Update from that's life!

Australian magazine that's life! want stories of around 900 words for the Mega Monthly - preferably thriller, revenge, crime or romance / heartwarming with a good twist.
They also want stories around 570-620 words for the weekly and monthly magazines.

Longer stories of around 1400 words will still be used occasionally. 

Editor Jude requests that you put the word count and theme /genre in the subject line.

Note this market is currently closed to those who've not previously been published in one of the that's life! magazines.

Magazine acknowledgements and responses.

With the following magazines you should get an automatic acknowledgement for your submission –

The Weekly News
My Weekly (market closed to new writers and don't forget to use the new address as I just did!)
that's life! (in Australia).

These (I believe) will acknowledge receipt manually, usually within a few days –

Love Sunday
YOU (but they're currently closed to submissions)

These I don't sub to, as they take all rights, so don't know whether they send acknowledgements – if you do, please say in the comments and I'll update this post.

Woman's Weekly

These magazines don't usually acknowledge submissions –

Allas
Yours
Your Cat
The People's Friend
In The Moment
Spirit and Destiny (sometimes acknowledge)
Prima
Woman's World
Ireland's Own

These will reply, often after several months, with either an acceptance or rejection  –

The People's Friend
Take a Break / Fiction Feast (market closed to new writers)
Love Sunday
Spirit and Destiny
YOU (but they're currently closed to submissions)
Woman's Weekly 

These don't send rejections, so you'll only be contacted if your story is accepted.

Allas (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
Prima
In The Moment (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
Woman's World
Irelands Own (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
The Weekly News (they state that if you've not heard within three months, you're free to submit elsewhere).
that's life! (they state that if you've not heard within six months, you're free to submit elsewhere).

If you have anything to add, or your experience has been different, please say so in the comments and I'll update this post.

btw, I never refer to myself as 'womagwriter' so if you see that name in use anywhere, it isn't me. I didn't invent the term or name this blog – that was Kathleen McGurl, but I don't think she uses it herself now.

Bits of news and stuff

Thanks so much to those people who've passed on information, asked questions, or made suggestions, as comments to recent posts. It was also lovely to see people answering questions others had asked and offering encouragement. 

Here's a quick news summary, along with some stuff from me.

Your Cat magazine seem to be buying true cat stories and fillers at the moment (thanks New Girl on the block). I believe they have enough fiction, so any submitted there will have a long wait before publication (and you'd be required to give up copyright).

The People's Friend editor would like 'event-specific' stories, such as Christmas, Valentine's, Mother's Day etc. (Thanks, Beatrice) This is a market which anyone can submit to, regardless of whether or not you've been published before. They don't take all rights.

37,000 word cosy crime novels are wanted for The People's Friend pocket novels (thanks, Sharon Boothroyd.) Anyone may submit one of these.

Woman's World in the U.S. want fourth of July stories. These need to be submitted by 2nd May (which gives you some idea of how far in advance you'd need to submit any other seasonal stories to them.) (Thanks, Carrie) Anyone may submit to this market. Pay is great, competition fierce. I think they require all rights – can anyone confirm or deny that?

Some blog readers have asked for more information on pocket novels. This isn't something I know a lot about so I've persuaded a lovely friend who does, to do a guest post on the subject. Do you any specific questions for Susan Jones?

The automatic acknowledgement system at My Weekly is now working (thanks J.S. and Fancypants) so if you've submitted and not got one, it might be an idea to try again. This market is still closed to new writers.

Love Sunday are still open to submissions. (Thanks Jenny Worstall) This is a non paying market, but it does have a large readership and they'll include a very short for a book, website etc if you ask.

Some people are unsure of which magazines acknowledge submissions, how and when they respond and what to do if they don't hear back. I'll be doing blog posts on these things in the near future. 



No one asked about this, but I'll tell you anyway – I'm the People's Friend writer of the week, and Keep It In The Family, a collection of 25 of my short stories, most of which have previously been published in womags around the world, is currently reduced to 99p (99c)

Thank you for all the recent comments! 

Apologies if I missed anything or anyone. If I've got anything wrong, or you have more information to add, please do say.

I need help

Thanks to the dozen or so people who responded to the last post saying you find this blog useful and wish it to continue. I want that too, but I simply can't do it alone.

You're probably familiar with the writing advice to show rather than tell – that applies here. If you value the Womagwriter blog, please show your support for it by sharing information. If we pooled our knowledge this really would become a valuable resource. You can contribute by leaving a comment, either on my monthly posts requesting such information, or by adding your experiences or anything you've learnt, to any other post.

Click here if you're not sure how to leave a comment.

