And we're off!

We delayed the start of our trip as long as we could, in the hopes of getting the office sorted before we left home. Unfortunately that wasn't possible, so it will have to wait until we get back. That's not ideal, but it is good to be off on our adventures.

Our first couple of stops were to gardens. I took a great many photos, which I've hardly even looked at yet, so the pictures will be trailing behind us. (If you'd like to see even more pictures from our trip, have a look at the blog on my website.)

Free entry writing competitions

Here's a monthly short story competition. The prize is $100 plus 50% of the subscription revenue from your story. Reprints are accepted – provided of course that you've not given up the rights.

A reminder about the Creative Futures competition. The theme is 'material', the competition is for under represented authors, entries of fiction, poetry and creative non fiction accepted. The prize is publication and '£25,000 worth of cash and professional development prizes'.

Womag news

Thanks to Suzan Lindsay for the details of the People's Friend poetry competition. They want - "a poem on the theme of 'reconciliation'. The poem has to have three verses of four lines. The competition closes at noon on 9th May. Email your poem with your name and address to pfeditor@dcthomson.co.uk with 'Poetry Competition' in the subject line. First prize is £150 with three runner-up prizes of £50 plus publication in the magazine."

If you've had a big batch of rejections from TAB, don't panic! Lots of people have (mine are in double figures and some go back to stories I submitted EIGHT years ago!). 

From Vivienne Moles

How do you find what publications you might have been in when they have the rights to place them elsewhere? (Something it's useful to know for various reasons, including claiming ALCS.)

I trawled through a few month's worth of Woman's Weeklys, just to see if any of my BOWW had appeared, as happened with Alyson this month. (I did it the long way 😩 and went through individual ones looking at the 'text preview). Then I had an idea: Haha! If you type your name in Pressreader (My library no longer subscribes, so this is as a non-user), preferably in inverted commas because it narrows the field, snippets of your work pop up and you can see where they've come from, and dates. 🙂

I suspect that might be useful for the Woman's Weekly family? Like Australia, NZ, Woman etc...,? You'd have to have someone with more of a repertoire than me to check that out. I work pretty much exclusively on a laptop and think this might not be so easy with an app (Hate apps! 😠 ) on a tablet. It will NOT find publications that are not in Pressreader. I found a variety of bits, including shortlisted from WM, a letter in the TV times from 2019, Best win and letters to WM.

Vivienne adds that at one time Yours didn't attribute stories, so although some show up, they don't all.

Thanks for this, Vivienne. My library also stopped subscribing to Pressreader and I hadn't realised it was still possible to still search for works, so this is potentially very useful.

Loads of womag info and a few free writing competitions

Unless you're new to the blog (if you are hello and welcome), you were probably expecting to see loads of photos from my recent trip. You probably will eventually, but I'm still not caught up with everything. I think there's enough info in the blog for you to forgive me fobbing you off with a pile of rocks - even if the larger part of it was kindly written by a writing buddy.

Free to enter writing competitions

This short story competition offers a £1,500 prize.

If you know anything about the Czech and/or Slovak republics, this competition could be for you. The prize is $400.

And if you know about contemporary art but haven't written a lot about it, you could be in with a chance of winning £1,000 here.

Thanks to Fiona for sending the link to this free to enter poetry competition with a £70 prize fund.

Thanks to Sharon for the link to this halloween competition. You have 2,500 words and until the end of August to come up with a spooky tale and be in with a chance of winning the £20 prize.

There's a wide range of prizes on offer there. Those with the lower amounts on offer might well attract fewer entries, but don't be put off trying those with larger prizes because you think you'll have no chance - someone really will win, and if you can write what they want, it might well be you.

Other submission opportunities

Here's a call for submissions of short stories and essays. They pay £110 per accepted piece.

Womag news

Massive thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for the following very detailed and comprehensive information – 

Womag wonders

A lot of aspiring writers say there's no point trying to break into the womag market, as there's too many closed lists.

