Successful Writing und Publishing - Newsletter

 

Content of this December Newsletter:

- PAPERBACK DISTRIBUTION in the UK
- SELF-Publishing means SUCCESS

- FELLOWSHIPS - AWARDS - RESIDENCIES

- FREELANCE WRITING

- WRITING COMPETITIONS

 

With only three weeks left in the year, how's your writing and reading going?  Get a lot of new ideas and encouragement for the next twelve months in this December Newsletter.  Apply for one or more of the writing contests and grants listed here or find well-paid freelance writing jobs:

- PAPERBACK DISTRIBUTION in the UK
Kindle Direct Publishing now offers Expanded Distribution in the United Kingdom for eligible paperbacks.  The Benefit for Authors and Publishers: Booksellers and libraries purchase paperbacks from large distributors. If you enroll your paperback in Expanded Distribution in the UK you will reach more readers. Make your book available to distributors, so booksellers and libraries in the UK can find your book and order it.

It's easy and free to participate - just go to your KDP account, under the Paperback Actions menu, click the ellipsis button (…).

Choose Edit Paperback Rights & Pricing. For published paperbacks, choose Edit Print Book Pricing.

In the "Pricing, royalty, and distribution" section, check the Expanded Distribution box for Amazon.co.uk.  Then Click Publish Your Paperback Book. More about “Expanded Distribution”: 

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GQTT4W3T5AYK7L45

- FELLOWSHIPS - AWARDS - RESIDENCIES

Guggenheim Museum Poet-in-Residence 

The residency will run from late Jan to Dec of 2022 and offers a $20,000 honorarium from the Guggenheim Museum, and features in Academy of American Poets’s publications.  

Deadline Dec 5 

https://poets.submittable.com/submit/206680/2022-poet-in-residence-public-engagement/eligibility

J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award

Genre: Nonfiction book. Applicants for the award must already have a contract with a U.S.-based publisher to write a nonfiction book. Award: $25,000.  Deadline: Dec 9

https://journalism.columbia.edu/lukas

Fellowship for Black Women Writers

The “Miss Sarah” Fellowship for Black Women Writers aims to provide Black women writers a restful environment conducive to reflection and writing.  For 2022, the Fellowship will focus on the genre of poetry. Participants will receive a $700 stipend and transportation to and from Asheville, NC. Additional benefits will be custom-tailored to the needs of the awardee. Deadline Dec 20 

https://www.trilliumartsnc.org/writing-fellowships-guidelines

Mass Moca Fellowship for Indigenous or Black Artists & Writers

Openings for Summer-Fall 2022 residencies. The Studios is MASS MoCA’s artist and writers residency program situated within the museum’s factory campus and surrounded by the beautiful Berkshire Mountains.  Artists of any nationality can apply for stays of two to eight weeks.
Deadline Jan 8, 2022. 

https://www.assetsforartists.org/studios-at-mass-moca

Arizona Artist Opportunity Grants

As this grant is available to artists working in all disciplines and at any stage in their career, a wide array of opportunities could be considered eligible. Project must occur during January 1, 2022 – June 30, 2022. Artists may request between $500 and $1,500 in funding. The number of grants awarded is dependent upon the number of funds available.  Deadline Feb 17, 2022

https://azarts.gov/grant/artist-opportunity/

  

Writers Colony my Time Fellowship

The My Time fellowship is for writers who are parents for dependent children. Work may be any literary genre: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, or scripts. Two fellowship winners will each receive a one-week residency at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and a $400 stipend. Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow fellowships provide uninterrupted writing time, a European-style gourmet dinner served on weeknights, etc.  Deadline Feb 28, 2022

https://www.writerscolony.org/fellowships

- FREELANCE WRITING

Slice

Write fiction, nonfiction, or poems. Payment: $400 for long stories and essays, $150 for flash fiction, and $100 for poems. Deadline: Jan 1, 2022

