Windshift for Writers & Windshift Press

July

Summer has taken its time to arrive on the west coast. The gray rainy days, while making us long for unending summer sun, have given us some of the sweetest strawberries in memory. It is interesting how memory informs our writing. Sometimes we deliberately write about past events and other times we are hardly aware that it is part of our memory that we are bringing to what we are writing. How is your writing infused with the past? Which of your senses bring you the most information? Food for thought.
Sandra

Writing Tip: - Creativity is about play. We play with ideas; with ways in which to express our ideas. Look at your recent writings and recognize what your sense of play looks like.

Markets:
Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine
http://www.fmam.biz/index.shtml
Needs: Accepts mysterious fiction to 3000 words. Pays $10 per story.

Carriage House Review Literary Magazine
http://www.carriagehousereview.com
Needs: Carriage House Review is a literary magazine devoted to dark fiction.

Zoetrope: All-Story
http://www.zoetrope-stories.com
Needs: submissions of stories and one-act plays under 7,000 words; screenplays, treatments, and excerpts from larger works are not accepted.

Arabella Magazine
http://www.arabellamagazine.com
Needs: Superb short romantic fiction of 750 to 4,500 words.

Romance and Beyond Magazine
http://members.aol.com/rbeyond/romance.html
Needs: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, and other speculative fiction (up to 10,000 words) in which a romantic relationship develops between the hero and heroine.

Byline Magazine
http://www.bylinemag.com/guidelines.asp
Needs: mainstream, literary, humor, all genres. For fiction pays $100 for 2-4k words; Nonfiction (instructive or motivational articles for writers), $75 for 1.5-1.8k.

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/guidelines
Needs: Mysteries, from classic whodunit to the hardboiled, up to 15000 words. Pays:.08 cents per word.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
http://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/guidelines
Needs: All types of mysteries, up to 10,000 words. Preferred length is 4,000-6000. Publishes one or two short novels per year. Pays: 3 to 8 ¢ a word.

Freefall Magazine
http://www.alexandrawriters.org/ffguide.html
Needs: Publishes short shorts (250 words) and novel excerpts. Deadlines (for each issue): 1 March & 1 October. Pays $5 (Canadian) per printed page.

Cue Time - Every month we include a couple of writing ideas to help you kick start your writing sessions.

1. Happiness is not a random mood, it is a decision. If you have trouble deciding to be happy find strategies to change that and write them in your notebook. Refer to them whenever you are having trouble deciding to be happy. Your writing will flow much differently.

2. If you were the main character in a novel who would you be? Write a character sketch using yourself then share it with a friend to see if you are recognized.

Industry News:

Canadian publishers are looking to sell directly on-line because the dominant retailer Indigo is stepping up its in-house private label book publishing. A company spokesperson has indicated that they do not intend to create their own publisher, nor do they see this as a threat to existing publishers. They not producing original content, nor signing up their own authors. They seem to be joining Barnes & Noble in this opportunity for publishers to partner with Indigo and produce "back list" books that otherwise wouldn't be economical to reprint. It will be sometime before we can assess the impact of these reprints on the numbers of new books published.

The answers offered in this column are the personal opinions of the staff at Windshift for Writers. They are in no way meant to take the place of the professional advice you may need to seek for your specific query.

Questions and Answers

Q. A book club has just offered to buy copies of my first book but I wonder if that is such a good thing? - Ronald G. -

A. Congratulations on your offer. Books clubs generally operate by buying books at a heavily discounted price [perhaps as much as an 85% discount], then selling them by mail order much cheaper than they are available in bookstores. The royalties you will receive will be considerably less but the volume of sales does help. It also gives you a wider exposure to buyers. Most people welcome these offers.

Win a FREE place at one of our Workshops - Writers who wish to host a workshop can do so by inviting interested friends and acquaintances to a venue (It could be your dining-room table.) and providing the coffee. If you host a workshop, your participation is free. Check the Workshops page for further details.

Home News: Windshift Press continues with a busy summer of book launch and workshop events. For people who live on Vancouver Island please watch your local media for details.

A long time newsletter subscriber and international traveler Richard Drake has recently placed his work on a website. He would be interested to hear what you think. It's at http://www.apassagethroughindia.com/

Note: While every effort is made to check the markets suggested in this newsletter, writers must use their own judgment when submitting their work.