There's only three magazines I know that hold a closed list. 

These are My Weekly, Take a Break's Fiction Feast and Best. TAB also publish a new story in their monthly special. 

Stories from FF are sometimes re- printed in their monthly Fate & Fortune mag – writers aren't paid for these. A short story also appears in the monthly and seasonal specials of That's life! mag. (UK version). I think it's the same situation there.

Also, published stories are re- printed in That's life! the Australia weekly magazine.

Here's my list of paying magazines that hold an open list:

Ireland's Own Max length: 2, 300 words.

They haven't issued any actual guidelines, but from my experience they like the kind of story The Weekly News used to accept. They quite like ghost stories scams and twists, too. 

They publish various seasonal specials and hold an annual short story competition - it's around £7 to enter. They also publish children's fiction and pay for this.

Pay: around £40 - £50

They don't give out rejects, so after 4 months, assume it's a no. If your work appears, they send a complimentary copy of the magazine via snail mail.

Woman's Weekly 800 words & 1, 700/ 1, 800 words. 

Take all rights. Stories are now being re- published in Woman mag (Writers don't receive any more for this). 

A 4 month wait for a decision. If you don't hear, it's a no.

Pay: It varies. The lowest fee that I know of is £75.

Monthly 'Best of WW fiction' magazine  750 & 1, 500 words

The fiction ed requires pitches for unwritten stories, but if the story is already written, it's ok to send it in. Needs chasing for decisions.

While most stories are re- prints, it's good to see that fresh material is being included, and more womag writers have been added to their list. 

Pay: £75 for a 750 story and £150 for a 1, 500 story.

They take all rights.

The People's Friend and their special - various lengths from 1,000 to 9, 000. They have introduced a '5 stories submission' rule for some of their published fiction writers.

Fiction guidelines are available on their website:

https://www.thepeoplesfriend.co.uk/guidelines

They have an email submissions system for their unpublished story writers.

They also publish poetry in their mags, plus poetry and fiction in their yearly fireside and friendship books.

Pay: £80 for a newbie writer but this is raised after so many sales (I think it's 7) eventually reaching £110. £15 per poem. 

(From Patsy – Lucy Crichton, fiction editor at The People's Friend, has sent me an update with more information. I'm currently travelling, but will post it as soon as I can.)

The regular Yours – 950 words. 

Pay: £100.

They also publish poetry in their letters page, which is a paid slot.

They publish an annual year book and need stories and poetry for this. Payment for accepted poetry is now a £10 cheque.

Yours only give out rejects, but from experience, a yes arrives within 3/ 4 months. Same with the Yours special.

The Yours fiction special 450 – 2, 700 words

They sub- head their fiction slots which helps us aim for a particular theme.

Both magazines require a short synopsis of the story.

Guidelines for the magazines can be found here:

https://www.yours.co.uk/life/home/writing-for-the-yours-fiction-special

Pay: It varies from £25 upwards, depending on how many pages your story takes up.

The August issue is the last one for this year and after that,the future of the mag is uncertain - that's from the ed. So no dec one with xmas stories in.

Woman's World, USA - take all rights.

Fiction guidelines are available on request. 

They publish a 700 word 'solve- it yourself' detective murder mystery. They like a main detective and an aide. No gory violence.

At the end, your story should include the brief solution (In other words, who committed the murder and why). 

This solution is featured at the foot of the story page. 

These are quite difficult to write, especially in such a short story! I know womag writers who have attempted these detective mysteries, and subbed, but they weren't successful. But they managed to length their stories and sell them to UK mags.

They also publish an 800 word cosy romance. 

They have an active private FB group that focuses on fiction, and the fiction ed regularly posts call- outs for what they require. Search on facebook for 'WW writers'.

Pay: Again, it varies but it's about £250 – £500 (It could be more, depending on the exchange rate). 

