Writing Prompt: The Insomniac

Your main character can’t sleep. They can eat, they can talk, they have a job, they are like most other characters, except for one fact: they cannot sleep. Not even a little nap. Maybe they used to be able to sleep, but something has changed, and they can no longer close their eyes and dream….

The Five Best Literary Journals That Have Re-opened to Submissions This Month

Every month journals open and close their reading periods. At the start of the year, several great journals re-opened their doors to submissions after taking a great deal of time off. The journals are listed in no particular order, it would be a great achievement to have work accepted by any of them. 1. LIT…

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The Setting is The Story

Setting is the key to many stories. I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith would not be nearly so powerful if it was set elsewhere. The Great Gatsby would be a completely different story if it took place in the Midwest. So many stories rely on their location to tell the story. This exercise is…

Camroc Press Review: One Day Response Rates

If you want to be published, one of the worst things is waiting to hear back from publishers. I once received a rejection from The Harvard Review almost two years after submitting to them. By that time all the poems I had submitted to The Harvard Review had been accepted elsewhere. I had officially withdrawn…

Quote of the Week

Writing Contests: 4 Questions to Ask Before Paying a Fee.

As an author, editor, professional submitter, and poet, I end up talking about writing contests a great deal. A lot of writers enter contests, but as a general rule we do not review contests in Authors Publish, Magazine. Why? Because contests almost always have an entry fee attached The first time I ever encountered a…

Writing Prompt: Secret Room

Imagine a house. It can be based on one you know well, or one you like from another book. But you should feel pretty comfortable with this house, even if parts of it are fictional. You should know how well maintained the house is, how big it is, and the architectural style it leans towards….

Weekly Inspiration: All I Want For Christmas

     For the month of December we have created a number of inspirational images that are not quote related. They are all focused on what a writer wants for Christmas, ideally. Some of these wishes are practical and others  are extravagant, but they are all focused on what writers desire. These images are just part…

Writing Prompt: No Adjectives

“When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them–then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.” Mark Twain An adjective is a describing word. In general, its purpose is to modify the word following…

The Ten Best Literary Journals in 2013

Every week we send you reviews of literary journals open to submissions. As the end of year approaches we are releasing a list of the Ten Best Literary Journals that we have reviewed this year. All the Journals on the list are currently open to submissions, so keep that in mind. Some journals that we…

Writing Prompt: The Best First Line

A really silly first line will stop me from reading the rest of the book, and a really good first line will prompt me to take the book up to the cash register. Because of this I have always put a lot of effort into my first lines. A good first line tends to lead…

Jupiter Garden Press: Accepting Manuscript Excerpts

Update July 2016: Jupiter Gardens is out of buisness as of August 2016 Jupiter Garden Press was started in 2007 by Mary K. Wilson. It started out as a metaphysical press that also sold other items, such as crystals. A lot has changed since then. Their main publication, Jupiter Gardens Press, is mainly non-fiction focused…

Quote of The Week

Writing Prompt: The Reader Knows

Most of Shakespeare’s plays hinge on the fact that the audience knows more than the characters. In Romeo and Juliet we know that Juliet is not actually dead, even though Romeo takes his own life believing that she is already dead. In the Twelfth Night we know who is a male pretending to be a…