Archive for category Markets
Snapshots of History
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets on November 21, 2011
Do you have an interest in history? Have you ever written a story set in the past? Have you ever heard of the publication Snapshots of History?
Snapshots of History is a quarterly journal dedicated to all aspects of historical short story writing. It was set up in 2010 and comprises an ongoing serial, short stories, a members’ corner for information of interest plus a quarterly competition. The best entry receives £15 and is printed in the magazine. Runners up may also be included in the journal. There is a £3 entry fee for non-subscribers. Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,500 words and be set no later than the end of the Second World War – and historical accuracy is important.
An annual subscription to the magazine costs £7.50 or individual copies can be bought for £2.00.
Full details are available here.
Don’t forget that some of the women’s magazines also take historical short stories. Writer Joanna Barnden penned a guest post on the subject for the Womag Writer’s Blog. It contains general advice plus some market tips. Read it here.
Article Writing
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets on October 17, 2011
The other week I ran an article writing workshop for my writers’ group. I’m not one for speaking in front of a group and so was a bit concerned about how it might go. However, once I got going and the participants started asking questions, I began to relax and enjoy it.
We started off by analysing the pile of magazines that we’d brought with us:
- Comparing staff names on the masthead to the by-lines on the articles to see which were written ‘in-house’
- Looking at the adverts to get a feel for the readership of the magazine
This raised the problem of the expense of buying magazines to search for markets in this way – especially since it’s necessary to read around 3 consecutive (and up-to-date) issues in order to spot the regular columnists and get a proper feel for the content. Unless you live near a large, well-stocked library there’s no easy answer to this – other than begging, borrowing or stealing from your friends. What do other people do?
Once each of us had established a potential market, we brainstormed a list of ideas that we felt might make an article for that magazine – trying to stay away from the obvious well-worn themes. This was the part of the evening that I found really interesting. There was a wonderfully wide range of feature ideas – displaying sides of my fellow writers that I never knew existed. Without giving too much away (because I hope they’re all going to write-up their articles) these included:
- Batman
- Activities for winter evenings
- Dog-related issues
- The significance of one lady’s mother’s choice of wedding date
- Railway memories
- Multiple Sclerosis
We went on to draft a short email pitch to the editor before the chairman rang his bell and our time was up.
There are a couple of useful blogs that include generous advice on article writing and are well worth a visit:
Remember there are many, many more markets for articles than fiction or poetry – so why not give it a go?
P.S. Many thanks and welcome to those of you that requested email updates to this blog over the past fortnight – a donation is now winging its way to the RNIB.
Work Your Way Magazine
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets, Resources on September 12, 2011
The launch issue of Work Your Way Magazine dropped through my letter box recently. It’s a quarterly magazine aimed
at freelance, self-employed and entrepreneurial mums – categories that lots of us writers fall into.
In her first ‘Letter from the Editor’, Mary Cummings describes the magazine as a ‘celebration of all you fabulous mums who have split the nine to five office scene and are now working from home’.
Mary has used a variety of freelance contributors (I know because I am one!) to source the wide range of features in the magazine. The areas covered include:
- Family – features on Raising Confident Kids, Parenting a Child with Special Needs and A Day in the Life of a Freelance Mum
- Work – features on Coaching To Help You Move Forward, Good Customer Care and an interview with Carol Savage of mydish.co.uk, who secured a £100,000 investment from Deborah Meaden on Dragon’s Den
- Top Tips – features on How Much Should I Charge?, Blog for Business (that’s me!) and Cash in Your Bookcase
- Health and Well-being – features on A Good Night’s Sleep, What to Avoid When Working from Home and Yoga
The magazine also has a flourishing website which is currently asking for online contributions. Click here for details.
Work Your Way features in Writing Magazine this month (October 2011 issue) as a case study for Elaine Everest’s article How to Set Up a Start-up. In it Mary describes how she got the magazine off the ground.
If you fancy getting your hands on a copy of Work Your Way and picking up some useful information about the freelance life, visit the website for details of how to subscribe.
Opportunities in Yours magazine
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets on August 8, 2011
Yours is a fortnightly lifestyle magazine targeting women aged 55+ and offers several slots for getting into print:
- Your Memories – send in ‘an amazing story’ (no more than 1000 words) from your past plus photos for a chance to earn £100.
- Travel – send a 300 word review of your holiday plus a picture with you in it. Each story printed receives £50.
- Grandkids Gallery – send in a photo of your grandchild or something funny that they’ve said. All those printed receive a £10 High Street voucher
- Meeting Place – this is described as ‘the heart of the magazine’ and welcomes funny stories, rants and photos. Every contribution featured gets a £10 High Street voucher and the Star letter gets £25.
