A quickie about stuff

Hi. Just a quick post today as I'm busy with 'stuff'. Writing of course, but also gardening and getting ready for adventures in the van - we'll be staying in at least five different locations and three different countries before the end of the month and it all starts today.

Womag news

I've still not heard anything from Stylist magazine, nor do I know of anyone who has. I did spot that they've changed their submission requirements a little.

Lipstick and Lies have temporarily closed to submissions. They've contacted everyone who has had work accepted. Were you one of the lucky ones! (I hadn't even decided whether or not to sub when I discovered they'd closed.)

My womag news

This kind of thing doesn't happen often, but I currently have a story in Yours, The People's Friend and People's Friend special.

Free entry competition news

This competition is for literary novels over 30,000 words and offers £1,500 plus publication to the winner.

Any questions?

If you have any womag or other writing related questions I'm very happy to try to answer them – provided you do it as a comment on this blog.  Sorry but I simply don't have time to answer individual queries by email and social media. Often more than one person asks the same thing and even when it's just one person the chances are that someone else was wondering. If you ask on the blog, not only can others benefit from the answer, but more people will see the question so you're more likely to get a helpful reply.

Whether you have questions or not, please do leave a comment if you find the blog useful, interesting or otherwise worth me taking time out from all the other 'stuff' I have going on!

Here's how to leave a comment. (It's free and you don't need to create an account.)

New market, my birthday, copyright stuff

Womag news

Stylist magazine will be publishing one short story a week from April. These should be under 1,000 words and can be of any genre. The fee is £200 and they don't take all rights. Sounds pretty good to me!

They say they'll consider submissions from anyone, but 'Stylist Short Stories is designed to offer an opportunity to those who are particularly underrepresented in commercial publishing such as female-identifying, trans and non-binary writers' full details are here

Copyright stuff

Recently I've had queries from a couple of people uncertain about the rights they gave up when a story was published in the past. Unfortunately it isn't always possible to answer that query.

If I sold to the magazine at the time I'll know what my contract said – because I always read mine, check I understand and keep a copy. If you sold to the same magazine at the same time it's likely the contract you signed will be the same, but it might not be. When terms change contracts aren't always sent to everyone at once. Sometimes stories are accepted on one set of terms but not published until after the new contracts comes into force so different stories in the same issue could be subject to different terms. It's also possible that an author may have negotiated terms which differ from the standard contracts. (I have, very occasionally, negotiated terms which don't require me to give up all rights when others in the same publication have signed theirs away.)

Please, please, please – read any contract and be sure you understand it BEFORE signing, and keep a copy. You may think now that you don't mind what rights you give up so it doesn't matter and then find in the years to come that you feel differently. If you can't check which rights you gave up, you can't assume you can legally use the story.

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Alyson for the link to this short story competition. There's £500 on offer, plus a free virtual workshop to get help with your entry.

Now the really important part. It's my birthday. I know I'm getting money to spend on plants and plan to spend part of the day choosing and planting them. That will make me hungry, so please leave cake in the comments.