Your Go

Do you have any womag news?

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Any other news?

Feel free to use the as a picture prompt. If you'd like other writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

I'd love to hear your competition news.

Have you entered any writing comps? Had any luck? Heard about interesting contests? Got any tips to pass on? (Although I only feature free to enter competitions in my posts it's fine to share news about other competitions too.)

Do you have writing tips to share, questions to ask, or suggestions for this blog?

I'll be back later in the week with more free entry writing competitions and publication opportunities.

Let's be positive

November can seem a bleak month, even without lockdown, but there are reasons to be cheerful. I've got berries, bees, butterflies and blossoms in the garden and indoors I have stories which can take me anywhere and allow me to experience anything I wish – even if I do have to write some of them myself.

I hope you too have things to be cheerful about?

Free entry writing competitions

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for passing on the link to this free competition. You're asked for 50 words exactly, and could win a £25 voucher. There don't seem to be any restrictions on who can enter, but I suspect the prize will only be valid in the UK.

This competition is for work in any format, and genre and in any length – but it must be written in response to one of the prompts provided. You must upload the entry to your blog, Facebook page etc and then enter a link. The winner will receive a book token. (If you enjoy writing to a prompt, I strongly recommend this book!)

The annual Writers' and Artists' Yearbook short story competition is open. As usual there's no theme, you have up to 2,000 words and the prize is an Arvon residential course.

Here's a 'life writing' competition. The prizes for first place are '£1500, an Arvon course, a writing mentor, two years’ membership of the Royal Society of Literature, and an optional development meeting with an agent or editor'. Runner up prizes are pretty good too.

My news

I've been shortlisted in this competition – the final results will be announced at the end of this month. A story entered into another competition was selected to appear in the anthology (that makes two months running as I won the previous competition).

The process of submitting my latest novel, Acting Like A Killer, is underway. I've decided to target appropriate publishers directly, rather than attempt to get an agent. I'll let you know how I get on. (You can also sign up to my newsletter if you're interested in hearing more about my writing.)

The photo is of one of the locations in my novel – can you guess where it's set?

Womag news

The People's Friend have a large stock of shorter stories. They'd appreciate submissions of 2,000 and 3,000 words. 

Why do you write what you write?

IWSG

This month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question is – Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

I write for two main reasons. One is because I have something to share – with fiction that will be an idea, with my articles and this blog it's usually information I hope people will find useful. The other is similar in a way, as it's my wish to communicate. I expect something to happen after I've sent out my work – a response from an editor (preferably one saying they wish to buy my piece!) or comments on the blog posts. If I don't get any response, then the communication is all one way. I have no idea if the words were read and I feel there was no point in typing them out. 

I choose what to write according to my intended readers. For the blog I search out free to enter competitions, news about magazine fiction and other writing related information I hope will be useful. When it comes to short stories, I take into account the magazines' guidelines and readership, or the competition rules. With my novels, I write the kind of books I like to read myself.

How about you? Why do you write what you do?

Free entry writing competitions

This is a monthly competition, offering publication and a book as a prize, for just a few words.

And here's another monthly competition. For this one stories of 1,000 - 3,000 are required and there's a $30 Aus prize, plus publication. Anyone may enter.

Deciding which competitions are worth entering

Today's guest is Francesca Capaldi.

I've been compiling the Competition Monthly for the Romantic Novelist Association Blog for about five years now. One of the most time-consuming aspects of it is to pick out the best competitions from an ever-growing selection. It would be easy to go on, say, an online comp site, or the Writing Magazine comp booklet they produce every so often and just copy it all, but having entered competitions myself for many years, I know there are a few pitfalls. Besides which, the information given is often out of date and sometimes the competitions aren't even running that year.

First I select a bunch of competitions that I think would appeal to those reading the blog, calling up all the actual websites. I then go through them all, one by one.

The first thing to check is that the entry fee is not too extortionate. I tend not to use comps that are above around £15 to enter, unless it's a prestigious comp, like the Bath Novel Award. What I try to do is balance up the entry fee with what's on offer. It's tempting to disregard those not offering any monetary award, but sometimes what is on offer can be just as valuable, like a publishing contract, or an exclusive period of time with an agent.

