Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Insecure Writer's Support Group Post Day, Anthologies, and Short Stories!

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

Our awesome co-hosts today are Stephen Tremp, Karen Walker, Denise Covey, and Tyrean Martinson!

The submission deadline for our anthology contest came and went this past Sunday, November 1. And we had a lot of great submissions! The admins are busy reading and sorting at the moment, and the top stories will be passed on to our judges mid-November:

Laura Maisano - Senior editor at Anaiah Press for their YA/NA Christian fiction
Russell Connor – Author and owner of Dark Filament Publishing Startup
Candace Havens – Editorial Director for the Covet, Select, Select Otherworld, Select Historical, Embrace, Indulgence for Entangled Publishing. She is also a nationally syndicated columnist and award-winning and best-selling author.
Dawn Frederick – Literary agent and the founder of Red Sofa Literary
Alice Speilburg – Founder of the Speilburg Literary Agency
Michelle Johnson – Literary agent and the founder of Inklings Literary Agency
Kendare Blake - Author
Lydia Moëd - Associate agent at The Rights Factory

The top ten stories will go into a royalty-paying anthology due for release next year.

Short stories are a great way to break into the publishing industry. In addition to anthologies, there are magazines, online periodicals, websites, and journalism opportunities. Some writers even make a career out of writing short stories.

The anthology contest is something we hope to repeat year after year, with a different theme each time. So, if you didn’t submit or make the cut this time, there is always next year.

Thanks to all of our members who submitted and/or helped spread the word. You guys rock!

23 comments:

Yolanda Renée said...

I'm already looking forward to next years subject. Wouldn't want to be the ones deciding the fate of all those submissions! Good Luck, and Happy Reading!

Pat Hatt said...

Awesome you're going to do it every year. Not even sure where mine came from, but just went with it.

Christine Rains said...

Good luck to everyone! I love that you're going to do it every year. :)

Debra Renée Byrd said...

I can't wait to see what's been produced! :D

Tamara Narayan said...

I didn't think I could do it, but once I started, the story was a ton of fun to write. Glad to know this will be an annual event.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

There were some really good submissions for the anthology.

Shadow said...

I think I'd like to give this a try next year, I'm moving houses at the moment...

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

The stories submitted were great. IWSG has so many talented members.

Erika Beebe said...

I am definitely submitting next year. Good luck everyone 😊

Jen said...

Thanks for offering the anthology and the chance to submit. I wasn't able to submit this year, but I"m looking forward to spending the colder months working on the craft of short stories and essays. I love the encouragement here about "writing short". I know personally I've always considered myself a NOVELIST but lately I've been reconsidering. I LOVE stories and I love writing them. I do tend to be long winded so novels seemed the natural route. However, I'm learning about shorter forms of fiction and realizing that maybe those word count boundaries aren't such a terrible thing!

Still, there are some ideas that beg for volumes. Maybe those need a little more time to ferment before they emerge. Thank you, as always, for the IWSG and the awesome hosts/co-hosts. Happy November!!

Cheers,
Jen

Michelle Wallace said...

There were lots of good stories submitted.
Happy IWSG Day!

Fundy Blue said...

I'm glad that you got lots of submissions, Alex. I appreciate all the work of the ISWG admins! Maybe next year for me. We shall see. I will never forget the thrill of seeing my first short story published in a literary journal in Canada. Without the ISWG I don't think I'd be moving forward with my memoir. I'm so grateful for its members and their encouragement. Have a good one, Alex!

Nicola said...

Good luck to all entries and a big thank you to the admin team.

Juneta key said...

I did not submit this year, but looking forward to reading all the stories when its released next year.
Juneta Writer's Gambit

Lan said...

Good luck to everyone who entered! I wasn't able to this time but I'm glad there will be new chances every year!

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

I second that. Some of this year's submissions were outstanding. It was struggle picking the top rankings.

dolorah said...

Can't wait to see how it all comes together. Gonna be hard work to narrow it down I'm sure.

cheerfuloptimistic said...

"Always next year."

I love that.

Sher A. Hart said...

Seeing that lineup makes me wish I'd submitted this year. Seeing that you're doing it again next year makes me rethink withdrawing from IWSG due to lack of time and energy. I posted this month but haven't decided about Dec or next year yet. Auggh!

The Cynical Sailor said...

That's quite cool that you have an anthology to help folks get published! I've recently joined this group and love how supportive it is. Thanks for all that you guys do. Cheers - Ellen

Tanya Miranda said...

Oh I'm sooooo participating in next year's contest!

L.G. Keltner said...

I'm glad to hear that you plan to do this every year. It's a great opportunity and a lot of fun! I both envy the admins for getting to read so many great stories and find myself glad that I don't have to decide between them myself. Best of luck to everyone!

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Alex - it sounds like this Anthology is a good sounding board opportunity to submit stories ... so looking forward to seeing who got in and who not and then reading the stories ...

Cheers to one and all - Hilary