Over To You - and a new market

 

Womag news
Thanks to Marguerite for passing on details of this interesting new market for short stories, flash fiction and poetry.

Lipstick & Lies is a new magazine, looking for stories between 1,000 and 2,500 words. Full submission requirements are on the website.

I contacted Eva who has set this up to enqure whether this is a paying market and to invite her onto the blog to discuss fiction in the magazine. 

Her response – "As we are brand-spanking new, we are starting off as a non-paying market.

However, should there be plenty of submissions, we will be offering payment at a later stage.

The 'Guest Post' sounds exciting - I shall give that some thought."

Anyone had any kind of response from Stylist? I sent a submission, but haven't had any acknowledgement or reply.

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.

Free entry writing competition news

I'd love to hear your competition news.

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

My news

I've published a new collection of short stories called Making A Move.

Here's the blurb – No matter if it’s taking a walk, catching a bus or jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane, the way we move can get us where we want to be.

Our journey could be on land, sea, by air or all in our mind. We might travel with others, get there by ourselves, or need help to make the journey.

The moves we make aren't always from A to B. We may change direction, take steps to improve our lives or start a relationship. We could be the driver, passenger or equal partner in a dance into the future.

Whether they're making a move on someone, moving upwards and onwards, or going round in circles, anyone who doesn't stay put has a story to tell. This book contains 24 of them.

It's available from Amazon as a paperback or ebook, or can be ordered through bookshops and requested in libraries. As always anything you can do to help spread the word will be much appreciated.

A wee bit of cheer

Womag News

Some good news! The People's Friend are going to publish even more fiction. Full details can be found here.

Free entry competition news

This competition is for writing about 'what Scotland means to me' offers "free enrollment to the "Become a Successful Author" course (a value of $1,500 USD), plus access to our library of author training resources (up to $500 value)" as the prize. I feel it also totally justifies me for posting some pictures of my trips to Scotland!

Thanks to Alyson for your continued support of this blog and for passing on more great links. The latest are for this short story competition with a £500 prize and this one which offers prizes of $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000!

Blog news

Thanks to Beverley who alerted me to the fact that the option to subscribe by email to this blog had disappeared. I don't know how I managed to remove it, but I think I've now managed to reinstate it. You should be able to find it in the right hand side sidebar (possibly only on computers and tablets, not phones). 

I've tried it out myself and it seems to work, but I did get an alarming message saying it's not secure. Sorry, I don't know how to fix that. If you do, and can explain it in very simple terms, please get in touch!

However you find my blog posts, please do leave a comment on any you find of interest. This lets me know what to post more of and motivates me to do so. Comments also have the potential to improve the blog – both by the sharing of information and the possibility of getting responses from editors, competition organisers etc and attracting interesting guest bloggers. Such people are more likly to be interested if the blog clearly has readers and the only way they'll know that is if you leave comments.

Why Your Writing is Important – guest post by Cat Lumb

My guest today is womagwriter, author and writing coach Cat Lumb.

Why Your Writing is Important

As writers, it’s easy to put off our writing for another day. Especially when other people are vying for our attention, tasks need completing, and there’s always just ‘one more thing to do’. We postpone our solitary session in front of the page because our friends or family need us - a quick favour, or phone call, or trip to the shops. Every distraction is a reason to step away and one more delay to our writing progress. 

As a Writing Coach I see this often in my clients’ lives. Because their writing is only important to them it gets pushed down the to-do list. We justify it because there isn’t a looming deadline, and the consequences of not writing that day seem less impactful on those around us. After all, it’s just ourselves we’re letting down, not anyone else. And we do this so much that writing rarely reaches the top of the endless list of things we promise to everyone else first. 

But why is it that our own writing dreams are less important than a trip to the supermarket, a phone call with a friend, or that unanswered email?

In part it’s because it’s easier to neglect our writing than it is to ignore a human being. We don’t want to let other people down, and our writing will always be there for another day, right? While our dream might be important to us, it’s not to anyone else, and it’s certainly not urgent: not like the cacophony of demands from people around us. 

So we put it off, and hope that we can get back to it another day.

Except, of course, tomorrow is exactly the same as it was yesterday and today, and in a world of instant and immediate communication it’s assumed rude to ignore a message for more than a few hours. 

