Submitting To Anthologies

If you write short pieces, as opposed to full-length books, anthologies are markets to explore for your work. The two book covers above are anthologies in which I have been published. A publisher decides to put together a group of stories by different authors, usually around a specific theme. 

The one I first submitted to and where I've had good success is Chicken Soup for the Soul. Their books are always filled with stories geared to a particular theme. They stay with a specified number of stories in each book--101. The stories they seek are heartwarming, humorous, heart-tugging true tales. No horror or erotica here. (Go to the bottom of the page where three columns are shown in blue ink. At the top of the third column, you will see Submit Your Stories. Click on this to go to the page that gives you all the information you need to submit. 

The Moments series of anthologies does not pay the authors. All royalties for the books go to an international charitable organization called Samaritan's Purse. You can read more about this series here. Submitting here, and being accepted, gives you a publication to add to your list and offers an opportunity to help others in our world.

Bards Against Hunger is another no-pay series of poetry anthologies. Royalties for the books go to fight hunger around the world. Again, it's one more publication if you are accepted. 

If you subscribe to writing newsletters, you can be on the lookout for anthologies that need submissions. You'll find lists of calls for submissions, anthologies being only one type. 

Do a search on your favorite search engine. I tried that just recently. I was surprised at the number of horror anthologies listed. There are also a lot of sci-fi and erotica books that are looking for stories. For people who write in these genres, it looked like a fertile field. 

As always, read the guidelines carefully. Read samples of the anthology if possible to give you an idea for what they like to publish. 

Here are a few links to anthologies looking for submissions:

• Crack the Spine--theme is The Year
• Heroines
• The Fiction Desk 
• Once Upon An Enchanted Forest--witchcraft stories
• Untitled Time Anthology--theme is Time
• Horror Anthology
• Travel Tales  (some dates are past, some still open)

Writers and Social Media

We hear the term Social Media a lot. Do you know the official definition of the word?

Webopedia Definition
A term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications, and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content ...
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/social_media.html

I'm guessing that a great many writers use some form of social media. The question I ask is to what

purpose? I'm not putting it down. I use it and am a proponent of writers becoming involved with various outlets of social media. I ask the question to let you give thought to your reasons for using it. 

Do you pop onto Facebook daily for some sociability with friends and family? That's fine, but do you also use Facebook to promote your latest publication, speaking engagement or conference attendance? If not, you should. Many writers have two facebook pages--one for personal life and one for their writing life. I have both, but I use the personal one to let friends and family know what goes on in my writing life, too. 

One of the suggestions for branding yourself as a writer is to use social media. Get your name spread often enough that you gain some recognition. We're fortunate to live and write in a time where reaching others and informing them of your writing life is so very easy. 

Did you notice in the definition that 'blogs' are included? That surprised me, although it probably shouldn't as a blog fits the definition quite well. Instagram was not mentioned, but it seems to me you could share a photo there of you and your latest publication. Have you tried using YouTube to promote your writing? Here's an article that might help. Twitter seems to be a big part of our world today. We see 'tweets' on the news on a daily basis. If you haven't already, you should consider signing on at www.twitter.com. Every time something of interest in your writing life occurs, hop on over and tweet. 

If you haven't used a lot of social media, there's no time like the present to begin. It may all seem like Greek or nonsense to you at first, but stay with it and soon you'll be an old hand. 

I put links to my blog posts on several writing-related facebook pages plus my own writer's page and my personal page. I tweet each post on twitter, too. I've gained many new readers by doing this. Does it take time? Yes, but not a large amount. When you do it five days a week, it becomes routine and goes fairly fast. 

I also have many Friends on facebook who are writers. and they promote themselves there as writers. I enjoy seeing what new publication they might have or an award won. It's a chance to congratulate or commiserate when rejection happens. Writers sometimes put questions on facebook and get numerous answers. Their Facebook Friends occasionally help choose a book cover with a poll the writer uses. 