I never used to bother with competitions from outside the UK, but have found there are some good ones, particularly in the US, Canada and Australia. I do make sure writers from outside the country can enter, as this isn't always the case. The same is true of some UK comps, where they're for residents of a certain region only.

The most important thing is to read through all the rules and regulations. The small print often reveals that non-prizewinning, shortlisted entries will be printed online or in an anthology, without any payment. Some even say that, by just entering the competition, you give your permission for them to use your story whenever, wherever they wish. That's the number one no-no for me. It means you won't be able to send the story anywhere else and get the fee you deserve. The exception to this is when it's for a worthy charity.

Occasionally, the rules state that shortlisted entries will be used if the author agrees. That's the magic word. I occasionally include these as, when I was first starting out, I was keen to get my name 'out there', and that was the reward. At least they give you a choice.

That's about it in a nutshell really. I often share tips about actually entering contests on the Competition Monthly, so if you'd like to know more, you can search for the various posts on the RNA Blog. The current one is here

Francesca Capaldi's latest novel is a saga set in Wales in WW1, published by Hera, and due out on November 25th. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.

From Patsy – I'll be putting up more links for free competitions later this week.

A ,B and C

A, B and C = Allas, Best and Competitions!

 Womag News

I had a reply from my request for more information from the two ladies who've taken over from Lotta at Allas. 'At the moment we are forming our new organization, finding a new way to work.' There aren't any new guidelines, and it seems that they will only respond to submissions if they wish to buy the story.  Of course if I learn more, I'll pass the information on.

Submissions may be sent to Margaretha Malmgren  Margaretha.malmgren (at) aller.com and Cecilia Ericson Cecilia.Ericson (at) aller.com

Womag/competition news

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for sending this scan from a recent copy of Best magazine. 

They'll be paying £500 to the winner, and there are also runner up prizes of £200. Winter themed stories of no more than 1,200 words are to be sent to bestfiction2020 (at) hearst.co.uk.

Competition News

There's £1,000 on offer for this short story competition – but not much time left to enter. Thanks to Jane Bettany for reminding me about it.


And a quick reminder from me...

If you fancy some not too scary hallowe'en reading, you can find it in my short story collections Slightly Spooky Stories I, Slightly Spooky Stories II, Slightly Spooky Stories III and the brand new Slightly Spooky Stories IV.

I'm using the excuse that I'm promoting these to share really terrible, hallowe'en jokes on Twitter. If you know any, please share them in the comments – I'll allow good ones, but those which cause a groan seem most appropriate, don't you think?

Frights, fun and freebies

Thanks to Liz for telling me about this free to enter monthly competition. There's a prize of $500 Aus for a piece of flash fiction written against the clock. It sounds like fun, so I'll enter if I remember. First Friday, Furious Fiction's free flash ought to be hard to forget, but there's a good chance I'll manage.

Francesca Capaldi runs a competitions blog for the RNA. Not all the competitions are free, but she does her best to check they're not rights grabs and excludes those which are 'ridiculously expensive'.

My latest books, Slightly Spooky Stories IV is out now. As you've probably guessed from the title, it contains two dozen, not too scary stories, perfect for hallowe'en reading and is the fourth book in this series. They're all individual stories, so it doesn't matter what order you read them.

You might remember that I won last month's Secret Attic short story competition. Maybe it will be you this month, as they're running another one. There's a prize of £30, plus publication. Also on the site are poetry and flash competitions. Publication is currently the only prize for those.

Here's a playwriting competition, with a £500 prize.

Finally, thanks to Lynne Pardoe for passing on the details of this short story competition. As with all the competitions I mention, it's free. They want 500 words, and there's a lovely writer's hamper worth £500 for the winner!

Changes at Woman's Weekly

In case you missed the news, reported in the comments to my last post (thank you, Chris!), Jane Kemp has taken over from Emma as fiction editor at Woman's Weekly. I've invited Jane onto the blog to explain exactly what she's looking for at the moment, and will let you know if there's any response. 