https://slicemagazine.org/submit/

Goats and Soda

Pitch Marc Silver, lead editor of Goats and Soda, NPR’s global health and development blog, and Malaka Gharib, deputy editor - msilver@npr.org and mgharib@npr.org .  They publish articles on NPR’s website on a wide range of health and development issues in low- and lower-middle-income countries, from infectious diseases to humanitarian aid. Rates are between $250-$400 depending on the assignment.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/106mJzAxc6Wyhj3t5FzqMCL_Ky3zOdAeZqPtXHpblFBs/edit

http://npr.org/goatsandsoda

Borderless Magazine 

They report on labor, justice, and advocacy issues impacting Midwestern immigrant communities. We report using a lens of equity and resilience.  We welcome pitches from freelance journalists for reported feature stories, comics, and as-told-to stories. Borderless welcomes personal essays from immigrants. We pay all contributors. Pays $250 and up. 

https://borderlessmag.org/pitch/

Hidden Compass 

An award-winning online publication that showcases the frontiers of human exploration and knowledge through powerful storytelling.  Every story runs roughly between 1,500-2,500 words, and fits into one of our five unconventional themes.  Photo features: $650 + 50 percent of crowdfunding proceeds.  All other stories: $400 + 50% of crowdfunding proceeds.

https://hiddencompass.net/contributor-guidelines/

Mashable 

Looking for pitches in the digital culture space for Mashable (TikTok, influencers, memes, internet subcultures, fandom). Think trend pieces, explainers, features. Rates $250-$400. Gen Z/Millennial audience. Pitch Crystal Bell at crystal.bell@mashable.com. They also have full-time job openings at 

https://www.ziffdavis.com/careers/jobs/?brand=Mashable 

https://mashable.com/contact-us

- WRITING CONTESTS

The Wallace Stegner Prize in Environmental Humanities

Prize: $5,000.  Preference will be given to projects that discuss issues related to the American West. We welcome book-length manuscripts that emphasize narrative form and draw on the humanities, as well as the particular methods and perspectives of history, geography, natural history, environmental science, creative nonfiction, or related disciplines to consider environmental subjects - broadly defined." 

https://www.uofupress.com/wallace-stegner-prize.php

VCU Cabell First Novelist Award

Genre: First novel published in 2021. No self-published books.  Prize: $5,000. 

Deadline: Dec 30

https://firstnovelist.vcu.edu/submit-a-novel/

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Boulevard Short Fiction Contest For Emerging Writers

Winner receives $1,500 and publication in Boulevard. For a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction with a nationally distributed press. Limit 8,000 words. 

$16 Entry Fee. Deadline Dec 31 

https://www.boulevardmagazine.org/short-fiction-contest

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C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize

Submitters must currently reside in the Southern and SE Statesand must have no more than one previously published book. Prize $5,000 and book publication for a debut book of short fiction.

$25 Entry Fee. Deadline Dec 31

https://www.hubcity.org/cmc-short-story-prize

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Mississippi Review

The annual contest awards prizes of $1,000 in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.  Contest is open to all writers in English.  Fiction and nonfiction entries should be 1,000 - 8,000 words; poetry entries should be three to five poems at ten pages or less. Please attach as one document

$18 Entry Fee. Deadline Jan 1, 2022

http://sites.usm.edu/mississippi-review/contest.html

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(New) Realities That Authors Don’t Want to Hear 

The average successful author on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Apple, etc. makes up to ten times more money than the average author with a publishing deal.  Having a traditional publishing deal now means you probably don’t write books worthy of self-publication. Read this eye-opening article: 5 (New) Realities Authors Don’t Want to Hear 

https://easywaytowrite.blogspot.com/2017/09/5-new-realities-authors-dont-want-to.html

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We are really blessed! Looking back to the last 12 months and also forward to the new year, let’s be thankful for all the positive things we got and experienced. 

I wish you a great December and a very Merry Christmas and Chanukah.

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