Authors Publish was started a little over two years ago. In the years since we published our first issue the format has changed a little, however our focus has remained the same, connecting authors with publishing opportunities and other resources that can help build their careers.

In the last two years we have fought changes in the ways literary journals have run, supported Indie Authors with publicity and resources, strived to keep our readers informed about traditional publishing opportunities,  and paid every author that we have ever published.

About a year ago we started to publish in depth eBooks on subjects too dense for individual articles. We have made these available to our readers for free, while still paying the authors of the eBooks.

We hope to continue to grow, change, and improve over the next 100 issues. We learned a lot over the first 100 and we hope to learn even more. If you have any suggestions or ideas that you want us to consider, please email us at support@authorspublish.com.

For this issue we are doing something we have never done before. We are publishing three brand new special feature articles. We feel like these three articles really reflect the tone and ideals of Authors Publish.  One article is an editor’s perspective on what they don’t want to see in a cover letter.  The Second article focuses on  international opportunities for publication. Third is an info-graphic covering the habits of famous writers.

Thank you so much for your readership and your support,

Jacob & Caitlin Jans

What is their motivation to do so? Do they want to become famous writers themselves and think that following their gurus’ habits could help? Do they want people to know how cool they are if they copy out Stephen King’s wardrobe or Ernest Hemingway’s love to cats? Or do they just want to have fun?

I’ve decided to learn if there is any sense in copying out the habits of famous writers. Do their habits play any role in their success? Can their weirdest and most awkward habits be rationally explained? Maybe there is no point in copying them, or maybe these customs can really help us reach the same greatness and success?

So, this infographic is an attempt to unscramble many of the habits of famous writers.

Bio:  This infographic was created by Mike Hanski. He is a bookworm and loves quality music. Learn more about Mike at (g+ / blog)

One – No Identifying Information

“See attached. Cheers!”

Each year hundreds of submissions drop into my inbox without a name, cover letter, biography or indeed any kind of identifying information at all attached to them. Apart from feeling somewhat impersonal – as though people are feeding their manuscripts into a machine rather than sending them to an actual person – it makes it difficult to respond. Is this piece a reprint? Does the author use American or British English? Have they already appeared in a previous issue? These are all questions I can’t answer unless there’s at least some form of proper cover letter.

Two – Scattergun Submissions

“Please find attached a review of Prada’s winter collection.”

It’s also not uncommon for me to receive submissions that, from the very line of the cover letter, I know aren’t going to fit the magazine. Neon publishes dark slipstream and magical realist fiction and poetry. A six-hundred page hard-boiled noir detective novel isn’t likely to find a place in its pages. Neither is a feature-length documentary film, or any number of hobby articles or fashion pieces. And yet these are all things that I’ve been offered in the past year. A quick glance at the content of the magazine should be enough to give a vague idea of what I publish. In fact, I’d always advocate reading a magazine before sending in work, to see if it actually publishes the kind of thing you’re writing.

Three – Overselling

“My story is perfect for Neon.”

It’s good to be confident about your work, but there are limits. It always irks me to be told in advance that I’m going to like something. Even if it’s true, I’d prefer to be allowed to decide for myself whether a given story or poem is what I’m looking for. That’s why I spend so many hours reading submissions in the first place, after all.

Similarly I’m not a fan of synopses in cover letters. If you’re sending out a novel then by all means include a summary – but I publish short stories and poems. With short work of this nature a synopsis is just not necessary, and often comes off as a slick attempt to “sell” the work in question. Again, I’d rather just read the piece for myself and make up my own mind.

Four – Underselling

“This isn’t my best work, and I’m not keen on the ending, but I thought I’d send it along anyway.”

Just as troublesome as overselling a piece is underselling it. The temptation to downplay the quality of your work is understandable; sometimes it’s all too easy to see the faults in our own writing, and all too hard to imagine how other people can’t see them. But resist that temptation! If you’re willing to admit that you don’t think your work is any good, then why have you sent it to me?

Five – A Long List Of Achievements

“I’m the winner of six Nobel Prizes, and my book is a bestseller in seventeen different countries.”

I enjoy reading about where writers have previously published their work, and about successes they’ve experienced or projects they’ve worked on. It’s good to see that someone has a track record, but it’s not really a factor that influences my decision. For that reason I find it a little tiresome when a submission also includes a painstaking list of every publication, every award, ever speaking engagement and every plaudit the writer has ever received.

