Arriving Shortly...

No, the book is not done yet!

Instead there's a non-fiction article due out any day- if you're a Writing Magazine subscriber; otherwise you'll have to wait until Thursday when the September issue is in newsagents, or you prefer digital...

As soon as I have a copy in my hands and have read it- to see what was edited- then I'll be blogging and tweeting about it, as well as posting on Facebook.

It's an important topic for many writers I know...

Magazine topics...

Image from Pixabay.

Magazine Fillers - what's there?

Apologies for the lack of communication this last few weeks; it's been a month of varying appointments, arranging a speaker for October at the writers' club- so many writers are having a very busy October- and more sorting and packing boxes that was suddenly interrupted by a family member being sent to hospital urgently, kept overnight and now at home recovering.

I think we forget that one simple thing becoming troublesome in the body can have a lot of unpleasant results.

So magazine fillers- what's available?

When you're working on longer stories, or when some of the women's magazine markets have restricted who can submit stories, then fillers can earn small amounts.

It used to be a useful earning potential, and at one time there were plenty of magazines who paid for letters used, or included short pieces that filled spare slots in magazines.

It's changed a lot, so I've searched for a few examples in case you'd like to follow them up...

When I signed up to Readly (it's a site that enables you to read thousands of magazine- digitally- for a monthly fee)  I spent some time looking at a range of magazines to see what filler opportunities there were.

Research fillers...

It doesn't appear as bright as it once was.

Some magazines have gone the route of Facebook and Twitter. On a certain day of the week they pose a question and ask for readers opinions, and some of those replies feature on a page in the magazine later on.

There's nothing to suggest payment or a prize is offered...

Where Letters slots still exist many have gone to only awarding the star letter a prize - I wonder if the product maker has provided the freebie for exposure... Very few seem to pay cash anymore, and if they do it's only the Star letter.

*Saga, the magazine for the over 50's - does have interesting articles related to health, money, gardening, holidays and technology; it pays £50 to the writer of their star letter, but you've only got 100 words available.

Like any submission read the magazines and see what appeals to them and you.

* If you like Spirit & Destiny magazine, their star letter wins £50, and others printed won a book prize- in the November issue it's a book on Crystal use...

Opinion piece slots seem to have become celebrity orientated with recognisable TV and radio personalities sharing their thoughts on life or a specific topic. But keep looking as reader opinion slots are occasionally seen.

The good news is that you don't need many words if you have a good image to go with your useful tips- upcycling seems a popular choice, what use have you made of something you would normally use for something else. Or you've got a happy/fun image to share.

* Weekly magazine Pick Me Up pays £25 for pics and videos used for their Your Pick Me Ups pages- think fun, feel good and if you've met a celebrity and had your photo taken with them...

* They also do Your Brainwaves, £25 for 'your brilliant tips!' Some are quite simple, but very useful. A clear photo helps.

* Chat to Us in Chat magazine pays £25 for any photo they use, but it must not have been sent to 'any other publication'. They also pay £25 for tips they use.

And most magazines give instructions on sending by email as well as post.

But probably the biggest return is on the true-life tales that are splashed across the cover of weekly magazines such as Real People- their Quick Reads are 'short and sweet' tales, not fiction (earn up to £2,000), and Chat (says they pay cash for your real-life stories but doesn't specify the range).

If you're going to be doing articles then Readly is a good way to research lots of magazines without it costing what you might earn, and you can stop your monthly £7.99 subscription at any time.

Just like ideas being everywhere, so can filler opportunities- check out smaller and local magazines for opportunities. Admittedly these may be non-paying, but it's up to the individual writer to decide what's right for them.

Now I've had an idea for a useful recycling into something else tip, so I'll be getting the camera out to photograph it and send it off...

Have you had any success with fillers?



image from Pixabay.

November Means the Bad Sex in Fiction Shortlist...

Around this time in November the shortlist for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award is announced.

The Award  was established by Auberon Waugh, the then editor of the Literary Review, and literary critic Rhoda Koenig.

It has been awarded every year since 1993.

"the Bad Sex in Fiction Award has honoured an author who has produced an outstandingly bad scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel. The purpose of the prize is to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction."
Literary Review

When you consider how many books are produced, it's going to be the mainstream published type that will get the most notice, and readers who think these books deserved nominating...

You can read about a few of the nominated authors who escaped the shortlist in this Guardian article about this year's list.

(The new US President Elect was nominated apparently, but was excluded because it wasn't fiction...)

So this year's contenders:

A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin

The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler

Men Like Air by Tom Connolly

The Butcher's Hook by Janet Ellis

Leave Me by Gayle Forman

The Day Before Happiness by Erri De Luca


Having read the entries for this year, I can't see why Gayle Forman was included...

Whoever wins will likely see a rise in sales following the announcement on the 30th November.

Of the candidates this year, it has to be Erri De Luca's The Day Before Happiness. But Janet Ellis does deserve a commendation for The Butcher's Hook...