I know 2 lucky womag writers who have sold their romances here. They were over the moon. The fee was around £500, but they haven't managed to repeat their success. 

Bear in mind that some published stories are discussed at length in the Woman's World U.S writer's websites. That's not something I'd relish!

Your Cat monthly magazine

No guidelines as such but from experience, I'd recommend that your story features some form of cat care. A 3/4 month wait for a decision, but the ed needs chasing.

Max 1, 500 words

Pay £100

Spirit & Destiny monthly magazine SADLY, THIS CLOSED IN APRIL 2023

Max 1, 500 words.

Pay: I recall it was around £100/ £150

They took all rights. Be aware that a newbie could be bombarded with a lot of unnecessary forms to fill in. This also happened to a new writer at TABFF in 2022. 

I refused and fought my corner to be paid. I didn't write for them because of that reason.

Best magazine run an ongoing themed short story competition. It's free to enter and the writer keeps their rights. 

£500 is awarded to the first place winner and £200 is given to the two runner- ups. Womag writers have won this competition and have clinched runner- up status too, so it's worth a go.

NOTE: They regularly publish fiction but have a closed list. I'm an experienced womag writer and I can't get on it. I've tried several times, all with different stories but I've had no luck.

Prima run an ongoing 800 words monthly short story competition. 

It's free to enter. The prize is £100. 

But be warned - they take all rights to all entries in their competition, so even by entering, you lose the copyright to your own short story.

Plus, there's the pocket novel market for longer fiction. (Up to 50,00 words). 

The two titles are from My Weekly and The People's Friend (37-39,000 words).

Anyone can submit a pocket novel for either title. If a MW one is accepted, you will be able to join the closed MW story writer's list. 

However, I've heard of people who've had a PN accepted, and asked to be included on the MW list, but not received a reply.

The best way to learn how to crack it is to read and study the short stories in the magazines you want to write for. 

I know this isn't always possible with the overseas magazines, but if you become involved with a womag writing community in some way, you'll find others are often prepared to help.

Good luck!

This is greatly appreciated, Sharon, especially as I've not had time to update my submissions database lately. I will as soon as I get the chance, and will use this to help.

I've had some relatively swift responses from The People's Friend for stories I withdrew after they'd been waiting a loooong time and then resubmitted. Writing friends are reporting the same thing, but not hearing back on those submitted last year, or the year before. In some cases when they've queried they've discovered the stories have got lost in the system. However it does seem that the backlog is reducing and things are improving.

There was a mix up at TABFF with one of my stories being credited to another author. I blogged about it on my website. It's the first time something like that has happened to me - and hopefully the last. TAB haven't yet responded to my email, but it's only just happened. I'm sure they will in time, and they'll pay the right author. Unfortunately I'll probably miss out on the ALCS payment, but I'll make enquiries.

Fiction guidelines for Woman's Weekly, free entry writing competitions and more

Free to enter writing competitions

The BBC short story award offers a top prize of £15,000. You must be either a UK national or UK resident and have 'a prior record of publication'. Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for the link.

Thanks to Linda Casper for telling me about this competition with a $500 prize for a factual piece about love on the road. As Linda says, that's a theme I can relate to – just not sure the judges will want ALL the details!

This competition is for poets and spoken word artists who are disabled or have 'long term impairment.' The prize is the chance of £300 in fees - but you need to do quite a lot to earn it.

Here's a chance for female or non binary playrights to win £12,000. The website was making me feel a bit dizzy, so I hope I've got that right.

In this competition someone will win $200 for the best piece of writing advice. My advice to you is - have a go!

Womag news

I've contacted Sharon Reid at Yours Fiction to ask whether the next issue of the magazine really will be August. Unfortunately her reply was - "I’m afraid it’s not a typo – the next issue of Fiction will be August. There are various other specials on different subjects in the pipeline between now and then, although I realise that’s not really helpful for fiction fans."

