On Writing and Publishing

Want to write a book and don’t know where to begin? Here you will find help from our editor and much-published author John Coyne. Plus information about getting your work into print.

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32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction
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25 Memoir Publishers That Accept Direct Book Submissions
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Looking for a Publisher? | The Top 42 Publishers for New Authors
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Richard Wiley (Korea) | Who Told You She Is Your Wife?
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How To Write Your Peace Corps Story
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Peace Corps Fund sponsors second RPCV Writers’ Workshop
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The Peace Corps Announces Return of PCVs to 5 Countries
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How to get an agent when you’ve never published a book before
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“Breaking the Rules: When to Ignore Good Advice“ by Lenore Myka (Romania)
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A Writer Writes — about BOWING TO ELEPHANTS by Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon)
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Peace Corps’ Bill Moyers takes on Climate Crisis
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Join Association of Writers & Writing Programs
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Audiobook—The Way To Tell Your Peace Corps Story
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 Finding one’s way into book publishing
15
Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now Open for PCVs and RPCVs

32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction

  32 Magazines That Accept Longer Fiction by S. Kalekar There are many literary magazines that accept stories of up to 5,000 words, or shorter; this list, however, has magazines/outlets that take longer fiction, of up to 6,000 words or more. Many also accept other genres, like nonfiction and poetry. Some of these pay writers. Not all of them are open for submissions now, but many are. They are listed in no particular order. Arcturus Magazine Their website says, “We have no restrictions on the content we publish, except that we’re passionate about publishing new perspectives — new ideas, new voices, new worlds, new challenges, new ways of seeing — a theme that can take an infinite number of shapes, including speculative fiction, flash fiction, experimental poetry, political essays, narrative reportage, and virtually everything else.”  Send prose of up to 7,000 words. This is a sister publication of the Chicago Review of Books. Details here. Night Shift Radio: The . . .

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25 Memoir Publishers That Accept Direct Book Submissions

by Emily Harstone 25 Memoir Publishers That Accept Direct Submissions Memoir publishers that don’t require an agent to submit are few and far between. However, there are still options out there.  Some are old and respected, others are new and still figuring things out. Not all the publishers on this list are currently open to submissions, but most are. Persea Books Persea Books is an independent book publisher based out of New York that was established in the 1970s. Since then they have gained a reputation for publishing thoughtful books in a variety of literary genres, including memoir. Chicago Review Press Chicago Review Press was founded in 1973. They are an established independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction. They were founded by Curt Matthews and his wife, Linda Matthews. Curt was the former editor of the literary journal the Chicago Review. Currently, one of their editors, Kara Rota, is open . . .

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Looking for a Publisher? | The Top 42 Publishers for New Authors

Written by Emily Harstone   The writing market can be overwhelming, particularly for new authors who do not have a history of past publication. It is important to note that no legitimate established presses specifically look for unpublished authors. The presses on this list were chosen because they have published a number of debut books before. The publishers on this list do not require literary agents. You can submit to these publishers directly. Some of these manuscript publishers have good distribution and clear marketing strategies. Others are small presses that expect the authors to do the heavy lifting. None of these presses are vanity presses, self-publishers, or brand new presses. All of them have been around for two years or longer. Some of them do have self publishing imprints. If you are ever redirected to one, please reach out to us at support@authorspublish.com and we will update the listing. All the publishers . . .

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Richard Wiley (Korea) | Who Told You She Is Your Wife?

  Who Told You She Is Your Wife? By Richard Wiley (Korea 1967–69) • Once a famous Nigerian playwright got a call from a woman who was in love with him. He knew the woman. She had been a paramour of his Or he of hers. Or maybe their relationship had been on equal footing, I don’t know. But whatever happened was years in the past by the time he got the call. And in the call, the woman said she wanted him back. “I am married now,” he told her. “Surely you know that.” “Who told you you are married?” the woman asked, her voice settling into the low center-of-gravity, pre-battle, mode that Nigerians know how to articulate best. “Who told me? I attended the ceremony. I remember exchanging vows.” “I will tear her asunder, teach her the meaning of ‘six feet under,’ then we’ll see who’s married. Who told . . .

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How To Write Your Peace Corps Story

  What is Creative Non Fiction? & Writing Your Peace Corps Story by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64)     Lee Gutkind who started the first Creative Nonfiction program at the University of Pittsburgh writes simply that “creative nonfiction are “true stories well told.” In some ways, creative nonfiction is like jazz — it’s a rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some of which are newly invented and others as old as writing itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal article, a research paper, a memoir, or a poem; it can be personal or not, or it can be all of these. Creative nonfiction is also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction and is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted . . .

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Peace Corps Fund sponsors second RPCV Writers’ Workshop

  Thursday, September 15 to Sunday the 18th on Broad Creek in Maryland Want to spend three days in September on the Eastern Shore of Maryland discussing your Peace Corps memoir, fiction, or non-fiction with other RPCV writers and published authors? Peace Corps Writers, with support from the Peace Corps Fund, is arranging its second workshop for ten to fifteen RPCVs and former Peace Corps staff working on their own Peace Corps or related creative works. Founded in 2003, the Peace Corps Fund is a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization founded by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to support the Third Goal of the Peace Corps — to increase the understanding of the people served on the part of Americans. The workshop will be held at Shore Retreats on Broad Creek, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Costs range from $100 for those on tight budgets, $250 for those of modest means, . . .

