Publisher Charges $23 for Contest Entries, Then Cancels Cash Award; New “Human Authored” Certification; NEA Grants Affected by Trump Administration; 3 Publishing Opportunities; Subscriber Success Stories
This monthly column is published on the fourth Thursday of every month, and is an opportunity for me to share information that doesn’t fit anywhere else in our publication. This includes a wide range of opportunities for writers, publishing news, helpful articles we have read recently, and subscriber’s recent success stories.
Opportunities:
Midwest Weird, is an audio literary magazine, that seeking submissions of weird fiction or nonfiction from Midwestern authors. They are especially looking for submissions from underrepresented communities. You can see their full submission guidelines here.
Bluestem, an online journal published by Eastern Illinois University, is open to submissions. They accept submissions from incarcerated writers via USPS (details on their website). They are open to submissions till March 8th, but have been known to close submissions earlier if they hit submission caps. They accept submissions of comics, creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. Please note that they do have a quota for free submissions, and if they hit it they may close to submissions or start charging.
Midsummer Dream House is open to submissions for their print and digital publication till March 10th. They are open to submissions of scripts, comic books/graphic work, fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art. Please note that they do have a quota for free submissions, and if they hit it they may close to submissions or start charging.
News:
Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, are all under the new ownership of 1 Paragraph, Inc. Jason Sanford, goes into more details here.
Narrative Magazine, which has published many respected and established authors and already has a substantial general submission fee ($23), announced the finalists of their 2024 Fall Story contest. They hold a story contest three times a year, once for each season except for summer. Entry fees are $27, and the generally first prize winner is awarded $2,500, Second Prize is $1,000, Third Prize is $500. Instead because there were only finalists they were paid $100 each. You can see their full guidelines here. No one was refunded. Additionally Narrative used to offer one limited fee-free submission period a year that we used to list, but because their submission system was so hard to use, and most writers felt forced to pay in the end, we no longer list them. They are already promoting their winter prize. Becky Tuch also shared other details including how much the editors make, here.
The NEA grants have already impacted by the Trump administration, this in the long run will also impact literary journals. You can read more about it here and here.
Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint will no longer require blurbs as part of the publishing process, and Sean Manning, the new publisher, wrote an essay about that here.
Alcove Press and Crooked Lane now have a first look deal with Spotify Premium. Their titles will start to be available on the platform in March.
Authors Guild has launched ‘human authored’ certification in the hopes to combat the ongoing battle against AI-generated books. You can read more about it here. Currently only members can apply for it, but they hope to expand their reach in the future. You can learn more about the application process here. It’s too soon to know how effective and helpful it will be but at least they are trying.
Becky Tuch at Lit Mag News shared this exchange that her reader had with The Galway Review, which is neither normal, nor OK. Essentially The Galway Review is only publishing work by authors who “donated” about $25, and they aren’t responding to submission emails till the donation went through. They are also heavily promoting “services.” It’s not just one exchange either, it appears to be a cross the board policy, that submitting authors must pay in order for their work to appear in The Galway Review. You can read the full piece here.
Subscribers’ Successes:
Julie Fasciana’s short story is in the anthology Deadly Yellowstone by Thalia Press.
Gregory Paul Latanick’s work, High, School Chronicles VOL 1, was published in the winter issue of Culterate.
Daniel Speechly’s essay How I Love You was published in Litro Magazine UK.
Michael Strickland‘s short story No More Sparrows was published in the first issue of Bewildering Stories.
Two poems by Yan An translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen were published in Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment
Stephen M. Berberich’s story The Reluctant Santa was published by Spillwords.com.
Berry Lewis’s poem Life’s Lessons was published in The Writers’ Journal’s first issue.
Mariela Baeva’s short story Rivers Guide Us to the Secrets They Keep was published in Bewildering Story The Writers’ Journal’s first issue.
Amy L. Bernstein‘s book Wrangling the Doubt Monster: Fighting Fears, Finding Inspiration was published by Bancroft Press.
Kwan Kew Lai’s work Merry Christmas from Port Lockroy Post Office, Antarctica was published in Persimmon Tree and their story Thanksgiving Turkeys published in Vine Leaves Press, 50 Give or Take.
Genevieve Grabman‘s non-fiction piece Fly, was published in the February issue of The Razor Literary Magazine.
Wendy Westley’s poem Blue Moon was published in The Amethyst Review.
Shanti Arker’s Essay was published in The Thieving Magpie.
Celia Knapp‘s flash story The 2020 Prom, Held at the 2025 Class Reunion was published in Flash Frog.
Karen Regen Tuero’s short story Comrade Lilly, was published in The Summerset Review.
M. Kelly Peach’s poem Simple Question appeared in Sonic Boom.
CM Pickard’s poem Fishing for teeth was published by The Raven Review.
Matthew Gordon‘s flash fiction piece, The Sharp Edge of Wonder was published in Witcraft.
Tony Duxbury’s short story Blind Date was published in the anthology Be Mine by Dragon Soul Press.
Willie Cheng’s book Crossings: The Best Hainanese Chicken Rice And Other Life Dilemmas, was published by Write Editions. You can read sample stories from the book here.
Please send us an email at success.stories@authorspublish.com if you have a publication success you want to share in our January update. Include a link to your website (if you have one), the publication you’d like to share, and the publisher/journals main landing page. The publication date must be within three months of the current date. 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.
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 www.caitlinthomson.com.
