Some better news

You may remember that after I'd posted about TABFF using stories, I was contacted by a journalist who quoted me, and some of you, in an article. I've since been contacted by someone at the BBC! I gave a statement, but haven't heard back so don't know if anything will come off that. I also had another email, which some of you may be interested in. I've copied it, with permission.

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.

I know that not everyone will have something suitable to submit, but isn't it nice that something positive just might come from all of this for a few of us?

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.

Hot, hot, hot

It's been very hot and I've been very busy working on my latest novel – which is why there's only a short post today.  By way of apology, I've made something to cool you down. The photo is a clue!

Other publication opportunities

Thanks to Alyson for sending me the link to Flame Tree Fiction. Definitely not womag and a bit niche, but it is a paying market.

Something random!

Ever wanted to give your character a really wacky name, but weren't sure anyone could actually be called that? Here's a site which allows you to check whether a name would be legal in the UK. Thanks to Charlie for sending the link.

Ant thanks to Marguerite for this link for plausible sounding landline numbers which aren't actually in use.

Summer writing sanctuary

Thanks (again!) to Alyson for sharing the details of this free summer writing sanctuary.  Does it look like something you'd like to participate in?

I'm back!

I'm back home from my travels for a while – although obviously I reserve the right to dash off somewhere at a moment's notice. Unless that happens, and probably even if it does, the blog will return to regular weekly posts with various free opportunities for writers, and womag news when there is any.

Free entry writing competitions

Protopian Prize is for optimistic stories set in the future. They should be 500 to 6,000 words. There's a $5,000 prize in each category, plus publication.

Thanks to Dee for sending these details. As she says, both the competition on the New Writers website look interesting. Competition open to UK residents only.

Green Dragon Guild of London Poetry Prize 2026

Deadline: 23.59 (UK time) on Wednesday 29 July 2026

• Entry Fee: FREE
• Prizes: The winning entrant will receive: 1. Cash prize of £100; 2. Your work set to music by composer David Yardley and performed by professional musicians at the “Of Carols & Chimeras” concert on Friday 20 November 2026; 3. Complimentary tickets to the concert; 4. Standard 50% royalties from any future performances or recordings of the musical work that uses your lyrics
• Word Limit: 50 lines
• Theme: Chimeras
• Category: Poetry Competitions

Other (ie NOT womag) publication opportunities 

Story Unlikely are accepting submissions until 14th October. They pay 8 cents a word with a maximum payout of $350 (or 1 cent a word for reprints). They consider any genre, but don't want anything excessive.

My news

I have a new book out! (Yes, I'm back at that again too.)

The little things

We're now back home (which doesn't mean the travel photos will stop!) and appreciating those little things which you take for granted until you spend a few weeks in a campervan – unlimited water, hot water without advance planning, a bed which is always level and ... I'd like to say a proper office, but we have to wait a little longer for that.

We had an amazing time, probably helped by being very lucky with the weather, and definitely picked a good time of year to visit Scotland.

Free to enter writing competitions

Thanks to Suzan Lindsay for the link to this competition from The Welkin Press. They want up to 100 words. There are 5 themes and the best in each will win £30.

And thanks to Fiona for this one from Curtis Brown on the theme of landmarks. They want a few more words - up to 300, and offer a potentially bigger prize of a Curtis Brown gift voucher valued at £300, and a year's membership to The Writing Studio.

Other publication opportunities

If you write short literary fiction (3,000 to 8,000 words) you might be interested in submitting to One Story. They pay $5,000.

Thanks to Fiona for pointing out that Myslexia "have lots of submission opportunities and for most you don’t have to subscribe to the magazines."

You might be interested in...

The latest issue of Writing Magazine has, amongst many other things, 'tips on writing for the womag market'. It includes alternative markets and uses for womag type fiction. In case you missed it, last week Liz Filluel wrote a post about using work originally written for womags in a completely different way.

Here, here and here, are examples of how I've re-homed some of the stories I've had published in magazines over the years.

Feeling floral

We've visited quite a few big gardens on our recent travels, as well as walking through woods and countryside full of wild flowers. Here are just a few examples of flowers we've seen.

Womag news

People are still getting rejections from TAB. It seems rather a waste of time, as we're told to assume a rejection after three months, and the rejected stories are, as far as I'm aware, all much older than that. In my case, they're nearly all for stories sent and given up on years ago. I've also had rejections for stories TAB have published!

Free to enter writing competitions

Thanks to Alyson for this flash fiction competition from Curtis Brown. Max word count 300, theme landmarks. The first prize is £300. 

The rules state AI must not be used – something I totally agree with, but wouldn't be able to prove I'd complied with. Apparently in some cases, the use of dashes is considered 'evidence' of having cheated in this way, as is the knowledge AI exists. 

Here's a poetry competition with £100 first prize (you'll need to scroll down a bit to find it). Thanks to Aly Rhodes for sending me the details.