If you never use Social Media, consider giving it a try. If you're an occasional user, up the amount a bit. The more you put into it, the more benefit you receive. You've probably heard that people spend far too much time on Social Media sites. That can happen, no doubt about it. The solution to that is entirely up to you. Put a limit on the time you spend there.

Teachers Who Influenced Your Writing

This is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. What better time to give thought to the many men and women who taught you and me over the past decades? Narrowing it down here to those who helped us become writers.

There are three parts to today's post:

1.  Teachers who helped us learn about the craft of writing: 

We must thank those teachers who introduced us to the world of writing back in grade school, middle school and high school. They were classroom teachers, ones who taught the language, and those who concentrated on Literature and Writing only. Did they all teach us to be writers? No, but we derived bits and pieces of learning to write as we moved from grade to grade. 

Some of us can pinpoint one specific teacher who set us on the path to a writing journey that has continued into adulthood. Maybe it was a college professor whose class on Creative Writing in which you soaked up knowledge about writing like a sponge. It could have been a person who conducted a workshop for writers at a conference. Or someone who wrote a book about writing skill that you have read time and again. 

Certain teachers stand out in our mind as ones who offered us the most useful and interesting material that helped us pursue our writing. The one who offered inspiration to write and keep writing. 

2.  Writers who become teachers of writers:

When we attend a writing conference, nearly every workshop presenter or keynote speaker is another writer. These people are willing to share their knowledge and experience with both newbie writers and seasoned ones. I am firmly convinced that we are never too experienced nor too old to learn more about our craft. 

Do we appreciate these 'writers who teach writers' enough? Next time you sit in a workshop taught by another writer, think about the time they put into preparing the lesson for you? What about the time they must take away from their own writing? They make this sacrifice to give you the gift of what they know about the subject, be it mystery writing, essay composition, or novels. 

Authors who write books about writing have dual purposes in most cases. They want to share their expertise, but they also want to publish another book and enjoy the royalties. When an author with a recognizable name writes a book about writing, others tend to pay attention. 

There are plenty of writers who are not willing to give the time and effort required to teach other writers. Some don't feel qualified. Some are terrified of speaking publicly. Some are takers, not givers. There are any number of reasons, and none are to be criticized. Instead, those writers should be all the more appreciative of writers who can teach other writers.

3.  Write to a teacher who helped you learn to write:

As an exercise, write a letter of thanks to a teacher who inspired or aided you in becoming a writer. Besides your thanks, let them know what they did to reach out to you, what made you remember what they taught you. You can mail it or not. Many of those teachers may no longer be living or whereabouts unknown. You can turn your letter into a personal essay or you can use it strictly as a writing exercise. Your choice. 

We didn't become writers without help from teachers throughout the years. Give some thought and appreciation to those who helped you both before and during your writing journey. 

Marketing What You Write

Many writers are in agreement with this statement:  The writing is the easy part, selling it is much harder. As writers, we've done the work of writing, and we know that it is no easy task. Hours and hours go into writing one short story or a personal essay. A book may take years. Even so, many writers dread the task of finding a home for what they have written. I'm going to concentrate today on short pieces like short fiction, flash fiction, essays, personal essays, nonfiction articles, and poetry rather than full-length books.

Finding a place to submit your writing is far easier today than it was before technology brought us the internet. Huge market guides were for sale or could be found at the local library. They gave thousands of places where writers could send their work. A big problem was that the guides became outdated very quickly. They also took a good deal of time to read through, trying to find a fit with your story. They did narrow the guides to magazines, publishing houses, poetry and more, which helped a little. Cost proved a factor for many, especially if the writer wanted the most current guide. There are still printed market guides available, but they aren't as popular as they once were.

Today, we have the benefit of search engines on the internet to help us find places to submit our work. It costs nothing but our time and some effort at weeding. We still need to separate the possible from the impossible.

