Welcome…

Barely twenty years ago, Writing Magazine was featuring

How I got published: JULIA GOLDING

The established author tells Dolores Gordon Smith how she has created her own publishing luck

A novel celebration

First prize is agency representation and £3,000 in

Seeing nature through new eyes

Canongate has launched The Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature

Change the story with your story

Win £2,500 and the chance to be published by Dialogue

Reed and write

Win €1,000 in the English-language edition the Galtelli

UK SCIENCE MARKET

In search of space

Rinse out your children’s novel

The £2,500 international prize is for unpublished and

Well-observed critique

The 2019 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism

FLASHES

Gavin Troth edits the new Axmag free bimonthly magazine

UK ESOTERICA MARKET

A light in the dark

Tough call

Published three times a month on Mondays, Tough is

Take your writing for a wild ride

The To Hull and Back Short Story Competition 2019 is

UK BOOK MARKET

More than one opportunity with MOM

Subcultural stories

Creative Mind writers group is inviting entries of

It’s a Funny Old World

Jilly Cooper once described how a woman wrote to say

FLASHES

Green Christian Magazine is intended for Christians

GLOBAL POETRY MARKET

New voices welcome

Write on, women

Mslexia has launched the Women’s Fiction Competition

UK MAGAZINE MARKET

An open field

Summer stories

Entries are invited for the Summer Short Story Competition

FLASHES

Gardener’s World monthly magazine is edited by Lucy

UK LITERARY AGENCY

Can you make an agent laugh? Or cry?

Can I get a Witness?

Witness is a well-established US ‘literary and issueoriented

Write your best for Ilkley LitFest

Ilkley Literature festival is inviting entries for

GLOBAL LITERARY MARKET

Find your place in The Sun

Love letters

Entries are invited of stories in the form of a letter.

Crossing boundaries

Pangyrus is a lively journal of art, ideas and culture

And another thing…

‘We should be told: Write fast, write close to the

FLASHES

Litmag Shooter has two editions a year, in summer and

GLOBAL FAITH MARKET

Shoot for the Messenger

Words by water

Words By Water: Kinsale Literary Festival in Ireland

Showcase for seniors

Passager is an American print magazine and small press

INTRODUCTIONS

Writing Magazine presents a selection of wellbeing

FLASHES

Retirement Today is a comprehensive magazine for pre

GLOBAL SPECFIC MARKET

Get to know JournalStone

GLOBAL LITERARY MARKET

Break the mould with F(r)iction

Stories to the grindstone

Grindstone Literary’s 2019 International Short Story

UK BOOK MARKET

Books on the wing

FLASHES

Kate Heppell, editor of Knit Now monthly magazine,

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET

Time of Reckoning

Embrace the fantasy

Fantasia Divinity is a US fantasy small press and literary

INTERNATIONAL ZINE SCENE

Chestnut Review is a new US online quarterly, just

FLASHES

Prima monthly magazine has a regular short story competition

GLOBAL LITERARY MARKET

Scribe’s wants

Big scares

The 2018 Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards

Normal People in the spotlight

Having already won the Costa Award and now the British

Love in the city

Hot on the dancing shoes of news of Steven Spielberg’s

UK TRAVEL MARKET

101 Holidays 101

FIC 19

The Manchester Writing Competition is open for the

FLASHES

The most thoughtful and inspiring poem on Europe will

GLOBAL SMALL PRESS MARKET

Red Bird’s call

BBA books of the year

The winners of the British Book Awards are: fiction

Free rein for writers

Published three times a year, Carte Blanche is ‘open-ended

Re-reworking the classics

Two more classics are being adapted for the screen

UK CRIME MARKET

Turn up the heat in crime publishing

THE WORLD OF WRITING

This month Derek Hudson discovers the world of writing is made a better place by big-hearted food writers, ghosts, sticking to your style and not giving up the day job

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We want to hear your news and views on the writing world, your advice for fellow writers – and don’t forget to tell us what you would like to see featured in a future issue…

Editorial calendar

Strong forward planning will greatly improve your chances with freelance submissions. Here are some themes to consider for the coming months.

