This month a request came for African American markets. The ones I know about are:

The Illinois Primary Pal is currently in a reprint cycle. Since Counselor is also reprinting, the Colorado Primary Pal may also not be buying. Below is the other Primary Pal which doesn't pay much, but it is buying.

Primary Pal, P O Box 4060, Overland Park KS 66204: Arlene McGehee, Editor. This Church of God (holiness) magazine is for 1st-3rd grades. Wants fiction 500-1000 words. Pays .005/wd on publication for 1st rights; .0025 for reprint rights. KJV.

HarperTempest takes submissions from agented authors only.

Caldecott and Newberry Award winners: 2003 Caldecott winner is My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann. 2003 Newberry Winner is "The Cross of Lead" by Crispin.

Enlow Publishers, Box 398, 40 Industrial Road, Berkely Heights NJ 07922: Vice president, Editorial Department. This educational publisher specializes in series nonfiction for grades 1-12. They currently need writers for books at grade levels one and two, and want biographies, titles on social issues, science, self-help and high interest topics for reluctant readers. They are especially interested in special subject knowledge from the writer. They pay either by flat fee or advance and royalty.

to Cleo Pappas who has an article in the March issue of Marketing Library Services.

and to Mary Chambers who just had her first children's manuscript accepted by Discovery Trails. The article is titled, "Copycat of the Sea," which is about the newly discovered Mimic Octopus.

I also found an article by Geary Smith in Celebrate.

CHECK OUT my classes for children's short story writers:

The email address I gave earlier for The Conqueror is not working (Thanks, JH.). The same is true for America's High School Sports Magazine. Does anyone have current emails for these magazines?

Worse yet, JH said the actual url that once really did connect to America's High School Sports magazine now takes you to a porn site. If you have a market directory, cross it out!

Dale writes that the email address I had for Partners no longer is working. Does anyone have one that's worked very recently?

Randi had a submission returned as not deliverable from Wonderful Ideas. Does anyone have the current address?

Please note that we are no longer sending a "themes list" or "editorial calendar" to prospective freelancers, as we have not found that practice to be particularly useful. Please tailor your submissions to the following guidelines.

Weekly Reader Corporation

200 First Stamford Place

PO Box 120023

Stamford, CT

06912-0023

Phone: 203-705-3500

Fax: 203-705-1661

www.weeklyreader.com

Read, a Weekly Reader secondary periodical, is published 18 times during the school year, beginning in late August and ending in early May. Read goes to young people in middle schools and senior high schools throughout the United States. Our main audience is 6^th through 10^th grade readers; target age is 12 to 14. Each issue of Read contains a play, a short story or narrative, and other material thought capable of providing the basis for good classroom discussion, teaching possibilities, and enjoyable reading. The material includes stories and narratives from established young adult authors, articles written by our staff, and selections adapted from the classics. We like to use original plays and stories submitted to us by freelance authors and do so when we find good writing that fits our needs.

Read is always in the market for brief articles that deal with contemporary issues of interest to older kids and teens. Additionally, we sometimes feature articles about historical controversies, as well as profiles of or interviews with individuals of special interest to our audience. All articles must be thoroughly researched and material should be highly accessible, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

Read is in the market for high-interest plays and fiction suitable for middle school and high school students. Plays and fiction should have strong characters, conflicts, and action, should be thought-provoking, curriculum-relevant, and should promote discussion. We are always looking for stories and plays that portray current problems and issues facing young people. We also feature historically themed plays and adaptations of classics. We like plot twists and surprise endings and we like to satisfy our readers’ love of suspense, adventure, and humor. Plays should have at least eight speaking parts for classroom reading.

