Issue Four Hundred Nineteen – Authors Publish Magazine

Nightfire (Tor): Accepting Submissions June 15th -22nd

Emily Harstone — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:23:30 +0000

Every year Nightfire, an imprint of Tor, opens to submissions for a limited window of time. This year it’s June 15th through the 22nd. The opportunity opens and closes at 9 AM EST. Because it’s such a limited window, and because it’s an excellent opportunity, we try and promote it a little in advance so authors have some warning.

If you don’t want to miss the opportunity, schedule an alert on your calendar for it.

Nightfire is the horror imprint of Tor, so all submissions must be part of the larger horror genre, they can straddle genres; for example, dark fantasy is an acceptable genre. Tor is one of the most respected and award-winning science fiction publishers in the world and they have excellent distribution.

Nightfire accepts all submissions through the Moksha submission portal.

When submitting, upload your full manuscript, and also share your cover letter, which should include a pitch and a short author bio.

This is what they say in their what they are looking for portion of their submission call:

“The Nightfire team is looking for novels and novellas for adults across the breadth of the horror genre—from the cosmic and Lovecraftian to the beloved undead tropes of zombies, ghosts, and slashers and the more uncanny and internal terrors of isolation, lost love, and aging.

We are actively looking for submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class, and physical or mental ability. We believe that good stories reflect the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and want our catalog to show that.

We encourage you to scroll through our book announcements and to listen to our free audio anthology, Come Join Us By the Fire, to get a sense of our vision and tastes.”

They offer advances against royalties for both novels and novellas.

They are not interested in work aimed at anyone other than adults, and they are not interested in previously published work. They are not interested in nonfiction, short story, or novella collections for this call.

They prefer that work is not simultaneously submitted elsewhere, but they do not prohibit it from being submitted elsewhere. They ask that you notify them right away if it is accepted by another publisher.

Only submit one manuscript.

To read their complete guidelines and to receive links to their submission portal, go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2020 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.

Thuya Poetry Review: Now Seeking Submissions

Ella Peary — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:22:00 +0000

Thuya Poetry Review is a brand new nonprofit journal publishing both emerging and established poets. They’re looking for poetry that demonstrates excellence in craft, in all forms and styles.

Thuya’s artful web presence reflects the creative concept of their journal. Thuya means sacrifice, and it’s a wood burned in ritual offerings.

Thuya also values education, and they partner with the Book Club of California to offer an editorial internship to one young author each issue. You can find more information about the internship here.

Right now through July 15, Thuya is accepting submissions for their first issue. Poets may submit up to five poems. Submitting poets can expect a response within three months.

All poets published in Thuya receive payment. The payment varies depending on current donations.

Thuya accepts submissions online, via Submittable. Although they prefer this method, they also accept submissions via email. They do not accept submissions by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that poets immediately withdraw work published elsewhere. They do not accept previously published work, including work posted on social media.

Thuya only accepts submissions that adhere to the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Thuya, 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.

The Benefits of Collaborative Writing

Chantelle Atkins — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:19:44 +0000

I’ve been writing my whole life and publishing since 2013 and in all that time it never occurred to me that I would enjoy collaborating with another writer on a project. I’m quite a control freak when it comes to my own writing. I have my own style, my preferred genres and also my own particular process for writing various drafts, editing and proofreading. Over the years I have read books written by more than one author and marveled at how such a thing was even possible.

I run a community interest company called Chasing Driftwood Writing Group and towards the end of 2020, I took on a business partner and fellow director. My business partner Sim Sansford is a young author who I met at a local literary festival in 2019. He was running the festival (the first of its kind in their town) with a small group of like-minded creatives. I took part as an author, talking to readers and selling books, and also ran a workshop for teenagers under my company. Sim and I then became friends on social media and when I mentioned wanting a partner he jumped at the chance and was a perfect fit.

We worked well together and just a few weeks later he asked if I would ever consider writing a book with someone else because he had an idea. I think if anyone else had asked me I would have said no, but Sim also writes YA, I’d read some of his stuff and enjoyed it immensely and we had become good friends and worked really well together so strangely, my first reaction was, okay, why not?

Sim then reeled off some ideas and we messaged back and forth for a few days creating two characters that would tell the story for us. At some point it was decided that we would tell the story in first person point of view in alternating chapters. Sim would write the girl character Darcie, and I would create and write the boy character, JJ.

The messages continued and only a few days later I had a stab at writing the first chapter. It was like jumping into the unknown in more ways than one. We only had a very vague idea for a story and the genre was a new one for me. It would be a supernatural style story and as it evolved, it also became one about superpowers. Neither of these are genres I ever thought I would write in!

