As a writer, I am always looking for opportunities to expand my writing, and I recently discovered that there is a new literary journal in the works, first issue to be published September 1st.  The title is “Echo Literary Journal”.  They even have a contest planned for winter already! No, they don’t pay for publication, but they allow you to submit your story or poetry other places after they publish it, if it is accepted for their publication.

They are looking for heart-warming short stories, essays, and poetry. They publish the following Fiction genres: Suspense; Crime; Detective; Thriller; Mystery; Western; Women’s Fiction; Historical Romance.

They accept submissions by email by the 28th of each month.

Now, some people have already been grumbling about the fact that they don’t pay for publication. Well, first of all, let me say there are a lot of publications, especially magazines, that don’t pay for publication, and some of them are fairly large publications. However, this publication is brand new; just starting. Sometimes writing isn’t about the money but about encouraging and supporting someone’s dream, and it’s not like you’re not getting anything out of it if you submit your writing and they publish it because you’re getting the opportunity to reach readers you may not have reached before or any other way.

As a follower of Christ, I just want to say, “It’s not all about me”. I am part of the body of Christ, as well as part of a community of writers, editors, agents and publishers, and I believe that the community will only survive and be successful if we work together and support one another, especially with the multitudes of publications out there competing for our attention.

In addition, the Chief Editor, Ellen Owens, is a single mom of two young boys who has dreamed of doing something like this for years. For ten years she worked for a small town newspaper publisher–her duties included writing, editing, selling advertising, layout and design, and distributing. In addition, she has written feature stories for several biweekly and weekly newspapers on a regular basis.

For all of the reasons above, I plan to both subscribe to and submit to this journal and I hope that at least some of you who read this will do so as well. Here is a link to their direct website, where you can read more:

https://silentecholiteraryjournalblog.wordpress.com/