- I followed my dream – £25 for 200 words
- Amazing at 80+ – £25 for 200 words plus a photo
- Fashion we wore – send in your picture of fashion from the past plus 60 words describing it for a £10 High Street voucher.
- Short story – the magazine uses one short story per issue. The guidelines are on the magazine’s website here.
- Nostalgia features – up to 1000 words. The guidelines are on the magazine’s website here.
Remember to study a few issues of the magazine in order to get a feel for the style before sending anything in and don’t expect a fast turnaround for anything you submit – Yours receives around 1500 letters and emails every fortnight and asks fiction and feature writers to allow 6 months before chasing their submissions.
Yours also publishes a hardback annual in the run up to Christmas and a short story which I submitted to the magazine a few years ago was eventually selected for publication in the annual instead, so there appears to be some crossover between the two publications.
Good Luck!
The New Writer Magazine
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets, Resources on July 25, 2011
The New Writer is a subscription only, quarterly writing magazine. Each edition includes a mix of features, fiction and
poetry along with regulars such as a Writers’ Circle Clinic by Simon Whaley.
The New Writer doesn’t have the glossy finish of Writing Magazine or Writers’ Forum nor does it have pages of adverts. I think the magazine has a cosy, friendly feel. The Spring 2011 edition included features on ‘First of a Million Kisses’ by romance writer Sally Quilford, ‘Travel Writing Perks’ by Roy Stevenson and ‘Make it Short & Snappy’ by me (!).
The magazine is open to unsolicited articles and features (for which it pays a small amount). Poetry is also accepted but fiction is restricted to guest writers, subscribers’ stories on a given theme and competition entrants.
The New Writer runs an annual Prose and Poetry Competition with 5 categories:
- Micro fiction – up to 500 words (2 entries for £5 or 3 entries for subscribers)
- Short stories – 500 to 5,000 words (1 entry for £5 or 2 entries for subscribers)
- Single poems (2 entries for £5 or 3 entries for subscribers)
- A collection of 6 – 10 poems (£12 entry)
- Essays, articles and interviews on any writing related subject – up to 2,000 words (1 entry for £5 or 2 entries for subscribers)
The annual closing date is 30th November and the prizes are:
Micro Fiction: 1st prize £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £50.
Short Stories: 1st prize £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100.
Single Poem: 1st prize £100, 2nd £75, 3rd £50
Poetry Collection: 1st prize £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100.
Essay/article/interview: 1st prize £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £50.
If all this has whetted your appetite then you can obtain a free back issue by sending an A4 SAE to the address shown on the website here (scroll to the bottom of the page for the offer).
Earn £25 from Saturday’s Guardian
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets on June 27, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
I bought the Guardian for a change the other Saturday and was surprised at how many slots there are in the paper for readers’ contributions. Some of them pay and some of them don’t.
The Family section pays £25 for each of the 4 slots listed below:
- A letter to – This is an open letter to someone who has had an impact on your life in some way (& can be published anonymously). In the issue I looked at it was a letter to half-siblings that the author had never met. Read it here.
- Snapshot – This comprises a reader’s old photo and the story behind that picture.
- Playlist – The effect a particular song has had on you.
- We love to eat – share a favourite family recipe and include the story behind it or the memories it evokes.
Recent pieces published for Snapshot, Playlist and We love to eat can be found here.
In addition the Travel section of the Saturday Guardian offers a camera for the best travel tip received. The tip must be on the topic specified in the previous week’s paper.
In the Magazine section there is a traditional (non-paying) letters page plus 3 other slots where the reward is the prestige of appearing in a glossy weekend broadsheet magazine rather than a cheque:
- What you like – email a couple of sentences about something you love plus a website offering the reader further details.
- Weekender – email a photo plus a brief description of how you spend your weekend. Read an example here.
- What I’m really thinking – your (anonymous) thoughts on an aspect of your life (job, hobby, appearance etc). Read an example here.
If you fancy targeting any of the above slots grab yourself a copy of the Guardian on Saturday and do a bit of market research to ensure that you write in the correct style and to the right word length. All the email addresses are in the paper too. If you fancy trying some of the other weekend papers see my previous post on the subject.
Or, if you’re single and fancy a night out rather than another night toiling away over the keyboard in your garret, email your details to the Blind Date feature in the Guardian Magazine and have yourself some fun!
Competition Success & Womag Blues
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets, Successes on June 23, 2011
Two small competition successes to report:
- I won the Lichfield & District Writers’ Article Writing Competition (members only) and received the lovely silver tray in the picture. Unfortunately it’s not to keep forever – I will have to hand it on to the next winner. Congratulations to John Walters and Elizabeth Dickerson who came second and third respectively, with articles on listening to the radio as a child and collecting collectibles. My article tried to dispel the many myths around church bell ringing (bats in the belfry, super human strength needed etc etc).
