Gumshoe Review Open to Submissions

Gumshoe Review is now open to accept short original fiction. What we’re looking for in stories is a complete mystery in 1,000 words or less. We don’t want character studies or mood pieces. We’d like it to lean towards noir but being a mystery — telling a story is actually more important.

The short stories should be no longer than 1,000 words. Pay will be 5 cents per word to a maximum of $50 (so if the story is longer you still only get $50).

For more information visit:
http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=1852

Dream of Things Seeking Creative Nonfiction

Dream of Things is a book publisher and online retailer. They are dedicated to producing high-quality books of creative nonfiction.  Dream of Things is currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics.

Dream of Things pays a 15% royalty on hardback books, a 10% royalty on trade paperback books, and a 20-40% royalty on electronic books (depending on the sales channel). For anthologies, Dream of Things purchases one-time rights. Royalties are paid quarterly. Each author’s share of the royalties is prorated based on word count. (Example: If you contribute a 2,000-word story to a 40,000-word book, you will receive 5% of the royalties for that book.) Authors also receive five free copies upon publication, and a 50% discount on additional copies.

To find out about the topics and how to submit visit:
http://dreamofthings.com/guidelines
Freelance Feature Writers Required.

Feature writers are required for a long established business-to-business magazine covering southeast England.

Editorial content is focused on news and intelligence for owners, directors and senior executives of businesses and organisations employing more than 5 people. This is an opportunity for freelance writers / journalists to provide by-lined material for one of the few regional b2b titles that has stayed the course despite three recessions. Subject include any aspect of business. Finance, legal issues, accounting, marketing, HR, exit / acquisitions, investing, pensions, transport, logistics, business motoring, communications, I.T, case studies, company profiles etc. Payment will be based on word-count feature by feature.

Apply via Guardian website: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/985277/feature-writers/

Have you ever written something, sent it out to a publisher and then been horrified when you actually see it in print because of a glaring error? Sometimes, editors miss mistakes too. Whenever you write anything you intend to print, you should proofread it thoroughly yourself, before you send to a publisher.

 The trouble with proofreading your own work is that you see what you expect to see, so you read what you think you wrote, and not necessarily what you did write. If you first and last letters of a word are in the correct order, you may not see typing errors in the middle of the word.

Firstly, use a good spell and grammar check. This will never pick up all of the errors, especially the words that sound the same but have different spellings for different meanings, such as there, their, and they’re. However, the spell check is a good place to start.

Secondly, read the work looking for the common errors you often make. If you are not sure about the meaning of particular words, use a dictionary and a thesaurus. If you commonly make mistakes in comma placement, print out the page and highlight every single comma. Re-read the comma rules one by one and check each highlighted comma on your printed document. If you can’t find a rule that explains why the comma is there, take it out. Although you can miss commas, overuse of commas is the more typical mistake to make.

Read your work aloud. This helps you to catch the awkward or repetitive phrases, as you tend to stumble over these passages as you read aloud.

Check your work for consistency. If you start spelling Summer with a capital, make sure you consistently spell it with a capital throughout the document. Don’t say 2 apples in one paragraph and three oranges in the next.

Finally, put your work aside for at least a couple of hours and reread it again before you send it off to the publisher. You must look at the work as if someone else has written it, not you to be a good proofreader. Assume you have made mistakes and look for them.

I hope this blog on proofreading articles helps. On a private note, I’m sorry I have been very quiet on this website lately – I’ve been sick and just been keeping up with the paying work. I’m getting better now, so hopefully, I’ll be more active on the forum again soon. Take care,

Hayley Hunkin

www.expandingcreationswriters.com

GUD Journal is open to submissions

Gud publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry.  The magazine is published 

twice a year and is now seeking submissions for the 

Spring 2011 edition.  Check out their guidelines.
http://www.gudmagazine.com/subs/submit.php

 

GoNOMAD Seeking Travel Articles

GoNOMAD prides itself on providing excellent, entertaining, informative and unique 

travel articles and research about destinations, activities and experiences. No 

glossy magazine fluff, no standard guidebook descriptions, no promotional hype; 

just honest, accurate, well-written and detailed articles and destination guides 

that speak to an educated, curious and well-traveled audience.