Sadly the Woman's Weekly Fiction Specials will finish with the December issue. Obviously that's a disappointment to those who write for that market, but it will impact on us all, as a shrinking market means greater competition. 

In an effort to cheer people up, my next post will contain LOTS of links to free to enter writing competitions.

Over To You

Do you have any womag news?

Please read the comments for the latest news about Woman's Weekly.

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Any other news?

Feel free to use the as a picture prompt. If you'd like other writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

I'd love to hear your competition news.

Have you entered any writing comps? Had any luck? Heard about interesting contests? Got any tips to pass on? (Although I only feature free to enter competitions in my posts it's fine to share news about other competitions too.)

Do you have writing tips to share, questions to ask, or suggestions for this blog?

If you'd like to read an interview about my writing, you can do that here.

IWSG and more free to enter writing competitions.

It's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. This month's question is –

When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?

To me a working writer is someone who puts time and mental effort into their writing, to make it as good as they can, and who then attempts to have it published for financial gain. This may, or may not, be their main means of support. They probably enjoy at least part of the writing process, but perhaps don't do it solely for pleasure.

A hobbyist, in my opinion, is someone who writes mainly for their own enjoyment. They might edit their work if they like doing that. They might enter it into competitions or submit for publication – but any success is a bonus, not the reason for writing.

An aspiring writer is someone who'd like to write, but has never yet made any attempt. As soon as they string words together in a creative way they cease to be aspiring and really are writers.

I'm a writer. I don't generally define it further than that, but out of these options, working writer fits me best. I take my writing quite seriously in that I research and learn all I can, and revise and edit until the piece is as good as I can make it. I try hard and put in a lot of hours – and I hope for a reward of some kind.

Do you agree with my definitions? Which of the options – working, hobbyist or aspiring, do you think describes you best?

Thanks to Alyson for passing on the link to this free to enter fantasy/ science fiction competition. They want up to 3,000 words. The top prize is £100. Entrants must be over 18 and the work can't have been previously published.

And also for mentioning this flash fiction competition in a comment to an earlier post. Very short, and weird, Christmas stories are wanted There's a $50 prize, plus the winners will be read on a podcast (by the author if they wish). This sounds like fun, think I'll have a go myself. I'm sure I could do weird if I disconnected my inner editor.

Thanks to @The_StorySmith for bringing this paid publication opportunity to my attention. They're looking for horror stories involving cake. I'll probably give that a mis as 'I've run out' is a bit on the short side!

Talking of competitions, I won one! The Secret Attic run monthly free short story and poetry competitions, plus some with entry fees.

I've got a new short story collection coming out soon. You can pre-order it here. The first three in the series, and all my other books, can be found here.

Lotta leaving Allas

Lotta Gustavsson ends her role as fiction editor at Allas today. I'm sure some of those who've submitted stories to her would like to join me in wishing her well for the future.

I'm contacting the ladies who are taking over from her, to ask if there are any changes to the submission process or fiction requirements, and will update you if there's any news.

Six free to enter writing competitions.

As promised, here are some free to enter writing competitions. Half a dozen – to make up for the lack over the last couple of weeks.

Thanks to my talented writing friend Sheila Crosby for providing the links to the following two competitions. This is us looking windswept and interesting, and pretending Lee-on-the-Solent was as warm as Sheila's home in the Canaries. Do visit her blog if you fancy a virtual tour of La Palma. 

This one from Curtis Brown is for unpublished female novelists in the UK or Ireland. The prize is £5,000 plus representation by the agency.

This one from Penguin has all the above restrictions, plus entrants must be under 30. A publishing deal is on offer for the winner, and there's a 'writing camp' for runners up.

Here's a monologue competition, from Soundwork. The prize is to have your work professionally recorded and made available on the site. (Feel free to scroll down the page a little and see who made the shortlist of their last short story competition!)