Some things to keep in mind when looking for magazines, anthologies or websites that accept your kind of work:

• Try different search engines, then choose one you like best. You can still check others at any time. This article will be of help in trying several.
• Learn to use significant keywords when using a search engine. For instance, if you are trying to sell a story to a horror magazine, use words like submission guidelines horror magazines. If you want to sell an article on making bread, use words like submission guidelines food magazines. Narrow your search so that you don't end up with a myriad of useless titles in the list you receive.
• Make a list of the ten places that seem the best fit for the story you want to sell. No sense in making a list of 50. Hopefully, you'll have success with one of those first ten that appeal to you. If not, you know where to go to add to your list. 
• Don't select a place to submit to by only the title of the magazine, website or anthology. READ the guidelines. READ them more than once. Does your story qualify? If so, send it. If not, scratch it.
• Listen to what other writers have to say. If your work is similar, take a look at places where they had some success. I see writers making recommendations now and then on social media. Pay attention.
• If you have sold a story to a particular magazine, give them a try a second or third time. They'll recognize your name and may give closer attention to your submission. If you sell multiple times to the same place, you can establish a working relationship with the editor. Always a large plus.
• Subscribe to writing themed newsletters. Many of them contain market lists that are updated regularly. They've done the initial searching for you. 

How about contests?

• Use a search engine to find contests that you can enter.
• Writing newsletters often have a section on contests to enter.
• Specify No-fee in your keywords in a search engine when looking for contests, if you want only ones that cost you nothing to enter.
• Just as mentioned above, READ the guidelines for entering several times. Make sure what you want to enter fits the guidelines.
• Remember that contests with entry fees generally award larger cash prizes than the No-fee.
• Listen to other writers to gain knowledge of contests worth entering. 

Marketing what you've written is not an easy task. The longer you do it, the better you will become at sifting and sorting the long lists the search engines will spout. 

Writers Who Worry

We send in a submission for publication or to a contest, and then comes the long wait. Some publications give an indication of how long it will be until you hear something from them--either yay or nay. Some give no timetable whatsoever. Some never respond unless they want to publish your work. Worrisome!

Contests most often state when the winners will be announced. That is less of a concern than submitting for publication. Sometimes, it's still a long time from entry to finding out if you placed or not. My state authors club contest has a submission deadline of June 15th. Winners are announced in early October at the state convention. Meanwhile, those who enter cannot submit the same piece for publication. The rule is that whatever was entered cannot be published prior to the winners being revealed. Technically, you can submit to an editor, but if they want to publish, can you say, "That's great, but you can't publish until after October." That's rather hard to do. At that point, you'd need to decide whether to withdraw your contest entry and accept the publication offer or nix it and leave the contest entry. I find it's better to not enter a contest and send the same piece out for publication possibilities. It's not going to happen often, but if it does, you have a problem to work out.

All of the above is leading up to today's topic. Writers who worry. It's the human part of us that causes us to worry about our writing ability, the long waits we endure to hear from an editor or contest manager, and the reviews or the readers we attract. We question ourself on various parts of our writing life. We fret, voice concern, and just plain worry. I doubt there is any writer who has not spent some time worrying about various facets of the writing journey. 

The bigger question is why do you worry and how much do you worry? Today's poster above gives the best advice for this problem. The biggest thing is that worrying changes absolutely nothing. It also hurts no one but yourself. Your sleep can suffer. You can lose the joy in other parts of your life by letting worry take over. You usually have little or no control over the thing you're worried about.

Is there a solution? You hold the key. No one else can do this for you. One thing you must learn to do is have faith in yourself as a writer. You must come to a point where you believe in your writing ability. Be willing to admit that not everything you submit is going to get published (or win a contest). There's nothing wrong with giving yourself a mental pep talk. Accentuate the positives in your writing life. 

If you're a beginning writer, finding those positives might be a little harder. Even so, try to consider the positives rather than the negatives. The latter will only add to your worry. What do you like about your writing? Dwell on that rather than the parts you hate. And know this--all writers hate some things about their writing, but they also have areas that are very satisfying. 