Not what we wanted to hear, but it's better to know than to keep submitting stories which can't be used, and to wonder if it's ever going to come back. (nb This only applies to Yours Fiction - not the regular Yours magazine.)

I contacted Andrew Shaw, who is the fiction editor for Woman, Woman's Own and Woman's Weekly to ask for the current guidelines. He said, "We are currently only accepting new fiction submissions for Woman's Weekly," and supplied the latest guidelines, which I've copied below. (Stories are sold on an all rights basis

Fiction Guidelines for Woman's Weekly

Firstly, we recommend that you read issues of Woman’s Weekly to get a feel for our audience and the type of stories we do publish. 

Fiction is a vital ingredient of Future's Women's Lifestyle magazines, the place where readers can escape and switch off. This doesn't mean predictable plots or old-fashioned romances. Escapism means getting involved in an engaging tale with believable characters. 

Above all, we are looking for originality and a wide variety of themes and moods, such as mystery, humour, relationships and family issues, with warmth and hope being vital factors.

A common misconception is that short stories should end on a big 'reveal'. This is just one kind of ending. Your story may simply make the reader go 'awh'. However, all stories should end on a positive note. ‘Uplifting’ is the word to keep in mind. 

We are not looking for stories set in care homes/hospitals/prisons, or stories that mention Covid/lockdown, or have plots that dwell on death, illness, or physical/mental abuse... 

Consider every type of person who might be reading your story. Think how certain plotlines or descriptions might be upsetting to the elderly, bereaved or ill. Sensitivity in your writing is vital. 

Remember the maxim ‘Show, don't tell.’ For example… 'Emily's cheeks flushed pink' instead of 'Emily was embarrassed'.  

Plus, a purely descriptive story can be heavy going. So keep things interesting with lively dialogue between the characters. And always ask yourself… 'Would someone actually say this in this situation? Is it natural?'

Attractive locations and stories about animals are often an opportunity for us to include appealing photo illustrations. And think how your story might 'stand out' from other submissions. Maybe the lead character has an unusual job and your story gives us an insight into a different world. 

WORD COUNTS (can be under but not over)

Single page in magazine: Approx 800 words 

Double-page spread: Approx 1700-1800 words

GENERAL TIPS 

• ● Submissions should be my email on a Word (or equivalent) document, not in the body of the email.  
• ● Single quotation marks throughout. Single space between sentences. 
• ● Your name, address and contact details should be included on the first page. 
• ● The title of the story and the word count should be in the document name.

Please note that it can take up to 16 weeks for manuscripts to be considered.

If your story is right for us, we will contact you. If you do not hear from us within 16 weeks, please assume that your story isn't right for us. 

Please be advised that stories may be edited as part of the publishing process. 

We are unable to give feedback on rejected stories, or enter into any correspondence by email. 

Please send submissions to: andrew.shaw@futurenet.com

(nb This applies to the regular Woman's Weekly, not to Best Of Woman's Weekly. For the guidelines to that magazine, see last week's post.)

Thanks 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.

The next scheduled post is 18th March, and will be 'Over To You' as well as any interesting news or free entry competitions I come across.

Guidelines for Woman's Weekly 'best of' and From you

I've realised that links and other info posted as comments on the over to you posts could get lost, and that info (especially about free entry competitions) I find out or am sent might become out of date before the next planned post. Therefore, when I have time and an internet connection, I'll try to copy them into a new post like this one.

These are likely to be scrappy, but perhaps better than nothing? We'll see how it goes.

The photos will be whatever I happen to have been working on last. I don't think posts look right without an image, and that's the easiest way to include one.

From Sheelagh

 Globe soup have a new exactly 100 word story any topic as follows: 2023 OPEN DRABBLE CONTEST | PRIZE: £300 | ENTRY: FREE | WORDS: 100 EXACTLY | DEADLINE: 31st MARCH, 2023. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

Please send your entry as a word doc, .docx, or PDF attachment to:
globesoup.drabble@gmail.com
The winner receives £300. The winner retains ownership of their story.