This competition is for work involving 'new media' which means although you may submit a story, poem, piece of non-fiction etc, you can't just send the text. You need to include stuff which makes the most of digital media. There's £1,000 on offer.

If you're an unpublished (or self published) novelist who has a story with murder or a serious heart at the centre, you could try this competition, which has a $10,000 advance as the prize. Entrants may be of any nationality.

This short story competition, from the Writers' and Artists' yearbook, offers a place on an Arvon course as its prize.

Is that enough competitions for now, or do you want more?

Allas, Allers and Hemmets

Womag news

I've been asked about the style of stories accepted by Allas magazine, and as I have a story in the current issue, now seems a good time to write the post.

The magazine is weekly and usually contains three stories, sometimes more. As it's published in Swedish, and I can't read that, I can only tell you about the ones I've written. My story in this issue is a spooky one. I've sold them quite a few not very scary ghost, or sixth sense stories, some revenge ones, a couple of twist ending tales and even one on local politics! Most though have been relationship based (romances and family stories). 

The maximum length I've had accepted is 1,500 words. Some have been a bit shorter. They'll consider previously published stories. I do rewrite these for the Scandinavian market, taking the culture into account as much as I can, changing place and character names and considering the location and climate. Sometimes I write stories just for them. I submit in English.

If your story is accepted, you'll be asked to sign a contract, which allows them to reuse the story in Allers and Hemmets. You'll need to invoice for each story and will be paid, for the first use only, by bank transfer. You won't be notified about reprints, but each time your story is used, you'll be sent a copy of the appropriate magazine.

Submissions should be sent to lotta.gustavsson (at) allas.se It's not usual to get a rejection if your story isn't going to be used. If the story is accepted you'll generally hear back within a few weeks, but it can be longer. One of mine was accepted after three months, so I suggest leaving it a little longer before assuming a story won't be used.

If you've subbed to this market, please do share your experiences, to help build up a more complete picture of what's wanted, response times etc.

Wish me luck – I'm going to attempt to recreate the dish on the cover for our tea tonight. I'll have to guess most of the ingredients. I'm not entirely sure whether having a good imagination is going to help with that!

Competition news

I'll be doing a post with links to free to enter writing competitions soon. If you know of any, please let me know (in the comments, by email or on Twitter.)

Over To You

Do you have any womag news?

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Any other news?

Feel free to use the as a picture prompt. If you'd like other writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

I'd love to hear your competition news.

Have you entered any writing comps? Had any luck? Heard about interesting contests? Got any tips to pass on? (Although I only feature free to enter competitions in my posts it's fine to share news about other competitions too.)

Do you have writing tips to share, questions to ask, or suggestions for this blog?

My news is that I had a story in last week's Hemmets magazine, I'll have one in the 26th September issue ofMy Weekly, and two in the next People's Friend Special.

I also have a story up on Longshot Island. Submissions are open for this market, which offers a small fee. Previously published work will be considered – provided the author has retained copyright.

My short story collection Coffee & Cake won't be released until December 1st, but as an experiment, it's available to 'pre order'.

Publishing with Unbound

Today's guest is Theresa Davis, who has kindly agree to share her experience of trying to get published with Unbound.

Unbound is a publisher like no other, they believe in giving the reader a choice in what they publish. The method that they use to achieve this is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a method of raising the finances for a project by asking people to pay a donation. In the case of Unbound this is in the form of a pre order for a first edition of the book.

As a writer in a niche market Unbound is an attractive publisher as their funded model can make them open to books that more traditional publishers might not be willing to take on commercial grounds. Unbound's projects can take the range from traditional thrillers to a coffee table book featuring comments and analysis of the rear ends of video game characters.

How does one go about getting published with Unbound? There are a couple of methods to pitch an idea to them.

Firstly they hold regular sessions on social media where they ask people to submit ideas for appraisal. The second is to submit a pitch directly on their website. In both cases these pitches need to be short and precise, under 500 words, great practice in tight and structured pitches.