Which will win?

image courtesy of       & freedigitalphotos.net

A Small Success...

When I first got back into writing, after a very long break, my first published pieces were letters to my local newspaper. It's a good way to start as it teaches you to be concise and use the most effective words for the subject matter.

In fact the first ever piece I had published, as a young teenager, was a letter in one of the early music magazines - when it was still a newspaper version.

Friends on Facebook will already know about this, but I have a small writing success this month; I have a letter in the December issue of Writing Magazine.

December 2016 issue

The Letters to the Editor page is always popular, and you know how writers like to get into discussions about issues that are important to them...

I was sharing some insights into entry fees and restrictions in writing competitions.

A reader in the November edition had voiced concerns about these issues, and as I'm involved with a national short story competition I thought there were probably newer writers who had similar concerns, so I put fingers to keyboard.

Obviously each competition organisation has their own rules and entry fees, but there are some elements all are faced with, and I concentrated on those.

My letter

When there's so much to say and the maximum word count is 250 words, I did have to do a number of edits to still say what I wanted to and keep within that maximum number.

There are some very interesting articles in this edition, so you may want to purchase a copy when you're next at the newsagents.Or you can buy a digital copy.

I have to write a 200 word story for next weeks competition at the writers' club on the theme of 'Lost', so I'll really have to get the red pen out for that.

And as my letter was about competitions, if you know anyone who is a new or developing writer, the details of the 2017 Nottingham Writers' Club, National Short Story Competition, are now up on the club's website, here.

I also got a sneaky peep at the new website design today. It's not quite completed yet, but it's looking good...

Short Story Ready to Go - Almost...

I'm always surprised to discover my editing skills have improved.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have a short story that I wanted to revise to submit to Woman's Weekly.

My dilemma was that the story was too long for the 1,000 words, nor would it work at the shorter length, but it was too short for the 1,800 requirement.

So my revision became a rewrite to add words- about 400 in fact. It isn't a lot but I have to admit I didn't think I could do it without ruining the story.

I didn't quite finish last week, as a final few paragraphs needed to be looked at, even though I didn't think I could squeeze any more out.

But I did!

Actually I read through the whole story yet again, made more adjustments and my word count went up to as much as 1830, and then when I did my final edit it came back down to 1805.

Fixing the problem...

So where am I now with it?

Yesterday I printed the completed manuscript out and the cover sheet, addressed the envelopes and did a last minute read through.

That was when I saw it. No not the dreaded escapee typo, but one short line that didn't read clearly. So I'll sort it out and reprint, and read through again...

But it will be posted Monday. :D






Image courtesy of supakitmod & www.freedigitalphotos.net

It's Progress...

My rewriting of the short story is going well.

I've finished the first rewrite now and just need to go back through it, as I'm a couple of hundred words short of the minimum word count for my target magazine.

I did have to jiggle the dialogue around between characters as I had to lose one- they were surplus to requirements.

Though the narrative and description changed slightly, the dialogue didn't, it just fitted into place. I suppose it was because the characters hadn't changed...character.

Admittedly dialogue has always been a strong point, and I can hear the different characters as they speak - I just have to hope that readers can too, and it's not just me because I'm writing them!

I want to get this story done and out of the way so I can get back to Serena's Nottinghamshire story.

There's been no progress on the chapter two rewrite because the scene needs a few additions, and I have to bring in one of the minor missing (from draft one) characters, and get to know them.

My word count for the month has gone up because I'm now recording any writing I do, be it my blog posts, non-fiction, judging, information pieces for the writers' club magazine as well as fiction.

So I've discovered that I write more than I think- considering I can't touch type.

I'm making progress and that's the important thing...

Before winter and the
Blackbirds arrived...

Competition- 500 Words for Write for Elle...

Thanks to the Facebook page of the Romantic Novelists Association, I saw the link for the write for Elle competition.

Elle is a glossy monthly magazine you're guaranteed to find on the shelves of your local newsagents and supermarkets. Like many of its competitors it has a strong online and social media presence too.

So for the seventh year of this competition, they want a 500 word piece inspired by the hashtag  #RelationshipGoals so who the relationship is with that matters to you, and what you want from it, all that is up to you.

The competition opened 6th August and closes just before midnight on the 10th September.

Submission is by email and you'll find the link for the address to send it to on the competition information page, here.

Entries will be judged by an editorial team from Elle, and the remainder of the judging panel will be made up by author Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist), and novelist Kate Mosse.

Now to the prizes. The winner's piece will be published in the January 2016 issue of Elle under your own name, and you also win a Smythson monogrammed Dukes manuscript book (worth £135) - as do the remaining four finalists. There's no actual cash involved...

As with any writing competition there are terms and conditions you need to be aware of.

The winning entry may be edited "at the sole discretion of the ELLE editorial team" and "by entering this competition you consent to this and grant Hearst an exclusive licence in and to your work, in perpetuity."

The wordage is a little unclear, and I'd want clarification of whether the exclusivity is just with the winning entry, or every entry submitted (I'd suspect the latter, but I'd like to be surprised).