The key types of fiction and drama we look for are:

1. Adventure, in which excitement and natural elements play large roles.
2. Character Dramas, in which age-relevant characters meet the challenges of conflicts and complications.
3. Science Fiction/Fantasy, in which a fantastic or future world is portrayed. These stories should focus on the interactions of characters, rather than on technical gadgetry.
4. Supernatural or Horror, in which fantastic events occur that can’t be explained by scientific data. No excessive grossness or gratuitous violence!
5. Humor, real funny-bone ticklers, in which characters find themselves in absurd situations typical to teens, and/or in which language and dialogue is funny. An unexpected twist ending is always a winner.
6. Historical, in which action is set against the backdrop of a particular time period or significant historical event. Historical pieces should be action-packed and feature age-appropriate characters.

We want to see high-quality writing with a quick, engaging style for easy reading. Bear in mind that, as an educational product, we want to spark teenagers’ interest in reading and hope to provide educators with model stories for teaching literary elements and the elements of nonfiction writing.

When submitting stories and plays, avoid formula plots, trite themes, underage material, stilted or profane language, and sexual suggestion. When submitting nonfiction, avoid age-inappropriate material and material that reads like a textbook article or term paper.

MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

Nonfiction articles should generally be under 1,500 words. They usually take up four pages in Read, which is digest-sized. Fiction pieces should run from 1,000 and 3,000 words, and plays should be no longer than 4,000 words. Our short stories generally take between four and eight pages in the student issue. Plays take eight to ten pages.

Send your manuscripts to:

*Be sure to include a stamped, self-addressed envelope of appropriate size for the return of your manuscript. If you do not need your manuscript returned, indicate this in your cover letter and include a SASE or postcard for our response.

We make decisions on final manuscripts only, not on plot outlines or abstracts. We do our best to get a response to the author within a reasonable amount of time after receipt of a manuscript, but this may be longer if we are in the throes of meeting our own writing deadlines or in the midst of judging student-writing contests. Due to time constraints, we cannot critique submissions.

When we decide to use a manuscript, we contact the author and negotiate a fee. We pay reasonable fees to authors or their agents for full rights, first printing rights, or reprints. After a fee has been settled, we send the author a contract to sign. Payment is made upon publication of the material.

Sometimes we like a piece but have no immediate use for it. In such a case, we generally retain the manuscript until we can use it. We then contact the author after we’ve decided we’d like to use the material, and the contract can be negotiated at that time. In the meantime, the author is free to sell his or her manuscript elsewhere if desired. Please notify us if you sell the manuscript.

Read reserves the right to make editorial changes in any manuscript selected for publication so that the writing conforms to our style guidelines, editorial policy, and space limitations.

*******

And Mary (who's actively out there watching markets!) also sent the Muse guideline site--which unfortunately says they are not accepting unsolicited manuscripts or queries at present.

Shirley reports that she finds the zip code for Bread for God's Children as 34265-1017. I tried to check this with Writer's Digest Online, but it's not working for me today.

I have moved since they contacted me, but I sent my updated address, phone, and e-mail address in September 2002. At that time, their e-mail address was still working. I would appreciate any info that you or your readers have on them.

Thanks for your time. As always, your column is wonderful!

(Please help if you have information on this publisher. Thanks. Margaret)

Hi, Lily--I definitely would write them and ask. I do know, though, that one book I was to get for sure fell by the wayside because of budget cuts. Mine was hardly the only one at that house; they went from publishing several hundred books each year down to less than 50!

The wait was there, too, and since mine did fall through, I'd write a polite letter explaining you're having to plan your writing time for the year and would like an indication of continued interest.

Margaret

Hi, Mary.

I'm not sure if Writer's Digest still publishes one, but at one time they had a book that included nothing except this type thing. You might check www.writersdigest.com. If they don't have it, check used book listings at half.com and amazon.com.

And I'm sorry, but I don't have the title. Perhaps a column reader can come up with it.

Margaret

MARCH TIP: Spring is almost here. While you clean the debris from your own yard, patio or local park, look around and see what kids are doing to help the environment. You'll probably be surprised how many are out there doing something to make the world a better place. Magazines always welcome features about children's positive activities. And if you absolutely can't find that great group of kids to write about, put your imagination to work and write a few short stories about great kids finding great projects.