Publishing Sites… Pt1.
This particular post is somewhat of a diversion from my usual stories and book review posts.
Many of the bloggers on WordPress, though by no means all, are new and aspiring writers, debut & self-published authors, poets, and writers of short and flash fiction stories covering many different genres. What I’ve tried to do here is compile a list and brief resume of some of the online publishing sites I’ve come across in my reading and researches. I won’t pretend to have personal experience of any of these sites, but all of have been reviewed in various writing magazines and other places; some of them are indeed WordPress blogs as well, and it is up to the reader to judge for themselves the individual merits of each one.
Whilst I honestly doubt publication on any of the following will automatically lead to literary fame and fortune, just as it doesn’t even with the more traditional publishing houses, but anything that leads to a wider reading audience and public awareness of one’s writing might well be a first step on the way…
I hope some of you who read this posting and look at any of the sites listed find the success you are looking for and deserve. This is just a very small sample of the publishing resources out there, and if any readers discover new ones not listed here please drop me a line so that I might add them. Likewise, the web being what it is, if any of these links should become inactive, feel free to let me know also. Thanks…
This is a simple website that runs a number of flash fiction and short story writing competitions. There are also links to a number of other useful websites for aspiring writers. Fish publishing also produces an annual anthology of winning stories, memoirs, flash fiction, and poetry.
Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted, is US based, and is published twice yearly as a high quality print digest magazine, and is pretty much dedicated to horror and dark fantasy, including mystery, suspense, supernatural, morbid humour, and fantasy.
As well as short stories (up to 5000 words), and flash fiction (up to 1000 words), and micro-fiction (up to 200 words), shock totem also accepts non-fiction pieces (up to 2,500 words) on topics such as disease, poverty, horror, and dark fantasy.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.shocktotem.com/guidelines/
This is a US based small press for electronic publication via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. They invite submissions for novellas (15,000 – 40,000 words) in the following genres: horror, erotic horror, dark crime, and fantasy.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.cometpress.us/guidelines/ebooks.html
www.radicaleyes.it/notsonoblebooks/
Not So Noble Books, is, to quote them, ‘an independent publisher of e-books that don’t conform.’
They publish exclusively on Amazon. Although they mainly publish books that would not normally be accepted by mainstream publishers, books as they put it, that don’t conform or necessarily fit in with mainstream categories, they are also willing to accept unsolicited manuscripts in the mainstream genres of: romance, thriller, horror, and others (inquire with them directly).
They will also look at short stories, but generally prefer full-length fiction.
As well as fiction they also publish a few academic and philosophical titles.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.radicaleyes.it/notsonoblebooks/publish.htm
Park Publications publish a quarterly short story print magazine called SCRIBBLE, featuring short stories, competitions, writing articles, and reader feedback letters.
They accept stories of up to 3000 words in the genres of horror, humour, Sci-Fi, supernatural, contemporary stories, and ‘women’s fiction.
Submissions are free for subscribers, and an entry payable for non-subscribers.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.parkpublications.co.uk/writing-for-scribble.html
Read short fiction is an online short story magazine publishing: action/adventure, humour, literary, mainstream, romance, horror, paranormal, and Sci-Fi (but no erotica).
Submissions should be between 1,500 and 4,000 words.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.readshortfiction.com/submission-guidelines/
This is US based website that publishes a free Sci-Fi / Fantasy story each day.
They are looking for Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories from 100 to 10,000 words, and are especially interested in flash fiction pieces of up to 1000 words.
Note:
They do not accept stories that are already posted on the writer’s personal website or blog.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
www.dailysciencefiction.com/submit/story/guidelines/
This is a US based small independent online publishing company offering books in both print and e-book formats, available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Spore Press specializes in BioSciFi, i.e. biologically themed science fiction, genetic engineering/societies (see website for more details).
Spore Press also has a secondary imprint, namely Argenta Books
(See http://sporepress.com/publisher/argenta-books), which publishes in general fiction.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.sporepress.com/content/submissions
News, information and guides to independent bookstores, independent publishers, literary magazines, alternative periodicals, independent record labels, alternative news weeklies, and host of others…
Information on this site includes links to creative writing courses, sites calling for submissions, writing contests, book review sites, writing conferences, and too many others to list here…
From Utne magazine: “NewPages.com, the best overall internet portal to the alternative press, independently organizes pages of links to hundreds of magazines, independent publishers and bookstores, literary magazines, newsweeklies, and review sources.