- I was placed third in the Emerald Writing Workshops Novel Opening Competition and received a £10 cheque. These 500 word competitions are run quarterly with a very reasonable entry fee of £1.80 for a £50 first prize. Well worth having a go! The next closing date is 31st August 2011 – check the website for further details.
That’s the good news over with and now the more serious stuff. As many of you will know the women’s magazine fiction market is shrinking and the latest casualty is the one page story in Take a Break (although the Fiction Feast story special will continue to be published). So some womag writers have started a campaign to let the magazines know that we want more fiction. Patsy Collins has put details on her blog about how to use Facebook to voice your opinions to the magazine editors. Alternatively (if like me you don’t ‘do’ Facebook) you could email or write to the magazines’ letters pages. If enough of us make a fuss then maybe it will have an impact and bring back some of those short story markets. Fingers crossed!
Originality or Marketability?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Markets on June 20, 2011
I’ve just read the Norwegian crime novel The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. It’s a gripping story of murder with many twists and
turns before the true identity of ‘The Snowman’ is revealed. I admit to choosing the book solely because Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell (creator of Wallender) have hooked me into Scandinavian crime fiction.
The Sunday Times says of The Snowman, ‘…deserves comparison with the first volume of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy’ and The Independent says ‘…well placed to secure the loyalty of Stieg Larsson fans.’
When pitching to publishers and agents, would-be novelists are often advised to state where their book sits in relation to other authors, i.e. whose novels are similar to theirs. Publishers like a novel that fits neatly into a specific genre so that it can be easily marketed – hence the large number of books now marketed as ‘the next Stieg Larsson’.
So where does this leave originality and creativity?
It seems to me that a novelist (and especially a first time novelist) is risking life, limb and a publishing deal if he tries to write outside tried and tested genres. No matter how good the writing, it will be an uphill battle to get a book deal without a ready marketing hook. But someone has to be first to dip a toe in the water with a new idea – the Larsson books were something completely different when they first appeared.
What does anyone else think – is it best to bend your writing to fit a genre or is it better to follow your heart and risk alienating publishers?
By the way – I really enjoyed The Snowman and heartily recommend it.
Coffee Break Fiction for Women’s Magazines
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets, Resources, Writing on June 13, 2011
Last week I was a guest blogger for the Writers’ Bureau. I chose to do my post about writing sub-1000 word stories for the womag market, in particular The Weekly News, My Weekly and Take a Break/Fiction Feast.
If you’re interested in writing for these magazines then read the full post by clicking here.
Anyone who is a student (or a temporarily lapsed student like me!) of the Writers’ Bureau is eligible to apply to be a guest blogger – just log in to the student community section of the Writers’ Bureau website for details. If chosen you will get a link back to your own blog – so if you’ve got something to say, it’s worth having a go.
Opportunities in Prima Magazine
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Markets on May 12, 2011
Prima is a monthly women’s magazine that offers several slots for the aspiring writer to see their name in print:
- The letters page – every letter published wins a year’s subscription to the magazine and the star letter wins a skin care set worth £64. All the letters referred to previous items that had appeared in the magazine.
- Each month the letters page also features a poem. In June’s issue this was written by a man in praise of his wife.
- The Home life page ‘is your chance to pass on good ideas for the benefit of other Prima readers and, in doing so, encourage the highest quality service and great value for everyone’. Each contribution to the page receives £25. In June’s issue the contributions included a reader’s favourite shop, a picture of grandchildren, a suggestion for a day out and a couple of product recommendations.
- The Readers’ Kitchen page wants your recipes and tips plus recommendations for a favourite cafe, food shop or gadget. Recipes receive a year’s subscription to the magazine, tips and cafe or other recommendations earn £25.
- Picture Perfect – £25 for each photo printed on this page. June’s page is a Father’s Day Special and each picture includes a dad with young children.
- Do you have a winning story? – this page asks for 400 word stories. Reading the June winners, it looks like either fiction or real life experiences can be submitted. The winner receives £200 and two runners-up each receive a year’s subscription to Prima.
- Reader’s tips are dotted throughout the magazine – each one receiving £25. Plus the best tip receives £50.
- Wise Words – each month Prima is looking for wise words on a set theme. The June issue sets the theme ‘The best things in life are free, such as…’ and offers £25 for those chosen.
Why not nip out and buy a copy of the magazine? Study the style of your chosen section and then compose your contribution to fit. If you don’t try you won’t succeed!
And don’t forget to sign up for a free email subscription to this blog if you want a chance to be the next home for my World Book Night books.
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