The Bridgehouse Publishing competition, deadline 28th Feb, theme 'Gifted'

From Alyson

Best have a new competition going for a story about pets, 1200 words, closes Sunday, 26th March, submit to: bestfiction@hearst.co.uk
Also came across this on twitter this morning. Open to UK residents only but might of interest to some: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions-2023/

From Sharon Bee

Here's a free enter comp, closing date, 28th Feb:

https://www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-prize

And one I missed from an earlier post (apologies) from PJH

a Welsh Poetry Competition I saw in my local library with 3 good cash prizes see www.welshpoetry.co.uk for further details.

Womag News

Also from Sharon – BREAKING NEWS
The monthly Spirit and Destiny mag, who publish fiction, is to close this April.
Writers who have had stories already accepted by them and any scheduled for publication, should be paid.

April, fiction editor at Woman's Weekly 'best of', is currently writing new fiction guidelines. She's very kindly supplied the following information and guidance in the meantime.

Best of Woman’s Weekly Fiction is published monthly and is mainly a collection of fiction that has been previously published in the main Woman’s Weekly magazine. As it’s a monthly rather than a weekly, the timescales for responding to pitches, commissioning, publication and payment may be longer than expected for writers used to submitting stories to weeklies. 

I (April) run Best of Woman’s Weekly on a freelance basis, outside and on top of my regular job as an editor in Future’s Bookazines department. This means that I am not working on it day-to-day and rarely respond to queries within the same day. The best time for writers to contact me is on Friday mornings between 10am and 1pm if they’re hoping for a faster answer to their query. Email me on april.madden@futurenet.com 

Best of Woman’s Weekly Fiction pays £75 for 750-word stories or £150 for 1500-word stories. No other word count options are available and the budget cannot be varied. The magazine contains the equivalent of four 1500-word stories in each monthly issue (This might vary from month to month, for example three 1500-word stories and two 750-word stories instead, but the basic word count and budget is always the same).

Writers should pitch me the initial description of the story in the first instance along with the proposed word count. If the story is already written, they are welcome to send it in its entirety. If the story is accepted, a purchase order will be sent to them, either with a deadline on it or noting that the story is complete and already on file. 

New contributors will need to be registered on Future’s freelance hub and fill out their details with our Finance and Rights departments, which can take a little while and involves a few forms to fill out – please do be prepared for this if you’re not already registered with us! 

Genres I’m looking for are currently:

• Slice of life

• Romance 

• Historical fiction

• Everyday comedy

• Gothic fiction / supernatural / ghost stories

• Drama / thrillers / mysteries 

As Best of Woman’s Weekly Fiction is monthly, I’m usually thinking a couple of months ahead in terms of themes and settings. For example, as I write this in February, I’m currently planning for late spring and early summer. It’s worth bearing this in mind if your story relies on a particular season or festival as a plot point! 

We don’t have a style guide per se, but please put speech in ‘single quotes’ rather than “double” in your stories (and obviously please do run a spell check before submitting!).

Don’t forget to pop your name and pen name (if applicable) on your submitted story :) 

Finally, as I’ve had a few queries about this recently, our Rights department has recently confirmed that Future is happy for writers to claim ALCS (secondary) rights on stories we’ve commissioned / purchased from them. 

I'm sure you'll agree that's all very helpful. As it isn't spelled out, I asked about rights (you know me!) and April confirmed that they will continue to take all rights. 

Thanks for all the comments recently. They show that the blog is read and therefore make it more likely that editors, competition organisers and others will be willing to provide information for me to share. The next scheduled post is 4th March and will include lots of links to free entry writing competitions, and some more womag news.

Featuring five fab freebies and feathers.