Yet, whenever we ditch our writing we feel disappointed in ourselves. We take it as a sign that perhaps we’re not meant for writing, and that our dream is just that - a dream, a fantasy, nothing that we deserve given we can’t seem to sit down to it. Because it can feel selfish to take an hour or so out of your day to indulge in your imaginary world. How can you defend spending time with characters that don’t exist off the page when your kids, pets, or family - very real, tangible beings - are calling for you in the background.

But if our writing time is not important enough for us to protect it from all the distractions in our lives, why should other people respect that time we spend writing too? The more often we dismiss our writing ourselves the more regularly people assume we aren’t serious about it.

This is why one of the first things I embed with my clients is the statement: “If my writing is important to me; it’s important.” No justifications or explanations necessary. 

Writing is precious and therefore we need to take care of it. Even when those around us can’t understand it, we have to advocate for our dream because nobody else will. And the best way to do this is by putting clear boundaries in place around our writing time. 

Imagine a life where you don’t delay your writing dream. When instead of saying ‘Yes’ to something someone else is asking, you say ‘Not right now, because I’m writing’. How much more progress would you make if those in your life respected and accepted your writing time and therefore didn’t interrupt or distract you from it? 

The only way this can happen is if you see your writing that way too.

So, the next time you find yourself promising to write, and then never showing up for it - remind yourself that your writing dream is important, it deserves to be protected, nurtured, and permitted to grow. If you believe that your writing is worthy of your time and act accordingly, others will respond in kind. Then perhaps that dream will have a chance to become a reality.

Say it with me: If my writing is important to me, it’s important.

__________

Try This: 

As The Write Catalyst I advise this simple exercise to review how you prioritise your writing time in advance - making the decision ahead of time means it’s easier to carry it out in the moment.

Make a list of the things that are MORE important to you than your writing dream (medical emergency, time with children, paid-work). Then make a list of all the things that are LESS important than your writing dream (housework, doom-scrolling, gossiping on the phone). 

The next time you are scheduled to sit down to write the ONLY things you are allowed to prioritise above it are those things on the MORE list. If someone calls you for a chat, or the kitchen needs a tidy - those things don’t count; go and write instead! 

________

Cat Lumb is a writer with published fiction in Women's Weekly, Writing Magazine, Comma Press and on Amazon - including her debut novel In Lies We Trust which reached #16 in the Spy Thriller bestseller list in March 2021. She is also a Writing Coach under the alias The Write Catalyst, and supports writers to finally write that novel they dream of using positive encouragement and her decade of writing experience. She also offers advice and support through her blog and social media communities, in addition to online Masterclasses and 1:1 Coaching offers.
Check out her blog: www.catlumb.com/blog 
Join The Write Catalyst Facebook Community; Follow The Write Catalyst on Instagram; or find her on Twitter.

Why bother?

Womag news

Submitting to YOU magazine is now resulting in the following automatic response –

 Dear writer, 

Thank you for your story.
Due to the sheer volume of submissions, the YOU Fiction mailbox will be closed until further notice. 

Appreciate your understanding,
YOU Fiction Editor

Hopefully this is only temporary, to allow the editor to catch up with submissions. 

There are a lot of us writers submitting to a small number of markets – if most of us simultaneously send something to the same place, which tends to happen when submission windows or new markets open, the editors will feel swamped. I'm not saying don't submit, but maybe think twice before sending everything on your hard drive which is the correct word count?

My news

I'm doing some updates on this blog and my website. If you happen to notice any broken links, daft typos or anything else which needs attention, please let me know.

The photos above are of the illustrations for stories I have in the current The People's Friend and Take A Break's Fiction Feast. If you submit to either magazine you'll know which is which. If you don't you're not reading the current issues and I strongly advise that you do.)

I have a new short story collection coming out soon.

Sometimes, when I get a rejection, or I've had no book sales I can wonder why I bother. Other days something happens to make me glad I do. Yesterday was one of those times. I got a review for this collection of garden stories. Naturally I was pleased by the 5 stars, but it was the person saying they'd bought the book to read to their mother who has dementia which made the impact.

I feel the real value of womag type stories is their ability to provide a few minutes escapism and pleasure. They don't change the world or people's lives, but they can sometimes raise a smile – and that's important.

Five fabulous freebies! (and flowers)

I've found five free competitions for my friends. Have fun figuring out fine and fabulously formatted entries. First here are a few of the frivolous flowers I'm famous for. (I photographed them on my phone, but that only works phonetically.)