And whether they're 'in and to your work, in perpetuity' ONLY applies to the 500 word piece, and not any other potential articles for the magazine?

Don't forget to read the full competitions on the blue highlighted link further down the instructions page too.

Finally, you need to be over 18, resident of the UK and Ireland, not had material published by Elle or on elleuk.com and the piece submitted must not have been previously published.

If you enter, good luck...

It's National Short Story Week...

The 17th to 23rd November is National Short Story Week in the UK.

After years of decline the short story has had a resurgence, and the organisation behind this week, works hard to encourage and promote short stories, as do the organisations that support it.

Collections of short stories are becoming very popular, as they can be turned into an e-book, or find a home with a small publisher like Alfie Dog Fiction.

Many of my blogger friends (Patsy Collins, Rosemary Gemmell and Teresa Ashby to name just a few) have had lots of stories published, and they are now giving them another outing in collections.

If you pop over to Sue Moorcroft writes you'll be able to find out more about Wendy Clarke and her new short story collection, "Room in Your Heart". Wendy's name will be recognisable to anyone who has read The People's Friend magazine.

Do you remember a few months back, I was going to try and get an entry done for The Historic House Association Short Story Competition?

In the end I didn't have time, but you can find out who won, the names of the runners-up, and also those who were shortlisted and highly commended, via the National Short Story Week website, here.

Writing short stories are a good way to learn the skills you need to eventually write serials and even  novels. While the parameters are larger in a novel, the same skills in dialogue, narrative and characterisation are needed.

The wonderful thing about short stories is that you can read them anywhere, whether you have five or ten minutes, or an hour...

Long live the short story...

Understanding Issues...

Last week went so quickly and I was trying to get so much done that I missed any blog posts.

Plus a trip to the dentist on Friday for root canal work just makes me glad I don't live in the 18th/19th century with the dentistry of the time...

Finally got some more of the novella completed; these last chapters are certainly picking up the pace as the past starts to unfold and there's trouble afoot.

Originally the novella was being written for the pocket novel market, but then changes were made to what was wanted- 20th century onwards.

DC Thomson (who produce the My Weekly Pocket Novels and those by People's Friend) have been a topic for discussion re rights and contracts over the weekend.

Apparently they are sending out new contracts to writers and the new terms have caused a few upsets.

Now I'm a great believer in not giving up your rights, or limiting your rights, unless you are paid an adequate amount to compensate, so I was interested in what the issues involved were.

So let me refer you to Womagwriter's blog post from Friday. Womag has seen an actual contract...

Okay, I've not been in a position to be offered a contract by DCT so I'm not a writer who finds themselves faced with agreeing to such terms or losing a portion of their regular income.

But it does rather seem they want a nice portfolio of stories they can use again and again in assorted media without paying more for it.

And as for that restrictive Clause 8: " In the case of a collection of your contributions where you are the sole or majority author in book form, you commit to offering the Company the right to first refusal to publish any such collection in any format... such an arrangement would be subject to new contractual terms..."

(Now, I am not a lawyer, so this is only my personal opinion of how that clause reads.)

So they can say, yes we want to publish your collection. But if you don't like the contractual terms they're offering, and you can't negotiate on those terms to your satisfaction, then it's goodbye to you publishing your collection yourself, unless they turn down your offer...

Some years ago I read an interview with an author who had been contracted for a second book. The publisher didn't like the second book presented to them, but being bound by the contract she could not offer that book to anyone else...it does sound like it could be a potentially similar scenario...

Writing is a business, and we mustn't lose sight of that fact.
The publisher wants to get the best deal they can, and so does the writer. Sadly the writer is usually the one who loses and ends up doing all the hard work to promote their story/novel for less financial return.

(Is it any wonder that self-publishing to Kindle/Smashwords is thriving?)

We all know that magazines are struggling.

The elusive younger end of the market do everything online (and admittedly not just the young nowadays)- or so it seems. With Smart Phones and iPads, magazines are actively pushing digital subscriptions, as print figures for many magazines drop...

While these are not magazines with short story markets, Bauer have closed 'More' magazine; and 'Full House' is closing too. I've also heard that glossy 'Easy Living' is on the way out...

Could changes in contracts be an advance sign that magazines are trying to build potential collateral that could make the difference between them closing, or being bought out by another publisher?

In the world outside publishing, if a business fails it has more chance of being bought out or taken over if it has an order book/a market; publishing is no different.

But I do worry that if DCT's contract doesn't get revised, then other publishers will start to go that way too, and that won't be good for any writer...

As a last word on rights, you might like to peruse "Authors and book rights – some more truths" - from the futurebook.net website- a digital blog from The Bookseller- it was taking too long to load as a link, so I've just included the name here.

As writers we need to protect our rights, so if you aren't clear on the subject start reading up- there are numerous rights you hold and unless you understand them, you could be signing away a potential source of income.

If you have any thought on this issue, or rights generally, then do please leave a comment.