If you agree to pay a fee for your work to be considered for publication, how much is too much? Is a couple bucks okay? What about if that “couple bucks” is listed in a foreign currency and so is actually more like five dollars? What if there are added feedback charges, or if the journal presents you with a tip jar option? Does the prospect of paying submission fees motivate you to produce higher quality work? Or do you submit the same work that you’d send a place that doesn’t charge?
So many questions! In this article, I’ll talk about areas where a writer may be asked to fork out cash just for work to be taken into consideration. I’ll also include some tips to help you navigate the submission process without having to pay fees and while being alert for signs of potential scams.
When you read a novel, do you also read the acknowledgements that the author has included with the book? This question has been bouncing around social media, and I have a few points to share on the topic of acknowledgements. Whether you read them or not, there is a purpose behind this part of the book.
My short story “Coffee and Cream” has been reprinted online with Commuter Lit. If you haven’t read the story, check it out here. Back in autumn 2020, this piece began as a writing course assignment. It was picked up for publication in early 2021, and is now published multiple times over.
Check out my blog in case you missed these awesome interviews. I am delighted to partner with editors, writers, and publicists to bring you an insider scoop on what’s going on in the industry. More to come—make sure you’re subscribed to have these delivered directly to your email inbox.
Image courtesy of Sloth & Envy Press, 2025
Updates & Work in Progress: Spring 2025
“Eighteen Ninety-Seven” will release as a reprint with Literally Stories in April. Wondering about the title for this piece? Although this particular story is fiction, I wrote it after poring over a collection of ancestral documents that my late cousin compiled in the early 1990’s. The booklet she made details some of what the circumstances were like prior to leaving for The New World and what the journey entailed. 1897 was the year my paternal ancestors came to North America from Europe and so it seemed a fitting title for this piece.
OPEN CALL: Guest Blogger. Got something to say about writing? Check out my submission call for guest bloggers here. Submissions accepted on an ongoing basis until the closing date of June 30th, 2025.
What I’m Reading: Spring 2025
Last season, I found myself totally enamored with Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. The premise of the book is essentially what would happen if someone continued to pursue the other realm presented in C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. And what if that person was entirely unscrupulous? While the first section of this book can be a little off-putting, this is done by design to pull the reader into the action in a big, big way. I recommend this book, particularly if you’ve read TheChronicles of Narnia, as there are multiple references back to C.S. Lewis’ series throughout.
Another recommended read is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. It is most assuredly a masterpiece. It does take some patience to pick through the information and get one’s bearings for the first third. The true inciting incident doesn’t occur until about a quarter of the way into the novel. You do, however, need the context leading up to that point to understand the full scope. I found it to be similar to Piranesi in the sense that it takes a little while to catch on, but once you do, it becomes an obsession! I found myself reluctant to set the book down.
I plan to read through Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing. This is the recommended text for the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. The collection addresses the fact that we, as writers at any stage in our career, all face challenges or obstacles in the process of writing.
And that’s it. Enjoy spring. Please share your comments below. Stay tuned for my next blog post. Wanna get it in your email inbox? Subscribe to stay informed of my newest articles, story reviews, updates, and more.
Cover Image: Photo by Ameruverse Digital Marketing Media on Pexels.com
In this post, we’ll be hearing from author Roz Nay. I hope you are as thrilled as I am about this interview! (See what I did there?) Check out her author bio:
Photo Credit: Lisa Seyfried Photography
ROZ NAY’s debut novel, Our Little Secret, was a national bestseller, won the Douglas Kennedy Prize for best foreign thriller in France, and was nominated for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Mystery and the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award. Her second bestselling novel, Hurry Home, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Novel award and The Hunted, her third, was nominated for Best Crime Novel in 2022. The Offing is her fourth novel. Roz has lived and worked in Africa, Australia, the US, and the UK. She now lives in British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and two children.
More details about Roz and The Offing can be found here.
Roz, your first novel, Our Little Secret, began as a creative writing assignment and grew into a full-length manuscript. Tell us about that process. At what point did you decide to pursue novel writing and what did you learn at those early stages of your writing-for-publication journey?
I only kept going with my first-ever manuscript because I missed writing class, and needed to hang onto some part of it. I just patchworked together a narrative around a voice I’d created in class, and wrote it over a year while my two little toddlers napped. I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing, other than that I’d built a world I was enjoying writing. When I look back now, that time was fairly chaotic but what I learned most was that, when you have a story you want to tell, one way or another you get it done.
Image courtesy of Penguin Random House; Cover design: Emma Dolan
Beginning writers are often told, “write what you know.” For your thriller Hurry Home, the inspiration stemmed from your career in child services. Your newest book, The Offing, draws on your experiences while traveling in Australia. Roz, what does your writing process look like? How much preliminary research is required and at what point do you forge ahead with writing a draft?
