Creative Writing Week 6: Publishing

Ensure the work you want to submit is at its best.

Research where to send your work:

Buy the Artists and Writers Year Book, or get it from the library. This tells you everything you need to know plus it is full of good advice about writing in general. 

Research the publishing houses you feel suit you. Do they publish similar work? What are their submission guidelines?

Try getting your work in magazines first, to build a publishing CV. 

Try to subscribe to, and read the magazines you are interested in being published in. 

Publishing Short Stories

Always read some of the stories published in the magazine.
Check the guidelines: word count, form, genre etc
See here for a very good site for fiction writers:  

Short Stops: This is a really valuable resource for writers of short stories: competitions, lit mags, workshops and lots more.

Publishing Poetry

Here are a few helpful pieces about publishing poetry from editors of various presses and magazines:

Bloodaxe Books

Shearsman Books

Culture Llama (Short story collections here too)

YouTube: Some poets have gained a reputation using YouTube as a tool to share work:

Hollie McNish

Poems on Ezines:

Hera Lindsay Bird: The Spinoff

Patricia Lockwood: The Awl 

Amaryllis: A Swindon Ezine edited by Stephen Daniels 


Self-Publishing

If you would like to self-publish your work make sure it looks as professional as possible, and free from mistakes. Look at sample books from reputable publishers to get an idea of style and content. Keep things plain: times font, no borders and poor pictures. 

Think about how you might market your book and gain reviews. 

You might try print on demand publishing. It is easy to use and you only need to print one copy at a time so it is easy to get a sample of the work. 

Lulu Publishing

Blurb