AM Ink
AM Ink is a Western Massachusetts based press that publishes quality biographies, children’s books, novels, and short story collections.  They’ve published more than 60 titles, including bestsellers. They have also sold television rights, and had movies made from their books. They consider horror fiction only in July and are also open to a wide range of other titles, till the beginning of August.

Orbit Works 
Orbit Works was founded in April 2023, as a new imprint of Hachette/Orbit that is focused on digital publishing of Science Fiction or Fantasy. This includes both eBooks and audiobooks. You can read the PR statement about the imprint here. It is led by Orbit Executive Editor Brit Hvide and Editor Stephanie Clark. Orbit Works, like Orbit, is based out of New York. They are open to both agented and unageneted submissions. Orbit is only open to agented submissions and was founded in 2007 to focus on publishing science fiction and fantasy. They have one other imprint, called Redhook. They have published many well- regarded, bestselling, and award-winning books, in terms of science fiction and fantasy.

Blue Unicorn especially appreciates formal poems that seem effortless (even though they require a great deal of effort to craft): “We’re impressed by poems that read as though the poet had simply thought in the form, without forced rhymes, weak words inserted to satisfy the meter, and the like.” They are also comfortable with poems that require some extra effort to understand, or that leave a bit of mystery: “Given a choice, we’ll take the puzzling piece over the flat one. The uneven poem with a few resonant lines may edge out a smoother but more conventional one.”

Blue Unicorn is published twice a year in print, and recently they’ve started offering a downloadable digital edition of the journal for sale too. Each issue contains writing from around 80 contributors.

Blue Unicorn is open to submissions year-round. Poets may submit up to five poems, and “maybe a few more if all are very short.” While most of the poems in the submission should be unpublished, Blue Unicorn welcomes one—and only one—previously published poem per submission.

Blue Unicorn also likes to receive translations. And, because of their layout, they are always looking for poems of five to ten lines to fill out their pages.

Poets published in Blue Unicorn are paid. Rates vary based on length and placement of each poem. Blue Unicorn accepts submissions in a variety of ways, but mainly using an online form, available on their website. They also accept email and postal submissions. They accept simultaneous submissions, and they aim to respond to all submitting authors within two months.

Blue Unicorn only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Blue Unicorn, please visit their website here. 

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Writing a memoir is a wonderful way to capture your experiences, imbue them with meaning, and share them with others—whether you choose to keep your audience limited to friends and family or pursue a more traditional route, hoping your work reaches the masses.

There’s no shortage of articles about the challenges of publishing a memoir, and many writers come away deflated, believing that unless they’re a prince, a pop star, or have an equally impressive platform, their tale will never find readers. 

But there are several other daunting aspects that go hand-in-hand with writing a memoir that most people don’t openly discuss:

It’s emotional. 

If you want to write a memoir or you’re in the process of drafting one, chances are you’ve survived or overcome something challenging and you’re on the other side of it with wisdom and insight to share. 

Many will tell you writing a memoir is cathartic and perhaps even generous. Consider author Mary Karr’s quote, “Writing is a way of making sense of our own experiences and offering solace to others.”

While that’s absolutely true, what’s less frequently discussed is the emotional toll it may take as writing forces you to relive your experiences, cherry picking poignant and sometimes painful details to show the reader exactly what you endured.  

You may think you have the benefit of time, distance, and a fresh, well-earned perspective, but as you’re writing, editing, and then rereading draft after draft, it’s difficult not to let your words drag you backward. Like a literary undertow, you may find yourself swept up in moments you’ve longed to forget, flooded with the same heartache, fear, and frustration you felt as you were living them.

I began drafting my memoir, Sad Sacked, which chronicles the period after my husband and I lost our jobs within six weeks of each other, nearly a decade ago. Yet as I was rereading it ahead of its June publication, I found myself filled with the familiar dread and anxiety that consumed me while we were jobless. I needed to remind myself we’re in a better place now.

Get ready for some raised eyebrows.

Writing a book in any genre is a major achievement. As you start to share the news that you’re working on a memoir or have one forthcoming, brace for some strange looks.

With cartoon question marks in their eyes, people may study you, and ask, “You wrote a memoir? (Insert surprised chuckle here.) About what?” 

Depending on your relationship with the person you’ve just told, you may get hit with the quick, possibly panicked, follow-up, “Am I in it?” 

Everyone is entitled to tell their story if they choose to, but that doesn’t mean others won’t be surprised you’ve chosen to go for it.

The best response? “You’ll just have to read it to find out!”

You will feel exposed like never before.

It’s one thing to type up your secrets with only your cat skimming along from the comfort of your kitchen table, it’s another to put your work out into the world for anyone and everyone to read.