Free entry competition news

The Anansi Archives spring competitions are open. There are small cash prizes for short stories, flash fiction and poetry. I expect I'll have a go at that one.

The Fitzcarraldo Editions novel prize offers publication with a $10,000 advance for works of at least 30,000 words. I don't have anything suitable for that and probably won't have by the 1st June when it closes.

Although the BCSA competition is for writing about the links between Britain and the lands now comprising the Slovak and Czech Republics or society in the republics, anyone may enter. First prize is £400, publication and the option to have the award presented at a dinner in London.

That's not for me. I don't know enough about the subject. No doubt that applies to a lot of people, so if you do have some knowledge or are prepared to research your chances might be quite good.

This competition from W&AYB is for British and Irish writers who consider themselves working class. They want the opening of a work in progress and are offering a prize bundle which includes £200 and mentoring.

I don't have anything started for this either, but it doesn't close until 18th July and they only need a short sample, so if inspiration strikes I could give this a go.

The Perito prize is for work on the theme of inclusive environments, accessibility and inclusive design and offers a £500 prize. The winner and selected entries will be published in an anthology. The theme interests me, so I'll try to come up with something.

Are you tempted by any of these? If not, why not?

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.

The Art Of Re-drafting by Womag Writer S. Bee.

Today's guest is my writing friend and critique buddy S. Bee. She's kindly sharing the amount of work, rethinking and perseverance it sometimes takes to get a womag story accepted for publication. 

Some writers can be precious about their work and refuse to change even a word, let alone the character's name or the main plot. I used to feel like that when I set out in 2010, trying to sell my work to the woman's magazine market. Over time, I changed my mind when I realised that in order to sell, I needed to adopt a more flexible approach.

This piece outlines my experience of how I re-drafted a story several times in order for it to be finally accepted.

I first wrote a story called 'Too Good to be True' around eight years ago. It was about a middle-aged hairdresser (Marion) who, on her day off at home, answered the door to an out of the blue caller – her twenty-something daughter's primary/ infant school friend, Lisa.

Marion hadn't seen Lisa for years, so hardly recognised her, but invited her in for a cuppa. Daughter Abbey was away on holiday. Over tea, Lisa spun Marion a story of woe. She was currently homeless and had been kicked out of a hostel because (apparently) they needed her room. She was unemployed, too. She asked if Marion would consider her as a live- in housekeeper.

Feeling sorry for her, and put on the spot, Marion said yes – but she came to regret her decision. Lisa didn't do any housework and played her music loud.

Mild-mannered Marion tried to confront Lisa, but nothing had changed. Lisa was taking her for a ride, with free food, shelter and bills. The loud music attracted a dishy male neighbour, Ken. He asks Marion out. They go on a date and work as a team, to come with options for Lisa. When they return to Marion's, they discover that Lisa has disappeared. As a parting gift, she's cleaned the house. 

And that was the end of the story. Marion found romance and the 'Lisa situation' had solved itself!

I subbed it around the magazines, but it didn't get anywhere. For a start, social problems aren't very womag friendly. No-one wants to reads about hostels and unemployment.

Marion's daughter didn't appear anywhere in the story, either. Lisa was the connection to Abbey, so Abbey ought to have made an appearance. And why would Lisa change her ways, then suddenly disappear?

I still liked the idea of a ID fraudster taking advantage, so put the story aside until I felt ready to begin version 2, called 'The two Lisa's.' The basic plot was the same as before, but I'd dropped the dishy neighbour. Marion arrived home from work to find Lisa had disappeared again (leaving the house in a mess). 

This time, Abbey rocked up early from her holiday, with yes, you've guessed it, her school pal, Lisa – she'd bumped into her at the airport. The real Lisa explained she knew Trina, who was also a childhood pal.

Trina had posed as Lisa, preying on the parents of her former school friends, in order to gain free lodgings and food. She found these friends online. It was around fifteen years since anyone had seen Lisa, so like Marion, the parents wouldn't recognise her – so she got away with it.

Lisa explained that Trina had probably run off to join a boyfriend in Paris, as this was her pattern of behaviour. Marion's head whirled (mine did too!) When Lisa left, they suspected them of being in cahoots. The last line was when Marion turned to Abbey and asked 'How do we know that was the real Lisa?'