I find it hard enough thinking up interesting, relevant titles for stories, but it's even worse with blog posts. If I call them something original, it probably won't be clear what I'm blogging about. If they're all called something like 'free entry competitions and writing news' people won't be sure if it's a new one, or one they've seen before. That's part of the excuse for all the photos – I'm assuming you saw this and thought, 'Oh, birds. What's she up to now?' and not 'Oh, birds again? This must be an old one'.

Maybe I should just use the date – but you can't go too far wrong with a bit of alliteration and some assorted aviation action, can you?

Womag news

I'd heard that Andrew Shaw (fiction editor of Woman's Weekly, Woman and Woman's Own) was no longer sending rejections, and asked him to confirm whether this was the case. His response was –

"Yes, this is the case. If writers don't hear back from me within 16 weeks, then they can assume that their story isn't right for us. 

Writers are of course free to submit their stories to other publishers at any point. I have no problem with a writer letting me know that a story I have on file is no longer available. 

A story is only accepted for publication once I have found a place for it in the schedules. I will then contact the writer and inform them. I cannot guarantee that a story held on file will be published."

Ideally every submission would receive either an acceptance or rejection within a few months of submission, but I think we all realise that editors are very pressed for time meaning this isn't always possible. A definite cut off period seems to me to be preferable to waiting for replies which may take years to come, or never arrive at all. Unfortunately these particular markets still take all rights on published stories, so I still don't submit to them.

Free entry writing competition news

Thanks to Jenny Worstall for making me aware of the Welkin Prize. There's a top award of £100 on offer for the best 400 words of narrative prose, plus additional prizes for those who qualify. I'm very tempted to have a go.

And thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for passing on the information that Inkitt are running a couple of free contests. There's a publishing contract on offer for a horror, thriller, mystery or suspense novel and another for heart-wrenching tales. 

I won't be entering, as I'm working on a long project already and the genre isn't suitable. In case you're thinking that winning such a competition is impossible, I'd like to assure those who didn't know, and remind those who did, that I know that's not the case. My first ever novel was published after I won a free entry competition. That was a long time ago and the publishing company concerned no longer exists – but the book still does!

The Society of Authors have a variety of awards for different types of writing. They're all free to enter, but there are restrictions on some, such as age restrictions or being limited to either unpublished authors only, or to those who already have a published book. Most exclude me one way or another, but there are good prizes on offer for those who qualify.

And thanks to my beloved husband for telling me about this crime novel writing competition. The publishing deal and cash prize sound brilliant and my current project is another crime story, but sadly there's little chance of me having it finished by the end of the month. (And it's just been pointed out that it's for writers of colour, so I don't qualify anyway.)

This competition from Siar Sceal is for poetry or prose with the theme of Sunlit Mornings/Ebbing Tides and offers a top prize of €200.

If you're female, funny and can (quickly) write a story of 5,000 to 15,000 words you could send it here and possibly win £1,100. Thanks to Sharon Bee for sending the link to that one. Some people say I'm a bit funny and I am female so I need a different excuse not to enter this one. (Yes, I know it's six competitions now I've added this one, but I'm NOT going to think up a new blog title.)

Other publication opportunities

Drabblecast have a call for submissions. If short and strange is your thing, you could earn 6 cents per word. I'm not tall - which is all I have to say on the topic.

Why I ask for comments on this blog

Asking questions/giving answers/sharing information makes the blog more valuable for all readers.

Comments show me what people are interested in, so helps me provide the information you really want. (And quite often someone rashly says they like the photos which justifies me bunging them in all over the place.)

Comments show others that the blog has readers and therefore makes it more likely that editors, competition organisers etc will share information with me, so I can pass it on to you.

My news

Soon after publishing last week's post I heard back about three different competitions, run by The Anansi Archive, Secret Attic and Globe Soup (and all previously mentioned on this blog). I didn't win any of them, but my entries all got a special mention or were selected for inclusion in an anthology. That's encouraged me to try a few more and see if I can do better.

If you're interested in reading more about my writing and published stories, then take a look at the blog on my website.