In terms of prose of any kind including fiction, narrative nonfiction, commentary, slice of life, and memoir, work should be under 3,000 words. They tend to publish work on the shorter side of things, although they do prefer their poetry over 100 words in length. They ask that you only submit one or two poems per submission window.

They accept simultaneous submissions as long as you notify them right away if your work is accepted elsewhere. They ask for first rights, which is to say the rights revert back to you within 30 days of them publishing a piece, but they still get credit as the first publisher if the work goes on to be reprinted.

They close to submissions on February 15th, 2024.

All submissions must be made via email, either in the body of the email or as an attachment. They ask that you include your name, pen name if needed, the title of your work and brief bio. They also need to know if it is fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. It can take them around a month to reply.

To learn more, visit their submission guidelines here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2023 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

Writing a novel in itself is a huge accomplishment. That feeling you get when you write those two precious words, “The End” is truly priceless. You think nothing can beat it. Then months, or more likely years, down the road, your book is published. You’re holding that first published copy in your hands and, somehow, that feeling is topped. As writers, we should hold onto that feeling. We should cherish it. And we should also ask ourselves, “What now?”

Whether you’re traditionally published or self-published, one thing every author needs to know is how to promote their work and themselves. Of course, being writers, many of us would prefer to spend our time, well, writing. But with great publishing comes great responsibility to promote your work.

Having worked solely with traditional, independent publishers, I have learned how to leverage my own promotional tactics in addition to the promotion that my publishers have provided. In short, the more work you do on your end, the easier it is for your publishers to promote you, and vice versa. Now you may have heard that one of the best ways writers can promote themselves is through social media. While that does hold some weight, there are many other important ways writers can promote themselves.

1. Create an Author Website – Your website should be where you can direct anyone and everyone who inquires about you or your book. Keep it clean and straightforward, focusing on a few key sections – about your books, about yourself, your blog (if you have one), upcoming events, and a section where folks can contact you and sign up for your newsletter (we’ll get to that shortly). Platforms like Weebly are very user-friendly, allowing you to build a simple, presentable website without taking too big of a cut from your royalties. You can also purchase a domain name on sites like GoDaddy. Remember, the domain name you choose is important. Keep this simple and direct as well – something like www.JohnGreenBooks.com or www.TAWhiteAuthor.com tell people everything they need to know about who you are and what you do.
2. Send Out a Monthly Newsletter – One great thing about having a website is having a place where people can sign up for your newsletter. Once you’ve developed at least a small following, set aside a few hours every month to send out a newsletter about any upcoming releases, positive reviews, events, and author news. Websites like MailChimp are fairly inexpensive and easy to navigate, and allow you to create and save email templates. This way, once you’ve settled on a design you like with a style that fits your brand, you can use that template every time you want to send out a newsletter, allowing you to change up the content while keeping your style consistent. Remember, whether it’s the 1st, 15th, or 30th, be sure to send your newsletter out around the same day and time every month.
3. Post Blog Content – When you’d rather be working on your next novel, it can be hard to see the value in writing blog content. However, it’s important to look at the bigger picture – the more content you publish on your website, the more traffic you’ll receive, and the more people will get to know you and your work. Thankfully for the busy writer, blogs don’t have to be long. They can be short, simple, and to-the-point. Write about writing – the dos and the don’ts. Write about lessons you’ve learned on your publishing journey. Share with other writers what you wished you’d known when you started out. More than likely, you know other folks in the writing and publishing industry – try reaching out to them to do a blog exchange where you write a blog for their website and they write one for yours. It’s a win-win way to build a library of content for your website.
4. Print Promotional Materials – Every author should have their own business card that includes their phone number, email, and website, but there are several other promotional materials that are great for authors to keep on hand. Bookmarks are the perfect promotional piece for any writer (and your readers will love them too!). Invest a bit of money in a graphic designer, and get your bookmarks printed up through a site like UPrinting. Remember, it’s important to not try to pack too much into a single bookmark. If you are the author of several different books, create several different bookmarks. Although the colors and images on each bookmark might change, keeping a similar style across all your bookmarks will help keep your brand consistent. Another promotional material that every author should have is a large poster of their book cover – these can come in handy at writing events where you need something a bit bigger to catch the eye of passersby.
5. Connect with Local Bookstores – While many writers may dream of seeing their book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble, there is great value in developing good, strong relationships with local bookstores. Not only do a lot of local bookstores love selling books by local authors, but many of them also offer opportunities for authors to host “meet and greets” in their stores. Do a simple online search for bookstores in your area, see which ones tend to host local author events, and give them a call. Some of the most sales I’ve made during a single author event were at local bookstores. Plus, you’re sure to meet plenty of friendly readers who are excited to support amazing local authors such as yourselves.

Promoting yourself as a traditional or independently published author can seem daunting, but it’s definitely possible for any author to do. Most importantly, keep your eyes open for opportunities to showcase your book and build your network. Especially when you’re first starting out, no opportunity is too small – you never know when one door might lead to another.

