Nightmare
This is an award-winning magazine of horror and dark fantasy. They also publish nonfiction and poetry. They have opened a brief reading period for short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
Deadline: 8 October 2022 for general submissions, 19 October 2022 for BIPOC submissions (see their Tweet here)
Length: 1,500-7,500 words for fiction, varies for others
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $40/poem
Details here.

Uncanny
This is an award-winning magazine of speculative fiction, and they have opened for short fiction and poetry submissions. They have not specified a submission deadline, so will likely close when they have enough submissions.
Deadline: Unspecified (see Tweet)
Length: 750-10,000 words for short fiction, poetry of any length
Pay: $0.10/word for fiction, $40 for poetry
Details here and here.
(– Cossmass Infinities has also opened a short reading period for speculative fiction submissions, they pay $0.08/word of 1,000-7,500 words. Submissions for under-represented authors are from 1-14 October, and for all writers, from 8-14 October 2022. Submissions may close earlier if they get too many stories. Details here.
— And DreamForge Magazine is open for fiction and poetry submissions through 15 October 2022; they’d prefer to see more solarpunk and hopepunk, though they are also open to all genres of SF/Fantasy, provided they are not focused on horror and/or dark outcomes. Pay is $0.07/word for stories of 200-5,000 words, and $25 for poems. Details here.)

MetaStellar
They pay for speculative flash fiction – science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They also accept nonfiction and reviews, but there is no payment for those.
Deadline: 31 October 2022
Length: Up to 1,200 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

Brick
This is a Canadian magazine of literary nonfiction, and they accept submissions from all over the world. They publish a wide range of non-fiction – see guidelines for some of the past works they have published. Do not submit fiction or poetry.
Deadline: 31 October 2022
Length: “While Brick does not set a word limit, we tend towards a range of 1,000–5,000 words.”
Pay: $55-685
Details here (guidelines and pay rates – scroll down) and here (Submittable).

Matter Press: The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
They publish fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as prose poetry in both genres, as long as it is compressed in some way. Writers can send up to three pieces per reading period.
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Length: Up to 600 words
Pay: $50
Details here and here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.

Autofocus Lit Mag is published on a rolling basis. They post new content online frequently, averaging about 12 to 15 new published pieces each month. The lit mag is attractively designed and easy to navigate.

Autofocus publishes a wide variety of autobiographical writing: personal essays; memoirs; confessional poems; thoughtful journal entries, letters, and emails; and hybrid writing that explores the self. They even extend these categories to include, “any writing that makes art from your life.” Before submitting, it’s a good idea to read the magazine online to get a sense of what they publish.

Since it could be said that all autobiographical work is, in a sense, fictional–“due to the nature of memory and self-perception”–Autofocus also accepts autofiction (fictionalized autobiographical writing). Authors should be aware, however, that Autofocus doesn’t label the writing published in the journal as fiction or nonfiction, so most readers will regard it as nonfiction.

Autofocus also welcomes collaborative writing, as well as writing accompanied by visual art or photography. The visual art or photography can be created by the author, or it can be created by someone else, as long as the author has permission to publish it.

Poets may submit up to three poems, totaling four pages or fewer. Authors of prose may submit one piece, 2,000 words or fewer, or up to two flashes, 750 words or fewer each. Authors of hybrid writing may submit work of approximately the length required for other genres. Submitting authors can expect a response within one to two months.

Autofocus also accepts reviews and interviews. They’re looking for reviews of autobiographical books or interviews with authors of autobiographical writing. Reviews should be 2,500 words or fewer, and interviews should be 3,500 words or fewer. Authors are welcome to send completed reviews and interviews, or to pitch ideas for reviews and interviews before writing them.

Autofocus accepts submissions online, not via email or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, but they do not accept previously published work.

Autofocus 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 Autofocus, 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.

Updated October 9th 2023, They are currently open only to agented submissions. I’m not sure if this is a permanent change or a temporary one.

