Alternative outlets may be just the right venue

One of the great sources for potential markets that I've mentioned in several posts is NewPages.com, but I've generally focused on the literary outlets included there. NewPages.com also has a section titled "Alternative Magazines" that is worth perusing as well. There appear to be a few distinctions between literary and alternative outlets, but, given the focus on this blog, I'll underscore that literary publications tend to publish almost exclusively creative work (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) with perhaps author interviews and book reviews; whereas alternative publications tend to have a particular agenda, and their use of creative work is limited, preferring to publish essays and journalistic exposes.

Nevertheless, some alternative outlets do actively seek creative writing, and you may find that your work suits an outlet's specialized viewpoint. Here are just a few possibilities that I unearthed thanks to NewPages' Alt listings.

Well known in the literary world, The Bloomsbury Review offers book reviews on literature that is ignored by more mainstream publications because it's been released, generally speaking, by smaller, independent presses. As its homepage says, "The Bloomsbury Review is simply lively writing about good reading and good writers." Its editors, however, are interested in publishing original poetry as well. They tend to avoid simultaneously submitted work, according to their guidelines, but poets may want to check it out (as should essayists and reviewers).

Another possible outlet for creative writers of various ilks is Feminist Studies, which is "committed to providing a forum for feminist analysis, debate, and exchange." As far as creative writing is concerned, FS's editors "welcome all forms of creative expression, including but not limited to poetry and short fiction in all forms," says their guidelines page. Be aware that the editors do not consider simultaneous submissions.

A third interesting possibility that I'll highlight is Stone Voices, "a magazine and online community that explores the connections between visual arts and the spiritual journey." Among the editors' many interests are fiction and poetry, and they emphasize that each issue is done with high-production value so that it's "a book worth enjoying ... [and] a book worth keeping for a long time." Like many specialized journals, they have fairly lengthy and specific submission guidelines, but it's a venue that's worthy of attention for fiction writers and poets.

These are just three of numerous alternative outlets listed at NewPages.com. Not all alt journals use creative work, but many do, and you just may find a nice fit if you take the time to check out the possibilities.

tedmorrissey.com
Men of Winter (now available for Nook and Kindle, as well as in print)

Four intriguing publishing possibilities to check out

Thanks to my weekly email alert from Duotrope's Digest, I've discovered three new journals and one that is expanding its scope which are all definitely worth noting, for writers and readers of excellent literature alike. (I've written about Duotrope's usefulness, bordering on necessity, for anyone looking for outlets for her and his creative work -- see the sidebar for older posts, several of which mention the digest.)

A brand-new, and sassy, journal that is seeking submissions for its inaugural issue is What the Fiction, "a journal of great fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry," according to its webpage. WTF was inspired by a creative writing class at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, and its editors plan to release their first issue online in early 2012. They also intend to do a "best of" print anthology by the end of the year. Edited by Michael Brantley, the journal's webpage provides a plethora of information about its editors and their inspirations and attitudes. It's worth checking out for the insight -- and as reading entertainment in itself.

Executive editor Sarah Rae of Poydras Review has an ambitious agenda for her gestating journal. In addition to short fiction, nonfiction and poetry, the journal will include articles on theory -- and the editors hope to attract "the largest public possible by using a variety of mediums including print, online, and ebooks," according to their mission statement. A woman after my own heart, Ms. Rae has an MFA in creative writing and MA in psychology (all right, I have neither an MFA in creative writing nor an MA in psychology, but my dissertation devoted much space to trauma theory and neuropsychology).

Another intriguing journal, nearly brand-new, is From the Depths, produced by Haunted Waters Press. From the Depths is a print journal, the first issue of which will be out this winter, but the website will also feature work by its contributors -- in fact, some of that work is already posted and well worth checking out. I must say, while I really appreciate the attitude of What the Fiction and the ambition of Poydras Review, I love the feel and look of Haunted Waters Press, founded by Savannah Renee Warren and Susan Warren Utley.