Audrey Wilson is an award-winning writer of both screenplays and fiction, as well as an Emmy-nominated producer. Audrey’s first novel, Wrong Girl Gone, was published by Dreaming Big Publications in 2021, and her next novel, Only Human, will be released on February 1, 2024 from Flashpoint Publications. A Chicago native, Audrey has also spoken professionally at numerous writing events in and around the area, including the Independent Writers of Chicago, the Southwest Michigan Writers Conference, and in 2024 she is honored to be speaking at the Let’s Just Write! Chicago Writers Conference. As a professional screenwriter, Audrey is represented by Aligned Talent Group. You can learn more on her website.

Now that you’ve reached the middle of your story, it’s time to kick up the tension with a good old-fashioned plot twist. The midpoint is a great place to up the stakes of your story, giving your protagonist new paths to explore and new challenges to overcome, all while building up to the final, climactic showdown in Act 3.

The problem is that it’s not always easy to up the stakes. You have to walk a careful line between doing too much and too little —overloading your midpoint can slow down your pacing at a crucial time, but a weak twist makes your hard-earned tension fizzle out and leaves readers feeling unsatisfied.

To help you out, here are some tips on how to cinch your midpoint twist and ensure it’s serving your story on all levels.

Introduce a complication to your current stakes.

The midpoint twist is intended to raise the stakes of your story, introducing new information and obstacles that grow into your final conflict. As I mentioned above, the key is raising the stakes the right amount — you don’t want your twist to feel inconsequential, but you also don’t want it to completely upend your story and potentially overshadow your actual climax.

Try thinking of your midpoint twist as more of a complication than a conflict. Whatever you introduce at the midpoint should shift or decontextualize your stakes, rather than completely changing them. Your protagonist should be able to carry on with business as usual, just under slightly different circumstances. The Save the Cat! method refers to this stage as a false victory or defeat — the protagonist hasn’t truly succeeded or failed at their ultimate goal at this point, they’ve simply experienced a change in their pursuit of that goal.

Say you’re writing a murder mystery. At the midpoint, your protagonist should not yet have caught or lost their culprit, but they should experience some kind of event that ups the ante of their investigation. Maybe a second murder happens that completely eliminates their prime suspect as a candidate. Your protagonist is still trying to track down the murderer, but they now have to go back to the drawing board for new suspects, and are doing so with the knowledge that even more lives are at stake than before. Nothing has changed significantly, they’ve just encountered a complication that makes their investigation more difficult.

Shift the focus to your final conflict.

There are three points at which your story’s tension should reach a natural peak — the inciting event, the midpoint, and the climax. The events of Acts 1 and 2 should build toward their respective tension points, with each serving as a stepping stone to the finale. The first half of Act 2 should build toward the midpoint, but once you reach the twist, it’s time to shift gears and start prepping for the climax. This ensures the story is constantly moving forward, even if the events of the midpoint feel like a step backward.

Your midpoint twist should be an end to one source of tension and the beginning of another, the latter of which will escalate into the climax. As you close up your loose threads and any misinformation that the protagonist may have been working with, be sure you take the time to set up new leads and start hinting toward the next conflict. This gives the readers a moment of catharsis for the tension you’ve built so far, and gives them a new story hook to latch onto going into the second half of the story.

In our murder mystery example, the second murder at the midpoint twist likely feels like a step back because the protagonist was unable to prevent another death and now has to go back to the drawing board to find a new suspect. At the same time, however, it moves the story forward in that readers now have a resolution regarding the first suspect, and introduces the threat of an angry killer who’s now motivated to further hamper the investigation and potentially take even more lives. It may also introduce a clue that sheds new light on old evidence, ultimately putting the protagonist on the right track instead of wasting their time on a red herring.

Expose the protagonist’s fatal flaw.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the midpoint twist happens not only in the middle of your plot, but also in the middle of your protagonist’s character arc. This makes it a great time to check in and show readers exactly where they are in terms of their development.

By the midpoint, it should be clear to readers what the protagonist’s fatal flaw is — in other words, what’s holding them back from their apotheosis, and what they need to overcome in order to conquer the climax. The best way to do this is to ensure that the complication introduced in the midpoint twist is either the direct result of the protagonist’s flaw, or that it puts your protagonist in a position where they can no longer easily hide their flaw. This has the added benefit of making sure your protagonist has a measurable effect on the world around them and vice versa — they can either see the results of their actions, or feel the results of their inaction.

Let’s take one more look at our murder mystery example. Perhaps the second murder could have been prevented if it weren’t for the protagonist’s stubbornness. Maybe they were presented with an opportunity to catch the real killer, but were so focused on proving they were right about their first suspect that they didn’t take an action that could have saved the victim’s life. The protagonist may not understand their role in the outcome and may instead simply be frustrated that they were wrong, but readers (and even other characters) can tell that their choice resulted in a worse outcome than if they’d been more open-minded and willing to admit they were wrong.

