Innehållsförteckning för April 2021 från The Writer

When the pandemic began, I dove into this magazine’s archives, desperate to see what my predecessors were publishing in the throes of the Spanish flu outbreak a century earlier. Unfortunately, every author in the volumes I found seems to write merrily about everything under the sun except a deadly global pandemic. I did find, however, Hazel Miller’s wickedly delicious piece on “What Editors Do” from the June 1920 issue. (“An editor, according to popular conception, is a person, male or female, who wields a wicked blue pencil, indulges in delightful tête-à-têtes with successful authors, and draws a fabulous salary for being a thorough-going tyrant and autocrat.”) She, too, doesn’t mention the outbreak, but she does reference another deadly global event that caught my eye: The first World War and its…

IN August 2019, I signed my first book contract with Unsolicited Press, an independent press based in Portland, Oregon. I had just turned 34, and though I’d been writing fiction for over 15 years, I had little to show for it outside of three previously unpublished novels and a few published essays and book reviews. So it felt pretty damn good to sign and submit that legal document, even though the publication date was more than a year and a half away. Once the contract was finalized, revisions began. And because I love revising, this, too, felt good. But I knew as the publication date – March 23, 2021 – neared, I would need to shift my focus to marketing. And though Unsolicited had a strategy in place (even after…

Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other F N C Y 3 SEAS LITERARY AGENCY Represents romance, women’s fiction, science fiction/fantasy, YA and middle-grade fiction, and select nonfiction titles. No email queries accepted. No attachments. Contact: 3 Seas Literary Agency, P.O. Box 444, Sun Prairie, WI 53590. 608-834-9317. threeseaslit@aol.com threeseasagency.com F N THE AARON M. PRIEST LITERARY AGENCY Seeks mainstream and literary fiction, thrillers, and narrative nonfiction. Query by email only. No attachments. Contact: The Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, 200 W. 41st St., 21st Floor, New York, NY 10036. 212-818-0344. See website for specific agent…

Many writers have heard Ernest Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory” of writing from Death in the Afternoon. It goes like this: If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. Hemingway’s sentiment makes a good deal of sense: You can’t include everything your reader might want to know in the story. There just isn’t enough room – and, worse, you…

Since 1976, the literary magazine Lilith has published poetry and prose with the goals of amplifying Jewish women’s voices and empowering Jewish girls and women in their lives and in their communities. Editor-in-Chief Susan Weidman Schneider is of the publication’s founding mothers. “We’ve been committed to publishing a diversity of writers from the very outset,” she notes. “Our publication’s mission is to honor all voices, bringing people from the margins closer to the center. We’ve been publishing Jewish women of color and LGBTQ writers for decades.” Agents and editors read Lilith in search of emerging voices. “They view having been vetted and published by us as a kind of calling card,” Schneider explains. “Being published in our magazine can lead them to a book contract. Many of the short stories…

READERS should use caution when entering into any legal contract with a literary service offering agenting-type assistance; publishers who charge, rather than pay, an author for publication; publishers who require a purchase before publication and contests that charge high entrance fees. The Writer also recommends requesting a list of references and submission guidelines before submitting a manuscript. If you have any concerns regarding the advertiser’s commitment or claims, please contact the advertiser and make certain all questions are answered to your satisfaction. ADVERTISERS We do not accept ads from agents or businesses that charge a reading or marketing fee; Subsidy Publishers: Copy of contract. In order to effectively handle questions from our readers regarding the products and services of our advertisers, the staff of The Writer asks that you provide…

I miss rejection slips. Not that I enjoyed receiving those ignominious pre-printed slips of paper, but at least when my SASE came back, I was pretty sure an editor, or an assistant editor, or an assistant’s assistant, had put it in the envelope. There was a flesh-and-blood person at the other end of the line. And there was always the chance I might see a single handwritten sentence on the bottom, signed by the editor, indicating the piece almost made it or, joy of joys, she would like to see more of my work. When an editor at McCall’s wrote, “I’m afraid I have to say no on this particular piece, but try me again on another, would you?,” it was almost as exciting to me as if she had…

WE LIVE IN A WORLD DIVIDED. From politics to sports to entertainment, we all agree on precious little. Even something as seemingly benign as declaring your love for your favorite movie, The Goonies, can spark a debate over capitalism, privacy laws, and ableism. It is exhausting, especially if you are someone who despairs conflict, to engage in these constant clashes. And so, during these bleak uncertain times, I’ve taken refuge in the one thing that offers certainty. I’ve turned to grammar. In grammar, there are rules. There are guidelines. There are precedents. There are even funny words like participle and gerund, if you prefer some lightheartedness mixed into the staid world of sentence diagramming. Most of all, there is order. Grammar is no fickle friend, unlike spelling, where i may…

Fantasy stories dwell deep inside the imagination of the author who creates them. This unique genre often features mythology, supernatural elements, and magic. Unlike genres steeped in reality, fantasy broadens the scope to allow for a vast array of possibilities limited only by the author’s creativity. What is fantasy? At their most basic, fantasy stories generally include magical and/or supernatural elements. (Sci-fi, its equally popular partner on the other side of the speculative fiction genre, tends to be more based in science and technology.) Modern-day witches and wizards, another realm that lies beyond a magical wardrobe, and modern cities protected by dragons are popular premises that already fall under this genre. Modern fantasy dates to the late 19th century, but when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis came on the scene…

What is the most helpful book – or even top three books – you would most recommend to fiction writers to improve their craft? —LURKING IN THE SHELVES Dear Lurking, I don’t love books dedicated entirely to craft. I find some of them obscure and pedantic, and far too few of them cover the craft of making a book that helps people to write a page-turner. I prefer to learn from books I love, puzzling out how the writer did this, or that, to make me fall in love with a character or keep reading until the wee hours. But – grump – there are a few I reach for time and again. They are: Scene and Structure, Jack M. Bickham. This one breaks down novels by scene. It illustrates…