Whether I’m writing a satire or a short story, I often joke that sharing it with friends and family feels like they’ve opened the door while I’m using the toilet. 

Well, if you’ve penned thousands of words about the most intimate details of your life, it’s more like the world pulling back the shower-curtain while you’re in the middle of rinsing out your shampoo. 

The very act of writing makes you vulnerable, so consider that practice for this. 

Marketing and promotion may serve up self-doubt. 

Regardless of whether you self-publish or secure a deal with a traditional publisher, you’re going to have to promote your book. Here’s where imposter syndrome may rear its ugly head and whisper, “Who are you that anyone should care about your life? When did you become such a narcissist?”

To silence that voice, think of the reader who needs your story. I wrote my memoir, to paraphrase Toni Morrison, because it was the book I wanted to read that hadn’t been written yet. When I feel like a fraud, I think about a reader who is between jobs, binge-eating her kids’ fruit snacks, and could use a laugh about the absurdity of the job market.  

You may also ask yourself, “Am I really ready to share so much about my life?” And then you realize, “Whoops, too late now!” Embrace it. You’ve been brave before and you can do it again. 

When you’re plugging a thriller or a romance novel and can’t seem to get much traction, it’s easier to shrug off than when reviewers or bookstore owners aren’t interested in a story about your life. 

Similarly, should bad reviews trickle in, they can feel like an indictment of your life choices and character. 

But if everything had always gone perfectly for you, you wouldn’t have a very interesting tale to tell, now would you? 

If you’re working on a memoir, be gentle with yourself. If you’re about to begin marketing one, remember, this is an accomplishment, and before long a reader will probably thank you for sharing your story.

Bio: Liz Alterman is the author of the memoir, Sad Sacked, the young adult thriller, He’ll Be Waiting, and the domestic suspense novels, The Perfect Neighborhood, and The House on Cold Creek Lane. For more, visit lizalterman.com.

Each week now, we have a different rotating feature, this is taking the place of the manuscript publisher reviews. Some of these features have already been a part of our publication for an extended period and some are new, but all are moving around on the calendar.

For a long time every month we’ve published a 5 paying markets list, and a round-up of opportunities for historically underrepresented writers. These used to be released on the first and second Thursday of the month respectively. Now we’ve shifted things and added more rotating features. The schedule below should help make everything clear. It may change in the future, but we’ve already started to put this in place and it seems to be working so far.

The First Thursday
This issue will always feature a new regular column that lists between 12 and 8 publishers open at this time. This list will always include at least four publishers we haven’t reviewed before, as well as publishers with limited submission windows that are currently open, and publishers that are generally open to submissions and are worth knowing about. Our lists have helped defuse the deluge of submissions publishers sometimes receive, so we are hoping this new format works better.

Emily Harstone will continue to write the new reviews, even though we are not sending them out directly, they will still be published on the website.

The Second Thursday
S. Kalekar’s long-running “5 Paying Markets” feature will move to this date. As many regular readers of this feature know, S. generally manages to squeeze in more than 5 paying markets on this list! This list prioritizes journals with short submissions periods that pay their authors.

The Third Thursday
S. Kalekar and Emily Harstone’s collaborative list of markets open to submissions from Historically Underrepresented markets will now be published on the third Thursday of the month. This list covers lit journals, anthologies, publishers, contests and various other opportunities primarily for historically underrepresented writers. Some of the opportunities listed are only open to a strict and specific demographic, say only Black Writers over the age of 50, and some are very broad and open to any historically underrepresented writers.

The Fourth Thursday
This and the following weeks schedule will vary a bit, because sometimes there are four Thursdays in a month, and sometimes there are five. When there are only four, this weeks regular feature and the following weeks regular feature will both be published together during the fourth week.

This weeks regular feature will be The Other Side of the Desk, which is both, my favorite regular feature (you can read one of the many wonderful past interviews here) and one of our least popular article series ever. It focuses on publishing interviews with people who work in the writing industry. It has so far included a publicist, an agent, and various editors. It really helps submitting authors gain perspective on how the publishing industry is (and isn’t) working.

The Fifth Thursday
This will always include a shorter list of literary journals seeking submissions. Usually around ten journals will be on the list and the focus will be more niche. Journals open to novel excerpts or longer short stories, etc. Some will be updates of lists that we used to release as special issues but didn’t do well in that format, and others will be brand new collections.

We are really excited about this shift (even if it involves more work) because it will allow us to continue to update some lists that have a more niche market, while devoting the attention to special issues that have more appeal to a broader audience.

As stated in the previous section which there isn’t a fifth Thursday in a month, this article will be published as part of the fourth weekly issue.

If you have any questions, or suggestions, please feel encouraged to email us at support@authorspublish.com.

Warmly,
Caitlin