How indeed!

Although I'd left the ending open, I was convinced it had a fantastic twist. With hopes high, I subbed it to suitable magazines again. Yet there was no joy. It was only with the distance of time that I could clearly see that the plot was too complicated.

It raised more questions than answers. If Trina and Lisa were partners in crime, what exactly did they get away with? Nothing was actually stolen. I didn't like the 'tracking down folk via a website' aspect, either. It was way too sinister. And as my womag writing critique friends said, certain parts of the plot just didn't ring true. 

Why would Lisa / Trina go to all that trouble, just for the sake of grabbing 2 week's free nosh? If she had a fella in Paris, why wasn't she with him? And why would the real Lisa help Trina scrounge like this? What would she get out of it? It was also bit of a coincidence that she'd bumped into Abbey at the airport. Surely, if Lisa was a rip-off merchant, she'd want to avoid her?

I couldn't think of a way around it that was less complex. I was seriously struggling. So I asked myself, what was the important angle, for me, with this story? Well, I wanted to emphasise the 'never trust a stranger' idea.

When inspiration struck, I ditched the whole 'daughter's fake school friend' set-up. But passive, polite Marion needed someone on her side, so I kept Abbey.

Version number 3 was called 'The Doorstep Stranger.' It had never occurred to me to bring in her job – Marion was a hairdresser. But this time, I did. 

The big question was – had Marion been conned by Linda, who called herself a market researcher? I'd try and keep the reader guessing whether Linda was genuine or not. 

Abbey made an appearance at the half-way point, to listen to her to mum's reservations – and to confront Linda. I also cut down on the words to make it short and snappy, plus to suit the mag's length.

The new plot involved Marion discovering that Linda had stolen her jewellery whilst pretending to need the loo. Linda turned out to be the daughter of Marion's new work- mate. Marion had found this new recruit difficult, and had given her a telling off. So the newbie and her daughter had cooked up a revenge plot!

I was hugely relieved when in early 2022, Take a Break's Fiction Feast accepted it. So the moral of the story is - don't give up on a tale you have faith in, even if it requires the art of re-drafting!

Fiction guidelines for YOU magazine

Here are the guidelines for YOU magazine, reproduced with permission from the fiction editor.

GUIDELINES FOR YOU SHORT STORIES:  

  

Length: 1 500 words  

  

Genre: Any, including romance although we'd like to feature more whodunits and detective stories.   

  

Plot: General, but including contemporary issues such as the internet, email, family and social relationships, etc. The main criteria are that the story should be an entertaining, compelling read, and not too highbrow or morbid. Stories with an interesting twist always make for fun reading. Finally, there must be a definite storyline; sketches will not do.   

  

Target market: YOU is a family magazine and ideally we'd like our short stories to appeal to both male and female readers (young adults and adults).   

  

Presentation: Only emailed manuscripts will be accepted for consideration. Email them to stories@you.co.za.  

  

To facilitate our production process please:  

• Use double quotation marks.  
• Use only one space after full stops, commas, semicolons, question marks, etc.  

• Press the ENTER key only once to make a paragraph; do not use indents.  
  
  
  We pay: R1 950/story  
  
  
  NB! WE ONLY ACCEPT SHORT STORIES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN PUBLISHED IN OTHER SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLICATIONS OR ON THE INTERNET.  

I invited the fiction editor, Illana Frantz onto the blog and she replied that she'd like to take me up on that offer sometime. If you have any questions you'd like her to answer, please put them in the comments. I can't guarantee she'll be able to answer them all, but I will pass them on.

Over To You

Womag news

My womag news – Over the last week I've sold to My Weekly and Yours. All sales are good of course, but I'm especially pleased about these as it's been a long time since I had an acceptance with either of them. In the case of Yours that's partly because I didn't sub for quite a few years (due to them taking all rights during that period). With My Weekly I obviously just wasn't sending quite what the editors wanted.

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.

Free entry writing competition news

There's still (just) time to enter the BBC National Short Story Award. The prize is £600 – for runners up! Top prize is £15,000.  The rules refer to 'the extreme volume of entries' so our chances aren't high, but somebody has to win, don't they?

I have sent a few entries but no successes to report. 

I'd love to hear your competition news, if you have any.

Call for submission

The Black Spring Press are inviting poems for an anthology to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.

Other stuff

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

I'm Finnished!

