Hydra is a digital first Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror imprint of Random House. That means that they publish manuscripts in an e-book format that is available everywhere (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc). If the book does well digitally, a print edition will follow.  They are open to queries and will try to respond to all queries within a month.

Hyrda does not offer an advance. Hydra and the author will split profits 50-50. They define the term “profit” as follows

Net sales revenue minus deductions as follows: For print editions, deductions will include actual costs directly attributable to production and shipping of the book; for digital editions, Hydra will cover the cost of production. For both print and digital editions, Hydra will cover all marketing costs connected with general, category- or imprint-wide marketing programs. Hydra will also cover costs of marketing activities undertaken specifically on behalf of the book up to $10,000. Title-specific marketing costs above $10,000 will be proposed in advance to the author. If the author agrees, the incremental costs of such title-specific marketing activities over $10,000 will be deducted from sales revenue before profits are split. Cash payments owed to authors will be made quarterly.

They only publish works that are 40,000 words or more.  You can submit any manuscript as long as you have exclusive copyright. Which means it can be previously published or self published, as long as you currently hold all the rights.

Their digital program is focused on building new author brands. The program is managed with the same attention given to all the other Penguin-Random House Publishing Group imprints. You will be assigned an experienced editor and a marketer and publicist.

It is important to note that their contract was initially very controversial, and was modified. There are still points of contention, but there are fewer. It is important to note that their contract was initially very controversial, and was modified. There are still points of contention, but there are fewer. You can learn more about all of that here. The two authors I know who have been published by Hydra were very happy with the experience.

All queries should be made through their easy to fill out form.

To learn more or submit, visit their website here.

Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser. You can follow her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/emilyharstone/

Anomaly is produced in the United Kingdom. They accept submissions year-round, and right now they’re accepting submissions for their third issue. Their first issue contains work from thirteen authors. They have a small staff, so they do not respond to all submissions.

Poets may submit up to six poems of any length. Fiction writers may submit up to six pieces, 2,000 to 5,000 words. They also accept flash fiction, but prefer full-length stories. Nonfiction writers may submit up to three pieces, 2,000 to 5,000 words. They accept biographical nonfiction of all types, as well as commentary—social, political, literary, etc. Opinion pieces and social commentary may be written by anyone; however, commentary specific to a professional discipline (health, psychology, politics, literature, poetics, etc.) must be written by an author with professional qualifications.

Anomaly accepts submissions via email, but not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, and ask that authors notify the editors if their work is accepted elsewhere. In this case, the editors at Anomaly will still consider the piece for publication, respecting the wishes of the author and the publication policy of the alternate journal in which the piece will be published. They do not accept work that has been published recently; however, they do accept previously published work as long as the last publication was at least one year ago. Authors whose submissions are accepted by Anomaly will have the opportunity to consult with an editor to hone their work for publication.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Anomaly, please visit their website at

http://anomalyliterary.squarespace.com/read-me-montauk/

That’s what you need if you want you want to build your reputation as a writer. Having a loyal audience will make your life easier. You will have better opportunities to earn a living as a writer. You will also have it easier when you publish an ebook or two for sale. An amenable audience is one that will spend money on your products.

Social blogging platforms are the best. They usually have members who are ready to consume good quality content. Your only responsibility is to use the available tools on such platforms to attract your target audience.

So, what are your options? What writing platforms are available for your use?

1. Wattpad
Wattpad prides itself as the ultimate place to read and share stories. No one could argue with that. After all, Wattpad has 40 million active account users, all of whom are your potential readers.

Wattpad is free to use, which makes it a very affordable marketing tool if your budget is limited. All you have to do is create an account using your email and a password of your choosing. You can also join Wattpad using your existing Facebook account if you would rather.

As a writer, you have the freedom to write content regardless of genre. There are millions of people who would read what you have to offer. Your readers can access the platform via their computers as well as mobile devices. The platform also has an inline commenting feature that allows people to interact with your stories as they read. What more could you ask for as a writer?