Finally, Noctua Review, a journal of the MFA program at Southern Connecticut State University, is expanding the mission it began in 2008 (to publish the work of SCSU graduate students) by including work from "writers and artists across the country," and will release this new incarnation of itself in 2012. Editor in chief Julie Oliver appears to have a full masthead of editors to undertake the journal's rigorous new scope.

These are just four engaging journals in the process of launching and expanding. In addition to Duotrope's Digest, also check out NewPages and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses for other great possibilities.

tedmorrissey.com
Men of Winter

Submishmash seems to be leading the submission race

In an earlier post, I wrote about the various ways that writers and poets can submit their work to editors and publishers -- via email, an online portal, or snail mail -- and it remains true, but even though it's only been a few months since that post the submission landscape has changed appreciably. I completed a novel in June, after five years of working on it, and I began writing a series of short stories. As such, I've been quite active in the last few months in terms of contacting publishers (regarding the novel) and editors (regarding the stories). Based on my experience, it seems that more and more people are utilizing the submission service known as Submishmash. There are others, including Tell It Slant, but far and away Submishmash is leading the pack.

In fact, Submishmash now calls itself the number-one submission management tool, used by over 2,000 publishers and universities, according to its website. It's hardly scientific, but since the first part of July, I've contacted 84 editors, including publishers about my novel, and 25 (or nearly 30 percent) have used Submishmash. Two have used Tell It Slant (about 2 percent), and seventeen have used some other online portal system (just over 20 percent). Of course, email continues to be an option, but my sense is that the majority of editors/publishers who were already attracted to electronic submissions have moved to a service like Submishmash, if not Submishmash itself. Of that 84, only seven were email contacts, or about 8 percent. I mentioned in my post regarding writers' guidelines that perhaps email submissions required the most care in that journals/publishing houses tended to have very specific -- and idiosyncratic -- instructions about how to prepare your submission. I imagine that those e-submission enthusiasts prefer the simplicity a service like Submishmash offers.

A few journals still prefer snail-mail submissions, perhaps believing that it keeps the number of submissions manageable. And along with the rise in submission service use, like Tell It Slant and Submishmash, there's been a rise, from my perspective, in journals that require a nominal reading fee (usually $2 or $3). This may be an opportune time for me to acknowledge that the unscientific statistics that I used in the previous paragraph were undoubtedly skewed by the fact that I'm increasingly attracted to journals who use online submission managers. I cannot put a number to it, but I know in my perusals for outlets for my new novel and newly written stories that I passed up a few possible contacts because they were requiring snail-mail or email submissions, and at that moment I didn't have the patience or ambition to pursue them. By the same token, I passed up a handful that required a reading fee. Now, however, I've become comfortable using PayPal to dole out the two or three bucks, so I'm more inclined today than I was even a couple of months ago to pay the reading fee.

There is some debate in publishing circles about the ethics of charging a reading fee, and tied into that debate is whether or not a reading fee suppresses the number (and hence overall quality) of submissions. I'm sure that some editors/publishers, especially those over the age of, say, 25, are disinclined toward the fee because in the "old days" only disreputable journals charged a reading fee. Professional and serious outlets would never lower themselves to charge a fee -- which no doubt led to the creation of so many writing contests, as it was seen as more noble to charge $15 to enter a contest (which in various ways was returned to the winners and entrants) than to charge everyone a couple of dollars, almost none of which would be returned to the writers and poets, in terms of a subscription or sample copy, etc.

The journal I read for, Quiddity, has recently switched to using Submishmash (from snail mail); and I find it quite handy. I receive an email from one of the editors letting me know there are submissions for me to read. My account is the same for both my Quiddity reading and for my own submissions to journals/publishers which use Submishmash. As a  reader, I simply log in, click QUIDDITY, then click on a story (I'm only reading prose), and it pops up on the screen. I generally increase its magnification a couple of times to make it exceptionally easy to read, and when I've reached a decision I either click the thumb-up or thumb-down icon (there's a maybe option, but as a group we decided even before Submishmash that maybes are virtually useless -- it's yes or no, or get off the pot).

