Markets: Following My Own Prompts
Following on from:
How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part One
How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part Two
How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part Three
In these articles, I suggested ways to find 9 markets altogether:
- 3 magazines you enjoy reading and could potentially write for
- 3 types of fiction you enjoy reading and writing
- 3 writing current (which means a deadline in the near future) competitions you could enter
This gives 9 potential markets, but to illustrate the point, I’m selecting ONE of EACH bullet point, to get my New Year writing started.
My THREE Market Categories
I have the luxury of choice! I’ve defined three pieces of work:
- a magazine – The People’s Friend – I will use a previously drafted or written short story and work to the utmost of my ability until I am confident that I can submit to this market. If I am not successful here, I will choose another magazine (I will let my readers know, without giving away any publishing trade secrets!
- a type of fiction – I will use my fiction planning skills to create a crime story worthy of the contemporary market. It might be a novel idea or a shorter piece…(I will let my readers know…with the same caveat as above)
- a competition – The 2021 Bristol Prize “closing date for entries is midnight (BST) May 5th 2021” so I had better look at my portfolio of work and notebook of observations and ideas…
Is Every Market Unique?
Yes, each magazine, website, publishing house, competition exists to fox you and me! Not really, but record keeping is essential to ensure you recall which story has gone where, when and why. In the case of this exercise, one story could fit all…that’s how it seems, but it is not the best way to approach the markets. After all, not every story deserves the same cover…
