Special Feature

The First Draft: Love It or Hate It? Just Write It!

By Dawn Colclasure Some writers fear writing a first draft. The first draft is that blank page looming before them, daring the writer to compose a masterpiece. Feeling as though they must write a perfect first draft is just one of the roadblocks writers face when it comes to writing something new. It is also…
Issue Five Hundred Six Special Feature

14 Myths About Writers

What does it mean to be a writer? People have strong opinions. Many of them are true, many are wrong. There are so many false assumptions, clichés, and myths out there surrounding writers. Some of these myths contain some level of truth, others are nothing but rumors and a singular memorable example. Here are 14…
Issue Five Hundred Special Feature

6 Common Myths About Publishing

As a writer who receives hundreds of emails each week about publishing, there are a number of myths about publishing that I encounter repeatedly. Different writers tell them to me as if they are fact. Some myths are ones I believed when I was starting out. Some contain truth. Many are entirely false. Believing in…
Issue Five Hundred Eighty Eight Issue Four Hundred Ninety One Special Feature

Flash Fiction: Packing a Lot into a Little

By David Galef What’s under 1,000 words and read all over? Flash fiction. You can change the limit to 500, around 300 for micro fiction, and even less for tiny miniatures like hint fiction (25 words or fewer) and nanofiction, which is the length of an old-style tweet, 140 characters, including the spaces. The principle…
Issue Four Hundred Ninety Special Feature

32 Exciting New Literary Magazines

These magazines publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and are a mix of literary and genre outlets. They have begun publishing for about a year or less; some of them are reading work for their inaugural issues. Some of them pay writers. Please note, though, that literary magazines are often micro operations; they change guidelines, including…
Special Feature

An Accidental Novelist

By Sarah Martin Of all the different kinds of writing I’ve practised over the years, novel writing is the most exhilarating. That’s partly because things don’t always turn out the way you planned. My writing life began with school reports where careful diplomacy ran a fine line between avoiding motherhood statements or being hurtful, and…
Issue Four Hundred Eighty Nine Special Feature

3 Questions to Answer Before Your Inciting Event

By Ashley Taylor Clark Story beginnings are infamously difficult to write. Since most major story beats don’t happen until the second act, many writers are left floundering with what feels like slow, tedious detail as they attempt to write their opener. If you’re a plotter, you may have even sought out templates or other tips…
Issue Four Hundred Eighty Eight Special Feature

Rock the Mic: Giving a Poetry Reading They Will Remember

By Allison Whittenberg Readings are everywhere: in coffee houses and cafes. Bookstores and libraries. Museums and art galleries. Colleges and universities. Chances are  wherever you live, you are within a stones throw or at the very most, driving distance from a reading. Perhaps the spotlight is on you this  time around. Here are some tips…
Issue Four Hundred Ninety Four Special Feature

Simple Strategies for Building a Daily Writing Habit

By Emily-Jane Hills Orford We’re not all morning people. Some of us are more alert in the afternoon and evening. I’m a morning person and I’m also a creature of habit. Routines get me going, and make me feel like I’m accomplishing something and getting the day off to a good start. And by having…
Issue Four Hundred Eighty Seven Special Feature

Case Study: How I Published My Debut Novel Off the Yoga Mat

By Cheryl J. Fish This is part of our ongoing series on how authors published their first book. You can read our other stories in this series, here, here, here, and here. I am writing about what happened to me, at the threshold of publishing my debut novel. After fifteen years, after realizing there are notable paths…
Case Studies Issue Four Hundred Eighty Six Special Feature

Case Study: How I Broke Into Traditional Publishing As A Debut Author

By Nev March This is part of our ongoing series on how authors published their first book. You can read our other stories in this series, here, here, and here. “And you’re going to speak at the Edgar Award Ceremony. You’ll go first, before the Edgars,” said Mystery Writers of America director Margery Flax. Jaw…
Issue Four Hundred Eighty Five Special Feature

3 Things Your Opening Scenes Should Achieve

By Ashley Taylor Clark You’ve done it — you’ve finally crafted the perfect plot, and you know exactly what your inciting event needs to be to get your protagonist started on their adventure. Now you just have to figure out how to get them there. You only have a handful of scenes with which to…
Issue Four Hundred Eighty Five Special Feature

55 Opportunities Open to Submissions From Historically Underrepresented Voices This August

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 Four Hundred Eighty One Special Feature Uncategorized

Writing Realism in Unrealistic Settings

By Ashley Taylor Clark Reality is the basis of all fiction. No matter how bizarre or fantastical your story may be, its foundation is built on and around the rules of the real world. This may seem like a limitation at first glance (why write fantasy at all if it needs to be reined in…
Issue Four Hundred Seventy Eight Special Feature

McFarland & Company Inc.: Now Accepting Manuscript Proposals

McFarland & Company Inc. is an academic and nonfiction publisher that markets primarily to libraries. They have much more expensive cover prices because of this, and do not have good distribution in brick-and-mortar bookstores, but are widely available at libraries throughout North America. They also have a good reputation among librarians, which is a plus….
Academic Issue Four Hundred Seventy Six Manuscript Publishers Non Fiction Special Feature

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