Cleis Press is the largest independent sexuality publishing company in the United States, and they focus on LGBTQ, BDSM, romance, and erotic writing for all sexual preferences.

They publish LGBTQ+ nonfiction as well as nonfiction on the topic of sex and sexuality, including self-help, sexual guides, LGBTQ+ and/or women’s studies, feminism, dating and relationships, sexual health, and memoir.

They also publish erotic fiction. You can see their complete back catalogue here. Their covers run the gamut from good to genre appropriate, to amateurish.

They have detailed and specific submission guidelines that you must follow in order to submit. You can read them here. If you have not heard from them 10 weeks after submitting, assume rejection. All submissions must be made via email.

I originally published this review when Absolute Writes was down, but it is now back up, and it’s clear Cleis has had serious issues in the past, and as of 2018, did not have an ideal contract. To learn more go here.

To get a feel for what they are releasing right now, go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

]]> https://authorspublish.com/3-questions-to-answer-before-your-inciting-event/ Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:21:48 +0000 https://authorspublish.com/?p=20416 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 and tricks to make the process easier, but guides aren’t always a catch-all for every story. Maybe you’re jumping straight into the action and don’t want to spend more than a scene or two on setup, or maybe your protagonist doesn’t need much time to debate their call to adventure.

Thankfully, your first act really only serves one major purpose — to set up your protagonist and the world around them. As long as you establish a few key details, it doesn’t matter exactly how many scenes you have or what your word count looks like. All of these details can ultimately be boiled down to three questions you should answer before your inciting event.

How does the protagonist react in the face of a problem or challenge?

This is a relatively simple question, and therefore simple to address. All you need to do is put something between your protagonist and their immediate goal. It doesn’t matter whether this is a real problem with legitimate stakes or a comparatively minor obstacle—all readers need is to see how the protagonist reacts when faced with some sort of challenge.

It’s important to set up these challenges before the inciting event because it gives readers a glimpse of who the protagonist is before the real plot comes knocking. You get to establish a few early character traits for your protagonist and showcase their strengths/weaknesses when it comes to problem-solving, all while creating an early source of tension to drive the story forward.

What does the protagonist stand to lose if they take the plot hook?

This is a threefold question, and answering it involves laying some groundwork over multiple scenes. The first few scenes of your story (typically 2–3 scenes between your opening scene and your inciting event) serve as the “setup,” where you establish background details like setting, current world state, etc. During these scenes, you should make it clear to readers what is potentially at stake for the protagonist if they engage with the plot.

Since certain aspects of your world and your protagonist’s life will be permanently altered after the inciting event, it’s important to illustrate what the “before” image looks like. While this will include the larger world details mentioned above, it should also involve smaller details that exist on a more personal scale. Giving readers a glimpse of your protagonist’s life—their home, their routines, their loved ones—will help them better understand what this “before” image means to the protagonist. In short, you should take this time to show the parts of the protagonist’s life that will be changed by the inciting event, and how those changes will affect them.

What are the protagonist’s key motivations for moving through the story?

Now that you’ve established some key characteristics and background details for your protagonist, it’s time to jump into examine their motivations. This should come somewhat naturally as you answer the other two questions on this list, as all you’re really doing is providing the why—why they’re driven to overcome their challenges, and why they’re willing to risk the relative safety and ease of their status quo.

The protagonist’s motivations should be more or less clear to readers by the time the inciting event rolls around because readers should be able to confidently predict how the protagonist will react. It’s safe to assume they’ll engage with the plot hook because there’s more story to read, but their response should still be believable. These motivations lie at the core of the protagonist’s character arc, and establishing them clearly at the start of the story lays solid groundwork for developing that arc later on.

In Conclusion

Though each of these questions is designed to highlight a single aspect of your protagonist, they all paint broad enough strokes that you have some room to breathe. As you write the scenes that answer these questions, more general information about the setting and background details of your story will naturally fall into place. Before you know it, you’ll have a detailed and effective start to your first act that’s ready to kick off the action with your inciting event.