Hi Patsy,
I hope all's well with you! I am writing on behalf of Ulverscroft Ltd, a specialist large print publisher.
I saw the sad news regarding AI use in Fiction Feast, which led me to your blog, and it concerned me that this will leave less space for womag writers and their creativity.
At Ulverscroft, I acquire rights for a large print list - Linford Romance (Linro), which publishes shorter romances (typically 25-60k words). I was wondering whether yourself or other womag writers would be interested in publishing with us? I realise that the Fiction Feast stories tend to be shorter than the typical Linro length, but if you have something slightly longer that wouldn’t fit the magazine submission guidelines, that could work really well.
Please feel free to share this with your peers, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Very best wishes,
Ceri
Ceri Jones
Publishing Executive - Large Print Lead
Ulverscroft Ltd
If you wish to submit something, you can send a pdf or Word document, saying you saw the info on this blog, to editorial@ulverscroft.co.uk
As a guide to the style, they often use MW and TPF pocket novels, although Ceri told me she can consider titles with 'a bit of spice'. They pay royalties only, with no advance. Their books are often available in libraries, so plr payments are a possibility.
The photos are all from my garden this week. Some plants are suffering, but these have coped with very little water, including none at all for the 15c days I was in France earlier this month.
AI news
I seriously hope this isn't going to be a regular blog section, but I thought you might be interested to know that a BIG name has got involved with the Take a Break Fiction Feast issue. (alternative link)
Sorry, I hadn't realised that you can't see this without an Instagram account. Short version - TABFF are replacing ALL writers with LLM (AI) and this is pretty rotten as they're a big magazine and don't pay writers much anyway. Richard says 'It's crazy'. I think some of their info is out of date (they pay 'low hundreds' per story - I wish!) and they may have confused TAB FF with the weekly mag.
Womag news
Sharon tells me there will be a September issue of TABFF. Neither of us have heard of anyone being asked to submit work. Have you?
Free entry writing competitions
Thanks to Sharon for this competition for empathy boosting stories of up to 550 words. You can submit poetry or prose, in written, video or audio formats.
This competition is for horror novellas of up to 40,000 words. The prize is $300 plus royalties.
Other publication opportunities
Untold Tales of the Round Table want Arthurian stories, without Merlin as the central character, for an anthology. 4,000 - 10,000 words. Payment is per word.
27 comments:
That is good news, Patsy. It's something to work towards for me, exploring larger word counts. Thank you, Sharon and Patsy for the opportunities. I'm always after horror! Gradually losing my imposter syndrome when I see my issue buddies for BOWW are Sheelagh (a new one, so she'll know) and you, Patsy (Towel Day).
Wel done to all with positive news.
I haven't had any, and I haven't had any for months! I'm still sending things out and entering comps, though. Ploughing on.
Thank for all the info. I have a novella that may suit the large print people but there's no 'spice' in it.
I can't see who the big name is re: F F, as I'm not on Instagram, so the link won't open. Can anyone tell me who it is, please?
I see there are another 10 AI assisted stories in the August issue of FF.
It's great news that Ulverscroft will look at other novels. They've taken a couple of my pocket novels in the past but for those wanting to submit I've found they are heavy on the romance and weren't keen on my crime pocket novel nor the saga which both only had a romance element.
Alyson
@Sharon - it's Richard Osman and Marina Hyde on a podcast called The Rest is Entertainment. You can find it on Spotify too and don't need a subscription but you'll get adverts.
Alyson
@ Marguerite – Good luck if you give it a go.
Congrats on BOWW. It's great we're issue buddies and thanks for letting me know I'm in.
@ Sharon – Oh, I hadn't realised you needed an Instagram account to see it. I've added a screenshot. He says 'it's crazy' that they're doing this.
Re the large print, spice isn't required. Most of their titles don't have any.
@ Alyson – Yes, I got the impression they want romances only, not other genres with a romantic subplot.
Screenshot and summary of the piece on AI now added, who can't see the whole (very short) interview via the link.
Thank you Patsy and Sharon for the information, great that BIG names are making their feelings known re AI.
BOWW - congratulations Marguerite, Sheelagh and Patsy!
Love the photos of your healthy looking plants, Patsy, unfortunately quite a few in our garden have been scorched. ☹
Dee
I don't write romance, but this is great news for those who do. It's a good range in terms of word count.