2. Medium

Medium is another platform for writers that you should explore if you are looking to create a captive audience. This platform provides you with a chance to run a semi-autonomous blog while still keeping you connected to other Medium uses.
With Medium, you can post your content and observe how people react to it. Your Medium dashboard will provide you with statistics of number of reads, views, and recommendations. These numbers will help you determine what kind of content is popular and what isn’t. You can then use that knowledge to refine your writing until it is worthy of purchase.

Other features that make Medium a great platform for writers like you include share buttons, footnote and recommendation capabilities, the ability to bookmark an interesting post as well as the ability to write a response post. It’s also worth noting that you can make use of third party platforms like YouTube, Kickstarter, and Instagram among others, to enhance your content value on Medium.

Medium is estimated to have about 25 million users. These are great numbers to have at your disposal when you are looking to build an audience in order to enhance your writing career.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the social networking site for professionals. If you are a writer looking to impress all the right stakeholders, you cannot afford to ignore LinkedIn. The 414 million or so active users on this platform are nothing to joke about either.
LinkedIn not only allows you to post your resume and establish professional connections, but it also provides you with tools to post useful content on a regular basis. Use the chance provided by this platform to show off your writing capabilities. You never know, it may just be the ticket you need to attract high-end clients or the agent of your dreams.

The basic LinkedIn account is free. This means that you can get access to professionals you would like to follow or connect with, even when your promotion budget is nil. What more could you ask for?

  4. Facebook

Facebook seems like such an unlikely place for writers to be in, but it isn’t. The social media platform is the largest in the world. It has at least 1.55 billion active users, which accounts for about 20% or thereabouts of the global population!

Are you sure you want to ignore that kind of marketing potential?

Ensure that you create a Facebook account separate from your personal one. Create interesting content that can be read in bite-sized chunks. Post several times a week and invite everyone on your network to take a look. Interact with your audience via the comment section. Before long, you will have that captive audience you are looking for.

It becomes very easy after that to create an ebook and sell it to your loyal audience. One such success story is the photographer Brandon Stanton, the owner of Humans of New York Facebook account.

The social media blog on Facebook has over 17 million followers, a number of whom have bought his published books after viewing the author’s street photographic series and reading his subjects’ interviews. What’s stopping you from becoming an authority in your chosen industry?
The sky is the limit, even when you have no marketing budget as a writer. All you have to do is use the readily available blogging platforms with in-built social networks and you will be ready to go. So why not get started today? How much cheaper can you get after free?

Ellie Matama is a Kenyan-based freelance writer. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, watching cooking shows, and fantasizing about global travels. you can reach her via LinkedIn.

When you submit short stories or non-fiction to a journal it can be very straightforward, you just choose one well edited story that you wrote and submit it. With poetry things are a little tougher because you have to choose 3-5 poems to submit. There are several things you have to do before you submit them.

The first is that you have to choose 3-5 poems that go together. Some journals accept 6 and some only accept 3, but I usually make the packets include between 3-5 poems because 6 is rare and it’s easy to shave a packet of 5 poems down to 3 for one journal.

I call each grouping of 3-5 poems a “submission packet.” I usually have between 5-7 submission packets at a time, each packet contains 3-5 poems. Each of these packets I submit to more than one place at a time, but usually no more than four. That way if the poems get accepted anywhere I can easily withdraw them from consideration at the other publications.

When choosing what poems to place in what packet, I think a little about tone. Say I have a number of darkly comic poems, I may group these together in a packet.

However there should be variation in a packet. Don’t make the mistake of having poems that all have the same tone, theme, and subject matter. The editor who reads these poems only gets one impression of your work, and if it doesn’t match with what they are looking for, too bad.

Variation in your packet significantly increases the likelihood of the editor connecting with one of your poems. Think about order and sense of narration though. One poem should not contradict or clash with the next.

After you have chosen this group of poems, go over them one last time, reviewing for any obvious mistakes or changes in spacing during the rearranging process.

Some poets often have an urge to over explain the context of their poems in the cover letter when they submit their work to a journal. Restrain yourself from doing that. Most editors won’t publish work unless the context is made clear within the poems themselves.

Once you have your submission packets ready, your poems should be ready to submit to any journal! Restrain yourself from editing the packets for every journal, just make sure that the way your poems are formatted fit the journal’s guidelines.