 

They are currently trying to fill in gaps in their story library and want 

additional features about the following places: 

Countries: Angola, Benin, Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, 

Mozambique, and Maldives. Lebanon, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, 

Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia.

 

States: Delaware, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, 

West Virginia, Arkansas, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, 

Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Idaho.

 

View website for more information.
http://www.gonomad.com/corp/writerguidelines.html

 

Suite 101. Need More Writers
Suite 101.com needs more writers.  You must be able to write a 

minimum of ten 400 word articles every three months.  You are 

paid for your articles and there seems to be a residual payment 

scheme where you can continue to earn from your articles 

all the time they are online.  For more information visit:
http://www.suite101.com/freelance_writing_jobs

Greeting Card Company Needs Writers
Freedom Greeting Card Co. will consider all material, 

however, our current needs include contemporary humor for 

the Cheers line and contemporary, sophisticated messages 

for Cappuccino and DeCaf lines. Visit the website for more details.
http://www.freedomgreetings.com/about/workingforfreedom.php

I know I have been rather lax in my writing of the blog. I found life just seemed to take over and I didn’t know if I was coming or going.  For my future blog entries I would like to discuss online writing course topics.

Like many of us at Newbie Writers, I am taking the Comprehensive Writing Course  with the Writers Bureau.  It is as the title implies “Comprehensive”. It gives the newbie writer a feel for all types of writing.  I’ve been with the program since April 2009 and truth be told, I haven’t proceeded as far as I would have liked to.  After a year, I have only proceeded as far as Assignment 4. 

Over the next few months, as I proceed with the course, I am going to discuss various topics for the newbie writer, like how to do a market analysis and readers letters.

As I was reading through the module on readers letters and filler markets, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people have actually made a living from writing readers letters? I’d be interested in knowing… is it a worth while market?

Allison

I saw the notice that if the people who volunteered to blog don’t want to anymore……
I have been remiss, I’m sorry Damien. It’s just that I must have had spring fever or something lately. At least it started with a fever and for a little over a week I was puky sick and not even thinking of writing a word. Then, as I began to get better, a million hoer things began to get in the way of my writing. So I guess it’s the best motivator I could have had, when you wrote hey…um if you’re no longer interested in writing a blog, you can be replaced….He didn’t actually say it that way but that is what he meant, and thats okay….I’m blogging Damien … see? {:o)

So what have I learned lately? Well lets see, I have learned that what one site will not take another will. That’s as good as any reason right there to just keep on trying right? If you try enough places and different venues to get your writing noticed, you are sure to have some modecome of success just by sheer persistence. I my self have 1 article with CC and 2 others with AC accepted, and I haven’t even really begun to work on my writing courses yet.

That leads me to another thought, I haven’t written lately either, because I am so busy trying to adjust to my new volunteer position emotionally..I am a Guardian ad Litem. An advocate for battered abused and neglected children. Lately, I have been just a little down because of having to place four children out side their home. Did I write abut it? No.

I am a weird one I think…most writers seem to write at their best when they are down or sad. Not me..I find it difficult to write when I feel blue. So Damiens request that I live up to my blogging responsibilities have helped me climb out of my “I feel blue rut” and I think there will be more writing coming up…..I still have so much too learn..

Alright,

Good news everyone. Soda water did remove the stain. Oh wait, wrong blog. No great news, after a week of banging my head against anything firm, trying to sleep, dealing with authorities, I now OWN newbiewriters.com rightfully as I always should have.

I have signed up with a new webhost. One that is local to my town as well as the UK, that way if anything goes wrong, im coming a knockin’

Because of this, I will be officially shifting the site on Friday 23rd of April. The site may be unavailable during that time and potentially across the weekend as I will be updating where the dot com points to (they say it can take 48 hours). If you notice a Server Not Found message, please try clearing your cache/history. Close your browser and try again.

Some forum posts may be lost. This blog post too potentially.

I thank you all for enduring this. It has not been a fun a ride.

