Special Feature

Nine Ways to Promote Your Writing for Free

Often I am asked “How do you promote your writing without paying anyone?” In my experience, the best ways to promote one’s writing are free. I am very skeptical about most of the for-pay options. While there are many ways to promote your own writing, the best ways all involve hard work, and persistence. Here…
Issue Three Hundred Fifty Two Special Feature

The Importance of Knowing What You Want from a Publisher

Authors seeking to get their first manuscript published all have different goals. For some authors, any press will do, even if they have to pay for publication to happen (although I highly encourage you to self-publish through Amazon or another print-on-demand company, if that is the case). Other authors are interested in presses that have…
Issue Three Hundred Fifty One Special Feature

5 Paying Literary Markets to Submit to in February 2020

These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and they are all open for submissions. They are a mix of literary and genre markets. Ninth Letter This literary magazine is open for fiction, nonfiction and poetry submissions. They also accept translated works. They want work that experiments with form, narrative, and non-traditional subject matter, as…
Calls for Submissions Issue Three Hundred Fifty Special Feature

How to Know When Your Work is Ready to Submit

By Adele Annesi Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, short pieces or books, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is submitting your work too soon. This holds true no matter how long you’ve been writing or what project you’re working on. Wherever you are in your writing career, there are guidelines to follow…
Issue Three Hundred Fifty Five Special Feature

12 Sure Signs You Should Give This Writing Thing a Try

By Jessica Delfino Are you floating the idea of quitting your full-time “other” job with insurance and benefits to write that master work that has been preoccupying a hefty chunk of your waking (and even sleeping) thoughts? Not so fast! Before you storm into your boss’s office and slam down a cake decorated with “I…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Eight Special Feature

It’s a Performance: Reading Your Work in Public

By Tom Sigafoos What are your worst fears? According to a legendary survey, most people are afraid of three things, in this order: Snakes Death Public Speaking Whether that survey was apocryphal or scientific, there’s a germ of truth in the premise: most people dread the idea of speaking in front of others. But reading…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Seven Special Feature

5 Paying Literary Markets to Submit to in January 2020

These literary markets pay writers for fiction, and some also pay for nonfiction and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre markets, and do not charge a submission fee, or they have fee-free options. Not all of them are open throughout the month. Cossmass Infinities This is a science fiction and fantasy short…
Calls for Submissions Issue Three Hundred Forty Six Special Feature

How to Actually Finish Your Novel

As a writer it is a lot easier to start a novel than to finish one. I started at least 5 before I ever wrote one from beginning to end. Before I finished my first novel, I would get different new ideas all the time. I wrote at least twenty first chapters before I ever…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Five Special Feature Uncategorized

The Importance of Writing and Exercise

Phillip Roth often said that he walked a mile for every page he wrote. He also wrote those pages standing up. Hemingway was also known for standing while he wrote, and many modern writers from John Green to Susan Orleans have been known to use a treadmill desk. The science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Four Special Feature

Literary Journals: A Great Way to Promote Your Book

A literary journal is an online or print periodical devoted to literature. Literary journals usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays. Most focus on general literature, but there are others with more specialized interests such as science fiction, children’s literature, horror, and mystery. Some are just focused on a specific subject matter. For example there…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Three Special Feature

The Sea of Tranquility: A Self-Publishing Success Story

The Sea of Tranquility was initially self-published by Katja Millay in 2012. Within only three weeks of being self-published, the novel was picked up by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It went on to win the American Library Association’s Alex Award and A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Nine Special Feature

The Top Three Reasons Authors Need a Writing Community

By Kathryn Haueisen “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King Writing by committee is sheer torture for me. Leave me alone until I’ve written what’s been swirling around in my mind, keeping me awake by night and leading me to ignore real people because…
Issue Three Hundred Forty One Special Feature

The Writing Habit I Needed the Most

By Nicole Pyles Call me a bit of a Goldilocks when it comes to writing habits. I’ve tried the word-count-a-day habit, but sometimes I don’t have 500 words in me (or whichever word count a day I’ve decided upon). I’ve tried the 20-minute-a-day habit, but this results in me looking for excuses to not give…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Special Feature

Author Platforms: One Size Does Not Fit All

An “author platform” is your position as a writer, not just in terms of social media, but in terms of real-life connections and associations. More publishers and agents are asking for writers to talk about their author platforms as part of the query letter, and more small presses and agents are approaching authors that already…
Issue Three Hundred Forty Two Special Feature

Writing Partnerships: When Two Heads are Better Than One

By John Dorroh   In the spring of 2014 I found myself at the post-funeral party for a friend’s husband. He was a member of a local band, well loved, and had a great sense of humor. He told his wife to throw a party in his honor a week after he was buried. I…
Issue Three Hundred Thirty Nine Special Feature

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