Name-dropping also leaves me cold. Yes, it’s impressive to get a compliment on your writing from Alfred Hitchcock, but including it in your cover letter feels pushy – as though you’re trying to convince me to accept a piece based on everything but the piece itself.

Six – Over-Formatting / Extraneous Material

“Please find attached some photos of me and my cats.”

It might seem like a good idea to try and make your cover letter stick out with impressive fonts and unusual formatting. Really though, I’d prefer something plain and simple. Special fonts and colours almost always end up looking amateurish, and there’s simply no need – I’ll read your cover letter whether it’s in eighteen-point Comic Sans or twelve-point Times New Roman. The only difference is that the latter won’t make me wince. Similarly – however pretty you might be – there’s no need to include a photograph unless the magazine in question asks for one in their guidelines.

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So that’s what I like and dislike in a cover letter. As a final word though, I’ll just say this: don’t worry too much about it. A cover letter has to be truly awful before it’ll affect the decision of any decent editor. Stick loosely to the points in this article, and your cover letter should never be a barrier to your writing success!

Bio:

Krishan Coupland is on the Creative Writing PhD programme at the University of East Anglia. His writing has appeared in Ambit, Aesthetica, Litro and Fractured West. He won the Manchester Fiction Prize in 2011, and in his spare time he runs and edits a literary magazine. His website is www.krishancoupland.co.uk.

Many writers who live in English-speaking countries may assume that the market for their work consists solely of literary magazines that are published in the country in which they live. But, in this globally-connected era, writers should think beyond their own country’s borders. The internet has certainly played a part in connecting writers with readers around the world. As a result, there are a sizeable number of journals around the world that publish writing in English.

The first English language journal that I heard about after moving to Berlin was SAND. Published twice per year, SAND published its first issue in 2010. In October 2014, the journal celebrated the publication of its 10^th issue. SAND publishes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from contributors around the world, including Brittani Sonnenberg, William Greenway, Alistair Noon, and April L. Ford. SAND holds two reading periods each year and accepts online submissions. (www.sandjournal.com)

Two other Berlin-based print journals open to English writing from around the globe were both launched in 2013. Berlin Quarterly (www.berlinquarterly.com) publishes not only literary writing, but also reportage. In addition to fiction and interviews, its most recent issue features a report on a community in Norway that is “struggling to revamp itself using art and creative thinking.” Flaneur Magazine (www.flaneur-magazine.com) has a unique editorial slant in that each issue focuses on a different street in the world and solicits writing focused on that specific street. The most recent issue of Flaneur, Issue #4, presents Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, in Rome, Italy.

Published twice per year by Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg in Austria, Poetry Salzburg Review features not only poetry, but also essays, interviews, and reviews of recent collections of poetry (www.poetrysalzburg.com). Recent contributors include Maureen Alsop, Martín Espada, Annie Finch, and Simon Rees. In addition to publishing the literary magazine, Poetry Salzburg publishes books and pamphlets by poets who write in English.

Bridging the print and online literary worlds, Her Royal Majesty  is a Paris-based literary journal that offers readers two options: download an electronic copy for free, or purchase a print copy of the magazine (www.herroyalmajesty.ca). Originally founded in Halifax, Canada, the publication is now based out of Paris, France, and focuses on one theme per issue. Check the journal’s web site for upcoming themes.   Update: This journal appears to no longer be in business.

First published in 1968 by the Kanto Poetry Center at Kanto Gakuin University in Japan, poetry kanto seeks to publish not only English translations of Japanese poetry, but also English language poems from around the world. The annual journal switched from print to online with the 2013 issue; access to content from the print issues is available through the web site (www.poetrykanto.com). Recent issues of the journal feature poems by Alfred Corn, Leslie McGrath, William Heyen, and Linda Ashok.

The above-mentioned journals are just some of the many print and online literary magazines around the world that publish writing in English. Resources for finding others include the valuable listings on NewPages.com (www.newpages.com), Poets & Writers (www.pw.org), The Review Review (www.thereviewreview.net), and in the annual Poet’s Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books.

Bio:

Bernadette Geyer is a freelance writer, editor, and translator. She leads online workshops through The Writer’s Center (Maryland) and WOW! Women on Writing (California). Geyer is the author of the poetry collection The Scabbard of Her Throat, and has published articles in Funds for Writers, Freelance Writer’s Report, and elsewhere. Learn more at her website: www.bernadettegeyer.com