Although the year is slowing down, there are still plenty of opportunities for writers. Here are a few to see you through the rest of 2021, and into the New Year.

SUBMISSIONS

Connecticut publisher Woodhall Press is accepting book submissions in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction until January 1, 2022. Here are the specifics.

Scribes MICRO Fiction, the online magazine for works of 100 words, is planning to start paying its authors a nominal sum ($1) for their accepted work. To help fund this, they will open a Patreon account, where readers can voluntarily contribute the cost of a cup of coffee (or more, obviously). Although their name implies that they only take fiction, they’re open to creative nonfiction and poetry too. Submission guidelines here.

The Gotham Writers Workshop holds a monthly  Twitter Contest where each month they invite you to post a story on Twitter using the hashtag #GWstorieseverywhere for a chance to win a free class. Your stories (which can be true or made-up) should relate to the monthly “themes”: December: One last time January: So delicious February: Freezeout. Take a look at some of the current offerings to see what 280 characters can produce!

Flash Fiction Magazine runs monthly contests for flash fiction, in addition to taking regular submissions. They pay $40 (USD) for stories selected to be in Flash Fiction Magazine anthologies. though not for stories they publish online. They have an annual Editors Choice Award, when they vote during the first quarter of the year on their favorite story of the previous year. The award is $1000.

CLASSES

The pandemic has opened up the world of writing classes by allowing local writing schools to offer classes via Zoom, so no matter how far away you are from a teacher, you can still go to class. Here in Connecticut, the Westport Writers Workshop is offering a plethora of workshops and classes, including such varied subjects as Science Fiction/Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Intro to Screenwriting, and more. Most of them are on Zoom, but there are some in-person classes too – including Intermediate/Advanced Fiction and Advanced Memoir Writing for Women. You can find a full list here.

The Farmington Valley Writers Workshop is offering a six-week in-person course with Dana Meachen Rau, which includes 45 minutes of writing time in the class.

The Fairfield County Writers Studio has a full slate of classes available, as well as one-to-one writing coaching and editing services. Coming up right before New Year, on December 30 (10-noon EST) is a two-hour mini-workshop for those interested in writing for children: Picture Book Primer. It will take place live on Zoom, and in-person for those who are vaccinated. Join Victoria Sherrow, award-winning author of more than 100 fiction, non-fiction, and picture books for children and teens, as she leads you through a sampler of her awesome picture-book workshop! In the process, help support moms and little ones in need. The suggested donation is $20 and benefits Malta House in Norwalk, CT. They offer a host of other classes in fiction and memoir, as well as another mini-workshop, Meet Your Writing Goals in 2022 on January 11.

SELF-PUBLISHING

If you’re thinking of self-publishing your own books, you’ll need good software in order to design them. Until now, Vellum ($250 for unlimited books and eBooks) has been the market leader, but it’s only available for Mac. Now Kindleranker has designed some great software for  Windows. Atticus lets you write and format books on any computer you’d like. Furthermore, Atticus costs only $147 for unlimited books and ebooks. They’re planning to expand this to become a writing software too, with tools for planning, plotting, better writing capabilities, and goal setting. If you’re not a Mac user, it’s worth a look.

And if you need a website and don’t know where to begin, start here. Web Design Relief, an offshoot of  Writers Relief, offers a free downloadable guide to WordPress for writers and will also do the work for you, if it’s more than you want to handle. They can also update your current site.

My favorite newsletter when it comes to submitting my work, Authors Publish, has an article about 17 Literary Journals Open to Publishing Reprints. Written by Emily Harstone, it tells you where to submit work that’s been published before, to get more exposure for your writing. Not all of these journals are open to submissions at this time, but most are.

Speaking of newsletters, Publishers Weekly offers a series of writing and publishing-related newsletters you can sign up for, including The Book Life Report, which covers self-publishing news, book reviews, author interviews, and insider know-how from Publishers Weekly.

I hope you have the chance to take a break/get some writing done – whichever your need is – over the last two weeks of the year. See you in 2022, and in the meantime – keep writing!