Sorry about the clickbait headline. I've not given up writing, or cake or anything drastic like that. What's happened is that a company who make language learning apps saw one of my published short stories and asked to buy it to help Finnish students through their english coursework. 

As I hadn't given up all rights I was able to agree to the sale. Had I given up all rights I wouldn't have been able to accept the fairly generous fee, even though whoever held the rights wouldn't have wanted to use the story in a learning language app. of their own. This is one of many reasons I strongly advise writers not to give up all rights to their work.

My womag news is that I have a story in the 11th March issues of Ireland's Own and the current People's Friend special. They're both gardening related, which I think totally justifies me sprinkling this post with photos of my garden.

If you're interested in the story behind some of my stories and other stuff about my writing life, take a look at the blog on my website.

Free entry competition news

Fusilli are continuing with their flash fiction competitions. You can use up to 200 words to write a story with a twist. Entry is free, but there's an option to get paid feedback.

Thanks to Dawn Brown for passing on the details of this competition from Bloodhound books. They want complete novels of at least 60,000 words from writers from a minority background – it's up to the entrants to explain how they qualify. The prize is a publishing contract along with editorial and marketing help.

Alli are offering a Kobo ereader and a self publishing package in this ten word story competition. I'm definitely going to have a go at that one!

Be a winning writer with the Wergle Flomp Humour Poetry Contest

My guest today is Annie Mydia is joining me today to share information and tips about a fantastic free to enter poetry competition.

Hey funny poets, your humor poem could win $2,000 in the free Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. 

Entries can be on any topic, in any poetic style or format.

In these tough times, Wergle Flomp's mission is to bring side-splitting humor to the world.

Our contest is always free to enter in order to guarantee maximum accessibility. When it comes to humor, we want it all!

So, what makes a winning poem? 

Our judges share observations on past winners: 

"Make it unique, make it yours, make me jealous I didn't think of it myself." Lauren Singer, 2020 

"We try to give equal offense to all belief systems and genders, but not kick anyone when they are down." Jendi Reiter, 2016 

 "The pieces that always get high marks from me are finding the humor in the mundane… the observational glimpses inside the micro-universes we all live in day to day that just make being alive a comedy of absurdity and humanity." Lauren Singer, 2020

Meanwhile, some things that the judges don't appreciate are punching down or themes and satirizations they've often encountered before. You can read the full judges' comments in our past winners directory to get a sense of what we're looking for. 

Concocted a poem that's fiendishly funny? Submit it on our website by April 1, 2022. 

Good luck, and good laughs!

Annie

Please do send in an entry – I'd love one of my blog readers to win this.

Free entry comps, poppies and a sale

Free entry competition news

The Bruntwood prize for playwriting offers a prize of £16,000 plus feedback on all shortlisted entries.

Fitzcarraldo Editions are offering '£3,000 to the best proposal for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000 words) by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal'. 

If you know any children aged 12 or under you may like to tell them about WordHound's monthly competition. They provide a prompt, ask for up to 300 words, and offer prizes and online publication. The

Elmbridge Literary Competition is also free for children (under 18s in this case). They do have an adult category, but there's a £5 entry fee for that. Poets aged 14-18 can enter the competition from Hippocrates Initiative For Poetry and Medicine which has a £500 prize. Finally there's this competition for children aged 9-18 which has categories for poems, songs, speech and art.

If there were competitions like this when I was a kid then I was unaware of them. I wonder if discovering some would have got me started writing three decades earlier than I actually did?

Next week's post is about the free Wergle Flomp poetry competition and contains tips from judges, and Annie from the organisers Winning Writers, for crafting a funny poem worthy of the $2,000 first prize.

Womag news

I did get an acceptance from TAB yesterday, but that's not the sale referred to in the blog post's title.

Thanks to Liz Filleul for passing on this link, which announces that US magazine Woman's World (and other titles) has been sold. The new owners are Accelerate 360. I don't know anything about them or any magazines they publish – do you?

Weather news

It was windy – maybe you noticed? Neither I nor the garden enjoyed the storms (apparently we had winds of 93 mph). Instead of being sad about the damage I'm looking back at photos from last summer and reminding myself that most plants will recover and by summer the garden will be full of poppies.

As always I'd very much appreciate you leaving a comment about anything you find interesting / useful, so I know which type of content to continue with.