Other publication opportunities

Thanks to Alyson for the info that Haiku Shack are looking for micro fiction and short poems. They don't pay, but you can submit previously published work – as long as you did't give up all rights, of course.

btw, if you're involved in any publication, physical or digital, which welcome submissions, doesn't charge a submission / reading fee, and would like a mention on my blog, please get in touch.

From Liz Filleul – Earlier this year, I signed a contract with Clan Destine Press, an Australian small-press publisher, for a short story collection called Sentenced Beyond the Seas: The Convict Constable’s Casebook. The book features a convict constable, Will Grafton, solving crimes in 1830s Van Diemen’s Land. The seven short mysteries include three that have been previously published in The People’s Friend Special. ‘The Convict Constable’, ‘Death Knock’ and ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ appeared as 9500-word ‘long crime reads’ in May 2020, May 2021 and May 2022 respectively. 

Patsy has kindly invited me to blog about the work involved in taking those three stories and making them part of a collection that can be read like a novel. So next week I’ll be blogging about the process involved with this. Having just been through the editing stage, I can safely say that it’s been trickier than I initially envisaged!

 

Not going to plan

The photo is of our lovely new office which was fitted by Sharps in March – except obviously it wasn't. We've had several cancellations and a lot of stress. The problem was that they couldn't get the bubble wrapped pieces you can see, until two days ago. Unfortunately, they don't fit with our order, so the saga continues...

I'm still working on the next book in my crime series, and mostly resisting the urge to change it from cosy to grisly with a massive body count!

Free to enter writing competitions

Thanks to Vivienne for sending me the link to this competition from Toasted Cheese. The theme is festivals. You can submit fiction (as long as it's not in any genre) or creative non fiction. There are Amazon vouchers on offer for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed entries.

Here's a competition to pitch a children's book. As well as the free competition, there's also the option to pay quite a lot of money to have your work assessed. It might, possibly, be worth it if you're certain you want a career from writing children's books and this is your publisher of choice.

Other publication opportunities

If you have a 'swoonworthy' romance novella of 10,000 to 40,000 words, you might like to consider submitting it to Spotify Audiobooks. Thanks to Liz for telling us about this one.

They only want audio rights, so you can still submit if the book has been published in other formats (as long as you hold the rights), or you'd like to do that yourself. I'm thinking of giving this a try.

Also from Vivienne is the info that Crowvus are looking for memoir submissions in prose, poetry or commentary.

Blue sky thinking

Free entry writing competitions.

The Jim Baen memorial short story competition is for 'a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration.'

The prize package includes paid publication.

The Creative Futures competition is for 'underrepresented writers' (there's a long list of people who qualify). There are classes for fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction and offers £25,000 worth of 'cash and professional development prizes'. 

Other publication opportunities

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for the link to Fiction On The Web. The publish two stories a week, which can be from 1,000 to 10,000 words. The pay is £15 (or $15 or €15). They'll consider reprints as long as they're not currently available anywhere online, including ebooks.

I thought I'd test them out for you, by sending a story I'd previously had published in a magazine. Submission is by Submittable, so you'll need to set up a (free) account if you don't have one. 

The story I sent had been previously published in a womag. It was rejected within days. The feedback suggested they'd have preferred something less light. Feedback is optional. There's a thing to click when submitting if you'd rather not have it.

Bluesky

Alyson saw the above market mentioned on Bluesky. That's a platform I feel could be very useful, but which I'm not currently making the best of. If you're on there, please share your profile and/or that of others you find useful or interesting with regards writing, and I'll add them to the list.

For those unfamiliar with Bluesky, it's just like Twitter used to be, before it got swamped with adverts and bots. If you feel you already have enough social media platforms you're happy with, I wouldn't advise you to add more, as they all take up time, but if you want to add one, or make a switch, it might be worth you taking a look.

Alyson Hilbourne             J Lenni Dorner

Kathy Steinemann

Patsy Collins

Womagwriter

Elizabeth McGinty

Free entry writing competitions, an opportunity and promo news

Free entry writing competitions

For this short story competition, you only need write between 400 and 500 words, and they've already done the first few for you! First prize is $100 Aus. You don't need to be Australian to enter.

For this one you have to be a British national or UK resident - there are other requirements too. Both the maximum word count and prize are bigger - 8,000 and £15,000.

Opportunities

If you're interested in getting agent representation, and are in an under represented category (defined as writers of colour, disabled writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, and working class writers in this case) take a look here. Thanks to Sheila Crosby for that one.

My news

I have another new book out!

SLIGHTLY SPOOKY STORIES V

Ghosts, sixth sense and things not of this world aren't always scary, though they can be. Some help or warn, frighten or comfort those who perceive them. Others are here for their own purposes, waiting for a chance to move on. We might see, hear or feel them, perhaps they'll only reach us through our subconscious.

Are ghosts memories and echoes of the past, contacts from another time and place, or figments of our imagination? Whether you believe in them or not, ghosts, spirits and mysterious spooking happenings all provide stories. This collection contains 24 of them.

I'm also taking part in a promo thingy. If you're interested in finding new mysteries, crime stories and police procedurals to read (or are just curious) take a look here.