If your pitch is successful then you will be given a meeting with one of the commissioning editors. Due to the Covid crisis this in my case was handled online. This isn't a formal interview or anything it's an introduction to allow you and the editor to get to know each other. They will be your champion within Unbound and able to help guide you through the process.

Next comes the business end of the process, while your editor is off calculating the print costs, editing requirements, or in my example the need for a legal read through for possibility of libel, you will be given a task to prepare the blurb and one line summary, and your bio ready for the web site. These can be edited by Unbound with your permission to fit with the house style or for improved marketing effectiveness. I'm currently on about the 3rd revision of text on my project.

At the end of this you will receive along with the breakdown of all the costs to produce your book, the publishing agreement.

The production cost which will vary considerably depending on the binding, size and if there are illustrations. This is the amount you will have to raise through funding, all this is set out in the agreement. If you are worried, in the event of the project not reaching its target, all rights to the work revert to you on the ending of the contract.

Once the agreement has been signed, then it's time to move on to the next phase the preparation of the site page ready for the fund-raising campaign. A provisional cover will be designed, I was given a choice of 9 different options to choose from, three of these, including the one I selected, are shown.

To offer a bit of incentive to people pledging for the book there may be other items available like mugs, tote bags, posters in addition to digital, signed and plain copies of the books. There are other perks which are offered , such as book club visits and special mentions in the front of the book. All pledges receive their name listed in the back of the book.

In preparation for launch day you will be introduced to the Crowdfunding Campaigns Executive who will be your guide to making the most out of online funding and there to help with any issues and requests you may have. She will give you a pack with a set of useful templates for emails and social media, you will be asked to attend a workshop to help you get the most out of the funding process. 

Then comes the fun part, starting to raise the funds required for your campaign. Ideally you should start a few days before to tease the upcoming campaign, with social media posts. Then on the big launch day shout as loud and as wide as you can. It can be a long process to get funding, but don't be discouraged, you may be given targets to meet but these are not pass of fail points, try to keep up interest in the campaign with regular updates and posts on the site itself. Keep an eye out for campaigns and promotion codes being given out by Unbound and use these to boost sales around holidays and events, you may be given your own personal codes at times to help you boost sales. 

This is as far as I have gotten in the publishing process with Unbound as my own project, a memoir Falling Upwards is currently in the funding process on Unbound. Why not check it out and make a pledge and maybe you can join me one day and become a member of the unbound family. 

To learn more about Theresa, follow her on Twitter, read the 'project synopsis' of her memoir, or pledge to support her project and be one of the first to read Falling Upwards.

September stuff

Insecure Writer's Support Group

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. If you're an insecure writer you might like to join up here. I'd be very surprised to learn that anyone reading this blog has never felt insecure over their writing. Please let me know if you haven't – I like to be surprised.

This month's optional IWSG question is – If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?

I'm opting for Alexander McCall Smith. I love his writing, he's very prolific and successful, and he seems like a lovely man, so why wouldn't I want his advice? Getting to read his books at an early stage and gaining some insight into how he perfects them would be fantastic too.

There's another reason – I've been told that my writing is slightly similar to his. Mostly I think that's because our work is easy to read. Recently, when I mentioned this to writer friend Sheila Crosby, she said there's also 'a certain niceness' in the books of us both. It would be wonderful to be involved in a partnership which added to the niceness in the world.

Who, if anyone, do you think you write like?

For those who've read any of my work, do you think there's any similarity between my writing and that of Alexander McCall Smith – or any other author?

Free entry competition news

If you missed it, do have a look at Jane Bettany's guest post, explaining what happened to her after she entered one of the free competitions I blog about.

The Query Letter are running a book blurb competition, with a $500 prize. They don't want you to write the whole book, just a 100 word blurb.

Here's a limerick competition, with book tokens as the prize. I do like a good limerick, and everyone loves a book token, don't they?

Cash makes a good prize too, and that's what's on offer for the Commonwealth short story prize – £5,000!

My news

The first three chapters of my latest novel, a romance I've called Acting Like A Killer, have been sent off to a couple of publishers – and after months and months at home, I'll soon be away on a trip in the mobile writing retreat!