For those of you more serious about writing, in the guild or not, this page should have a composite of helpful websites and tips. Although we can't guarentee sucess, this should help.
General Information
The one thing that a lot of people get stuck in are stupid choices. It is important to know a few key things before you try and get published
Trade Publishing is most publishing. It means that they pay you for your rights and distribute it. Vanity Publishing is where you pay them.
You should not have to pay anyone to publish your work! Agents should not charge expenses unless they're for shipping and postage costs. If they ask you to pay any sort of money, assume it is not reputable and consult someone you know.
Also, beware of attempts to scam. Some obvious places, like poetry(dot)com are big ones, but there are lesser known traps waiting for authors.
Most places will ask for you to enclose a SASE, this is a self addressed stamped envelope that allows them to send your work back to you and/or send a rejection/acceptance letter
Rejection is something every writer goes through, don't get disheartened. Work to improve the peice first and write for yourself. Try again and again, or decide to just write as a hobby.
No place is going to want to take something un-edited, before you send it out have it edited for grammar and spelling by someone you trsut (teacher or someone from the Beta Reader Network) and then have a friend you know give good honest con crit. Honest being the key.
Besides having great grammar and spelling, it is also important to follow all the guidelines that are laid out. Most manuscripts are double spaced with a SASE, but there can be different font requirments and spacing things and cover letters. Make sure you read over the guidelines before sending anything, if in doubt, send a query e-mail asking your question. Better safe than sorry.
Now on to the resources!
Magazines
Literary Magazines are a great way to break into the industry and beef up your publishing resume. Some magazines carry more esteem than others, and always check to see what kind of work they want before you send out anything. A lot of times things will just be the wrong genre.
Glimmer Train (glimmertrain.com/test.html) A literary magazine that also runs contests, highly recomended in Writer's Digest
Guide to Literary Magazines (newpages.com/npguides/litmags.htm) Very important! A list of almost all the literary magazines in alphabetical order! Highly recomended to look at.
Prellbugel (http://www.freewebs.com/prellbugel/index.htm) This is a new venture for teens to submit writing and get it published. I highly recomend it if you want something to start off with, as it could get your writing published in an actual book and is looking for teen writers, and a great stepping stone for being published.
Black Gate (blackgate.com/bg/guide.htm) Really just for fantasy, but a good site with some tips on it as well.
Antithesis Common (geocities.com/antithesiscommon/) Much less professional but nice and gives con crit and reasoning. Good place to start out.
Cicada (cricketmag.com/pages_content.asp?page_id=22) A good professional in print magazine that takes submissions from s and teens, teens being the audience
Willow Springs (willowsprings.ewu.edu/) This is a literary journal from Eastern Washington University, but you don't have to go there to send something in.
Bird Dog (birddogmagazine.com/submissions.htm) This is a Seattle based literary magazine, I don't know right now what they really accept. Let me know if you get more info
Teen Ink (teenink.com/Submissions/) Almost no pay, and doesn't add much to your credits but a fun magazine for teens and teen writers.
New Moon (newmoon(dot)org/magazine/adult_writers_guidelines.htm) This is mainly for a younger crowd, if under 14 you have a better chance of being published here.
Bellingham Review (ac.wwu.edu/~bhreview/) Only accepts submissions at certain times, affiliated with a university
Antigosh Review (antigonishreview.com/submissions.html) Will stop taking submissions for a while because backed up, but a nice small journal
Poetry
So maybe fiction and prose isn't your thing, and though a lot of poetry is self-published you don't want to go down that route. Well, here are some places that might be able to help.
Poetry Publishers (http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/pubr/poem.html) A large list with a nice description next to each place, this has a lot of poetry publishers
Agents
Agents are a good way to get your book into the arms of that publisher. However, be wary, there are a lot of "agents" willing to take advantage of you. Make sure that they don't charge reading/editing fees. The only fees I've seen good agents use are ones for postage.
Also, most good literary agents are pushing people away, not inviting them. So if someone seeks you out when you're first starting, beware. Likely to be a scam.
It isn't just the money though, make sure that they are good as well. Some people mean no harm, but just don't have the skill to follow through. You see this with book editors sometimes as well.
Writer's Agency (writers.net/agents.html) Not a literary agency itself, but gives a good list of ones that can be trusted.
Writer Beware (sfwa.org/beware/agents.html) A good place to learn about some of the dangers when choosing a literary agency. I recomend reading it for some background knowledge.
List (writers-free-reference.com/agents/index.html) This is a long list of agents without any judgments on them.
Writer's House (http://writershouse.com/content/home.asp) This one was personally recomended to me, and seems to be open to a wide variety of work as well as being a very established place.
Rights
So you posted it in a chatroom once, does that make it invalid?
Zette (nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2622&forum=150) Zette from the National Novel Writing Month forums pretty much explains it all. This is a must read if you are interested in publishing at all. Very important
Poetry.com (eliteskills.com/writing_scams/poetry.com.scam.php) Yes, thats correct, a website that explains just why poetry.com is a scam. It also has (on the side bar) a list of some other scams that you can watch out for and some honest alternatives that you can make (although that list appears more for fun than getting published).
Also make sure that you read publishers policies and what rights they are taking away from you.
Other
A lot of the information here would welcome new additions! If you know of something to add (or take away) then please tell us!
Tev is mainly running this page, and you can neomail her as Dose_of_darwin or e-mail her at Books_are_bliss@hotmail.com
Thanks, and please share your stories with this companies with us, especially sucessful ones
Just think, if The Red Pen Guild is this helpful when it comes to getting your work out there, think of what they can do for you normally
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