Help yourself to these calls for submissions, free fillable charts, and writing resource websites to keep you organized and submit your best work.
If you have any suggestions for places to submit, shoot me a message, and I’ll add them to this page.
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Indie Book Buying Guide
Download my Indie Book Buying Guide here, and find new books to read. Most of the links to buy within the guide link to my affiliate partnership with bookshop.org. So, your purchase will support the author, local bookstores, and my blog!
LBB Indie Book Recommendations April 2021
Writer’s Group
Writers Beyond Borders
On March 19, 2021, I had the privilege of being a guest speaker at the virtual, international writer’s group, Writers Beyond Borders. This group meets monthly with two available times to join. It’s headed by Surabhi Kaushik who invites different writers to come on and share their experiences each month. You can check out Surabhi’s guest post about her writer’s group here! If you’re interested in participating, email me for more information, and I’ll have Surabhi get in touch with you!
Writer’s Podcast
OC Publishing
A live podcast featuring author interviews. Check them out here!
Writing/Submitting Resource Websites
The Indie View
Looking for reviewers for your self-published book? Check out The Indie View which provides an organized list of reviewers willing to review indie titles. You’ll even find Laura’s Books and Blogs on there. A great way to query reviewers without having to fall down the rabbit hole of Google searches.
Indies Today
Indies Today also provides a list of available book reviewers for indie titles, including Laura’s Books and Blogs. Check them out here!
12 Literary Journals That Accept Novel Excerpts
It’s always a struggle to find places to promote your work. So, this list of 12 literary journals that accept novel excerpts from Authors Publish could be instrumental in drumming up interest in your book. Check them out here!
Kindlepreneur
Kindlepreneur breaks down their recommended book review websites by genre. Check them out here!
Editing Tool – ProWriting Aid
Are you one of those writers who has not yet mastered the rules of the English language? Or are you human and like all of us can’t catch every single typo or choppy awkward sentence? Check out ProWriting Aid, a website that allows you to copy and paste your draft into their editing tool and offers corrections to content while catching your typos and grammatical errors. They also have a blog with writing advice and tips.
Packages range from $60 for one year to $210 for a lifetime subscription. Too pricey? Write a guest post for them, and if it’s accepted, they’ll give you a free year of ProWriting Aid as a fee while putting another notch in your guest post resume. Check it out here!
The Story Reading Ape
The Story Reading Ape blog is a really helpful tool for writers offering writing tips, submission info., and more. I recommend subscribing to their newsletter. I read it every week for the latest news and tips from fellow writers.
Calls For Submissions
Recommended Literary Journals
Are you a fiction, poetry, or nonfiction writer? Attached is a list of literary journals that I recommend along with some basic submission guidelines, payment, and any other information I could find from their website. Literary journals usually only pay in copies, and they frequently go out of business, but they’re usually free to submit to, and they will give you some publication credit, especially if you are just starting out. This list encompasses journals that accept electronic submissions, usually via Submittable, and have no reading fee. So, check these out, and let me know if your work is accepted! Be sure to check the websites before submitting. Also, let me know if any guidelines on this list change or if a journal goes out of business.
Middle Grade Agency and Publisher Guidelines
Are you a middle grade writer like me looking for agencies and publishers who take unagented submissions? Check out my chart here for general guidelines for dozens of agencies and publishers. Then, check out their websites for more detailed submission guidelines and to make sure that they are currently open for submissions. Good luck!
Call for Submissions: Weird Articles
Do you like writing about strange and quirky topics, like the paranormal, profiles on strange people, or odd events in your area? If so, then check out Ok Whatever. They’re looking for guest posters to contribute articles on four topics: WTF, Things, Naughty, and Selfie.
Articles need to be written from a first-person account. So, you need to have seen or experienced the topic that you are writing about. They also like you to get quotes from others associated with your topic.
Do your homework. Read some of their articles to get a sense of their style. Inject some humor and personality into your piece.
Be sure to pitch first. Use the contact form in their “contact” section or the email in their “jobs” section at the bottom of the home screen.
They are a new website that is just starting out so the pay for each article is very small, but it’s a site worth supporting. So, send them some good ideas, write some good content, and help them grow.
Writing Charts and Worksheets
Novel Submission Spreadsheet Template
Fillable PDF: Novel-Submisson-Spreadsheet-Template
Are you feverishly submitting your novel(s) to agencies and publishers? Use this fillable PDF to keep track of your submissions for all of your books. I like to use the the “find” feature in Word before I submit a manuscript to a company. That way, I can make sure that I haven’t submitted the same book to them before. I can also see if I have submitted a different book to them in the past. The “accepted/rejected” and “response time” columns are helpful to show if a company responds to submissions and how long they take.
