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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
A Print Market Worth Pursuing
Glimmer Train is an attractive quarterly print literary magazine, each issue of which consists of over 200 pages of “emotionally significant” short literary fiction. The publishers of Glimmer Train describe themselves as “two sisters who love reading.” Not insignificantly, they also boast backgrounds in language and linguistics (Susan) and psychology (Linda).
Magazine and Contest Submissions
Glimmer Train offers various monthly opportunities for writers of short fiction – opportunities which consist of a mixture of "standard" short story submissions (for which they charge no reading fee and currently pay $700 per story, plus 10 copies of the applicable issue – on acceptance) and a variety of writing contests (with reading fees ranging from $15 to $19 and generous prizes of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars).
A Solid Market for Emerging Authors
While the sisters do publish some works written by established authors, Linda explains that she and Susan “(k)eep a keen eye out for new voices, favoring pieces by emerging writers” – good news for those seeking to break into the short fiction market. Both are proud not only that every story they publish is unsolicited, but also that 86% of the stories published in Glimmer Train last year came directly from writers – more good news for freelancers working hard to break into this competitive market.
Convenient Online Submission
One factor that makes submitting work to Glimmer Train so convenient is the publication’s simple online submission process. After filling out the site’s free registration form, setting up a username and password, and reading the guidelines for the specific submission category, authors may instantly submit their work for consideration.
A Magazine Recognized for Quality
Glimmer Train is a prestigious publication – one that, happily, combines a welcome appreciation for fresh new voices with a balanced respect for seasoned literary luminaries. While not merely encouraging, but actually favoring, the work of emerging writers, the publishers have demonstrated their keen eye for talent, having seen six of their published stories listed as “Notables” in the 2010 Best American Short Stories,* coming in right behind The New Yorker. In fact, two of the six Glimmer Train writers who made the list were first-time published authors who made their debuts in the pages of Glimmer Train.
Isn't it Time You Received a Little Recognition?
If you write short fiction, this is a market I’d recommend that you look into. While it is a literary magazine and therefore would likely not publish most genre fiction, it would definitely be well worth your while to do a little research and find out whether something you've already written – or something you might be inclined to write – might turn out to be a good fit for this lucrative writing market.
Best of luck to you!
Jeanne
*The 2011 edition of Best American Short Stories featured one Glimmer Train tale.
If you're looking for a site with tons of valuable information for freelance writers, you'll want to check out Writers-Editors Network. This site is also the home of Cassell Network of Writers (CNW) and Florida Freelance Writers Association (FFWA).
While both of the aforementioned writers associations charge varying fees for membership, the Writers-Editors Network website contains a great deal of free information, in the form of articles filled with advice on writing, getting writing assignments, negotiating fees for your work, and many other aspects of freelancing.
In addition, the site offers a Contest Tip Sheet, with great advice that can help you become "a contender" in any writing contest you may decide to enter. They also offer a list of current writing contests, as well as info on their own contest, and an FAQ page which answers many questions that writers may have about the writing/marketing process. They also list a few job opportunities, as well as "Talks, Seminars, and Conferences of Interest" to writers and/or editors.
If you are serious about writing--and about selling your writing--there's a lot of great information here that would undoubtedly be worthy of your time. So, check it out, and see if you don't find something here that will help you along the road to writing success.
Here's to your success!
Jeanne
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Last time, I gave you four great websites where you can get your work published: Creative-Poems.com, MoonTownCafe.com, Helium.com, and AssociatedContent.com. A few helpful hints about each of these will make your experiences with them more pleasant, more productive, and less frustrating. In this post, we'll cover some of the idiosyncracies of Creative-Poems.com.
The Creative-Poems website is a wonderful site, where you can receive recognition for your work through member comments, weekly Featured Poetry Awards, and monthly Poetry Contests. They do not pay for the poems they post, though they do offer prizes in their monthly Poetry Contest.
At Creative-Poems, non-premium (free) members--as well as trial members--are allowed to place up to five posts on their site in a 24-hour period. (Premium members are allowed eight.) This is somewhat misleading, though, and requires a bit of clarification.
At first glance, it would appear that you'd be able to post up to five--or eight--poems to the site every 24 hours--and this can, indeed, be the case, provided you are very careful not to leave any typos or other errors in your poem, which might require its modification after it's been posted! The reason for this is that, should your poem require editing after posting, you will be resubmitting it after making your corrections--just as if it were a new poem--and thus you will be using another of the finite number of posts you are allowed daily. (This can be a bit frustrating.)
If you're anything like me, you could use an infinite number of posts to edit, modify, correct, and improve your poems to your satisfaction before final submission! But, alas, this is the real world, and every website is set up differently. So, always preview your work before submitting, to be sure your formatting is the way you want it and your work contains no typos. (Occasionally, you'll miss something and need to resubmit--we're all human--but at least you'll know that you aren't wasting most of your posts simply correcting errors!)
Another important point about formatting, while we're on the subject: At Creative-Poems, the default setting--for both poetry submissions and member comments--is centered. So, if you want your poem or comment to be left-margin justified (which is generally my personal preference) you'll need to select your text--if it's already been entered--and click the appropriate icon. (You can also simply click this icon before entering your text with the same effect.) Both regular and premium members may save, for later posting, up to five drafts in addition to the five--or eight--poems they may post in a 24-hour period, in case they aren't quite ready to post their work when they must leave the site.)
With a little prior knowledge of the workings of this great site and the obstacles you might encounter there, you can be well on your way to a long and fulfilling relationship with a dedicated group of site administrators and moderators who are friendly, helpful, responsive, and eager to showcase your work!
Creative-Poems.com is a fabulous forum for your work and a great community of friendly poets, who will help encourage you along the path of self-expression through that most magical of mediums: Poetry! (A very small word with a very big meaning!)*
If you are a poet and haven't yet visited this site, I would definitely--and without reservation--recommend that you check it out!
You'll be glad you did!
Till next time,
Jeanne
*I've written a short article on exactly this subject entitled "Why is Poetry So Difficult to Define?" Why not drop by AC and take a look?
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