This is part of our ongoing series on how authors published their first book. You can read our other stories in this series, here, here, and here.

“And you’re going to speak at the Edgar Award Ceremony. You’ll go first, before the Edgars,” said Mystery Writers of America director Margery Flax.

Jaw drop. I had never imagined this.

Growing up in Mumbai, I’d written short stories and had two accepted by Target, a children’s magazine. Writing wasn’t considered a ‘serious’ career, so I completed degrees in economics and came to the US as a grad student. I got married and worked in pharmaceutical commercial operations for the next two decades.

With a young family and full-time job, I wrote in tiny increments at night, carving out an hour here and there. By 2006, I’d completed four historical novels and traded chapters online for critiques. But I didn’t have the time to understand the publishing industry or the writing business. Desperate to make some progress, I attended a writing conference and pitched to an editor at a major publisher. She responded with a R&R (Revise and Resubmit) letter, but I lacked the skill to make the changes. Life was stressful: meeting work deadlines and caring for a two-career family. I focused on my boys, eight and ten, with many extra-curricular activities.

In 2015, my team was laid off. I was devastated. My sense of self-worth had got entangled with my salary. After a year of consulting projects and desultory interviewing, I returned to my passion, writing fiction, and joined a writer’s group at the local county library. Each week I listened as members read their writing aloud. It was six months before I offered a small piece of flash fiction for their feedback.

Over the next year I wrote fiction, and memoirs of my experiences in Mumbai and the US. The group’s input was nurturing and honest. I learned to accept feedback, to know which to keep and which to pass over.

Then I received an urgent message from my parents. Mum’s uterine cancer had returned. I took the next flight to Mumbai. Over the next few years, I went back and forth for my parent’s medical needs, often spending months in hospital with one or the other. I remembered Stephen King’s adage: art serves life. Nothing is ever lost, each experience enhances our understanding. I studied craft books —Strunk and White, Gotham Writers Workbook, Donald Mass’s Writing the Breakout Novel and many more.

In 2017, I read an article about the 1891 Rajabai Tower tragedy and remembered my family discussing the deaths of the two “Godrej girls”. I’d been a teen at the time, and believed they’d died a decade ago. In fact, 90 years had passed since they fell from the university clock-tower in broad daylight. Their deaths had been ruled suicides, but our small Parsi community had never believed it.

I wondered, what if a detective did solve the mystery? The family was very private—perhaps they kept the results to themselves. Who might they have hired to investigate these deaths? A soldier, invalided out of the army could have the chops for it. An Anglo-Indian man, who could enter society circles as well as the dingier parts of India? And just like that, Chapter 2 of Murder in Old Bombay played in my mind like a video recording that was waiting there.

I wrote frantically, obsessively, because the scenes in my head kept replaying until I wrote them down. I brought each short chapter to my astonished writing group and over 70 weeks, revised them. And I kept working through books on writing.

To market my novel, I joined two Writers Digest webinars on writing query letters. I submitted queries full time to 122 agents (listed in the Writers Digest Directory of Literary Agents, and Poets & Writers website) who represent mysteries. Rejection and silence followed. With the sense of entering a lottery, I entered MWA’s contest.

Then two agents requested my full manuscript! One phone call with Jill Grosjean convinced me that she was right for me. Three months later, I received the phone call from Margery Flax: I’d won. My novel would be published by Minotaur, an imprint of Macmillan, the world’s largest publisher of detective fiction.

Such astonishment, such delight! Murder in Old Bombay was an Amazon’s Editor’s Pick. The New York Times listed it as one of the “Best crime novels of 2020”. It was a finalist for six national awards including the Edgar and Anthony. Our audiobook won an Audiofile award and was an Audie finalist. Readers wrote to me!

My lucky break—winning MWA’s contest came after years of learning my craft and the publishing business. My sequel, Peril at the Exposition was published this July. I’m now writing Book #4 and teaching creative writing at Rutgers University’s Osher Institute. It can happen. I’m living proof.

Bio: Nev March is the first Indian-born author to win Mystery Writers of America’s award for Best First Crime Fiction. Her debut Murder in Old Bombay was an Edgar finalist. Her historical mystery series is published by Macmillan Publishers. Nev has joined the NY chapter barrd of Mystery Writers of America. Her novels grapple with issues of identity, race, and moral boundaries.  You can visit her website here.

