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.

The “Best Memoir Title” Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Shotgun Honey

Shotgun Honey is an online literary journal that has very specific content. They publish only fiction that is under 700 words in length and is in the genre of crime fiction. Within that genre, they like hard-boiled and noir fiction the best. Think of authors like Hammet and Chandler. Although they will accept general crime…

Red Flags: A Guide to Avoiding the Wrong Publishers

Updated February 20th, 2016 This article is all about how to avoid signing a book contract with the wrong publisher. It is hard to find good publishers, and it involves a lot of research just to find a legitimate publisher that accepts work if you do not have an agent. However, there are great options…

Beachwalk Press: Closed

UPDATED MARCH 30th, 2021: No web presence online. Consider defunct. Beachwalk Press is an independent publisher that was started in 2011 by Pamela Tyner. They largely publish romantic eBooks, but some of their books have been released in print as well. Most of the books they publish are on the sensual side. They are open…

Writing Prompt: Mad Scientist

Mad Scientists are an established stereotype now and they appear in movies, in TV shows, and books. It is usually hard to take them seriously. Still, they manage to be an enticing theme and many people play with the audience’s expectations. In the TV show Fringe, one of the main characters, Walter, was a mad scientist….

Writing Prompt: Road Trip

I have not been on very many road trips. However I am a big fan of road trip movies. Although I must admit my favorites are all deeply unconventional. They include Wristcutters: A Love Story, Dead Man, and Paris Texas. To give you a better feel for what I mean, Dead Man is the tale…

The One Sentence Pitch Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Gemma Media: Open to Query Letters

Updated March 13th, 2020 GemmaMedia is an independent publisher that has managed to get a fair amount of distribution. GemmaMedia focuses on niche markets. They publish “cultural memoir for young people and adults, literary fiction from beloved Irish authors, and current affairs publishing with diversity at the heart of the story”. They are not interested…

Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: A Thousand Years

In Schild’s Ladder, a science fiction novel by Greg Egan, most of the characters live far longer than normal human lifespans. They are immortal, more or less. Some are incorporeal and others have bodies but not necessarily the same ones they were born with. Most of the characters in the book are scientists of some…

The Six Word Short Story Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests change from week to week, but the winners are always published in the magazine. The contest winner and the runners up are…

10 Literary Journals that Pay Their Writers

Last Updated August 20th, 2017 “It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.” W.H. Auden As someone who makes their living writing about writing and publishing, I can attest to how truthful Auden’s quote is….

Quote of the Week

We’re Taking a Stand Against Literary Journals that Charge Submission Fees

I have submitted my work to well over 300 different journals in the past two years, and many more before that. When I first started submitting four years ago, one or two journals charged writers a couple of bucks to submit their work for consideration. This fee did not cover anything else. It did not…

« Older Entries Newer Entries »