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            Silverlight Cafe Magazine: The New Author Submission Guidelines & Calendar

 Silverlight Cafe Magazine is a monthly publication open to author submissions in all genres  for a nominal charge of only $10. This new magazine (five editions) already has a subscription following of 1000 + and is promoted via my WordPress site to  7700+ followers, to my 5700+ folowers on my Twitter site, including 3500 authors, and to my Facebook site of about 2800 contacts - most being authors, as well as several other platforms such as Google Plus, LinkedIn, and several author groups that have as many as 13,000 members.  In addition, each magazine is promoted by hundreds of social media enthusiasts (my followers) to their contacts. 

Authors who meet our submission requirements will be published on a first-come, first- serve basis depending upon the needs of the magazine for a particular month.  As of the June 1 issue 2016, all editions for the forseeable future will focus on thematic questions (see below, July edition). Authors interested in being featured please subscribe to the site (see menu above) and email Gary Dorion at dorion9@gmail.com indicating that you want to be featured. Please send links to your books and to your Amazon author page. Write "interested author" in subject line.  When you get the 'green light' from me (same day usually) you can then go to the main menu, click on "Shop" and click the first image on the page that will pop up - the image I took in Mumbai, India, and it says, "Author Features." Pay the $10 with a credit card on that secure page and you're off and running. Return to this page and follow the remaining instructions. Please file your copy by the 15th of any month.

Please submit your full package by the 15th of any given month for publication on the 20th. Late submissions may be accepted with advance notice to me provided that you make a partial submission. Cancellations will be accepted up to one week before the publication date. No shows who fail to give a proper notice will not be considered for future publication and will not be refunded.

All issues will focus on a set of thematic questions (see below). New discussion questions for a subsequent month generally will be posted on this page by the 20th of any given month. Check back please. New editions - because all will have different thematic questions - are open to both new authors and those who have been published at Silverlight Cafe previously although not more than three times annually.  See thematic discussion questions at the end of this page, below the promo author book thumbnails.

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Basic Procedure & Format:

All submissions should have the following elements:

1) The text submission with discussion of the thread questions (see below).

2) A brief biography (200 words maximum) to let readers know something more about you.

3) A high resolution photograph (email JPEG attachment) preferred) of you.

4) Hi resolution photos of your book(s) in attachments only.

5) Unformatted, single-line-spaced links to your books. No long links please. Use Google Url Shortener.

6) Send entire package in one email - (everything in attachments) to dorion9@gmail.com. (you can send revisions if necessary. Write "REVISION" in subject line - I advise that you send revisions as part of another complete package so that I do not have to hunt for other elements in your attachment. Often I am putting everything together in the two days prior to publication and it's easy for something to go missing with no time for searching missing elements. 

7) Please include your country, city, town, or village in your brief bios (I know I shoudn't have to say this - it's a biography right? - but you'd be surprised at how many missing cities/towns/countries I get in author bios. On deadline after working 12 hours straight on the magazine, I then have to go hunting for the info on their web sites hoping I can locate what I need.

 

More Procedural Information

1) Use Microsoft Word or similar.

2) Times New Roman 12 point for everything. (recent change)

3) Please do not place your photos or links within the body of your text submission although you should place the links (single-spaced) at the very bottom of your discussion. The photos need to be sent via individual attachments: one email, several attachments including: the discussion, brief bio, book blurb, photos. The main text (discussion) needs to be in its own email attachment with no headline, no sub-headlines, with the only formatting being 12-point font in Times New Roman. You can italicize and bold your book titles within the discussion, however. Any other formatting is not recommended as often I just have to undo it. I had submissions from 13 authors for the May issue. Three did not follow basic guidelines and their submissions had to be declined. One author completely ignored the guidelines even on the revision after I advised re-reading them and I provided the link.

4) Also, please do not cut and paste your text in a straight email. It's often unusable in the template. The same author mentioned in #4 did exactly that - twice. 

5) Your entire submission - thematic discussion, book blurb, brief biography and links must be no more than 1000 words, approximately. Please see M.L. Spencer's fantasy genre submission in the archives (menu) at http://dorion9.wix.com/authorscafe#!magazine-archives/l09g6. It's also a good idea to check out a good selection of the other writers in the archives. Click on the fantasy issue and Spencer's article is on the second page. Others do a Q&A - simply posing the questions in the discussion and answering them. 

 

The July, 2016 Discussion Thread

Please develop your responses into a coherent, insightful discussion. 

​

Author Questions: July Edition: Inspiration. Please select any or all questions to discuss.

 

  1. Inspiration: where does it come from?

  2. Which authors inspired you the most and what was it about them and/or their works that so affected you?

  3. What inspires you besides authors and books?

  4. When did you first know you wanted to be a writer and why did you want to write?

  5. Where do you like to write the most? Why?

  6. Hemingway is attributed with sayi:ng "Write drunk. Edit sober." Do you agree with his apparent inference that using alcohol or drugs while writing can result in bursts of creativity? Please elaborate.

  7. Which authors specifically have you actually studied, say, in a college author course or even on your own? Discuss what you learned from him/her.

  8. Do your characters take on a life of their own in some spontaneous way or do you more or less exercise control over them. Or is it some combination of both?

  9. Are your characters composite characters, more or less primarily based upon real people or totally created and not based on anyone in real life?

  10. Is your ‘mission’ as a writer one who seeks to “entertain,” “make a living,” and/or “change the world?” Elaborate at some length please about your motivations.

  11. In terms of your writing, do you feel a strong connection to the past – say the ancient world up to the modern era?  Discuss that connection, or lack thereof please.

  12. Alternatively, do you consider yourself to be a ‘modernist?” Please elaborate.

  13. What genres do you write in primarily and why are you attracted to them?

  14. Do you usually have a target audience when you write and, if so, does having a target audience inspire your writing? Please elaborate.

  15. Have you ever written a passage or chapter or so and later, having stepped back, wondered in amazement how you ever wrote what you did? Can you share what that writing was about and why you were so amazed? 

 Books by the June Edition Authors at Silverlight Cafe  ( Get your title here for one year; one mnth free for contributing writers; For space inquiries, contact dorion9@gmail.com ; $20/ USD per year  after.

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