There's also an option of adding a comment to the submission, which I don't bother with either. If I read something wonderful and I fear that Quiddity may lose it if we don't act promptly, I'll email or text the appropriate editor and alert her or him that we have a live one we may want to act on as soon as possible.

Just a couple of side notes regarding using Submishmash: I was having trouble at first receiving email notifications from the editors that I had something to read, so I contacted Submishmash support and received a response literally within the hour (it turned out to be a minor technical glitch that was immediately cleared up) -- and this was on a Saturday morning. Even though using Submishmash as a reader is handy, I do sort of miss having to haunt the campus, where I only teach part-time, to pick up fresh or drop off read submissions, and likely running into one of the editors or interns in the Q office. And in addition to the human contact, I miss the feel of the submissions, the bulk and smell of them, and the knowledge that the actual writer who composed the piece physically handled the material and signed the cover letter. I liked looking at the signature to see what it may imply about the author.

Would I want to go back to snail mail? Probably not, but one does lose something of the experience by going to electronic submissions. And based on the trend I'm seeing as a writer, it's full steam ahead for e-submissions, with Submishmash in particular leading the field.

tedmorrissey.com
Men of Winter

Markets opening with the arrival of the academic year

With August's august arrival, markets for fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction have begun to open in earnest. And this trend will continue into September. Because so many literary journals and small presses are affiliated with university writing programs, and hence edited and staffed by faculty and graduate students, the vast majority go on hiatus during the summer, closing submissions; but return, with renewed vigor, with the arrival of the academic year.


As I've often said in this blog, Duotrope's Digest and NewPages.com are excellent sources for keeping tack of the markets (who's accepting submissions, what contests are open, etc.). In previous postings I've talked about things like how to search for markets, how to keep track of your submissions, and how to decipher submission guidelines -- please see the sidebar of this blog for older posts on these and other topics.


Since now is the time that writers and poets begin submitting material with zeal (as an editor and reader for lit journals, I visualize this time of year something like unlocking the doors of Best Buy on Black Friday), it's worth keeping some things in mind -- and here are the things I have on my mind:


Writers' guidelines: I've talked before about how important it is for writers/poets to read carefully and follow the submission guidelines that journals and presses provide via their websites. See this posting on guidelines. It's worth noting that guidelines frequently change, so even if you thoroughly read a journal's guidelines last year (or last week), don't assume they're the same now. For one thing, because many journals and presses change editors every year, often times the new editorial board makes some changes as well. The new editors may revise the focus or mission of the journal (old editors can do this too of course). 


They may shift the kinds and/or lengths of material they're willing to consider. The way that editors are receiving submissions is constantly changing too. More and more are going to some sort of submission portal -- Submishmash is increasingly popular, for example. The journal I read for, Quiddity, is moving to using Submishmash this fall. Even if they're not going with Submishmash, many editors are trying to be greener and therefore using another online portal or encouraging email submissions. I've noticed that the journals using emailed submissions seem less wary of attachments than journals tended to be just a couple of years ago. That is, it used to be that with email submissions, the vast majority wanted the story or poem, etc., to be pasted into the text of the email message, fearful that attachments would introduce viruses into their computers and networks; now, however, I'm not seeing as many prohibitions of attachments. Perhaps with applications like Google docs and more sophisticated virus-scanning software, editors are less concerned about contracting a bug.


See my post on various ways to submit your work.


With the uptick in editors' employing Submishmash, reading fees have also become more prevalent. It used to be that reading fees (that is, charging writers and poets a couple of bucks just to read their work) were considered rather gauche -- the sign of an outlet that wasn't especially professional or legitimate even. Instead, serious journals and presses would only charge fees to enter contests (and generally if you paid the contest fee, you'd at least get a subscription to the journal or a copy of the anthology produced with the collection of the fees). Contests and their fees still exist of course, but nowadays -- thanks to especially harsh economic climates, combined with dwindling readerships and the ease of commercial trafficking on the web via PayPal and so forth -- increasing numbers of editors are asking contributors to pay $2 or $3 to submit their work. 


