Halfway Down the Stairs: Fortune

Halfway Down the Stairs publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and book reviews. Every issue has a theme. They are currently accepting submissions for their September issue, which will be themed Fortune. Submissions will close on August 1, 2016. Learn more at their website here.

Litro: India and the Global South

The deadline is August 18th, 2016. Work can be no more than 4,000 words.

This issue will showcase fiction from and about the Indian experience in relating to lands of the Global South: not necessarily centred on India but emanating from the diaspora – including its emigre communities and its exiles.

We’re used to seeing and reading about India exoticized and the diaspora experience reduced to desi angst in assimilating to the developed West. But there are extraordinary stories to be told of the interactions of Indians with Africa (including Mauritius and Reunion where Indians account for significant pluralities), the Caribbean, and the rest of the South Asian subcontinent. We want to read your story on what India’s connection to the Global South means to you – tales of Indians in Africa and Africans in India, Indians in the Caribbean, Indians looking to, travelling in or reacting to lands other than those of the developed Occident.

We accept short fiction, flash/micro fiction, and nonfiction. We do not accept poetry.

Visit their website here.

The Capilano Review: Food

The Capilano Review publishes venturesome experimental writing and art. They pay all of their contributors.

The Capilano Review invites submissions of new work for an upcoming special issue focused on the necessities (45%), pains (40%), and pleasures (15%) of food. We’re looking primarily for poetry but also welcome short fiction, essays, and artwork made by anyone whose own cognitive mapping of the terrain—of food production and consumption, histories and economies, pathologies and realities—produces percentage-breakdowns somewhat akin to ours.

The deadline for submissions is August 31st. Learn more at their submittable page.

Desert Breeze is an ePublisher that primarily publishes romance novels although they do dabble in other genres such as women’s fiction and Christian fiction, with or without romantic elements. Much of the romance they publish is cross-genre and incorporates elements of various genres ranging from steam punk to modern cowboy.

They have been around since 2009, which is a fair amount of time for an ePublisher, and some of their books have sold well, others have not. They do rely a heavily on the authors ability to promote the book, so take that into consideration.

Authors have had mixed experiences working with Desert Breeze. You can read more about that here. One of the main issues seems to come down to editing. They pay their editors in royalties, which is not a good practice if you want to retain quality editors. They also do not provide editors for all books.

They publish primarily sweet romance and the emphasis is not on sex. This is how they phrase it in their submission guidelines:

Here’s an easy guideline… If you can’t give us a short synopsis for your novel without explaining how sex moves the plot, or is vital to the plot, or if the plot would come to a halt if the two people didn’t have sex, then the manuscript may not be a good fit at Desert Breeze.

They have a lot of editorial preferences so read their submission guidelines thoroughly. Their preferences cover everything from Point of View (third person is preferred) to voice (active).

Their publication docket is already full for 2016 so any manuscript they accept now will be published in 2017.  Their publishing schedule is listed below.

Publishing releases six to twelve books a month, with three release dates a month on the first, the eleventh, and the twenty-first with two to four books at each release.

To learn more, please visit their website here.

We have published a lot of articles about literary journals at Authors Publish. We review one literary journal every week.  We also feature calls for submissions, and have compiled many lists of literary journals, like this one for writers just starting to submit, or this list of journals that respond within a month. We have even published an article about why you should submit to literary journals.

But we have never published a concise article about the nuts and bolts of how you should submit to literary journals. This article breaks down the process into a simple step by step process.

One: Polish a piece of writing so that it is ready to submit

If you are submitting a short story or an essay that means you should thoroughly edit one short story or an essay. Make sure it is as error free as possible. Most literary journals do not copy edit their work thoroughly. They expect it to be copy edited and polished before submission.  If you are submitting poetry or flash fiction, most journals prefer to receive at least three poems or flash pieces at a time.  This article is helpful to read if you are submitting poetry.  If you are a member of a writing group it is great to review a piece with that group before submitting.

Two: Prepare a standard third person author bio and cover letter

It is important to note that your cover letter should be brief and to the point. It should be no longer than three sentences in length, unless the journal specifically requests additional information.

Most biographical statements should be 50 words in length or less. They are always written in third person.

You should keep the cover letter and biographical statement in a file so you can easily use them again and again.

Three: Find a literary journal

Authors Publish reviews at least one literary journal every week. But there are lots of other places you can find literary journals. A good place to start is The (Submission) Grinder.

Also some of our most popular articles contain links to lots of great literary journals to submit to: Good Literary Journals for Unpublished Authors, 11 Literary Journals Always Open to Submissions, and Thirty Literary Journals That Pay.

Four: Read and follow their submission guidelines

Most journals accept electronic submissions now, via email or submission manager, both are easy to use.  Make sure you follow the guidelines on the website when submitting.  For example if the literary journal says they do not publish poetry, don’t submit it. If they say they only accept .doc attachments, don’t send a PDF.

Five: Submit

Once you have followed the literary journals guidelines and provided all of the information they have asked you for, all you have to do is press send (or place the stamped envelope in the mail).

Six: Track your submission

Write down what work you have submitted, where, and when. That way if your work is accepted at one place you don’t accidentally submit it elsewhere.

Seven: Repeat steps three through six

Now that most literary journals accept simultaneous submissions, it is easy to submit to multiple places at once.