Pitching Agents/Novel and Short Story Markets

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Writing begins with a knot. ~ Margaret Atwood

Pitching Agents: Plan on pitching your book to an agent at a conference? An agent shares some pointers for authors here.
  
HORATIO NELSON FICTION PRIZE
Black Balloon Publishing will award the winner a $5,000 prize as part of their book deal. Must be a work of fiction: a novel or short story collection, minimum word count of 50,000 words. This is a two-tiered process: initial entries include a summary and an excerpt no longer than 4,000 words. Authors who move on to second round of judging will have one week to submit their manuscript after being notified.

CROSSED OUT MAGAZINE #4

Deadline: May 1, 2013

Submit up to three short stories, 2000 words or less each, that are direct, concise, character driven, and socially relevant. This online biannual pays $20 per accepted fiction story for first and one-time rights.

iPhone Workshop and In the Snake

Writer's thought for the week: "Words are but air; the pen leaves a mark." ~ Anonymous

Author and speaker Linda Rohrbough developed an iPhone version of her workshop "Pitch Your Book". 
http://www.lindarohrbough.us/index.php/iphone-app
 It has Apple's approval and is available for $3.99.

I don't have an iPhone but I attended this workshop at a writer's conference. I almost didn't go because I didn't have a book to pitch, but none of other workshops in that time slot interested me. Linda's workshop was the best one of the whole conference. She taught us a simple, effective three-step formula for talking about your book with an agent or editor. 

Conferences can be expensive and time-consuming, and I often find that I am only interested in certain parts of them. Will other iPhone apps for writers be available soon? I might just have to get an iPhone. I'm not saying conferences have no purpose. You can't ask an iPhone app questions. Well, you could, but you won't get answers. You're not networking while listening to your iPhone, and you won't get a one-on-one in-person session with an editor or agent that way either. But $3.99 for a workshop in my home or office instead of getting dressed up and driving somewhere? Sounds good to me.

In the Snake
http://www.inthesnake.com/submissions/

This new ezine wants short stories for their first issue scheduled for October. All genres accepted but no explicit sexual descriptions or excessive violence. "We are very interested in stories that focus on the evolution of characters, questions of identity, and perception of self." Pays $50 per story on acceptance for one-time Web publication rights.