Special Feature

Using Origin Stories to Sell More Books

By Rachel Carrington As crowded as today’s publishing market is, a good book may not stand out. Readers have so many options in their preferred genre. An outstanding description can catch their eye and help you make a sale, but oftentimes, if you’re a newer author, it’s difficult to get your foot in the door….
Issue Six Hundred Seventy Special Feature

The Perfection of the Wrong Word

Some sentences don’t start living till you punch them in the kneecap. I swear. You toss the “correct” word in there—the polite, ironed, Sunday-best vocabulary—and the line just sits like a bored cucumber. No pulse. No trouble. No spark. But then you stick in the “wrong” word, the one grammar teachers glare at from beyond…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty Seven Special Feature

How the Page Thinks: Spatial Intelligence in Writing

The page isn’t neutral. Never was. I didn’t figure this out from some craft book. More like years of staring at a blank screen, hungry, back hurting, the cursor blinking like it’s judging my life choices. I used to think writers control the page. You write, it holds. End of story. Clean, adult logic. But…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty Four Special Feature

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in February 2026

These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They’re a mix of literary and genre magazines. NewMythsThis is a speculative fiction magazine, and they “like to balance each quarterly issue between science fiction and fantasy, dark and light, serious and humorous, hard and soft science fiction, and longer and shorter works. We publish fiction, poetry, and non-fiction works.” Works…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty Three Paying Market Special Feature

What Novelists Should Do After Rejection

Having taught novel writing for many years now, one of the most common emails I receive from students and subscribers goes something like this: “Dear Emily,My novel has been through years of revisions now, and I’ve shopped it around to most agents and publishers. I could revise it one more time, but I’m not sure…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty Three Special Feature

Metaphor Fatigue: When Imagery Stops Working

When every emotion is a wildfire, even love starts to smell like smoke — and not the sexy campfire kind either, but that “oh god something’s burning in the kitchen” panic where you’re patting your pockets for a fire extinguisher you definitely don’t own. That’s what happens with metaphors when writers get too hyped. They…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty Two Special Feature

12 Magazines Seeking Writing on Climate, the Environment, and Nature

These magazines accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work on climate/environment/nature, ranging from new nature writing to environmental justice to eco-horror. Most, but not all, are open for submissions now. Some magazines pay writers. About Place JournalTheir tagline is, ‘a literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute dedicated to re-forging the links between art…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty One Special Feature

When the Story Turns Its Back: Learning to Abandon Gracefully

Some stories are like those friends who say, “We should totally hang out,” and then vanish like they got drafted by NASA. You try calling them back—chapter one, chapter two, that weird half-scene you wrote on a bus—and the story just rolls over, shows you its spine, and pretends it doesn’t know you. That’s when…
Issue Six Hundred Sixty One Special Feature

Identifying Your Book’s Target Audiences: Your Marketing Plan Foundation

By Jean Burgess I recently presented a conference workshop entitled “Creative Approaches to Direct Marketing Events.” The workshop’s first step asked participants to think about themes from their book that would appeal to their target audiences. Once the foundation was in place, the plan was to brainstorm ideas for events, organizations, interest groups, venues, etc….
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Nine Special Feature

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in January 2026

These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre magazines. They’re open now, or will soon open for submissions. Three-Lobed Burning EyeThey publish speculative fiction: including horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction. They want works “across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof….
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Eight Paying Market Special Feature

How to Balance Research and Writing

Ratika Deshpande “Write what you know” is common advice, but sometimes, we need to know more about the things we’re using in our stories, and that requires research.  The illusion of research as productive work But research is a double-edged sword: it is as distracting as it is useful. As you click on yet another…
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Eight Special Feature

The Physics of Emotion: Writing the Moment Before It Hits

There’s this weird blink in time — that hiccup between something happening and your brain sending out the official memo that says “Hey champ, you’re about to feel things.” Fiction lives there. Camps there. Probably steals cable from the neighbor there. That micro-instant is where your characters actually become human instead of cardboard standees with…
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Seven Special Feature

7 Ways to Increase Your Visibility as a Writer on Social Media

By Immaculata Chidera Osuji A social media profile is a powerful tool for writers. While many writers are naturally introverted and prefer to keep a low profile, hiding your creativity can present challenges. It’s perfectly fine to be introverted, but don’t let it silence your voice. This article will show you exactly how to build…
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Seven Issue Two Hundred Eighty Three Special Feature

81 Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers (December 2025)

This list of publishers meet our guiding principles, but are only open to free submissions from historically underrepresented writers or focus on publishing content produced by historically underrepresented writers. Some of these publications are open to a wide range of writers including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, and those living with disabilities….
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Five Special Feature

The Art of Not Knowing What You’re Writing Yet

Writers pretend like they know what they’re doing. They don’t. The ones who say they do are lying or legally obligated to sound confident for their MFA programs. Sometimes we walk into actual furniture. My knee still remembers the time I backed into a table after a plot twist surprised me. People act like you…
Issue Six Hundred Fifty Four Special Feature

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