With these tips in mind, you can fine-tune and tighten up your midpoint twist to maintain the perfect amount of tension moving from the first half of your story into the next. Readers will be left with a satisfying conclusion to the story they’ve read so far, and will be prepared and excited for the story yet to come. While you may need to come back and add some additional setup and foreshadowing once you’ve actually written the climax, this should give you a good launching point for the rest of your rising action.

Bio: Ley Taylor Johnson is a freelance fiction editor and writing coach. Having spent all their life in the rainy PNW, they know the value of spending time inside with a good book, and have channeled their passion for storytelling into a career helping indie authors bring their stories to life. Check out their website for more information, and their Instagram for more general writing geekery.

Why write a book that can’t be published? My own first book, a memoir that I wrote in the aftermath of my father’s death, was one of these. I’d never completed a full-length manuscript, only fragments and false starts, until then. But somehow, during this time of loss and grieving, I found the motivation to bring my memories full circle, ending up with what felt like a solid piece of writing. For personal and legal reasons, I didn’t feel that I could make it public, and to fictionalize it felt wrong as well. Still, the act of finishing it proved to me that I was able to structure and sustain a full-length narrative, that I could write a book.

Writing an entire book just to prove that you can might seem a waste of time, but mine was so significant for my personal growth that it was well worth all the effort. Such a project can also be a bridge that leads to other things. I ended up mining some of my memoir material for my next book, one that did prove to be publishable. (It’s due to appear in 2024.)

Reframing or rewriting books has a long literary tradition, of course. Although Charlotte Brontë could not find a publisher during her lifetime for her first novel, The Professor, it formed the seed for her masterpiece, Villette. Michael Chabon wrote 1,500 pages of a book called Fountain City before abandoning it, but it ended up inspiring Wonder Boys. “Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten,” as the saying goes.

And then there are the books that at first appear unpublishable, but aren’t. Sometimes these are by debut writers whose talent comes to light almost by accident. Marilynne Robinson showed her manuscript of the novel she’d nicknamed “Moby-Jane” to a writer friend, who passed it on to his agent, who found it remarkable but wasn’t sure anyone would publish it. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux took it on, but they weren’t sure it would sell. Housekeeping was rapturously received by critics and is now considered a modern classic.

When Raynor Winn wrote The Salt Path, it didn’t even occur to her to show it to anyone from the publishing world; she’d created it as a birthday present for her husband, to remind him of the journey they had taken together on England’s South West Coast Path, as his health and memory were degenerating. It was her daughter who upon reading the manuscript knew this was a story that begged for a wider audience. Winn was persuaded to submit her manuscript to an agent, who sent it to a publisher … eventually fulfilling her long-buried dream of authoring a book with a penguin on the cover.

Even previously published authors can have trouble judging which works have potential. R.C. Sherriff’s first play had been a hit, but his follow-ups had flopped, and so he started a novel instead, determined to write purely for the joy of writing. A seaside holiday had given him the notion of a novel about ordinary people in simple language, though he doubted Victor Gollancz, his sophisticated literary publisher, would be interested. In fact, Gollancz found The Fortnight in September delightful and insisted on publishing it without changing a word.

Other books start in one direction and then head in another that seems to take them out of the realm of the publishable. When German children’s author Michael Ende was asked by his editor what he would write next, he looked through the ideas he kept on slips of paper in a shoebox, and came up with one that read “A young boy picks up a book, finds himself literally inside the story and has trouble getting out.” He thought he could deliver the book by Christmas. But several months after that deadline, Ende confessed that he was having trouble with his protagonist, who refused to leave the fantasy world he had entered. Oh, and he had also decided that the book required special presentation that would require a steep increase in publication costs.

To their credit, Thienemanns Verlag stuck by their author, and after nearly three years’ wait finally produced The Neverending Story in a costly two-color edition with full-page illuminated capitals for each chapter. The first edition sold out immediately and the book became a worldwide sensation.

Stories of an “unpublishable book” that becomes a bestseller are tantalizing, although suffering through years of rejection is tough on authors, and sometimes they don’t survive to enjoy their book’s success. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the childless remnant of Sicilian nobility, wanted to leave something behind when his title ended with him, but was frustrated by repeated rejections of the novel he’d written. He died believing it would never be published; when The Leopard was brought out by Feltrinelli Editore one year later, it became the best-selling novel in Italian history, and is now a landmark of world literature.

Sometimes the story has a happier ending. At least two dozen publishers said no to the new book that a five-time novelist was calling “Mrs Who, Mrs Whatsit, and Mrs Which,” during a time when she seemed to have hit a publishing wall of rejection. When it eventually appeared, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery Medal for distinguished children’s literature, and its sales figures are now in the millions. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux was once again the publisher that said yes to a book they loved but didn’t think would be a commercial success, and their leap of faith certainly paid off.

In fact, if a book is calling you to write it, there are so many reasons to heed that call, even if you or someone else considers it unpublishable. You never know what the eventual end of that story may be.

Bio: Lory Widmer Hess lives with her family in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental disabilities and is in training as a spiritual director. Her first book, When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey through Healing Stories in the Bible will be released by Floris Books in Spring, 2024. Visit her website and blog at enterenchanted.com.