In the six years I've been a serious writer, I have submitted stories for publication over 1000 times. While I still have some things to learn about submitting, I've certainly come a long way during this period. I now know better than to finish typing a story and quickly send it off to Glimmer Train, The … Continue reading When Not To Submit to a Literary Magazine
People often ask why I'm not a teacher anymore. I have decided that it is time to publicly answer. For the past nine years, I was a teacher in the Missouri public education system. It surely wasn't been all roses, but for every kid who threatened to kick me in the balls, there were dozens … Continue reading A Rant Against the Minnesota Department of Education
In the past six years, I have been rejected almost 700 times. That’s an average of about 1 rejection every three days. At this point, you’d think I’d be completely immune. I should at least be an expert on rejection. Why then do I keep getting rejected? Literary magazines can be pretty fickle. They are … Continue reading Ten Levels of Rejection (And What to Do About Them)
David S. Atkinson is one of the finest people in the indie literary community today. While the community on the whole is friendly and supportive, David takes support to a whole new level. If you are friends with him on Facebook, you can be certain that he will read every story you post, and he … Continue reading Speed Reading with David S. Atkinson
A special thanks to Sean Munger for providing his insightful thoughts on writing historical characters into fiction. This is something I have never done successfully, and I think Sean's thoughts here are quite helpful. Characterizing History: Writing Historical Figures as Interesting Characters by Sean Munger If, like me, you’re drawn to using the … Continue reading Characterizing History: Writing Historical Figures as Interesting Characters (Guest Blog by Sean Munger)
Anyone who maintains a blog that consists primarily of words knows how hard it can be to constantly come up with new posts. Even more difficult, of course, is finding the time to write a new post every week (or whatever your blog schedule may be). This is especially challenging for fiction writers who would … Continue reading The Value of a Guest Post
Today is the official release date of the very first flash novel from Bartleby Snopes Press. We are incredibly proud to release Matthew Ankeny's The Rink. This is a beautiful story that really captures the essence of humanity. Here's the official synopsis of this terrific book: "Life pauses for no one, and Kay and Sandi feel … Continue reading Matthew Ankeny: Conversation with a Flash Novelist
Thus far in my writing career, I have been the lucky victor of four writing contests, earning a grand total of $155 ($50 of which was in Amazon gift cards, one of which was never delivered). None of these were fee-based contests. I haven't entered a lot of fee-based contests, but I know I'm 0 … Continue reading Are Writing Contests Worth Entering
As a writer, I've written hundreds of stories and sent out thousands of submissions. I've been fortunate enough to have over two hundred stories published, but part of this fortune is the result of hard work and a thorough understanding of the submission process. When I was a new writer, I didn't have a clue … Continue reading How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines
One of the many challenges of being a writer is finding the right places to send completed work. Luckily, there are many resources available. Unfortunately, not all of these resources are free. At the end of 2012, I posted a three-part series evaluating what I thought were the three main components of Duotrope's Digest. The … Continue reading Dear Duotrope: It’s Not You, It’s Me