Currently they are accepting proposals for books in the areas of dance and music. They are also open to submissions for their Hartford Books Imprint, which publishes nonfiction work focused on the area Hartford Connecticut. You can see the three previous titles they’ve published in this series here.

Poetry submissions are currently closed.

Please inquire by email and include the following:

• cover letter
• a table of contents
• a sample chapter or two
• the anticipated length of the manuscript
• the anticipated date of completion (if still a work-in-progress)
• anticipated market for your book
• CV

Do not submit your completed manuscript unless they have directly requested it.

To learn more, you can see 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 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

Defenestration is published three times a year, on April 20, August 20, and December 20. Each online edition contains writing from around 15 to 20 contributors. They publish roughly two-thirds prose (short stories) and one-third poetry in each issue. Nonfiction, including humorously fake nonfiction, is published separately on their website year-round.

Defenestration accepts submissions of fiction and poetry three times a year: from December 20 through April 5 for the April 20 edition, from April 20 through August 5 for the August 20 edition, and from August 20 through December 5 for the December 20 edition. They are closed to submissions of fiction and poetry from April 5 through April 20, August 5 through August 20, and December 5 through December 20. They also accept nonfiction submissions (including fake nonfiction) year-round.

That means that right now through December 5, Defenestration is open to submissions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction (and they’ll remain open to nonfiction submissions all year). Poets may submit up to five humorous poems. Authors of short stories may submit one humorous story, 4,000 words or fewer. Authors of nonfiction may submit one piece, 2,000 words or fewer. This includes fiction that reads like nonfiction, like humorously fake news or imaginary interviews. Submitting authors can expect a response within about four weeks.

Defenestration accepts previously published poems and short stories. They do not accept previously published nonfiction. Also, they do not accept simultaneous submissions.

Defenestration accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They only accept one submission per author at a time; please wait to hear back before submitting again.

Defenestration only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines before submitting. They’ve also included a helpful list of topics they’re tired of seeing and likely won’t publish. It’s a good idea to read this list, too, before submitting.

If you’d like to learn more or submit to Defenestration, 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.

If you belong to a limited demographic that is not listed here, this list might be helpful to you.

As long as a press/opportunity/journal is open to submissions we will continue to list it, so some of the content on the list is new, some overlaps from the previous month. This article is an ongoing collaborative effort by Emily Harstone and S. Kalekar. Two of these oppertunties were contributed NmaHassan Muhammad. Please send us an email at support@authorspublish.com if you have any feedback or an opportunity/journal/publisher, to recommend.

Each month we’ve been featuring a different resource for underrepresented writers. The FOLD Foundation celebrates diverse authors and storytellers at festivals and events based in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Even though they are based in Ontario, some of their resources are accessible and helpful to authors world wide, including their free monthly webinar series.

Journals/Magazines

PRIDE Quarterly

This magazine accepts fiction and poetry from Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, or/and People of Color (QTBIPOC) authors only. They accept original (flash to novelette length), reprint (flash to novella length), and translated genre fiction year-round with periodic, unannounced closures. “We’re particularly interested in romance, historical fiction, mystery & crime, thriller & suspense, horror, science fiction, and fantasy.” Payment is $0.08/word for the first 1,000 words and $0.01/word after for original fiction, and $15 for poems. They also pay for cover art, comics, and  reviews on bookish QTBIPOC topics. Narrators can reach out for podcast and audiobook work. This publication used to be called AURELIA LEO Originals.

(They are also accepting flash to novella-length work from all authors for their anthology, Fable: An anthology of horror, suspense and the supernatural, until 30 November 2022; a paying market.)

Cossmass Infinities

This speculative fiction magazine will open a brief submission period in October. They will open during the first two weeks of October for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented authors (1-14 October), and will open to general submissions for the second week (8-14 October 2022). Please note, they will close earlier than scheduled if the number of submissions is too high. Send stories of 1,000-7,500 words; pay is $0.08/word.

Open Minds Quarterly: It’s Personal

They want submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, other works, and art, on ‘It’s Personal’ theme from neurodiverse writers, and pay CAD25; the deadline is 30 September 2022.

FIYAH

They only accept submissions by writers of the African Diaspora. They want speculative fiction (2,000-17,000 words), nonfiction (800-1,200 words) and poetry (up to 1,000 words), as well as reviews, nonfiction for the web, and art. Pay is $0.08/word for fiction, $0.10/word for nonfiction, and $50/poem. The deadline is 31 October for art, and 31 December 2022 for poetry and prose.