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The Peace Corps Announces Return of PCVs to 5 Countries

The Peace Corps has begun issuing invitations for Volunteers to return to service overseas in 2022. Five countries are leading the way: Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Zambia. As Acting Director Carol Spahn made clear, all Volunteers will be expected to contribute to COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

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How to get an agent when you’ve never published a book before

    How to Get an Agent By Mary Kole From:ed2020.com/sign-eds-newsletter In magazine and website content creation, the editor-writer relationship is key. You’ve pitched, you’ve broken through—now you’re in a collaboration with the person who decides the content of the magazine or blog. Often, you bring them ideas. Sometimes, they bring ideas to you. That’s not the case with traditional book publishing — at least not at the big five publishing houses (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster). In fact, you won’t even hear from the editor until they’ve decided whether or not to buy your project. As a former literary agent, I know the ins and outs of the publishing industry firsthand. I’m here to plug you into the traditional book publishing model and break down the task of finding a literary agent to represent you when you’ve never written a book before. Understand the . . .

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“Breaking the Rules: When to Ignore Good Advice“ by Lenore Myka (Romania)

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65)     Breaking the Rules: When to Ignore Good Advice by Lenore Myka (Romania 1994-96) THE LITERARY LIFE Poets &Writers September/October 2018 • I waved the white flag, surrendering. The novel I had developed a relationship with—had spent time and resources and emotional energy on—had built a fortress around itself, locking me out. It did not want me. But more to the point, I did not want it. We were through. As in any dysfunctional relationship, it had taken me a long time to get to this point. Six years, to be exact. Four different drafts, a total of more than a thousand pages, which did not include the dozens of index cards, the journals and notebooks filled with ideas and research and mind-maps; the hundreds of dollars spent on out-of-print books and DVDs and even a poster featuring a . . .

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A Writer Writes — about BOWING TO ELEPHANTS by Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon)

    Bowing To Elephants Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) • The difference between an autobiography and a memoir, I used to tell my students, has everything to do with a couple of prepositions: of and from. An autobiography is the story of a life — usually the life of a rich and famous person — written by that person (or his or her ghost writer). Whereas a memoir is a story (or stories) from the life of a more-or-less ordinary person. A famous person can begin her autobiography at the very beginning (I was born in the dead of winter in a one-room cabin with no heat or running water in the hills of Appalachia, let’s say), and the reader will stick with it because all the while in the back of that reader’s mind there’ll be the nagging question: How in the world did this person ever get to be rich and famous?! The memoirist, on . . .

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Peace Corps’ Bill Moyers takes on Climate Crisis

    Today marks the official launch of “Covering Climate Now”, a project co-sponsored by The Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation. Joined by The Guardian and others partners to be announced, “Covering Climate Now” will bring journalists and news outlets together to dramatically improve how the media as a whole covers the climate crisis and its solutions. The following is an abridged version of the conference keynote speech by iconic TV newsman Bill Moyers, as prepared for delivery.  • What if we covered the climate crisis like we did the start of the second world war? by Bill Moyers Wed 22 May 2019 11.10 EDT   I have been asked to bring this gathering to a close by summing up how we can do better at covering the possible “collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world,” to quote the noted environmentalist David Attenborough, speaking . . .

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Join Association of Writers & Writing Programs

Preview Weekend  Get Your All-Access Pass and See What Members Love About AWP  You know that an AWP membership comes with a discounted conference registration and a subscription to The Writer’s Chronicle, but there is so much more. And it is yours to explore for three days, free of charge, from July 20–22, 2018. Here are some of the resources you will find upon logging in: Over 1,300 online articles on writing and teaching in our Features Archive Our Writer’s Calendar, with an up-to-date listing of events and publishing opportunities The AWP Job List, which provides the latest information on open jobs for writers Over 100 Career Advicearticles AWP’s Career Services Web Series, including our Writer to Agent Web Serieswith agents from Folio Literary Management We are offering three days of FREE access to see what an AWP membership is all about. Simply email awp@awpwriter.org with your first and last name or sign up below, and we will set . . .

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Audiobook—The Way To Tell Your Peace Corps Story

A recent article in Poets & Writers points out that since 2012 sales of audiobooks have posted double-digit gains every years, including a whopping 34 percent boost in 2016. That year publishers sold nearly ninety million audiobooks, more than double the number they sold five years earlier. Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the ease of downloading titles online, revenue from the audiobooks at Simon & Schuster, for example, jumped nearly 40 percent last year. According to Audio Publishers Association, an industry trade group, publishers have sold nearly ninety million audiobooks, more than double the number they sold five years earlier. However, audiobooks sales account for less than 4 percent of the  roughly 2.7 billion books sold in all formats each year, but with overall books sales essentially flat and the once booming e-book sector declining, writers have new reason to pay close attention to the increasingly valuable audio . . .

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 Finding one’s way into book publishing

They are known infamously as “gate keepers.” The men and women who throughout the long history of publishing make the decision on whether a book gets published. These mysterious editors who control the fate of every would-be writer hide away mostly in New York skyscrapers and decide what is worthy of publication. Or at least that is what most would-be novelists think. Perhaps the most famous editor of all book editors was Maxwell Perkins. Perkins published F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe. They were his first famous writers but he would go onto publish a wide range of novelists, from J.P. Marquand to Erskine Caldwell to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, as well as, late in his editorial career, convince James Jones not to pen an autobiographical novel but write instead From Here to Eternity. You might ask: how did these editors become ‘gate keepers’? Well, they start in the . . .

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Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now Open for PCVs and RPCVs

Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now open for PCVs and RPCVs Do you want to earn your Master’s Degree in Creative Writing while serving in the Peace Corps? Or do it today as an RPCV and not have to step onto a college campus? Would you like to write a memoir or book about your Peace Corps experience? Here is your chance to do both! I have arranged with National University in California to offer an online only Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program for Peace Corps writers. This MFA is sponsored by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). PCVs & RPCVs will receive a tuition discount. The tuition for the MFA is in the area of 20K. National University is the second-largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in California and the 12th largest in the United States. It is one of the very few universities that offer a . . .

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