The rationale tends to be that writers and poets are not having to use their paper and toner, and they're not having to pay for envelopes and postage, as in the old days, so it's not unreasonable to ask for some monetary support via a reading fee. I agree with this policy by and large -- though as a writer I do feel the hassle when I'm submitting work and have to stop to get out my credit card, and so on. Moreover, if every outlet were to go this route, of charging a nominal fee, it would definitely affect how writers and poets circulate their work. I for one wouldn't submit to twenty journals in one sitting if I had to pay $2 or $3 a pop, that is $40 to $60.


So while online submission portals like Submishmash tend to exponentially increase submissions to a journal or press, adding a reading fee will most likely counterbalance, to some degree, the number of submissions, thus keeping them somewhat in check. It's important to keep in mind what that fee is used for. Yes, many journals are still in a print format, and the fee helps pay for printing costs, but even if a journal is totally online (or employs a print-on-demand component, like via lulu.com), those fees are used to promote creative writing in other ways. Journals and presses will sponsor local programs, and they'll invite published writers and poets to give readings to promote their work and to promote the arts in general in their communities.


And while I, living near Springfield, Illinois, may not be able to attend a literary event in, say, Wichita, Kansas, that was made possible, in part, thanks to my two dollars, presumably I will be able to go to a local event that is supported by some Jayhawk's hard-earned cash. It's the Great Circle of literary life. That is to say, don't think of it as throwing your money out the window to pay a reading fee: You're supporting the creative arts in general, and that's always a good thing.


One last thing (for now): With the opening of markets and the fervor for submitting your work that it brings, don't forget the importance of keeping good track of your activities, including the paying of those reading and contest fees. As I've said, developments in online management systems may make using spreadsheet programs, like Excel, obsolete, but we're not there quite yet, at least as far as I'm concerned. See my post on keeping track of your submissions.


Let the submissions begin. . . .


tedmorrissey.com

Men of Winter

Some interesting themed opportunities

In a post last December I discussed some of the advantages of pursuing publication in themed publications (or themed issues of publications) -- and perhaps chief among them is the fact that the competition is likely not as fierce as in a general interest publication. I thought I'd pick up that train of thought by looking at a few interesting opportunities currently available, especially for genre and cross-genre writers. These themed publications were found via Duotrope's Digest's weekly email bulletin -- as I've said many times before, an absolute must for poets and writers who are actively seeking outlets for their work.

Perhaps because I saw the new film Cowboys and Aliens this weekend, Pill Hill Press's call for submissions for its contest anthology "Conquest Through Determination" caught my attention. Specifically, Pill Hill is looking for stories in the Sci-Fi subgenre of steampunk. Steampunk, a variation on the term cyberpunk (think Matrix), plays with the idea of advanced technologies in a steam-engine era. The editors discuss the subgenre on their contest page and cite Jules Verne as a pioneer. Wikipedia, meanwhile, provides a thorough entry on steampunk. The editors also stress that they're looking for seasoned voices as well as new ones.

Red Skies Press currently has five anthologies for which they're accepting submissions: First Contact Imminent, Dreams of Duality, Celtic Blade, Frozen Fear Deluxe, and Medieval Nightmares. See the press's website for complete details.

Rune Wright has three themed deadlines fast approaching: Hallows Eve Vol. One, Holiday Spirit & Mayhem Vol. One, and Penny Dread Tales, Vol. Two. Editor Christopher Ficco stresses that the themes should not be taken as rigid, but rather they should inspire creativity. See Rune Wright's submissions page for complete details and deadlines.

Imagination & Place is planning its fourth book, titled "Imagination & Place: Weather," and is wanting fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and essays that explore weather "both interior and exterior, calm and turbulent." Check out the submission details.

There are many, many themed (and non-themed) deadlines in the next couple of months, so visit Duotrope's Digest and other sources, like NewPages.com, to see what's available.

tedmorrissey.com

Men of Winter

Some summer writing contests to consider

In my January 22, 2011, post I talked about the benefits of entering your writing in contests, and while summertime may be a bit slow in terms of available outlets, there are numerous contests that are taking entries.