Examples of useful information are –

* Details of what editors are looking for, e.g. particular story lengths, genres or themes. You might learn that from feedback on your own work, or their websites, social media etc.

* Reasons given for rejection and how long after submission these are sent.

* The types and lengths of stories being accepted and how long after submission this takes.

* Any 'big' news about market changes is also welcome. Especially if it's positive! (I'm an optimist at heart.)

Should you be willing to share how a particular story came to be published, your first success, or pass on writing tips and encouragement these might be better as a guest post (which needn't be long or formal). If you'd like to do that, please contact me. It's fine to put this sort of thing in a comment if you'd rather.

If any editors, or anyone else involved in producing womags would like to contribute a guest post, sharing any insights, news or tips relating to the industry I'd be delighted to host you.

I'd also find it helpful to know what sort of posts are useful and/or of interest. When one receives no, or very few, comments I can only assume it's not something you want to read about and it's therefore not worth making a similar post. A comment showing either that you did appreciate the post (my own or guest posts) or saying what you would like to hear about would help me get that right.

Sorry this was a long post (not too whiny I hope!). Are you still with me? Do you have any news you're willing to share? 

Over to you

Here's a random photo for use as a story prompt. (If anyone writes, or even better sells, a story inspired by one of my photos, please let me know.)

This month's discussion topic – What have you been up to writing wise recently? 

One thing I've done is to introduce a new feature on my other blog – the Friday Freebie. Each time it runs there's a chance to win a paperback, just by leaving a comment (one of mine is currently featured). There will also often be links to free ebooks. As well as offering free reads, this is an opportunity for writing friends to promote their books.

Talking of which No Family Secrets is on special offer at 99p/99c.

It includes 25 family related feel good stories, most of which have been previously published in womags around the world.

Please comment on the discussion topic, share success (or otherwise!) report any womag news, tips, advice you may have, make womag related comments or observations and ask questions – and answer them too if you can help.

Without your input, via comments on here, by sending me news, or offering appropriate guests posts, this blog won't continue.

My Weekly's new system.

There's a new email address for subbing fiction to My Weekly. If you're one of those who are permitted to send work you should have been notified of this – contact the fiction editor on the old address if not. (I'm not putting it here because that will result in subs and queries from those not on the list and defeat the purpose of this change.)

The idea is that submissions will be acknowledged automatically, saving Karen time. Unfortunately there's a technical glitch with that aspect at the moment. Hopefully it'll be sorted soon. The stories are still getting through though and you should hear back in the usual way.

Update – I've been told the same issue currently applies to subs to The Weekly News too. 

Price promotion

A new collection containing 25 of my family themed short stories will be available soon. I've already published three and these will each be on price promotion for a few days.

The first to go is Keep It In The Family, which is currently on sale for 99p/99c. 

One result of the shrinking womag market is that I have more time to spend on putting these collections together – and for working on novels. How's that for looking on the bright side?

Over to you

This month's discussion topic – Which part of the world are you from? Does that have any impact on your womag writing?

Here's another random photo for use as a story prompt. 

Please share success (or otherwise!) report any womag news, tips, advice you may have, make womag related comments or observations and ask questions – and answer them too if you can help.


 (If you have news or a question relating to a particular magazine, it's also fine to add it as a comment to the latest post for that magazine.)

Changes at that's life!

A while back I heard there were to be changes at that's life! in Australia, but I've only just had it officially confirmed by fiction editor Judie Durrant.

No stories can now be considered from writers new to the that's life series of magazines.

The quartely Fast Fiction has been shelved, at least temporarily. The new Mega Monthly will carry some fiction, up to a max length of 1500 words. The weekly will continue as before with very short fiction 550-600 words.

There are no changes to the contract.

Guest post by womag fiction collector Jay Mackie

My Fiction Collection by Jay Mackie

Oh how I’d love to turn the clock back to the ‘golden age’ of fiction in British women’s weeklies! For me, this would be the late 80s to late 90s.

My name is Jay Mackie, I am 43 and I live in Nottingham where I am a composer and private music teacher. I have collected magazine fiction (and magazines) on and off since 1988, after looking forward to the Mini Mystery story in my mum’s copy of Bella each week. It’d be the first page I’d turn to. Looking back now and rereading my collection of these spanning some ten years since Bella’s 1987 launch date, these stories had it all; whodunnits, voodoo, unsettled ghosts, UFOs, an encounter with Old Nick himself and much more. These tales displayed varying literary styles and mystery content, but were always constructed with such skilful craft and elegance.