I've learned to take the attitude that, if something is meant to happen, it will. If I get a rejection, there is usually a good reason for it. The fault could easily lie in me, not that dumb editor who didn't want to publish the piece I sent in good faith. Most of the time, I don't worry. Remember that popular song of many decades ago titled Que sera, sera? The loose translation is Whatever will be, will be. No amount of worry in the world can change what happens.

Instead of wasting time worrying, work at being the best writer you can be. The more success you have, the less there will be to worry about.

Factors That Influence A Writer

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works. 

--Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf knew what she was talking about when she said that all the things that make us who we are, we put into our writing. We've all heard the suggestion Write what you know. We write best what we know or have experienced.

Yes, I can do research about the life of an oil rigger in the ocean and use that as a base for a story, but doing the research and actually living it are two separate things. I would have to experience the life of someone in that field in order to feel what he does, know the little idiosyncrasies, the reactions to certain situations and more. Good writers can probably do it, but a writer who has worked on an oil rig can most likely do it best.

I agree that our personality is formed by life experiences and the secrets we store deep within. Whether we grew up in an urban or rural area makes a difference in our writing. Our educated self knows that there are different sounds in the city and the farmland, but our real self knows them better, depending on which ones we grew up hearing.  Those sounds trigger memories and emotions within us which we can then transfer to the words we write.

Some of our secrets might not be written about distinctly for all to see and know but can be laced within a story about someone else. In a memoir, we would probably reveal many secrets about not only ourself but others, as well. In fiction, we can give our secrets to our characters and write about them with authority. Nor just surmising. We know how that person feels and acts because of a situation or event that we know personally. Does that mean that every situation in a piece of fiction is a secret the author has held onto? No, it does not, but it can happen sometimes. 

Life experiences make us who we are just as what we write defines us as a writer. Who we are shows up in our writing on a regular basis. The final phrase of the quote above speaks about the 'quality of mind,' and I think that also shows in our writing. 

Stuck On A Writing Project?

I've noticed a number of people on facebook pages for writers mention that they are stuck with the writing project of the moment. I saw comments like I'm stuck. I can't go any farther. I am out of gas. What happens next? 

Reaching a brick wall in a writing project is not an unusual happening. It doesn't matter whether it's a  novel, a memoir book, a short story, a personal essay or a poem. Stuck is stuck! So, what should a writer do? Sitting in front of your computer staring at a blank screen is no solution. 

The best thing to do is to abandon the project. Not forever. Put it on the back burner for a short while, maybe a longer time. When we get totally immersed in a writing project, we sometimes need a break. Walk away. Stop writing for a short period. Or start writing on a different project. 

When you're so deep into writing a major piece, your mind can become overloaded with that one subject. Take the break. Give your brain a chance to breathe a bit. 

Do you run a risk of never returning to finish the book or whatever it is you've put your heart and soul into? Yes, there is a chance of that occurring, but I think it's minimal. If what you were working on is something worthy, you're most likely going to be able to finish at some future point. 

When you walk away from writing that has you flummoxed, are you going to completely forget about it? I doubt that you would. Instead, bits and pieces of thoughts about the story will float through your mind off and on. Maybe even subconsciously at times. A thought or answer to a puzzle might emerge one day when you least expect it. You'll know then that you can go back to work on the story that has been resting for days, weeks, or even months. 

A carpenter, an architect, a seamstress are all people who experience the same kind of thing now and then. Something doesn't work right. They know there's a problem but don't immediately see how to fix it. They can do the same thing we writers do. Walk away for a while. Let the mind rest. Let the brain come up with a solution. 

Don't agonize over being stuck in your writing. That is no solution. It will only make you more miserable. If I could send you the little May pixie in our clip art image today, I would. If I could solve your problem, I'd be glad to help, but it's up to you.