Reckoning: Oceans

This is a magazine of environmental justice. They want fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translations, on the Oceans theme. They also accept art. And though they publish work from all writers, “We are always seeking work from Indigenous writers and artists, writers and artists of color, queer and trans writers and artists, and anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world.” Pay is $0.08/word for prose of up to 20,000 words, and $30/page for poetry. The deadline is 22 September 2022.

Rough Cut Press: Exile
They publish work by LGBTQ+ artists – fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are open year-round, with cut-off dates for themed issues. They are reading submissions on the ‘Exile’ theme. According to their website, “We seek personal, lyrical, critical, and experimental work in under 650 words.” Pay is $25, and the deadline is 27 September 2022.

Haven Speculative

They publish speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations; they are open for submissions from all writers, and for submissions by underrepresented writers, during alternate months. “Our submission cycle is … split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone.” They publish two themed issues yearly on climate emergency. The Wet issue, published in September, focuses “on stories of water—monsoons and the rising tides, hurricanes and the disappearing coast”. The Dry issue, published in March, relates to “dry aspects of climate change—desertification and falling reservoirs, rising temperatures and endless droughts.” Stories by climate refugees are welcome. They have no deadlines specified for their themed issues. “To submit a story for the theme, make sure to mention in your cover letter how your submission relates to the theme and, if you’d like, how you’ve been personally affected by the crisis at hand.” For their four unthemed issues, they are open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. Length guidelines are up to 6,000 words for fiction, up to 3,000 words for nonfiction, and poems of any length. Pay is $5-10 for poetry, and $0.01/word for prose. Windows for underrepresented writers are  September and November.

The Acentos Review

The Acentos Review publishes writing, art, music and multigenre work by Latinx writers. They are open to submissions all year long.

the winnow

This print & digital literary magazine is devoted to showcasing poetry, prose, and artwork from LGBTQAI+ creatives.

The Gay & Lesbian Review

Bimonthly magazine of history, culture, and politics targeting an educated readership of LGBT individuals that publishes essays in a wide range of disciplines as well as reviews of books, movies, and plays, poetry and more. They pay for some content and offer contributor copies for all. They have different themes for every issue. Three of their upcoming themes are:

• Queer in Both Senses: The weird in history
• LGBT Subcultures: From bears to bisexuals to dykes on bikes
• The Social Network Revisited: What has changed?

ALOCASIA

Foglifter Journal

A biannual literary journal that publishes the “most dynamic, urgent LGBTQ+ writing today”. They are open to written work of all kinds including cross-genre. They are open to submissions through 1 November 2022 for their spring issue – they also have a couple of paying opportunities listed – a poetry chapbook contest for Bay area residents, and applications for an assistant fiction editor – see Submittable They have also started a Writers in Need Fund for their contributors – see guidelines. 

Wishbone Words
A new literary journal that publishes work, including poetry, creative nonfiction, personal essays, and illustrations, by chronically ill and disabled writers and artists.

Travesties?!: A Journal of Uncanny Arts
They accept submissions on a rolling basis from anyone that identifies as LGBTQIA+. They say “We are looking for pieces that are queer in all senses of the word, but that doesn’t mean they should be limited to traditional ideas of LGBTQ+ experience. ”

The Arrow Journal: Black Dreaming and Black Dream Geographies
This established journal is seeking work on the theme Black Dreaming and Black Dream Geographies. This Special Issue “seeks to contribute to the collective archiving and analysis of Black dreaming, by centering the work of Black contributors. The Guest Editor especially invites Black, African, and Black diaspora contributors to submit their work, including but not limited to  Black folks living outside of the Americas and contributors who identify as Afro-Latinx, Afro-Indigenous, Afro-Asian, and/or Afro-Arab. ”  Learn more about the details of the call by tapping on the + symbol next to the call, here.

Craft
This respected literary journal is open to creative work from authors of all backgrounds, but they offer free submissions + fast response times to BIPOC and other underrepresented writers, here. Craft pays $100 for flash and $200 for short fiction and creative nonfiction.

Aloka
They want work by non-native English speakers only – poetry, translations, fiction, and hybrid work. Send up to 5 poems, or up to 2 prose pieces, up to 2,500 words each.