I even had a go at writing my own at the tender age of 14 and sending it to the then fiction editor, Linda O’ Byrne. I received a lovely reply from her stating her enjoyment on reading my tale, but she felt that the characters didn’t have enough ‘bite’ for her. Not bad for my first (and last!) ever story! I accepted this constructive criticism and her complimentary copies of a dozen older Mini Mysteries to add to my increasing collection.

My reason for collecting these was that someone’s careful literary toil and expert storytelling seemed too good to resign to the bin once finished. Plus, it was nice to enjoy again and compare to other stories. Over the years I have added other fiction pages to my collection too from weeklies such as Best, Take a Break and Chat mainly. The early days of Chat’s ‘4 Minute Fiction’ page from the early 90s was nice to compare with Bella, as quite a lot of the stories shared supernatural or similarly off the wall subject matter – and a few of the same writers.

Collecting vintage magazines for me is a lovely hobby if you’re nuts on nostalgia like me. Magazines provide a truly authentic and direct link to the past; the then current celeb news, advertising, vintage fashion and of course the abundance of weekly fiction. In Best’s early days some issues treated us to no less than three stories a week. Sadly as we’re all aware the world has moved on and gradually many weeklies have now ditched their fiction in favour of even MORE banal celebrity sensationalism in my view. The old content is something to be praised for its variety and enjoyed with fondness for the era.

As Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo says, only keep something if it ‘sparks joy’. That’s precisely what vintage magazines and their fiction pages do for me. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

I’d sincerely love to hear from anyone out there who either collects magazine fiction, or magazines in general. You may well have copies of stories which would complete my collection, and vice versa to swap or just chat about. You may have even written mysteries for Bella and the like back in the ‘golden’ days, do leave a comment or drop me an email (jayiguana@yahoo.co.uk) – it’d be super to hear from you!

Womag writing podcast

I was interviewed for a Write Club podcast . They're kind of a recorded writing group, with different features including a discussion on their work, word of the week and guest interviews.

My interview, which is about writing for the womag market, starts at 26 minutes in. It's followed by a group discussion on the subject.

The books I mention can all be found here.

Trouble in Womagland

Don't panic – there isn't a new problem. 'Trouble in Womagland' is the title of my short news piece, about recent rights issues, in Writing Magazine.

My thanks to Julie Day, Carrie Hewlett and S. Bee who allowed me to quote them as saying that due to Spirit & Destiny now taking all rights, they will no longer write for this publication. Unfortunately due to this piece being a very late addition to the magazine and needing to be cut to fit, it now reads as though they won't be submitting to TABFF. As no change to the contract terms of TABFF has been confirmed, these authors have not made such a decision. Let's hope they don't have to!

Thank you to Kathy for the photo.

Slight change at My Weekly

If you're on the list of writers who may submit to My Weekly then you should have already recieved their latest guidelines, but just in case you missed it, there is a slight change. Due to the lack of time and resources, authors will no longer recieve rejections with feedback. Instead, as with The Weekly News, if we've not heard back in three months we are to assume the story hasn't been accepted and we're free to submit it elsewhere.

Those not 'on the list' can't submit short stories to My Weekly – but you can try a pocket novel, or non-fiction, and an acceptance for either of those would then allow you to send in short stories.

Alex has answered

On my other blog I offered the opportunity to ask Alex Gazzola for advice on breaking into writing non fiction for magazines. His answers have now been posted, plus the winner of the book has been announced.

If there's enough interest Alex might be persuaded to visit this blog with advice specifically on writing non-fiction for womags – would you find that useful?

Womag fiction competitions – a few words of warning

You've probably gathered that I'm a fan of woman's magazine fiction. You may also be aware that I'm very keen on writing competitions (my other blog has regular links to all kinds of free to enter writing competitions). You'd think then that I'd be in favour of writing competitions run by woman's magazines, offering prizes and publication. In theory I am, but I do urge you to read all the terms and conditions very carefully – including those you have to go online to discover.

Many such competitions require you to give up all rights (search copyright on this blog if you're unsure what that is or why it might be a bad idea). Now you might be thinking that's fine, if you get published and win a prize then you're prepared to give up the rights in that story – but in some cases this condition applies to all entries. Just by submitting it you will have given the publishers the right to do whatever they like with that story, and deprived yourself of the right to ever use it again yourself. 

What are the rights to your story worth to you? I suggest they are at least as valuable as the fee you'd earn if the story was published in another magazine. Assume it's one of the lower payers – £40 – and ask yourself if the competition really justifies that as an entry fee. If not, perhaps you'd be better off submitting it directly to another publication, or entering a competition which is genuinely free.