better than cake or even chocolate). I've sent off a few stories recently so I'm feeling pleased with myself for achieving that much. I have a short story in this week's Ireland's Own & based on recent info I hottailed out to buy a copy & not rely on receiving the usual complimentary copy, just in case.
I too have submitted a Christmas story to the peoples friend but wasn't entirely sure who to send it to now Abbie is gone.
Congrats on your story in anthology Fiona. The nearest I came to that situation was of my own making, it was in the Bridgehouse Evergreen anthology last year. When I completed the application form with my submission I filled in M.T. for middle names & I found myself listed as Sheelagh M. T. Mooney but actually it was picked up in the edits & deleted & they were really nice about it. Happily so as I was then able to give a copy of the book to some friends without them thinking that all this writing had gone to my head & that I now wanted to be referred to as Sheelagh M. T. Mooney!!
Thanks for the updates, Patsy. In case it's of interest, The Fiction Desk's latest short story comp ends on May 31st: https://www.thefictiondesk.com/submissions/short-story-submission-guidelines.php
I was thrilled to have a story accepted for September's Yours Yearbook - I think I'm joining Michael from a couple of weeks ago?
A while ago, I asked if anyone was able to shed any light on cataloguing their stories. What I decided I would try to do - my current project: I already have a spreadsheet of submissions, dates, progress, etc...,. I re-did it to include story titles and a one-liner aide memoire about the content. I know there is a lot more I COULD do... word count being an obvious. I also know it might be completely unwieldy for some of the people on this blog who have thousands! If I was Very Clever (and I'm not!) I could put some of that information in a database format, a bit like you tag important words, Patsy? Anyway, maybe for another time. It's a WIP at the moment but at least half way!
Thank you for all the updates, Patsy. The fantasy looks good - I will look-see if any fit the bill :) As for the initials, the more the better! JRR Tolkein... JK... and George RR ... there must be something in it! ;)
I love the idea of Dylan Day, and will try to send in an entry, although I don't think anything I write will do justice to Dylan Thomas!
Following on from the blog post about ALCS, I've been in touch with them, and I'll share the information they gave me in case anybody else is in a similar position to me. I have had very few stories published, and in some cases, the magazines take all rights. I spoke to a very helpful person at ALCS who told me that in this case, I need to contact the magazine publishers and ask for their permission to claim secondary royalties through ALCS. I won't name the publishers, but one replied that they were very happy for me to do this, another said that the publisher didn't comment, but claiming via ALCS is recommended. The third has yet to reply. Based on this information, and the fact that ALCS takes no fee from writers until they pay out, I have decided I have nothing to lose, so I have signed up and claimed for stories published since 2020 in the first two magazines (holding fire on the third one until I hear back from them). I suspect I'll earn nothing at all, but I thought I'd just test the waters.
Thanks for keeping us updated, Patsy. And congratulations on the acceptance, Marguerite. I’ve just had a story that was in Woman’s Weekly in February republished in this months BOWW special. Helps to keep the momentum going in between publications. I currently have several stories out with Yours Fiction and one with BOWW. Fingers are crossed for those. I started writing a new story two weeks ago, then realised I didn’t have the ending anywhere near right. So I put it to one side to let it ‘simmer’. And it seems to be working. Might leave it for another week before going back to it with a fresh pair of eyes.
Michael Donoghue
Thanks for the competitions, Patsy and those that contributed. Nothing I fancy this week but I'm still working on a climate change story at the moment.
Very little other news. I have stories out all over the place but am not hearing back from anyone :(
Meanwhile the sun is shining so I'm out in the garden working and thinking...
Alyson
Congratulations to Marguerite, that's a nice coup & to Michael re BOWW reprint but how did you know it was in it, did they let you know? I buy the Womans Weekly (& the People's Friend) every week as I enjoy reading the stories (research purposes, you know..ha) but that means I have usually read most of the stories that are in the BOWW! Hopefully that will change now with more new stories appearing there.
@ Marguerite re database of stories, you are light years ahead of me there. Re the initials thing I never looked on it that way, could add a bit of mystique!
@Sheelagh, I buy the BOWW every month. But I did buy a couple of the recent weeklies which had bumper fiction inside (including the edition with my own story). I noticed that the March edition of BOWW had reprinted several stories from Jan/Feb, so I guessed that mine would be reprinted at some point in the near future.
Michael Donoghue
Thanks Michael that's interesting, will have to keep an eye out
Many thanks for the news, Patsy. My news is that I managed to send off my Christmas story to The People's Friend this week. I have a few other stories out for consideration, but I did get an acceptance from Woman's Weekly. However, as it's not a guarantee, I'm not assuming anything at all about that one. Thank you to Maisie for sharing the update about ALCS.