I saw the Richard Osman/Marina Hyde segment on Insta this morning. It's good that more attention is being drawn to this issue.
I had a couple of recent TPF acceptances, and also received the layout proofs of my upcoming convict constable short story collection. I'm currently deep in research for new stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipTg7nuSWHc about 18 mins in. Osman/Hyde
@ Dee - Quite a lot of mine are suffering from the drought. I tried to focus on those doing OK.
@ Liz - Well done for the acceptances and good luck with the research.
@ Anonymous. Thanks. I'll add that to the post as an alternative link.
I don't quite understand where Richard Osman has got this wrong information from. As far as I'm aware, Bauer haven't replaced all their writers with Al at all. Unless someone on here knows different?
Or unless Bauer have told Richard Osman different to their writers?
So it's fake news, as is the gossip that their writers are being paid 'hundreds.'
It just goes to show how the media can spread false stories about.
People ought to check out the facts first, before stating what they've heard online. There could be legal aspect to this later down the line.
I'd like to point out that the July and August issues of FF held exactly the same paid slots as usual from human writers, so I don't see how they have replaced all their writers with AI.
The 10 A I assisted stories were added in.
It's not an ideal situation I agree, but Bauer did explain that it was a trial.
As long as the mag keeps going, theres a good chance of it continuing to pay writers.
If anyone has heard from Bauer stating officially they are replacing all of their their writers with AI produced work, then please post that here.
They told everybody not to send in work, and they work around six months ahead, so what does the future honestly look like?
I don't know what the future looks like anon, but I refuse to jump to conclusions.
They could decide to use re- prints instead of Al stories, maybe?
I repeat - if anyone has heard from Bauer that they officially intend to replace ALL of their FF writers with AI assisted stories, please post it here.
Unless anyone can prove clearly that this is actually the case, it's just fake news.
When fake news is spread online, there could be legal issues connected to it.
@ Sharon - We used to be paid a lot more than is currently the case. As our contracts and payment info is supposed to be confidential, it would be difficult for anyone not published by them to know the current rates. It's not fake news or gossip, just out of date.
@ Sharon - That was in reference to those by the fiction team. Nobody is suggesting the named authors used AI.
Bauer haven't told us writers that they're only going to use AI in future. That doesn't mean they haven't made a decision, which might be known to others. I very much hope that what was said in the interview about them only using AI stories in future is wrong, but we don't yet know what Bauer intend, so don't know whether or not that's the case.
Thank you, Patsy and Sharon for the info. I agree that it’s good to see big names getting involved in this AI debate. And congratulations to Patsy, Marguerite and Sheelagh for your BOWW successes. (I submitted a late summer story to April about a month ago when it was mentioned that she was looking for such stories on this blog. So far, I’ve heard nothing, probably never will.)
No other news to report. Have several pieces of work out with WW atm. A Halloween one has unfortunately just passed its sixteen week deadline, so that’s a no go.
I like the plants, Patsy. Already having to replace some of mine that have dried up and died. Regular watering of my garden (my area isn’t under a hosepipe ban) doesn’t seem to be helping much.
Michael
That's good news re Ulverscroft, I don't have anything with that sort of word count but its definitely nice to hear some good news for those that do & who knows maybe I will try something longer in the future. Thanks to all for letting me know about BOWW, I only sent it in on 9th July with another (obviously unsuccessful one) in response to the call out so was very surprised & delighted by the speed of the response, payment & publication, 3 weeks in total, amazing. Well done to Patsy & Marguerite ( or Margret or Vivienne....lol).
On the plants front I don't water anything unless its in a pot, they must adapt or die I'm afraid!
Thank you for sharing the news about Ulverscroft, Patsy, it's good to hear something positive. Good luck to all with writing and submissions.
Thanks for the news Patsy. I don’t think it’s long before Ai is everywhere but I will have a go at sending to Ulverscroft
Wel done sheelagh. It's good to know that April is still accepting work.Yes, it can be very speedy!
I guess my stories there haven't been taken up.
Congratulations to all with acceptances and publications. Interesting to hear about Ulverscroft - new to me. I don't have anything suitable, but good to know it's out there.
Thanks, Patsy, for another informative post - and this time with the positive news regarding Linro opportunities. Sharon, congrats on your publication in the latest TABFF - four stories in one issue; fabulous!
Thank you, Sheelagh. Let's just say... 🌘 😉 I enjoyed yours 😊
😀
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