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Writing Practices

Writing Practices: Submitting your writing

Published 4 months ago • 2 min read

2 posts, 1 book, and more good news

Hi, Reader!

We have a lot to cover this time, including:

  • The March give-away
  • Two writing posts!
  • Good (writing) news

Let's dive in!

How to Submit: The March book drawing

This month's book is a gem for anyone trying to figure out where and how to submit their poems, stories, essays, creative nonfiction, or books.

How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published by Literary Magazines and Small Presses by Dennis James Sweeney

This book changed the way I think about submitting work to publishers of all kinds. Instead of throwing it out into the cold, hard world, I think of trying to gently join the right conversations. This book might invaluable for many of you on this list—and especially those interested in publishing poetry or stories in literary journals or with small presses.

​Read my review here.​

The scarcity trap

When we're working on a big work like a book, it's tempting to hide our ideas, out of fear of having them "stolen" or taken from us too early.

That kind of fear is grounded in a sense of scarcity. Yet ideas rarely operate by the rules of scarcity.

In this post, I make my best case for talking about your book long before it's out in the market. I published it on Jane Friedman's blog because I want the message to reach as many writers as possible.

If you ever fear sharing your work or ideas, please read this one!

Reading to improve your craft

Free writing classes are available to you at any moment—in the pages of your favorite authors. When you read with focused intention and curiosity, you can pick up lessons to apply to your own writing.

Good (writing) news 🎉

A 99 cent price: You already got an email from me about this, but in case you missed it—get The Curious Reader's Field Guide to Nonfiction for 99 cents this week! (Ebook and PDF only.)

A first book! Maura Sullivan Hill — a longtime member of this community — is sending it to her publisher in April! Legends of Women's Figure Skating will be published by Abbeville Press in November (just in time for winter Olympics)! Yay, Meredith!

Share your wins: Let's make this a permanent, uplifting feature of this Writing Practices email. Send me your wins, big or small. Maybe you finished the first draft of a story, or read a poem aloud to a group. Perhaps you've restarted something that you'd put aside and are finding joy in the process. Or you read this month's book and submitted your work.

Let's cheer each other on. You've got this.

That's all for now. Keep writing, and send me your good news.

Anne

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Writing Practices

by Anne Janzer

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