Agbowó

They publish work by African origin writers only. They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, interviews/reviews, and art/photography. Pay is $25-50 for poetry, $50 for one-act plays, $60 for fiction and nonfiction, and $35 for art. Please send only one submission per reading period. The deadline is 30 September 2022.

Room Magazine

They publish fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art by people of all marginalized genders, including cis and trans women, trans men, nonbinary and Two-Spirit people. They also accept review pitches from Canadian writers (see guidelines). Send prose of up to 3,500 words, or up to 5 poems. Pay is CAD50-200. The deadline is 15 October 2022.

There’s No Place – Tales of Home by Storytellers Who Have Experienced Homelessness

This is an international fiction anthology by those with lived experience of homelessness (inclusive – see guidelines). “The theme of the collection is, simply, HOME. This is not limited to physical spaces; home can be a person, an item, a memory, a sensation. The theme can be interpreted broadly, but home should be at the heart of your story.

This collection will be limited to short stories—we are seeking fiction only. While lived experience will inform the stories told, our hope is to share tales of home imagined into being.” Send stories of 500-3,500 words. While the publisher, Renaissance Press, will prioritize diverse Canadian voices, all writers who have experienced homelessness in some form are encouraged to submit. Stories can be in any genre, and pay is CAD0.08/word. The deadline is 30 September 2022.

Fat Coyote Literary Arts

This magazine publishes work by neurodivergent writers only. They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, photography, and comics. They also accept reprints. Pay is $30-120. The deadline is 15 October 2022.

Spoonie Magazine
Spoonie Magazine is a new weekly digital publication; they published their first volume in June 2022. “We want art, articles, poetry, and prose by disabled, chronically ill, and / or neurodivergent individuals (or their loved ones) that engages with these topics in some way. We’re not looking for any specific form or perspective; we’re looking for honesty.” They publish art, articles, poetry, and prose (including fiction and creative nonfiction). While they are always open for submissions, work sent from February to April and August to October are also considered for Spoonie Journal, their bi-annual print/digital publication.

Bad Form
They only publish writers of color. Their website says, “Bad Form is a books magazine. That means we write a lot about books – everything from book reviews, to reading lists, to opinion pieces about the publishing industry. The world of literary reviews is a pale and stale place, and we’re here to fuck it up with a lot of colour.” They have a website and a print magazine. You can view their articles here. For the website, they accept pitches for literary essays, long-form reviews, reading lists and features. Also, “We open regularly for submissions to our print issues. We’ll advertise this across our socials and website so you know when to pitch. We take literary essays, interviews, reviews and short stories for our print issue.” Pay is a small honorarium. Details here (guidelines) and here (Masthead).

The Lighthouse / Black Girl Projects
The tagline of The Lighthouse is, “Cultivating spaces of solidarity and safety for southern Black girls to shine through focused programming and research.” They have an extensive guide for pitching articles, including “We … are always looking for thought-provoking stories and other content from marginalized communities, Black girls, (in particular, but not exclusively) and gender non-conforming people. In addition to story and long-form story pitches and op-eds, they accept photography and original artwork for their online blogging platform, The Black Girl Times, and their monthly newsletter, The Black Girl Times Redux. Also, “Each month, we have an editorial theme board (kind of like the mood boards interior designers use) we post on our social media accounts (@luvblkgrls). The theme board is intended to be an inspiration and provocation of thoughts, ideas and feelings. Your response(s) can be literal or abstract and loose. And again, it might not have anything to do with anything we’ve seen.” Pay is $0.10-0.75/word, which averages out to about $200-1,250 per story. Pay for art (graphic design, cartoons and photo essays) is $150-1,000.

Under a Warm Green Linden: Issue 14, Indigenous Ecopoetry
This magazine, from Green Linden Press, “invites Indigenous writers to submit poems for a special issue to be published in December 2022. We are interested in poems that illustrate, redefine, or reimagine relationships—land, nature, culture, history—to expand the possibilities of ecopoetics.” Send up to 5 poems. The deadline is 15 November 2022.
(Green Linden Press has another fee-free project, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry – details in the Presses/Anthologies section below.)

Singapore Unbound: SUSPECT
Their website says, “SUSPECT grew out of SP Blog, the blog of the NYC-based literary non-profit Singapore Unbound.” They want poetry, literary fiction, essays, and any kind of writings that do not fall into these categories, written or translated into English by authors who identify as Asian. They also publish reviews of books by Asian authors and interviews with Asian writers and artists. Pay is $100, and there is no deadline listed.