How do you select character names? If you’ve ever wondered this, consider first why you’re asking. It’s not like you have zero ideas of names to choose. Do you have a name in mind that you aren’t confident slapping down on the page? Maybe it’s the name of your childhood friend or a departed relative. Did you think about using a name you heard at school or work and thought it was rather unique but years later you’re unsure if it’s usable? The problem boils down to whether it’s a good fit.
The fit has to do with your character, the plot, and your intended audience. There’s a lot riding on a name, so it’s not just an arbitrary decision. You’re placing a label on a fictional being who represents an archetype, role-model, or possibly a new icon (i.e. Harry _ _ _ _ _ _ ). Which reminds me, you may only need a first name. Depending on your genre and plot, however, you may need to select surnames. And if you’re going for realism, this can be a huge conundrum.
So now that we’ve gotten closer to defining the problem, do I have an answer? Well, not exactly. I have some guidelines that I follow and I’ll offer some anecdotes along the way.
In today’s post, E.J. Nash tells us how she fits her writing into a packed schedule, gives advice to new writers on creating an internet presence, and talks about… Hawaiian pizza! (Hint: it’s writing-related) Check out her author bio:
Photographer Trina Koster
E.J. Nash holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Western Ontario in Creative Writing and English Language & Literature, and a master’s degree in Information Studies from McGill University. Her work has been published by CBC, The Globe and Mail, Nature, Woman’s World, and in various literary magazines. She is an American-Canadian writer & librarian currently located in Ottawa.
I like to get up early and write as much as I can before work, and I’ll write on my lunch break if the planets align. In the evening my brain has turned into a potato, so that’s when I crash in bed.
Downloading Google Docs on my phone has been a game changer. Most of my writing is done on my phone, and I edit on my computer. Writing on my phone gives me the flexibility to write anywhere! Plus, I’m not scared about losing my documents since they’re all hosted in the cloud.
Do you prefer to read books in e-book or physical book format? What are you reading these days? Which contemporary authors do you recommend checking out?
I read both print books and eBooks. Most of my day is spent in front of a screen, and I can feel my retinas crying for mercy, so it’s nice to look at a print book. On the other hand, some of the books I read are only available as eBooks, so I’m happy to scroll to my heart’s content.
In this post, we welcome author, speaker, and mentor Eileen Cook. She shares an abundance of helpful (and heartful) writing advice as well as a glimpse into what it was like when she first started out as a budding writer. Check out Eileen’s author bio:
Photo courtesy of Eileen Cook
Eileen Cook, author, speaker, and mentor lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her books are published with HMH, Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins. Cook’s recent titles include You Owe Me a Murder, One Lie Too Many, and With Malice. Under the pen name Kate MacIntosh, she’s written a historical novel, The Champagne Letters. People Magazine chose this book as a December 2024 Best New Book saying: “this fun, fizzy novel is delicious.” She received the John Spray Award in 2018 for best mystery in Canada with her novel The Hanging Girl/One Lie Too Many. Her books have been optioned for film and TV, although she is still waiting a chance to walk the red carpet.
My most recent book, The Champagne Letters, was a big change for me as it was both adult and a dual timeline historical. It just came out in December 2024 with Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster) under a pen name to help brand it as different than other things I’ve written. At long last, a chance for my historical nerd side to come out and use all those random facts I’ve been gathering for years!
Even though the book just came out, I am already wading into another manuscript. I am the happiest when I have a book on the go. The current book is also a dual timeline with a character in the present who is traveling to England after a death. It’s still very muddy and unclear how it will unspool, but I’m enjoying doing a bunch of research and seeing where it may go.
Eileen, you’ve got a wealth of experience with writing-for-publication. Tell us a bit about how it felt when you first started sending out manuscripts. What drove your decision to continue writing and what were your next steps? At what point did you begin speaking to audiences and mentoring others?
I saw this question on a discussion forum some time ago, and thought it was a good one. The person who posed it was just starting out as a writer and unsure about navigating all the different publication outlets. Should a writer invest time and resources in short stories and micro fiction for the purpose of submitting to journals? Is this a wise choice for a writer whose ultimate goal is to finish a novel? Can you make a living from submitting smaller works of fiction? What, really, is the point of having your work appear in those little journals anyways? Why not just go for the full manuscript from the beginning and skip all the rest?
Reading is an imperative activity for a writer. Tackle that unread pile! I’ve got three tips to share that will help you make more room in your week for reading. When you see my explanation for each, you’ll notice that all three tips meld into each other like one super-hack. I hope this will assist you in reaching your reading goals.
Pauline Shen 