List of Pieces Submitted Per Publication
I’ve submitted to multiple literary journals multiple times, and it can be easy to forget which pieces you’ve submitted where. The other charts on this page don’t make this information as easy to look up since they are listed by date rather than publication.
This one is even color coded to let you know which pieces are in a submitted or no response status, a rejected status, or were accepted by that journal. As always, tailor it to your organizational needs.
Guest Post Submissions Chart Template
Fillable PDF: Guest-Post-Website-Chart-Template
I like to keep a chart of all of all of the guest posts I’ve submitted and whether or not they were accepted on a separate spreadsheet. This way, I can easily look up specific information, such as which websites haven’t responded to me and which date I submitted a specific article.
It may seem like overkill, especially if you are using the other documents below, but organizing information in multiple ways can really help you to pinpoint a specific piece of information that you need to know. This helps whether you’re super organized or not organized at all.
Use this chart by itself, attach it to another chart, or print it out and hand write the information onto the chart. Be as detailed or as minimal as you want. Make it work for you.
Guest Post Portfolio Document Template
Fillable Word Version: Guest Post Credits
Fillable PDF Version: Guest Post Credits
Once you get a few publishing credits under your belt, you’re going to want to keep a list of your publishing credits. Feel free to use this template that I made to distribute your guest post publishing history to your new pitches, freelance job applications, or send to anyone else who asks where they can find your writing.
The document includes the name of the publication, the tile of your article, a link to that article, and the date it was posted on their site. Keep the most recent posts at the top of the document and list in descending date order.
Guest Post Websites and Article Lists Template
Fillable PDF: Guest-Post-Website-Chart-Template
With all of the websites I’ve been submitting to, I needed a way to keep track of all of the sites that I have submitted to or plan to submit to in the future. Researching websites can be a full time job. So this chart really helps. It lists the basic submission information as well as lists the titles of the articles that I have submitted to them.
I also write down some of the titles of articles that I’ve seen on the site so that I know what types of topics they’re looking for.
Below the chart, I keep a list of my articles including:
- article ideas
- drafts that need to be edited
- articles pitched
- articles submitted
- submissions that have been accepted or rejected
Feel free to download a copy of this fillable PDF to use when you submit your guest post articles, including the ones that you submit to me!
Comma and Apostrophe Cheat Sheet
Comma and Apostrophe Cheat Sheet
You can check out my post on self-editing tips here!
This is fantastic! Thank you so, so much for sharing 😀
– Nyxie
https://www.nyxiesnook.com/post-5-quotes-that-inspire-you/
Thanks for checking it out!
i love this post.
This is really helpful.
Can you please help me with one more thing, Laura?
I want to write for Listosaur and seeing that you have already written for them, you could just answer some of my queries.
I have written for pretty useless fake websites before and i just wanna know if listosaur is like them and how much time they take to publish your article ?
Hi! Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, I’ve recently learned that Listosaur isn’t producing or accepting any new content. They were a really good site to write for, and articles were always posted no longer than six weeks after they were accepted. They were also really prompt at paying you for your work. So, I’m going to remove them from that section of my blog. In the meantime, I recommend signing up for Authors Publish Magazine (https://www.authorspublish.com/). They send weekly calls for submissions from various websites and publishers. They have been helpful in finding websites for my articles and publishers for my latest book. Good luck!
It’s sad to hear that Listosaur isn’t active anymore. Many of my favorite websites have stopped accepting freelance pitches. The audience now wants to see videos and no one has time to read stuff. I feel really sad about that.
I have subscribed to authors publish but i am looking for a place where i can write about movies and tv shows and alternate endings and stuff. I love writing non-fiction too but i don’t know where to pitch it.
I am an engineer by day and freelance writer by night, at least trying to be. I would love to break in as a freelance writer cause it is my dream to write for stuff i care about and i would love to collect some extra cash as i have been financially weak. So can you just help me out in finding some websites where i can pitch freelance articles and earn some money.
In terms of publications that are looking for movie and TV articles, try:
Entrophy Magazine: http://www.entrophymag.org/calls-for-submissions
Slate: https://slate.com/
Paste Magazine: https://www.pastemagazine.com/paste/2012/03/writer-guidelines.html
Three Penny Review https://www.threepennyreview.com
The Writing Cooperative: https://writingcooperative.com/
Make sure to read each publication’s guidelines before submitting, and definitely confirm that they are currently accepting pitches. Read up on how to write a good pitch letter. Try to guest post on smaller blogs first so that you have a body of work to show these larger publications. Google “movie and TV guest posts” to try to find more publications. I did this over the winter and made a chart that lists various publications, what they are looking for, and what articles I’ve pitched to them. It’s a lot of work with very little return at first, but if you keep at it, you’ll find success.
Thanks for the help Laura.
I will definitely look into it.
You are a good person to help put others struggling.
Thanks for the info