Puerto del Sol
A highly respected literary journal funded by New Mexico State University, Puerto Del Sol has an ongoing Black Voices Series featured on their website. They’re reading submissions on the Touch theme until 1 November 2022.

Hyphen Magazine
Their tagline is “Asian America Unabridged”, and their primary audience is Asian Americans in their 20s and mid 30s. They publish a wide range of work including but not limited to creative nonfiction, original fiction, original poetry, as well as articles pertaining to news, politics, and social justice. They pay $25 per published piece. They are only open to submissions by Asian Americans. They have detailed submission guidelines, please read them carefully.

Breath & Shadow
Breath & Shadow only publishes work from people with disabilities. This is how they define disability: “We use the term “disability” broadly to encompass anyone with a physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, or sensory impairment that significantly affects one or more major life functions. ” They accept writing on any topic in terms of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and drama. Pieces do not have to be about disability. The academic or article type nonfiction, including profiles, interviews, and opinion pieces, do have to relate to disability in some way. They pay $20 for poetry and $30 for prose.

Screen Door Review
They only publish work by individuals who are Southern and queer. You can learn more about how they define Southern here. They publish flash fiction and poetry.

Emergent Literary
An exciting new literary journal that accepts a wide range of submissions from Black and Brown authors.

LatinX Lit Audio Mag
LatinX Lit Mag is a safe space for literary work written by authors who identify as Latinx or Hispanic.

Midnight & Indigo
They publish work by Black women writers only. They are currently seeking book reviews focused on works by Black women authors. For short stories and narrative essay submissions, the deadline is 31 October; speculative fiction/horror are accepted on a rolling basis. Pay varies.

Nightlight
This is a horror fiction podcast featuring Black writers all over the world (at least one of your birth parents must be Black). They also accept reprints. At the time of writing, they were also looking for story performers. Length is up to 10,000 words. Pay is $75 for stories up to 3,000 words, and $200 for stories of over 3,000 words. The deadline is 31 October 2022.

Snarl
This magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions from creators of marginalized identities only: “We are looking for writers and artists who have been marginalized due to their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, and/or disability. We seek to publish and promote queer writers, black writers, writers of color, trans writers, native writers, undocumented writers, disabled writers, impoverished, and incarcerated writers.” (See their FAQ section for details). Send up to 8,000 words of prose, or up to 5 poems. Pay is $25 for flash & micro, $50-$75 for longer prose; $15/poem, plus $5 per additional printed page. They are closed to general submissions currently and will resume thise in late 2022, but continue to accept mailed work from incarcerated writers; see the notice here.

Presses/Anthologies

Clan Destine Press: Sherlock is a Girl’s Name
This is an anthology about a female-identifying Sherlock Holmes, written by female-identifying writers. The detective can be young or old, and the stories set in any time, place, or culture. “Of course, wherever there is Holmes, Watson must follow – in this anthology Watson could be nonbinary, female- or male-identifying, queer or straight. Whatever suits your setting.
Who is Ms Sherlock Holmes in your story? Who is her Watson?
Her clients? And what are the mysteries only she can solve?” The detective’s name must be Sherlock Holmes, or the local cultural equivalent, and they’d love a Holmesian-style adventure and mystery. Send stories up to 5,000 words (can write longer, but payment capped at 5,000 words), and pay is AUD0.05/word. The deadline is 30 September 2022.

Brigids Gate Press: Gothic Romance Anthology
This is a fiction call. “Women and non-binary authors only (our definition of women includes transgender women and femme-identifying individuals – and always will. If you identify as woman by any definition, or identify as non-binary, this call is open to you).” They want “gothic romances that are equal parts horror and romance. The short stories should be mysterious, atmospheric, and include a HEA (or happy for now).”
Length is 2,000-6,000 words, pay is $0.08/word, and the deadline is 30 September 2022.

Zero Street Fiction

A fiction imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, they “invite submissions of novels and short story collections, from LGBTQ+ authors new and established, that feature LGBTQ+ characters and/or themes. We are particularly interested in BIPOC authors, trans authors, and queer authors over 50. They close to submissions on the 1st of December.

