March/April 2014 Writer's Digest Digital Download

FEATURES: Write Short to Break Out!

What Literary Journals Really Look For: An Editors' Roundtable

Acquiring minds behind top markets for short fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry discuss how much they love finding new voices, what makes for eye-catching submissions, and why a byline in their pages could just be the beginning of a beautiful career.

by James Duncan

34 Markets for Genre Short Stories

Think literary journals are only for literary fiction? Think again. These markets welcome short stories of suspense, science fiction, children's, inspirational and other popular genres.

compiled by Tiffany Luckey

Cracking Major Markets with Personal Essays

Follow these 9 simple steps for writing what you already know, and you could get your big break,and a paycheck to match,faster than you might think.

by Susan Shapiro

The Secret to Stronger Feature Articles

Find the narrative tension hidden in your story, and you can turn a run-of-the-mill assignment into the kind of feature that leaves editors,and readers,clamoring for more. Here's how to do it.

by Scott Atkinson

The WD Interview: Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb's legions of readers might never know what he's going to write next, or when. But they've learned, just as the author has, that good things come to those who wait.

by Suzy Spencer

Every Chance of Success

The author of Zero Chance of Passage has had a lifelong commitment to getting other to share her vision for the future. So when it came time to put that vision into print, she decided to take control,and earned the grand prize in WD's Self-Published Book Awards for her efforts.

PLUS: The complete winners list.

by Cris Freese

WRITER'S WORKBOOK: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Balancing Exposition in Speculative Fiction

by Orson Scott Card

Weaving Theme Into Speculative Fiction

by Steven Harper

Exploring the World of Steampunk

by Jay Lake

INKWELL

Warm Up to Cozy Mysteries

Tales spun with lots of suspense,but no sex or violence,are finding a wide audience of armchair detectives.

by Zac Bissonnette

Plus:

• 5-Minute Memoir: The Last Page
• Poetic Asides
• Questions & Quandries: What Writers Should Ask Potential Agents
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Agent Response Times (Humor)
• #CompleteThisTweent

COLUMNS

MEET THE AGENT: Elizabeth Winick Rubinstein, McIntosh & Otis

by Kara Gebhart Uhl

BREAKING IN: Debut Author Spotlight

by Chuck Sambuchino

FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK: Exclusive Queries; Agent Efforts; Genre Hopping

by Barbara Poelle

YOUR STORY: “Sausage, Peppers and Ice Cream"

by Jane Bash

STANDOUT MARKETS: Narrative, Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Ms.

by Tiffany Luckey

CONFERENCE SCENE: utopYA Con 2014; Kentucky Writers Conference; Indiana University

by Linda Formichelli

REJECT A HIT: Goodnight Moon

spoof-rejected by Marcia Fowler