Saturday, December 20, 2008

Penguin Group Internship

If you are interested in working in the publishing industry, Penguin Group offers paid internships in several areas:

Internship Program

Penguin Group (USA) offers paid internship opportunities in various business areas such as contracts, editorial, graphic design, managing editorial, marketing, production, publicity, sales, subsidiary rights, and operations. In its January 2006 issue, Seventeen Magazine recognized Penguin as one of the 17 best internships in the country!

The internship program consists of three 10-week long sessions. During the spring and fall, interns work 14 hours per week. During the summer, interns work 28 hours per week.

A series of lunch events are planned for summer interns. Brown Bag lunches give interns the opportunity to learn about different departments, and group lunches are designed to allow interns to network with each other as well as employees across the company.

Semester Application Deadline
Spring 1/15
Summer 2/28
Fall 8/15

If you would like to apply for an internship, mail your resume and cover letter to:

Penguin Group (USA)
Human Resources Department
Attn: Internship Coordinator
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014

Please indicate the semester and business area(s) you are applying for in your cover letter.

Penguin Group (USA) values the array of talents and perspectives that a diverse workforce brings. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Writing Competition: Fiction and Poetry

BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Announces

The G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction

The John Ciardi Prize for Poetry

Next Postmark deadline: January 15, 2009

For the best book-length collections of poetry and of short fiction in English by a living author

Prize: $1,000 and publication of winning book for each prize

Submissions:

Manuscripts must be typed on standard-sized paper, in English. Poetry manuscripts should be approximately 50 pages minimum, 110 pages maximum, single spaced. Short fiction collections should be approximately 150 pages minimum, 300 pages maximum, double spaced.

Entries must include two title pages: one with author name, address and phone number; and one with no author information. Any acknowledgments should appear on a separate piece of paper.

Entries must include a table of contents.

Author's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.

Please submit your manuscript in loose pages, bound only with a clip or rubber band. We prefer that you do not staple or permanently bind your manuscript. Do not submit your manuscript by fax or e-mail.

Simultaneous and multiple submissions are acceptable. Please notify us of acceptance elsewhere.

A SASE should be included, for notification only. Note: No manuscripts will be returned.

A non-refundable reading fee of $25 in US funds (check made payable to BkMk Press) must accompany each manuscript. Entrants will receive a copy of the winning book in their genre when it is published.

Manuscripts must be postmarked no later than January 15, 2009.

Manuscripts will not be returned. No refunds will be issued.

Judging will be blind at all levels. Initial judging will be done by a network of published writers and editors. The final judging will be done by a poet and a fiction writer of national reputation. Winners will be announced in July 2009 and the winning entries will be published in 2010.

These competitions are held annually.

Your entry should be addressed to:

John Ciardi Prize for Poetry or Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction
BkMk Press
University of Missouri-Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499

(816) 235-2558*
Fax (816) 235-2611 (replace (at) with @)
bkmk@umkc.edu

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Short-short Fiction Competition: Sonora Review

The Third Annual Sonora Review Short-Short Contest is now OPEN and accepting submissions.

Judged by Aimee Bender, the contest will look for and reward the best of the brief. Remember, however, in submitting your short-shorts that brevity alone does not a short-short make. Like all short fiction, the work must be a complete entity, whole unto itself; we want a complete work in 1,000 words or fewer. Dazzle us, razzle us, make us wonder at your compression, cheer at your ability to contain the power and beauty of the longest long story in the shortest short space.

Deadline

All entries must be postmarked by January 15th, 2009. Winners will be announced in early Spring 2009, concomitant with the publication of Sonora Review No. 56. Also, the winning short-short and select runners-up will be published in Sonora Review No. 56.

Entry Fee

$15.00*
*This includes a one-year subscription. That's the chance to win the prize (see Item 4) AND two issues (starting with SR 56) at a rather nifty and thrifty discount. Payable by check or money order made out to Sonora Review. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but fees are non-refundable. Cover letter must include name, address, phone number, and title(s) of stories submitted.

Rules, Regulations, Restrictions

Entrants may submit up to 3 pieces for each entry fee. All pieces MUST be 1,000 words or fewer. Any pieces over the word limit will be immediately disqualified. No long-work-in-short-clothing will be considered for the contest. The editors of Sonora Review will read the entries and select ten finalists, which we will then give to the contest judge for her consideration. She will then choose and rank her top four stories. All ten finalists will be considered for publication in Sonora Review 56. Sonora Review reserves the right to publish any, all or none of the stories selected in the top ten.

Prize

For the winner: $1000.00 (USD) and publication in Sonora Review, including 2 (two) contributor's copies. The authors of any published stories will each receive two contributor's copies.

How to Submit

Mail your story or stories to the address below, along with a check for $15.00 made out to Sonora Review. All entries must be postmarked on or before January 15th, 2009.

Sonora Review Contest
Department of English
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

Questions?

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at:
sonora(at)email(dot)arizona(dot)edu
Replace the words in parentheses with the appropriate symbols.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Call for Submissions: Steel Toe Books

Steel Toe Books selects manuscripts through open reading periods. Our
next open reading period will be January 1-31, 2009. In an effort to
diversify our catalog, during this reading period we will only be
considering manuscripts by ethnic minorities and first-generation
immigrant, non-native speakers of English.

During our October 2008 open reading period, we received 52 manuscripts,
from which we selected one for publication (Domestic Fugues by Richard
Newman).

The complete guidelines are posted here.

Black Wednesday

If you haven't heard the news yet, you will soon. It's all over the blogosphere and on the writing forums. Yesterday, December 3, 2008, was one of the worst days in the recent history of book publishing.

Publishing houses are laying off staff, freezing acquisitions, and even closing down or consolidating their publishing lines. The market you may be planning to submit to today could be gone tomorrow.

The best advice I would give anyone who is writing a book? Sit tight. If you haven't queried agents yet, don't. Now is the time to work on your craft or to start a new project.

If you have an agent who hasn't subbed to publishers yet, talk to her/him about waiting until the dust settles. The industry is in a huge state of flux. The last thing you want to happen is to have your book lost in the confusion.

By this time next year, we may be seeing an entirely new model of book publishing. There could be new submission standards, new kinds of contracts, new publishing houses, and new means of distribution.

So...wait.

You can read more about Black Wednesday and what is happening in the publishing industry, here and here.