Thanks, Patsy, for another blog-post full of interest. Congratulations to everyone who has had successes with womags and competitions. My writing 'tip', if it even is one, is to keep your story antennae up at all times. When I was a child, and there were many publications paying decent money for readers' letters, my lovely dad wrote A LOT of letters, with much success. I remember him moving through the world murmuring 'There's a letter in that', as he was always on the look-out for letter ideas. These days, I find myself murmuring inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) 'There's a story in that'. And very often there is! Best wishes to Patsy and all who read this blog. I hope you are enjoying your writing.
Thanks, Patsy, and congratulations to everyone on wins and acceptances.
Interesting update on secondary royalties/ALCS, thanks, Maisie.
I’ve been working on a couple of short stories but — to borrow Michael’s phrase – am leaving them to ‘simmer’ and read afresh before submitting.
I love Eirin’s tip about always being on the lookout for stories.
HB
Hi Patsy, thank you for all the info.
Congratulations to all those who have had publication success. Well done Maisie for contacting ALCS hopefully it will be worthwhile.
I have a few stories out on submission and am looking forward to publication of my new Linford Romance, An Italian Connection being published by Ulverscroft on 1st May, this was originally a PF Pocket Novel.
I love this blog for all the bits and pieces it throws up, writing tips, using initials or full names it's great to read about everyone's experiences. Best wishes to all.
@ Fiona – Oh, what a shame about your name. I've not had mine incorrectly printed, but a couple of times it has been missing in magazines. Almost having it on the cover, but not quite as it appears that a different writer is credited seems a lot worse than that.
@ Sheelagh – I'd happily accept cake in exchange for not writing a blog post! It's as well that's not an option as my hiking trousers are already snug.
I've heard back from Sean at IO and complimentary copies are still being sent out. It's a mystery why I didn't get mine, but he's going to send them again if they have spares.
@ Rosemary _ Thanks. I'll put that, and any other links and info which comes up, in a 'From You' post next week.
@ Marguerite - Congratulations on the acceptance.
I have a spreadsheet for all my submissions. I don't find it unwieldy, but I used to have a job which involved very complicated linked spreadsheets (couldn't do it now.) I include my title, where it was sent and when, when acknowledged if it is, result and the date, date of publication and the title if different, when ALCS applied for if appropriate, when I've invoiced if I have, the payment and dates received, word count, and I have a column for notes in case there's anything else I think I'll want to remember. It's colour coded - but not with as much purple as you might think!
@ Maisie – I Think it will prove to be worthwhile. In case you didn't know, you can also claim ALCS on things like letters to the editor or handy tips – it doesn't need to be 'proper' articles or stories.
I suggest keeping a copy of any responses from publishers or editors, just in case there's ever a query.
@ Michael – I have a whole file of stories with no ending (or start, or plot etc) I add to it often, and sometimes go through it and find one I can complete and send out. (I say 'fester' instead of 'simmer' though.)
@ Alyson – responses seem on the slow side almost everywhere at the moment. I hope we both get good news soon.
@ Marian – The WW acceptances which don't guarantee publication must be a bit frustrating, but at least you know the story is good enough to be published even if that doesn't actually happen.
@ Eirin – Good tip. The more we look for inspiration, the more we find.
I used to write lots of letters and tips, especially when I first started. It was a big boost to get paid for a few words, even if my actual stories were mostly getting rejected. That probably helped me look for the writing potential in different situations.
@ HB – I think it's a good idea to leave stories a little while before sending them. It's amazing how often we'll spot a typo, think of an extra little twist, or see a better way to phrase something.
@ Elizabeth – Congratulations on the publication by Ulverscroft. Hopefully you'll get to see your book on the library shelves.
@ Michael thanks for tip off re reprints in BOWW, I had a peak at a copy of contents today to find that my Feb story was also in the latest BOWW so I bought myself a copy. And there are 5 new stories to read as well.
I see that sadly,writers'forum mag is to cease production. The current issue sent out is the very last. This has come out of the blue so it's a huge and sudden blow.
@ Sharon – That's very sudden! I suspect that many magazines are struggling to make a profit, because many of their readers are struggling to afford to subscribe or buy copies.
A new publisher has taken over apparently but WF is to cease trading. I feel for all the freelance writers who wrote for the mag. I think it had plenty of subscribers but it probably didn't make a big enough profit to keep it going. I'll miss it, as it was my monthly treat.
Oh that's a shame about Writers' Forum, Sharon - I subscribed until quite recently and hadn't heard it was ceasing!
Hi Patsy!
Thanks for the links to competitions. I've been sending them out!
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