This monthly column is published on the fourth Thursday of every month, and is a space to share information that doesn’t fit anywhere else in our publication. This includes a wide range of opportunities for writers, news and information, and subscribers’ recent success stories.
Opportunities:
ELA Literary Magazine is looking for work on the theme, The End of the World. This is what they have to say about the theme: “Between the three of us, we all have some fascination with dystopian fiction. Growing up we each had our own “dystopian phase,” which arguably shaped much of the twisted-ness we liked to see in fiction. Dystopia is dark, gritty, and thought-provoking – and what’s more so in all of these categories than the end of the world!” They go into even more details about what they are seeking, here. Please read their submission guidelines carefully before submitting. They close to submissions on May 1st.
News:
Many publishers, including the big five, have been promoting Every Library’s Stop the Federal Book Ban Bill campaign. Their campaign offers a number of easy ways to help prevent the passing of H.R. 7661. You can learn more about H.R. 7661 here.
There has been persistent issues with literary agent scams over the years (which we cover here), but recently the scammers have changed their focus. They are now impersonating editors of major publishing houses. You can read more about this in Writer Beware, here. On a more anecdotal note, scams of all kinds towards authors have increased because of generative AI. Sometimes the scammers impersonate famous authors just reaching out to connect, sometimes they pretend to be book clubs with thousands of members, sometimes they pretend to be publicists.
Less than two full weeks after Dial Books for Young Readers, an established imprint of Penguin Random House, was closed, Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, was also closed. In both situations some staff was laid off and others were shifted into new positions. In this situation, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group is opening a new imprint, while closing Roaring Brook, which is very different then what happened with Dial. The new imprint will only focused nonfiction and illustrated books. You can learn more about what happened here.
Lit Mag News recently covered a very interesting issue involving The Amazon Literary Partnership, and who receives funding and the lack of transparency there. You have to scroll down to read it, but it is worth doing so.
Subscriber Success Stories:
Chen Du‘s and Xisheng Chen‘s translation of Yan An’s book Rock Arrangement was published by Carnegie Mellon University Press.
Agatha Valencia’s creative nonfiction piece the kind of man I want was published by Carmine Pen Press.
Andrew Park has two poems appearing in the Canada is our Poem anthology published by Blue Moon Publishers.
Richard LeBlond’s essay The Road to Nowhere was published by *82 Review.
Nancy Antle‘s short story Before was published in Certain Age.
Stephen Dean Ingram’s short story Louisiana Street has been published in The Argyle Literary Magazine.
Cithara Patra’s flash fiction, Making Mermaids, appears in Two Children and their poem your love is a moth, is published by Pink Ochre.
Marcia Yudkin’s essay, Just Looking, was featured in Hollow & Sky.
Ken Post’s short story Back Before Dark, was just published in Halfway Down the Stairs.
Bill Tope’s epistolary story, A Letter to Maysam was published by Chewers.
Li Ruan‘s story Weeping Rubies was published in Emerald City Ghosts, her poem Father’s Moon was published in ONE ART’s IN A NUTSHELL: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MICROPOEMS, and her story All by the Gods’ Design was published in Lowestoft Chronicle.
Deborah Sale-Butler‘s story Preservation was published in Amazing Stories: Best of 2025 Anthology published by Amazing Stories.
Kevin Anthony Brown’s essay-review of Stendhal’s “Armance”, “The Red and the Black” and “The Charterhouse of Parma” was published by New English Review.
Rudy Vener‘s short story, Fledgling, was published in James Gunn’s Ad Astra Magazine.
Becky Marietta’s creative nonfiction piece, We Also Drank Water Out of the Hose was published in Little Old Lady Comedy.
John A. Tures had his story I Know What You Did On This Date published by short-story.me, his short story, The Initiation: A Majik Story published by Seven Story Publishing.
Valerie Thornton‘s piece Man With Pool Seeks Live-In Female Companion, Must Own Bikini was published in The Belladonna Comedy.
Marilyn Letts had three poems published in Becoming: An Anthology of What-If Poems about Women and Womanhood published by JLRB Press.
Laura Shell’s story Our Trip to Starbucks has been published in Vestal Review.
Brian Moses‘s children’s book, I am Ray’s Imaginary Friend was published by Scallywag Press.
Mark Speed’s story Lament was published in Guy Kojak and his story The Cauldron was published by Kaidankai Stories.
Derek J. Allison‘s chapbook Six Weeks in January was published by Bainbridge Island Press.
Meredith Flory‘s flash Why Did the Dog Bark? was published on Flash Phantoms.
Maria Lisella‘s poetry book At the Hour of Now is available for pre-order and is published by Bordighera Press.
Jenna Crowder‘s short story Lobsters was published in the April issue of Pithead Chapel.
Francis DiClemente’s memoir, Stunted: A Memoir of Delayed Manhood, is available for preorder now and will be published by Toplight Books.
Nereida Mangosing-Koeppen’s poem My Happy Place was published by The Sunlight Press.
Febriani Idrus‘s story, Ghost Story, was published Luna Station Quarterly.
Charles Sartorius’s horror story Ache was published by AntipodeanSF.
Susan M. Klarich‘s short story I Was in the Room has been published the anthology Tales from the Bedside from Code Blue Publishing.
Sunitha Mary Mookken‘s short story Blue Balsam was published by Plato’s Caves. Her poem Good Practice was published by Valiant Scribe.
Stephanie Ross‘s poem Moa Migration was published by The Wild Umbrella. Her short story, Not A Bedtime Story About A Superhero, A Rabbit, and A Wolf, was published by Viridine Literary. She also had a poem, I arrived Home to Find an Octopus on my Table, published in morphrog.
Marie Avis’ untitled microfiction work won 3rd place in the On The Premises Mini-Contest.
Christina Pickard’s poem Broken Shells was published by Paper Dragon.
Alissa Dickey’s story Edgy was published in The Ranger’s Almanac: “Tales from the Trails”.
Please send us an email at success.stories@authorspublish.com if you have a publication success you want to share in our next update. You must include a link to the publication. You can also include a link to your website (if you have one), and the publisher/journals main landing page. To be featured in the May update your work must be published no earlier than February. Work available for pre-order can be shared. Please note that we are only listing work that has been traditionally published by literary journals, magazines, or traditional presses. We are not covering vanity presses or self-published books. We are not vetting presses before adding them to this list. We can only list three successes per person per update.
Bio: Caitlin Jans has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the co-founder of Authors Publish and The Poetry Marathon. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including: The Literary Review of Canada, The Fiddlehead, Jelly Bucket, The Penn Review, The Adroit Journal, and Killer Verse. Her prose and poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, BILiNE, The Best Small Fictions Anthology, and The Best of the Net. You can learn more at her website or follow her on Facebook.