Rural Writers of Color Fiction Anthology
This is a call from EastOver Press, for a reprint anthology by BIPOC writers who live in or hail from rural or semi-rural locales in the US and whose short stories feature characters living and/or working in rural or semi-rural spaces. Pay is $100-300. There is no deadline listed.

(They’re also open for unthemed nonfiction submissions from all writers thtough September 2022; a paying opportunity).

Green Linden Press: Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry
They’re reading poetry by queer US writers for this anthology. “The Essential Voices anthology series intends to make less insular the various poetries of the world, to bridge readers to cultures misunderstood and under- or misrepresented. It has at its heart the ancient idea that poetry can unite us by revealing our shared humanity. This anthology, the second in the series, will feature new or recent poetry by living queer U.S. poets. (We’re using “queer” in the broad sense: people who live outside mainstream sexual and gender norms.)” Send up to 6 pages of poems; they also accept reprints. They also have other submission categories, both paid and fee-free. Click on the ‘Guidelines’ section for this anthology on the press’s Submittable page, for details. The deadline is 1 October 2022, for this anthology.(Green Linden Press has another fee-free project, Under a Warm Green Linden: Issue 14, Indigenous Ecopoetry – details in the Journals/Magazines section above.)

Mad Creek Books
Mad Creek Books is the literary trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press. With a mission to foster creativity, innovate, and illuminate, Mad Creek Books champions diverse and creative literary nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. They are currently open to fee-free submissions for their Machete nonfiction series and their Latinographix series.

Arsenal Pulp Press
A Canadian independent press that publishes a wide variety of work,  prioritizes work by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors. We have reviewed them here.

Blind Eye Books
Blind Eye Books publishes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists. They are a print publisher and their book covers are beautifully designed and really stand out. The books they have published have won and been nominated for a number of awards, including the Lambda. We have reviewed them here.

Peepal Tree Press
The world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing publishes around 15 titles a year. They try to respond to all submissions within 20 weeks.

Flashpoint Publications
They historically specialized in publishing books of interest to lesbian readers but their focus expanded a while ago to include LGBTQ+ work. They have been using their re-branded name of Flashpoint Publications for over a year now. They mostly publish popular fiction, but they have also published short stories, essays, and anthologies. They have a nonfiction imprint as well. We have reviewed them here.

Alternating Currents
A small publisher that charges a $6.99 submission fee for all authors except Black and Native American writers. Please note that they close submissions when they reach their monthly Submittable submissions cap. Submit early in the month.

Lily
A small poetry press that publishes work of varying length. Submitting shorter work is free for everyone, but submitting poetry manuscripts is free only for poets who identify as Black. They are always open to these submissions.

Sourcebooks

We’ve reviewed Sourcebooks here, and their adult nonfiction imprint and their romance and horror imprints are always open to all submissions, but they also deserve to be on this list because their fiction imprint, their mystery imprint, their young adult imprint, and three of their children’s book imprints, all say “Our submissions are currently CLOSED to unagented projects, with the exception of works that directly promote diversity, equality and inclusion. For more information please email InclusiveFiction@Sourcebooks.com.” So if you have work that matches that description in those genres, please reach out to them.

Forever
The romance imprint of Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publishing is open to direct submissions from BIPOC-identifying authors.

Angry Robot
A great science fiction publisher that only accepts direct submissions from Black authors.

Amble Press
Amble Press an imprint of Bywater Books, publishes fiction and narrative nonfiction by queer writers, with a primary, though not exclusive, focus on queer writers of color.

Scholastic Canada
They are open to direct submissions from Canadian authors or focusing on Canadian content, who are from underrepresented communities, including Black writers, Indigenous writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ writers and writers who identify with other marginalized groups.

Heartdrum
Heartdrum is an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, which is edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, and is in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Native and First Nations writers and writer-illustrators are welcome to query her directly via a form on her website. Native and First Nations illustrators are also invited to reach out.

Tundra Books, Puffin Canada, Penguin Teen Canada
These children and teen focused Canadian imprints are open to direct submissions by underrepresented authors and illustrotors only. Authors need not be Canadian.

Opportunities/Support/Contests

WNDB 2023 Mentorships
In 2023, WNDB will offer fifteen mentorships split among the following categories: Picture Book Text (PB), Middle Grade (MG), Young Adult (YA); and Illustration (IL). (Please note there is NO separate nonfiction category and both fiction and nonfiction writers will enter their application by target age category). The winners will communicate with the mentor for approximately one year in a mentor/mentee custom-defined program. This is an opportunity to be matched with an experienced children’s book creator and receive individual support and feedback on a completed draft of a work-in-progress or your portfolio. They strongly encourage applicants to submit their application materials early. Deadline is September 30, 2022.