I have to say, the experience has been wonderful. In just a few weeks we completed book one and already knowing it would be at least a trilogy, we jumped straight into book two. A few weeks after that book two was complete and we are currently writing book three. We are editing the first book and don’t intend on releasing any of them until they are all ready. There have been so many benefits to working with another author that now I think it is something I would actively seek to do again. Here are just a few of them:

faster output – this has been one of the most obvious and exciting benefits. With two people working on a book, it gets written in half the time! We wrote alternative chapters so instead of writing a whole book I have only written half of one, which was obviously a lot quicker to achieve!
momentum is strong – another unexpected benefit. When you are waiting for your co-author to pen their chapter, you inevitably get ideas for yours and by the time they send you their bit, you are raring to go!
less procrastinating – when you know the other author is waiting for you to finish and return your chapter, you are far less likely to procrastinate or waste time. You want to get the chapter back to them as soon as possible so that they are not kept waiting. It feels a bit like having a very friendly boss and it is definitely a good way to deter writer’s block.
trying new genres – I’ve written a few horror stories and a few shorts that could be considered fantasy, but generally supernatural, paranormal and fantasy are all genres I avoid and don’t feel comfortable with. My co-author’s idea ticks boxes in all these genres and has enticed me into new territory. This can only be a good thing for improving my writing skills and experience.
fresh ideas and enthusiasm – this has been one of the nicest things about working with another writer. My co-author is younger than me and at the start of his writing and publishing journey. He has an abundance of fresh ideas and has injected the enthusiasm I was perhaps lacking. It’s infectious to work with someone who is so fresh and excited about writing and it has had a very positive impact on the project.
more marketing power – another unexpected bonus I had not considered when I first said yes. Marketing my books is something I struggle to find the time or energy for, but when there are two of you sharing the load, it becomes much easier! I am extremely lucky that my co-author has a background in marketing and is talented with art and graphics. He has already made some stunning trailers, videos and graphics to advertise our project. We already have people interested in the trilogy and asking for more, thanks to the marketing he has done.
editing/proofreading is more thorough – of course when the time is right, we will be sending the books to a professional editor and proof-reader, but in the meantime, we are editing and proofreading together and this feels more stringent with two of us on the case. We take turns doing edits and sending them back to the other author to amend or consider.
less lonely – we all know writing can be a lonely business at times. It’s been wonderful messaging each other daily with thoughts, ideas and suggestions for our trilogy, making it a very different experience to writing a book alone! We can throw ideas around, laugh at them, dismiss them or go with them. We each get very excited when the other sends a chapter too!

These are just some of the benefits of collaborative writing and I think there will be many more to come as we complete and publish our YA trilogy together. I’ve been genuinely surprised by how much fun it has been and I would definitely consider more co-writing and collaborative writing in the future.

Chantelle Atkins writes in both the young adult and adult genres. Her debut YA novel The Mess Of Me deals with eating disorders and self-harm. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side is a coming-of-age crime thriller series. Also available: This Is Nowhere, Bird People and Other Stories, and the award-winning dystopian, The Tree Of Rebels. In 2018, Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature was released through Pict Publishing, followed by the gritty YA trilogy: The Holds End series. You can learn more about her work here: https://chantelleatkins.com/ and the company she runs here: https://chasingdriftwoodwritinggroup.org/

Announcing the Ninth and Tenth Recipients of the Authors Publish Fund for Literary Journals

Emily Harstone — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:18:04 +0000

In September 2020, we started a new fund for literary journals. You can learn all about this fund here.

We selected the recipient of the fund using a random number generator. We are announcing the winners of the May and June fund today.

Thank you to everyone who has applied.

Journals who have already submitted themselves for consideration will be considered in future draws as well. There is no need to resubmit.

The recipient of for the May fund is Time of the Poet Republic and you can find out more about them here.

It is part of an internet-based literary arts and writers center hosting literary journals, profiling poets’ art vistas and writers of note. The internet-based writers centers give space to literary voices from the Cape of Good Hope into Europe, Asia, USA and Canada. You can find their submission guidelines here.

The recipient for the June fund is the Gyroscope Review and you can find more about them here.

According to their website, “Gyroscope Review publishes fine contemporary poetry in a variety of forms and themes. We welcome both new and established writers and publish on a quarterly basis. Gyroscope Review is open to poetry in all genres, including science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. We are not a paying market. We don’t offer contributor’s copies at this time, but we do offer a free PDF download of each issue. Print editions are available on Amazon. Gyroscope Review has an annual issue in the Fall just for women-identifying writers over the age of fifty.”

Sorry this is going out a little late. We initially reached out to two fund recipients, neither of whom responded.

There are currently thirteen literary journals on the application list, so if you run a journal that needs funding, don’t hesitate to apply. If you know of a journal that needs funding, please encourage the editor(s) to apply for the funding.

We will select our eleventh recipient in July.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2020 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.