This line of thought was sparked by my receiving an email from Donna Talarico, the founder and publisher of Hippocampus Magazine, regarding her journal's Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction. See the contest page for complete details, but some highlights include cash prizes, publication, and (maybe best of all) a significant portion of the entry fee will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association. Contact info@hippocampusmagazine.com with questions or comments. The deadline is September 15, 2011.

While I'm at it, I'll point out that the journal for which I'm a reader, Quiddity international literary journal and public-radio program, has two contests underway: The Book Trailer Contest for Writers and Small or Independent Presses. As the name implies, there are two categories -- one for writers who are promoting their manuscripts, and the other for small or independent publishers who are promoting books. See guidelines for complete details and a sample trailer. The deadline is December 10, 2011.

Quiddity is also sponsoring the Teresa A. White Literary Award: "Buck-a-Word" Contest. The journal is looking for flash fiction of no more than 500 words, including title. The deadline is October 31, 2011.

These are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. A good resource for finding contests that are currently accepting entries is NewPages.com's contest page. The site, which is a great resource in general, organizes the contest pages (one for magazines, one for books) by deadline month, and several are coming up in July and August.

tedmorrissey.com

Men of Winter

Three new journals planning fall launches

In my last post I talked about the fact that summer offers fewer publishing opportunities for writers and poets but "fewer" isn't none -- so I wanted to call your attention to some editors/publishers who are currently reading for their inaugural issues, all found courtesy of Duotrope's Digest's email newsletter.

Orange Quarterly caught my eye. It's a brand-new online market "showcas[ing] both emerging and established artists and writers from around the globe." Founded by Allison Leigh Peters, OQ is currently accepting work for their debut issue, which is scheduled to launch this Halloween night just before the clock strikes midnight. As a drama-building tool, the site has a countdown-to-launch clock. The editors are accepting work via email, and as such there are quite a few do's and don't's, so read their submission guidelines carefully. Prose writers should note that they'll read work up to 7,500 words, which is more than many journals are interested in considering. I must say I like the look of OQ's site; it appears professionally constructed and well thought out. In short, it looks to me like an online journal put together by folks who know what they're doing (even though it doesn't appear that any of the "OQ crew" will be applying for their AARP card anytime soon).

Whether you submit or not, Orange Quarterly will be a journal worth keeping track of as the editors get their first issues out into the cyberworld.

Here's another interesting-looking online journal in its embryonic stage: Specter Literary Magazine (also featuring a countdown-to-launch clock -- maybe that's a new trend).  SLM's editors have a somewhat narrower focus than Orange Quarterly's in that they want poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction with "themes rooted in the generation of the 1980s and forward from a multi-cultural/multi-sexual perspective." That sounds intriguing but to be honest I'm not 100 percent sure what it means, and in fact I'm not even certain who "the generation of the 1980s" is.  The editors' guidelines offer some clarifications, and, as you'll see, they're taking work via Submishmash. SLM's blog has links to additional information, like the journal's masthead.

The editors are eager to see your work regardless of background (publishing or otherwise), so check out Specter Literary Magazine. It will be interesting to see how their focus manifests itself once it begins to publish in (let me check) about three months.

Speaking of interesting-looking online journals in their embryonic stage, here's another: S/WORD. Founded by husband and wife Seth and Chelsea McKelvey, S/WORD (which can be pronounced a multitude of ways) has a very, well, philosophical mission regarding text and reader interpretation. Trying to paraphrase it wouldn't do it justice, so please read the editors' about page  -- but it seems to me an important distinction of their journal is that, at the risk of oversimplifying, the editors are interested (even) in pieces that are not necessarily "finished" but are clearly still forming in the author's mind.

S/WORD, too, is accepting work via email. The editors want to see poetry and prose, but they also want to hear about creative work that doesn't quite fit into either of those pigeon holes, which is interesting. See their submission guidelines. S/WORD's site has a sort of New Age feel, but it's visually engaging and easy to maneuver within.

These are just three publishing possibilities. Check out Duotrope's Digest and NewPages for even more opportunities.

tedmorrissey.com

Men of Winter