The Writing Barn Scholarship
The Writing Barn has a small but budding scholarship program available for our programming. Scholarships are awarded on the following criteria: seriousness of purpose, talent and financial need. They also offer specific Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity scholarships for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Neurodiverse writers, and writers with disabilities.

Emergency Fund for Diverse Creatives and Educators
WNDB provides emergency grants to diverse authors, illustrators, publishing professionals, and K-12 educators who are experiencing dire financial need. They aim to bolster these marginalized groups by giving grants between $500 and $1,000 each.

Forward Funds: Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Creator Fund
The crowdsourcing platform for creatives, Kickstarter, now has Forward Funds. Their website says, “Forward Funders are foundations, nonprofits, and organizations that back Kickstarter campaigns related to their visions and missions around a more creative and equitable world. Each Forward Funder makes a public commitment and then backs projects just like anyone else—through single pledges that bring the works one step closer to reality.” One such fund is the $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund. This backs projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators in the US on the crowdfunding platform – “Effective immediately, funds will be awarded on an ongoing basis to creators with active projects across all of Kickstarter’s categories: Arts, Comics & Illustration, Design & Tech, Film, Food & Craft, Games, Music, and Publishing.” Projects launched on Kickstarter following their rules are eligible, and creators can nominate themselves for specific Forward Funds via a form. This is for both, creators and organizations.

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

You’ve done it — you’ve finally crafted the perfect plot, and you know exactly what your inciting event needs to be to get your protagonist started on their adventure. Now you just have to figure out how to get them there. You only have a handful of scenes with which to set up your character and story, and they need to be gripping enough that readers stick around long enough to get to the good stuff. So what do you do?

There are a variety of ways you can choose to open your story — jumping straight into the action, giving your protagonist a relatively boring start to their day, or one of countless other options — but there are a few things your opening scenes should achieve in order to best set your readers up for the story to come.

1) Expand on your opening line

This may seem like an obvious one, but it’s important to get right. Your opening line may be the first thing that grabs your readers’ attention, but it’s nothing without proper backup. Your opening scenes should build on your first line, giving readers the details they need to connect that line to the rest of the story. If you’ve chosen to go with an emphatic, attention-grabbing first line, make sure your opening scenes provide context that gives the line meaning. If you’ve decided to wax poetic about your story’s core theme, make sure your scenes ground readers in a specific, personal story that illustrates that theme.

This serves a threefold purpose — not only are you introducing the story itself, you’re also building out the primary tone of the story and further establishing your unique writing style. It’s not as complicated as it may sound, though! As long as you follow the other tips on this list, this part should come naturally with the actual writing.

2) Give your protagonist a problem to solve

Setting up an immediate obstacle for your protagonist is a great way to introduce them to your readers. Simply by creating a conflict that needs resolving, you can highlight key aspects of your protagonist’s personality and set up a source of tension that will propel the story forward before you get to the inciting event.

This is also the point where you can establish the current status quo — in other words, the “normal” state of the world and characters. These details will help ground readers in the scene and show them the facets of the world that will be forever changed by the course of the plot. By showing the protagonist facing an issue in the relative comfort and safety of their daily life, you can show readers who they are, how they react to problems, and what their idea of “comfort and safety” looks like before the plot sets in.

3) Start at the right spot

For this tip to make sense, it’s important to understand one thing — the plot begins at the inciting event, and the story begins at the top of your protagonist’s character arc. You want to open up close enough to the inciting event that readers aren’t bogged down with details that become unimportant once the plot gets going, but not so late that we don’t get to know the protagonist and where they’re coming from.

The key to writing effective and compelling opening scenes is to set them at the point in the story where the protagonist is most willing to start making changes in their life, but just before they’re actually given the opportunity to do so. This helps readers understand their motivation for going on an adventure — essentially, why they’re the protagonist, instead of some other character.

In Conclusion

Knowing what purpose your opening scenes serve and what you should aim to achieve when writing them takes away much of the difficulty of writing your story’s beginning. Simply follow these tips, and you’ll be moving on to your inciting event in no time.