A must-have book for any new writer and a welcome addition to the library of established writers who are hoping to ‘up their game’. Have you ever wondered why your short stories are rejected? What is the secret of selling your work? How do you make sure your characters are memorable, your plots realistic and your twists both satisfying and unpredictable? Della Galton answers these and many more questions using a format that will already be familiar to writers: What? Why? When? How? Where? and Who? The Author Della Galton has been selling short stories for twenty years. She sells between 90 and 100 short stories a year to markets in the UK and abroad. She also teaches creative writing and is a popular speaker at writers’ conferences across the UK. Dozens of her students have achieved success in the very competitive field of magazine fiction. Della is also the author of two published novels, Passing Shadows and Helter Skelter.

Write It Short, Sell It Now Short stories and personal essays have never been hotter--or more crucial for a successful writing career. Earning bylines in magazines and literary journals is a terrific way to get noticed and earn future opportunities in both short- and long-form writing. Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays capitalizes on the popularity of these genres by instructing on the two key steps to publishing short works: crafting excellent pieces and successfully submitting them. You'll learn how to: • Develop different craft elements--including point of view, character, dialogue, scene writing, and more--specifically for short stories and essays. • Recognize the qualities of excellent short works, using examples from recently published stories and essays in major journals. • Understand the business of writing short, from categorizing your work and meeting submission guidelines to networking and submitting to writing contests. • Master the five-step process for submitting and selling like a pro. Featuring advice and examples from a multitude of published authors, Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays is a must-have for any writer's bookshelf.

Being a writer is not just about typing. It's also about surviving the roller-coaster of the creative journey. Self-doubt, fear of failure, the need for validation, perfectionism, writer's block, comparisonitis, overwhelm, and much more. This book offers a survival strategy and ways to deal with them all.

"Like listening to a beloved brother. I found the acute observations and his narrative philosophy more valuable for the new writer than the contents of any 100 other texts."-Dean Koontz "The Successful Novelist is the vehicle you want if you plan to drive your way to successful fiction."-Joe R. Lansdale David Morrell, bestselling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fifth Profession, distills more than fifty years of writing and publishing experience into this single masterwork of advice and instruction. Morrell covers: -Plot -Character -Research -Structure -Viewpoint -Description -Dialogue -Succeeding in publishing -And much more The Successful Novelist reveals the truth about writing, providing the perspective authors need to write successful fiction that sells.

If you want to write fiction, then short stories are a great place to start. This book will help you to find ideas and teach you all the essential elements of short story writing. It covers plot and structure, conflict, dialogue, characterisation, settings, description, tense, viewpoint, flashback, and more. You'll also learn about one of the most important steps in the writing process: editing. How to Write Short Stories That Sell includes writing and editing exercises, and short story examples. It shows you how to increase your chances of selling your work by identifying the right story markets, and explains the correct way to submit your work to a magazine editor. Jane Bettany is a freelance writer, publisher and creative writing teacher with more than twenty years experience of writing fiction. Her stories and non-fiction articles have appeared in women's magazines, literary magazines, newspapers and online. She has an MA in Creative Writing and is a qualified teacher.

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story’s creation. Brandon Sanderson’s “Sixth of the Dusk,” set in his Cosmere universe shared by the Mistborn books and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a lone trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. Mary Robinette Kowal’s “A Fire in the Heavens” is a powerful tale of a refugee seeking to the near-mythical homeland her oppressed people left centuries ago. When Katin discovers the role the “eternal moon” occupies in the Center Kingdom, and the nature of the society under its constant light, she may find enemies and friends in unexpected places. Dan Wells’s “I.E.Demon” features an Afghanistan field test of a piece of technology that is supposed to handle improvised explosive devices. Or so the engineers have told the EOD team that will be testing it; exactly what it does and how it does it are need-to-know, and the grunts don’t need to know. Until suddenly the need arises. Howard Tayler’s “An Honest Death” stars the security team for the CEO of a biotech firm about to release the cure for old age. When an intruder appears and then vanishes from the CEO’s office, the bodyguards must discover why he is lying to them about his reason for pressing the panic button. For years the hosts of Writing Excuses have been offering tips on brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revision, and now they offer an exhaustive look at the entire process. Not only does Shadows Beneath have four beautifully illustrated fantastic works of fiction, but it also includes transcripts of brainstorming and workshopping sessions, early drafts of the stories, essays about the stories’ creation, and details of all the edits made between the first and final drafts. Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

***Updated 2020 Edition*** LEARN THE RIGHT WAY... ...to set your book up for long-term success, improve sales opportunities, and protect your investment, including: Everything you need to know about ISBNs, Barcodes, Copyright, & LCCNs. Make sure your book can be distributed by any distributor. Never have to abandon your hard-earned reader reviews. Ensure your book can be printed by any printer. Add your book to the major book industry databases. Prevent your advance reading copies from being re-sold. Avoid legal headaches and missed filing deadlines. “Straightforward and easy to digest, this is one how-to that every new author or publisher should have in their arsenal!" —Brooke Warner, Publisher of She Writes Press and author of Green-Light Your Book: How Writers Can Succeed in the New Era of Publishing “An essential guide to publishing identifiers, their benefits and uses, and (most importantly) what NOT to do. Required reading for every new entrant into book publishing – and for those who have been here a while, it’s never too late to go back to the sound fundamentals that David Wogahn provides here." —Laura Dawson, Numerical Gurus “...proceed with confidence in spending your time and dollars to get it done right, the first time.” —Carla King, Self-Pub Boot Camp “…a thorough and deceptively simple guide for independent authors and publishers…”

How to create characters who are more real than your family and friends? How to make these characters speak with their own dialogue, not yours? How to create vivid locations that readers can actually see? How to create such intriguing plots that readers are desperate to carry on reading? How to be really creative with words? You don’t? Then you need to buy this invaluable book. It will not only teach you fascinating story-telling techniques, but how to market your polished short stories once they are written so that they sell worldwide!

The debut anthology from E.J Newman is a dark and twisting journey across the urban landscape, mining the rich seam of human frailties with insight and humour. The stories traverse the magical and the mundane, where supernatural beings are indistinguishable from their mortal counterparts in their complexity and complicity. pp 142

Take your first step to selling more stories and building a career as a short fiction writer-buy this book! In an engaging and conversational style, award-winning author Douglas Smith teaches how to market and sell short fiction-and much, much more. Even experienced writers will find value in these pages as Smith takes us on a journey that begins with making your first sale and ends with learning to use short stories to build a foundation for a career in fiction. The book covers the following: "The Fundamentals: " The different types of writers. The benefits of short fiction. Rights and licensing for short fiction. "Selling Your Stories: " Knowing when it's ready. Choosing the right market. Submitting stories. Mistakes to avoid. How editors select stories (and why). Dealing with rejections. When to give up on a story. "After a Sale: " Short fiction contracts. Working with an editor. What your first sale means. Dealing with reviews. "A Writer's Magic Bakery: " Selling reprints. Selling in foreign languages. Selling audio rights. Selling a collection. The indie option. "As You Become Established: " How to leverage your short fiction. Discoverability tools and promotion. Career progression in short fiction. With an introduction by the multi-award winning author and editor, Kristine Kathryn Rusch: "We short story writers have needed a book like this for decades. I'm glad Doug decided to write it. Read and reread this volume. Because you'll learn something each time you do. And take Doug's advice. It's spectacular. Don't take my word for it. Turn the page and dive in. By the time you're done, I'll wager you'll be recommending this book to your writer friends-just like I have." "-Kristine Kathryn Rusch"