Newpages.com also publishes unique book zine reviews, and an interesting web-log broadly covering the world of arts, publishing, and libraries.”
This is a US based digital publisher specializing in YA (young adult), NA (new adult), and romance. They also accept Sci-Fi, fantasy, and urban fantasy providing they contain a strong romantic element to them.
They publish 3-4 titles per month.
They are looking for YA and NA submissions of between 50,000 – 90,000 words.
Other submissions of 10,000 words for novellas and 120,000 words for novels.
To see their full submission guidelines got to:
http://www.entrancedpublishing.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
TTA Press is a UK based publisher, and publishes Interzone, Britain’s longest running Science Fiction & Fantasy magazine, as well as two other publications, Black Static, magazine concentrating on horror, and Crimewave, which is published twice a year as an American Royal paperback
They are now accepting submissions via their webpage.
They also publish a small but growing number of books, including novels, anthologies, collections, and the ongoing TTA Novellas.
To see their full submission guidelines got to:
http://www.ttapress.com/interzone/guidelines/
This is a US based company specializing in a range of online magazines sold via Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and via the company’s own website.
They accept submissions of the following:
Book Reviews (800 – 1000 words)
Efiction – contemporary literary fiction
Sci-Fi & Fantasy short stories
Serial Fiction, poetry, and a various other genres…
Due to the various magazines they offer, submission guidelines vary slightly for the different magazines so it’s important to take a close look at their submission guidelines.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.fictionmagazines.com/submissions/
Gloomcupboard is an online litzine that accepts:
Poetry,
Fiction (under 2,500 words preferred)
Flash fiction (up to 500 words)
Creative non-fiction (memoirs/personal essays – under 200 words preferred)
Book Reviews (of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction) .
Artwork
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://gloomcupboard.com/submission-guidelines/
This is a new journal of poetry and short prose. It publishes three times a years in both print and electronic format.
They are accepting submissions of:
Poetry (shorter poetry preferred but not essential)
Prose (up to 750 words).
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.stonehighway.com/submissions.html
This is a US based biannual non-profit print literary magazine.
They accept submissions from both new and established writers.
Categories for submission are:
Short fiction, non-fiction, and poetry (maximum word count of 5,000 words)
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.slicemagazine.org/submit-your-work/
www.otherpublishingcompany.com
They are most interested in the following for submission:
Full length fiction
Short story fiction
Historical fiction and non-fiction
Informational / Business / How-to
Erotica
Also take a look at the LitBits tab on their website for further details of short story submissions.
To see their full submission guidelines go to:
http://www.otherpublishingcompany.com/Submissions.html
Note: As well as posting this here, because I intend to update and add to these sites on a monthly basis, I shall be adding this post to a page of its own (Online Publishing Sites) on my blog as a permanent reference point –
Posted on February 17, 2014, in Articles and tagged Publishing, Publishing Sites, Reference, Writer's Resources, writing. Bookmark the permalink. 12 Comments.
rudderswriting.wordpress.com 
Reblogged this on Indie Author Review Exchange and commented:
Online publishing sites for Indie writers/authors – Reblogged from my personal W/press site…
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I really loved your post and thanks for the links 🙂
Hey, are you interested for writing a college magazine, we are inviting guest writers, the magazine is called Graffiti. Email me if you are interested: amandeepmittal@live.com
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Thanks for stopping by; I hope to update this post with more publishing links sometime very soon…
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I am looking forward to it 🙂
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Thank you for taking the time to assemble this. Very interesting!
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And thank You for taking the time to say so. Always appreciated…
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Nicely done Paul. I’ve done a similar thing with my blogroll; in so far as I list blogs I follow, plus any site that might be useful that I’ve had some personal experience with.
If you do manage to set this up as a ‘reference’ page on your blog, you will be providing a great service for many who either; don’t find the time to check out publishers, or they’re not sure what to look for.
Once again, on behalf of the silent majority – thanks mate.
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Hi Tom…
Thanks again for your encouraging words and advice; I did see you’ve got a list of helpful sites on your page, and yes, it’s something i want to work on when time allows. As for a blogroll, again it’s something i intend to do once I figure out how (I’m pretty naff when it comes to page layout, widgets, and such-like).
BTW…. nearly finished “Beyond the Law..” Without putting too fine a point on it, it’s awesome (my favourite read this year so far)!
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Thank you for this post. I had no knowledge of these publishers and plan to check them out. Awesome! I may reblog if that’s ok.
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Please do, you’re welcome to, and thanks..
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