Recently, poems appearing in The Journal were reprinted the Best American Poetry anthology. They publish all styles of writing, from literary to experimental, and don’t shy from unusual forms or difficult-to-classify genres. They simply seek to publish the best work. To get a sense of what they like, you can read past issues online.

The Journal is published four times a year, twice in print—winter and summer—and twice online—spring and autumn. The accept submissions on a rolling basis, and are currently seeking fiction, nonfiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and photo essays. They’re also seeking manuscripts for the Wheeler Poetry Prize and the Non/Fiction Collection Prize. You can find contest guidelines online. Submitting writers can expect a response within about four to six months and should wait for a response before submitting again. Multiple submissions are not read.

Poets may submit three to five poems. Fiction writers may submit one short story, 10,000 words or fewer, or one piece of flash fiction, 1,000 words or fewer. Nonfiction writers may submit one essay, 6,000 words or fewer. The Journal will also consider longer stories and essays, self-contained novel excerpts, and novelettes, though it’s unusual for a published piece to exceed their standard word count. They’re also interested in book reviews, 1,200 words or fewer, especially of new books published within the past two years. Writers may also submit interviews of six to twelve pages. For their online issues, The Journal seeks photo essays—collections of photos accompanied by short introductory writing. Photographers and authors may submit one such piece, with writing up to 250 words.

The Journal accepts submissions online, but not via post or email. They accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere. They do not accept previously published work. Contributors receive a one-year subscription to The Journal.

If you’d like to learn more or submit to The Journal, please visit their website at http://thejournalmag.org/submit

To get a good idea of what they publish it can be helpful to review their bestsellers list or browse their new releases.

They have four separate submission guidelines for the four primary categories of books that they publish: Academic Books, Children’s Books, Popular Books, Professional or Clergy Books. They publish four types of Children’s books: Picture books, Activity books, Chapter books, and Prayer books.

When they refer to popular books they mean ones aimed at a lay (not clergy) audience.

All of the guidelines are very specific and you should read the ones for your category closely and make sure that your proposal matches their requirements. Submissions for all categories should be made through the same email address. Electronic submissions are preferred but submissions are still accepted through the mail.

Proposals for all categories can be made before the manuscript is complete.

To learn more about their submission guidelines visit their website here.

1. Issue 12 of Workers Write! will be a collection of poems and short stories titled Tales from the Construction Site. All will be written from the tradesperson’s point of view. They are looking for works of fiction about laborers, carpenters, plumbers, welders, foremen, safety inspectors, individual contractors – anyone who builds or works in construction for a living.

The deadline for submissions is December 31st, unless the issue is full before than. They pay between 5 and 50 dollars depending on the rights requested and the length of the piece. They are open to reprints. Work should be between 500 and 5,00 words in length. You can learn more and submit here.

2. Canto Poetry is looking for poems for its Carpe diem themed second issue. The words Carpe Diem are taken from the poet Horace‘s Odes and they are usually thought of as meaning ‘Seize – or pluck – the day’. You can learn more and submit here. They close to submissions on the 30th of November.

3. Walk Write Up is looking for submissions for its holiday issue. Work must be submitted by December 1st. Work should be no longer than two pages in length. All submissions must be made through email. They are open to fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. To learn more, visit their website here.

4. Nimrod International Journal, a respected journal is looking for submissions along the theme Mirrors and Prisms for their Spring/Summer 2015 issue. All work should be by writers of marginalized 0rientations and gender identities. They are seeking poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction pieces from writers who identify along the LGBTQIA spectrum. Submissions must be made by December 5th. To learn more visit their website here.

Doubt started creeping in, making me question my ability as a writer.

Fortunately, I kept at it. Here are twelve major mistakes that I learned to avoid. Hopefully they can help you achieve your dreams of publishing success.

1) Grammar

“A man’s grammar, like Caesar’s wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.” – Edgar Allan Poe

No self respecting editor is going to reach the end of a story if it is riddled with grammar mistakes. It shows lack of commitment to your writing and states loud and clear of newbie status to the craft of writing.

2) Avoid purple prose

“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.” – Harper Lee

A story decorated with adjectives and adverbs isn’t necessarily a mark of a good writer. Rather than inviting the reader in the fictional dream, it pulls the reader out of the story. Don’t spend too much time shaping sugary sentences, forgetting to get to the heart of the conflict.

3) Sentences beginning with infinite-verb phrases

As a ground rule avoid opening sentences with an infinite-verb. Consider the following sentence “Plucking the budding shoots and watering the pots, she retired for the night.” It implies that all the actions of the subject are simultaneous. The only exception to this rule is when you want to slow the action or create more tension in an important scene.

4) Get rid of passive voice

Passive voice is weak and doesn’t leave much of an impact on the reader. It lacks the force of active voice. Furthermore, passive voice tends to sound pretentious and does little to invite the reader into the story.

5) Over description

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” – Stephen King

Yes, you want your reader to able to imagine the exact shade of the blue door in your story. But after a while it gets tedious for the reader. It is not only a question of how you describe but also how much you describe. Too much description leaves the reader feeling as if the writer is talking down to them rather than to them.

6) Too many words and not saying enough

Be clear and concise in your writing. A good way to practice this is to try writing flash fiction. It forces you to sharpen your sentences and quickly getting to the heart of your story. Edit your sentences thoroughly to tighten your writing.

7) No sentence variation

Using the same structure and length of sentences can get redundant for a reader. Try varying sentence length and structure to break the monotony.

8) Get rid of adverbs

“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” – Stephen King

Avoid using adverbs, especially in dialogue attribution. Adverbs give the impression of a weak writer.

9) Use of clunky words that require the help of a dictionary

You have a rich vocabulary but that does not mean that the story has to be riddled with every uncommon word you know. The point is not to impress the reader with your rich vocabulary but to tell the story as best as you can.

10) Sensory detail

Most of us tend to do justice to the sense of sight in our stories. However, the sense of smell, sight, touch and taste are largely neglected. These are powerful tools for a writer to plant the reader firmly into the story.

11) Show don’t tell

“Don’t say the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass” Anton Chekhov

This is the advice given to most writers at the start of their career. This however takes time to bring in practice. It requires conscious effort. Practice till ‘showing’ becomes instinctive to your writing.

Don’t say, “John is angry”. Show John swearing, lashing out, and tearing things to pieces.

12) Clichés
Nothing can make a reader abandon your book faster than an overused cliché. Avoid them like a dreaded disease.

Bio: Chaitali Gawade is a writer fueled by tea and coffee. Her work has been published by Twenty20 Journal, Daily Love, Postcard Shots, Duckbill Anthology and Vagabondage Press, among others. Check out her writerly musings at chaitaligawade.com