Articles by Emily Harstone

Emily Harstone is the pen name of a published writer. Her work has been published in ten countries, four continents, by over fifty different journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and editor. If she owned a dog it would be named Wystan.

12 Publishers That Offer Advances to Most Authors

An advance is a signing bonus  that is paid to the author before the book is published. It is paid against future royalty earnings. So for every dollar you receive in an advance, you have to earn a dollar from book sales before you receive any additional royalty payments. Most independent publishers do not offer…
Special Issue

Escape Pod: An Audio Science Fiction Magazine

Escape Pod publishes all of its stories in audio and text formats. They are a science fiction market but as they say in their submission guidelines “our mandate is fun.” They allow some flexibility to exist within the genre and they have published the occasional steampunk or superhero tale. But they are not interested in…
Fiction Genre Issue One Hundred Seventy Three Literary Journals

Three Themed Calls for Submissions

These three different calls for submission are all very different. The first one is my personal favorite and it is a paying market. The First Line: “In the six years I spent tracking David Addley, it never occurred to me that he didn’t exist.” The First Line is a literary journal that publishes short stories…
Issue One Hundred Seventy One

The Novice Mistake Most Writers Make When Submitting to Publishers

There is one mistake that most authors make when submitting their work to literary journals and magazines for the first time. It is a mistake I made the first time I submitted. It is a mistake that most of the serious authors I know made. What is that mistake? Is it a terrible cover letter?…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Eight Special Feature

Soft Skull Press: Now Seeking Book Manuscripts

Updated March 2020 Soft Skull Press is a small publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction currently based in New York. They publish a wide variety of quirky and well written work. They have published a number of well-known authors, including Maggie Nelson. They are a niche press. Their distributor is Publishers Group West. They are now…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Manuscript Publishers Memoir Non Fiction Offers Advances

How Often Should You Expect Rejection?

Various readers have emailed me over the years asking about how often they should expect to be rejected. They phrase it different ways. Sometimes they ask if a ratio of four rejections to every one acceptance is good. Sometimes they ask if one acceptance a year is good. The one single factor that affects your…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Special Feature

15 Respected Literary Journals and Magazines that Publish Creative Writing

The literary journals and magazines on this list reject the vast majority of what is submitted to them. But they are respected and trusted. Most have a large readership. Many of these are the journals and magazines that the editors of publications like The Best American Short Stories read through to select work from. Acceptances…
Special Issue

Three Anthologies Seeking Submissions: Mom, Nelson Mandela, and Knights

The three anthologies we are featuring this week are very different. One is part of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series. It is open to submissions until September 30th. The other is an anthology of poems about Nelson Mandela, with an open ended deadline. The final one is an anthology of LGBTQIA stories about Knights….
Issue One Hundred Sixty Nine

Lakewater Press: Now Seeking Manuscript Submission

UPDATED March 17th 2021: Lakewater Press is closing in 2021. Lakewater Press is a newer eBook and print on demand (POD) publisher. They were founded in early 2015. They publish a wide variety of fiction. They appear to be open to all genres of fiction including young adult, new adult (18-30), and romance. It is…
All Genres Issue One Hundred Sixty Nine Manuscript Publishers New Adult Romance

Why Writers Need To Be Readers

“You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I…
Issue One Hundred Sixty Nine Special Feature

Poetry Magazine: Always Seeking Poetry Submissions

Poetry Magazine was founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912. The magazine established a reputation early on by publishing many important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and many others. Since then it has presented, sometimes for the first time, poems by almost every significant poet of…
Always open to submissions Issue One Hundred Seventy Two Literary Journals Paying Market Poetry

Clarkesworld Magazine: Accepting Science Fiction and Fantasy

Clarkesworld Magazine is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short stories, interviews, articles and audio fiction on a monthly basis. Electronic issues are available to read online or through subscription on their website.  All original fiction is also published in paperback. They are currently accepting art, nonfiction, and…
Creative Non Fiction Fiction Genre Issue One Hundred Seventy One Literary Journals

10 Literary Journals Open to Other Art Forms

Most literary journals publish poetry and fiction. Many also publish creative non-fiction, essays, reviews, and visual art (largely paintings, drawings, and photography). Most do not publish anything else. However, all of the journals linked to here are interested in a variety of mediums. Some want you to submit your songs, others your short videos. These…
Literary Journals Special Issue

Kraken Press: Now Accepting Manuscripts

Kraken Press is a small press that publishes novels, novellas and short fiction collections in the genres of dark fantasy, horror, and weird fiction. They want to publish fresh work that avoids tropes. They are based out of Sweden but open to submissions from authors around the world. They accept all submissions through Submittable. Kraken…
Fantasy Horror Issue One Hundred Sixty Eight Manuscript Publishers Science Fiction

How to Write a Good Third Person Biographical Statement

When you read submission guidelines, which vary from literary journal to literary journal, almost all of them will require that you include a brief biographical statement (or bio). Usually they require that the bio is in the third person and to be 50 words or less. These bios are tricky to write.It is hard to…
Issue One Hundred Sixty Eight Special Feature

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