Friday, May 27, 2022

Chicken Soup for the Soul Needs More Stories







 A long holiday weekend is upon us. Some of you will have every day filled with activities and being with friends/family. But others may have the days at leisure with time to write. Oh wow! Time to write. Something most of us crave more of.

I checked the Chicken Soup for the Soul page that has a call out for stories for books in the works. The list below includes deadlines.  A couple of them are only days away, while others are as far down the line as the end of August. With this anthology series, stories are accepted through the deadlines, but the earlier you submit, the better your chances are. So, don't procrastinate. It will be to your advantage to stay well ahead of the deadline date. The odds of getting a story accepted are pretty small, but it's not impossible either. If you've sent stories in the past that didn't make it, don't give up. I've been published in 24 of these books, but I've also had plenty of the stories I submitted to them rejected. 

Stories and poems needed for these Chicken Soup for the Soul books 

Cats     May 30

Crazy, eccentric, wacky, lovable, fun families   May 30

Dogs       May 30

Funny Stories  June 30

How Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone Changed Me    July 31

Impact of a Chicken Soup for the Soul story on me   August 30

The Advice that Changed My Life    July 31

The Power of Positive Thinking    July 31

If you want more information on each of these books and suggestions for the story topics, go to www.chickensoup.com Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Submit Your Story. Then Click on the Possible Book Topics on the menu at the left of that page. It is well worth it to go through all the information these editors have left for you. They want to give you some help in what story you decide to write and submit. 

Once again, I will advise you to read the Story Guidelines page with care. Read it and study it. It's there to help you submit the kind of story the editors seek. You will find it on the menu on the Possible Book Topics page.

The editors are asking for your stories and poems. You will see the following in the Guidelines regarding submitting poetry:

Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul poem

A.  We love poems that tell a story. A Chicken Soup for the Soul poem does the same job as a story. The reader goes away having learned your story, just through poetry instead of prose.

B.  We do not publish poems that do not tell a story.

C.  We also do not publish poems that seem overly focused on rhyming and read more like greeting cards.

What they are looking for here is a narrative poem, one that tells a story, but it must be your story, not that of someone else. 

I see very few poems in the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, so I think that they would be very happy to find some that fit the theme of the book and tell a story. 

Even if you don't have time this weekend to work on stories to submit to Chicken Soup, keep this list handy so you can get started later. Remember to look in your files for unpublished stories that might fit as is or with a bit of revising. 


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