Damien

Hey everyone,

I don’t usually post on the blog but I feel I need to keep people in the loop. Hopefully if you have registered the RSS feed of this blog you’ll receive it in your email. This is why I have used the blog and not the forums. You will have noticed Newbie Writers being offline or extremely slow. Some may remember this happened earlier on in the year.

I am not happy to say the least.  This is what has happened. We host Newbie Writers with a webhosting company called ServerGrade. They had been excellent up until just prior to Easter. I sent them a couple of emails in regards to the downtime of our site etc. Normally I would receive an automated response then an actual response from one of their staff in a matter of hours. I got nothing. The situation got worse. The site was slow, Dawn nor I could receive emails. I noticed certain administrator applications ceased work and gave me frozen stats dating back to February.

I tried calling them. Always an answering machine. Getting  jack of this, I googled “ServerGrade issues” and blow me down, there are forum posts after forum posts about this exact issue and how the staff of this company seem to have disappeared. Here’s the real clunker. I have emails to ServerGrade requesting what is called a Domain Registration Key (or derivatives there of). This is a code that says I am the owner/purchaser of www.newbiewriters.com I have emails saying I will be sent the key.  Key never arrived.

But even worse, this company, rather than registering Newbie Writers in MY name, they decided to register it in THEIR name. This means that if I try to get the key through the various authorities (and gawd I’m trying), I have replies with “your name isnt associated with this domain as you arent on the registration list, you need to contact servergrade” and THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

I can move all our files to a new webhost in little under an hour. Its the access to the Domain thats the issue. Now our account runs out in June. I have cancelled the account to ensure that another payment for the next year isnt made. My fear is that they wont de-register www.newbiewriters.com because the people at servergrade dont seem to exist anymore. I’m fighting this tooth and nail at the moment.  I have Business and Consumer Affairs helping myself and the 100′s of other customers who have spoken out against this rogue company.

I thank you all for your patience. This is having a huge impact on Newbies google ranking, our reputation, our new member sign ups.. the works.  At  the moment I’m basically screwed until someone, somewhere thinks outside the rules and says “we can access that key for you, you have proof you paid for it” I’m hoping more of the people on the forums with complaints (im on them now too) get a move on and push the higher authorities to make this hosting company accountable for their devious actions. They have let their customers down and not delivered on even the basic contract we signed and paid for.

Sorry for the long winded post but rather than emailing those who ask me if “there’s something wrong with the site” I figured I’d post up on here. So bare with us during this tough and annoying time.

Damien

New Women’s Magazine Seeks Articles

Kraze magazine is a new quarterly publication for urban women. Their primary target are women 18-40 years old. Kraze’s content concentrates on female sexuality with men, sex, relationship and lifestyle articles. They welcome submissions. View the PDF file for details. http://www.krazemag.com/docs/Website_Writers_Guidelines.pdf

Travel Articles Wanted

 baraaza.com is a travel network that connects people who love to travel with inside information about any destination on the globe. Members connect with other travelers and natives from around the world to discover unique, direct-from-the-source information about amazing spots and travel activities. Baraaza.com is looking for contract travel writers to write brief destination guides for cities, countries and regions all over the planet. They pay on a per guide basis and require the content to be of high quality and original. They prefer the writers have firsthand experience with the locations they’re writing about. View website for details. http://www.baraaza.com

Smash Cake Open to Submissions

 Smash Cake Magazine is a twice-yearly, perfect-bound, print publication open to all genres, lengths, styles, and voices. They welcome both experienced authors and newbies alike. They pay a token fee. View website for more details. http://www.smashcakemagazine.com

Smories New Competition

 We will be announcing the 50 shortlisted stories for the March competition on the 5th of April. On the 1st of May, films of these stories will go live on the website. The April competition is now open until the end of the month. The format is slightly different this time: We will have 5 prizes: First Prize: US$500 Second Prize: US$400 Third Prize: US$300 Fourth Prize: US$200 Fifth Prize: US$100 Stories will be restricted to 750 words. Please take a look at the site for further info. http://www.smories.com/ As ever, we welcome your feedback.