Lessons from a life

Patrick Forsyth is inspired by bookseller Tim Waterstone’s memoir

Novel Ideas: The thief of time?

Lynne Hackles isn’t put off by the P-word

Creating an impression

Patrick Forsyth suggests a structured approach to writing description

©opyright control

The EU’s Copyright Directive will improve writers’ affairs if it comes into force in the UK, says Tim Gallagher, public affairs manager at The Society of Authors

ASK A LITERARY CONSULTANT

What is the publishing industry looking for at the moment? Helen Corner Bryant passes on the latest insider information

From the OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK MONEY, MINE

Piers Blofeld has noticed that publishers are increasingly less keen to share the spoils with authors

On Writing

Tony Rossiter explores great words from great writers

Helpline

Diana Cambridge solves your writing problems

Life interviews

Tarja Moles helps you get the most out of in-depth interviews

BEHIND THE TAPE

Expert advice to get the details right in your crime fiction, from serving police officer Lisa Cutts

Got a book? Get a blog!

Catherine Green shows you how to support your writing, and your bank balance, with a blog

Get booked in

Book blogger LH Johnson tells you how to get your book reviewed online – and why that matters

Hashtag heaven

Celia Jenkins explores how writers can best use the Twitter social media platform

Pastures NEW

The third novel from Ayisha Malik gets to the heart of a real English village, as Tina Jackson discovers

Shelf life: SIMON BRETT

The cosy crime king shares his top five reads with Judith Spelman

The style & technique of: ROSE TREMAIN

Tony Rossiter looks at a writer who uses her imagination to examine experience that is distant from her own life

CIRCLES’ ROUNDUP

If your writing group would like to feature here, whether

SUBSCRIBER SPOTLIGHT

Share your writing success stories. If you subscribe to Writing Magazine and would like to feature here, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

KNOW YOUR WORTH

What price for our words, and do we charge enough? Simon Whaley considers how we can value our writing.

THE CAMEL’S HUMP

Lorraine Mace is not best pleased when decisions by committee affect a book event she’s been anticipating

The thought that counts

What do writers think about? Words on paper, mostly, says Adrian Magson

On course

If you’re thinking of a writing course, it’s important to find one with the right approach and level for your needs. Explore some of the options with Tina Jackson

Author, AGENT, audience?

An indie-published author who wants to widen his readership should work on getting an agent, advises Jane Wenham-Jones

Away from your desk

Get out of your garret for some upcoming activities and places to visit

Anatomy of the sentence

The ability to craft sentences is the basic element of good writing. Author James McCreet takes a closer look at the bones of sentence structure

Under the Microscope

James McCreet puts a reader’s first 300 words under his forensic scrutiny

REAL PEOPLE, made-up lives

How do you incorporate real people into your fictional world? Margaret James talks to writers whose novels involve well-known people from the past

I wish I’d known…

‘I wish I had known how hard being a professional writer

Feel the fear

Helen M Walters explores a short story by Shirley Jackson to look at ways of creating a sense of paranoia in your writing

The truth is out there

Novelist and script editor Lucy V Hay tells Amy Sparkes how she writes YA fiction that busts lazy stereotypes about real-life issues

Why WRITE HORROR?

The genre may get bad press in certain quarters, but Alex Davis argues that it’s fertile ground for imaginative writers

LUAN GOLDIE

Adrian Magson talks to a debut novelist who overcame rejection to fulfil her destiny as an author

SARAH JANE DOUGLAS

The author, hill-walker and cancer survivor tells Lynne Hackles how all the strands of her life came together in her memoir

Own goals

Julie Phillips suggests you use this group exercise to help writers overcome their stumbling blocks to success

A bedtime story

1st place CHARACTER-DRIVEN SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Brewing up ideas

Treat yourself to these tea-themed creative writing exercises from Jenny Alexander

Wish you were here

Alison Chisholm launches WM’s competition for postcard poems

Making light of things

Alison Chisholm looks at the skills involved in writing accessible verse

Poetry in practice

In this exercise, Doris Corti uses keys to unlock the beginnings of new poems

Just a MINUTE

Judge Alison Chisholm is impressed by how much the winning entries in WM’s Minute Poem Competition managed to fit into the tight time-scheme