If you’re considering publication on a wider scale, there are important things to keep in mind. Whether it’s for a book publisher, magazine, newspaper, or denominational booklet, each one has its own set of guidelines.

In the last few months, I’ve been researching new places to send short pieces, as well as potential publishers for longer stories, looking carefully over what each one requires.

Editor Emily Harstone of Authors Publish lists The Seven Most Common Manuscript Submission Mistakes in each issue. Understanding what a house is known for, and whether they are accepting manuscripts is the first step.

What I appreciate about this site is that someone shares what they know about the publications so readers know what to expect.

How to Start
NJ Lindquist, prolific author and cofounder of The Word Guild, offers wise words in her blog, Write with Excellence: “I speak to a lot of aspiring fiction writers, and I find that the majority of them want to write a novel (or are already writing one). My advice to them is to write at least ten short stories first.”

Initially, I started with nonfiction—letters to the editor, op-eds for our local newspaper, short articles for our denominational publication, then devotionals. My first book came later.

Set Yourself up for Success
Keep track of where you send submissions, the date and the response. Use a notebook or spreadsheet to record everything. It will help to keep you organized. Follow the instructions to the letter.

Check first to see what publishers are known for, and that what you plan to send matches their needs. If the publication has a monthly theme, write to that.

Best wishes as you start sending out your work.

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Response to my June newsletter on Finding Inspiration:

Barb wrote: “The first niggling idea for my book began to brew in my imagination during the pandemic when watching Netflix videos about food and cooking such as Michael Pollan’s Cooked series. Pollan asks, ‘Is there any practice that is less selfish, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for the people you love?’”

Jeannette wrote:

I was in Ottawa for a work conference. One night I had a particularly vivid dream that stuck with me for days. This was nothing new really. In that space between sleeping and waking, I often have quite interesting dreams that play like mini-movies, and they do make some excellent story ideas. Most of the time though, they just stay ideas. But in this case, I had several follow-up dreams until, one day, I realized that, if I shuffled them around just so, they fit together like a series of scenes in a novel. There have been lots of starts and re-starts, plus the seeds for 2 more stories, as I’ve continued working on my novel over the years. But I was determined to persevere and actually just wrote the last scene this past month, 18 years after that first dream.

What inspires you to keep writing? Or to start something new?
I will publish a small selection of responses in my August newsletter.

Shared by permission

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Save the dates:

September 6, 7, 8: Tavistock Fall Fair, Tavistock, ON. I will be there as an author with my books and more.

September 14: Author Afternoon. Waterloo Visitor’s Centre, Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo, ON

September 28: In person Group Book Launch, for books released during COVID, by members of the KW Writers Alliance.