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Why write?

An important part of developing a writing career is establishing a writing resume. Just as a standard resume outlines your employment and education history, a writing resume is a profile of your writing and publication history. It includes all your published work plus any shortlistings or prizes. Books, articles, reviews, and websites are all part of your publication history. So is any substantial written work relating to your job or education, such as annual reports, promotional documents and theses, provided you were instrumental in their creation, either in a writing or editing role.

A strong writing resume is a good way to demonstrate commitment, skill and versatility to potential employers and to publishers. The ACT Writers Centre wants to give members a chance to develop their writing resumes by contributing to our monthly magazine, ACTWrite.

Every month, the newsletter is dedicated to a new theme (upcoming themes for 2010 are below). The Writers Centre encourages members to submit ideas for articles on each monthly topic. We also encourage articles about current literary issues and interviews with writers.

Keep in mind that this is a professional publication, and we will not publish work unless it has been thoroughly researched or is written by an authority on that topic. We are looking for interesting and informative writing.  Acceptance is not guaranteed, and we do not pay for general contributions (apart from our feature article), but all publication will add to your writing credits and is good practice for submitting to other paying publications.


What we want
  • Articles that look at an aspect of our monthly topic in a fresh way or from a new angle
  • Articles that provide readers with thoroughly researched information they did not know before
  • Informative articles on new trends or current affairs affecting the literary world
  • Impartial reviews of major literary events such as festivals (please contact us in advance if you are attending an event you would like to write about, as we may already be covering it)
  • Interviews with authors and other literary professionals (please contact us in advance if you are in contact with an author you would like to interview)

What we don’t want
  • Personal opinions on topics that the writer is not an expert on and have not thoroughly researched
  • Profiles – we select our own author to profile each month
  • Self promotion or advertisement of your own services (members are welcome to advertise in ACTWrite at reduced member rates)
  • Articles restating familiar ideas or re-covering old topics
  • Creative fiction or poetry
  • Book/product reviews

Upcoming themes for 2010
  • February - The art of self promotion
  • March - Short fiction
  • April – Writing history
  • May - Critiquing
  • June - Thrill me
  • July - Writing for YA and children
  • August - The science of poetry
  • September - Getting published
  • October – Speculative fiction
  • November - Romance
  • Dec/Jan - Lifestyle

How to submit

Do not submit an entire article without first having sent a query, by email, to communications(at)actwriters.org.au Your query should include:
  • Your name
  • The title and brief synopsis of your article, including word count and if images are available
  • Your qualifications for writing this article or demonstration of research done.
  • Which issue of ACTWrite you think your article would be suitable for 

If your article is accepted, we will ask you to submit it by a certain date, as well as provide a statement that the piece is your own work, not under copyright elsewhere and that you accept full responsibility for the content of the piece. If we do not accept the article, we will let you know as soon as possible.

We may ask if we can hold onto your article for a future edition. You are welcome to refuse, so long as you let us know. Editing will be at the discretion of the Writers Centre staff.

You must be a member to submit articles for inclusion in ACTWrite



And don’t forget, there are also many writing jobs listed in our weekly Jobs Bulletin, so make sure you subscribe by emailing admin@actwriters.org.au with the words ‘Jobs Subscribe’ in the subject box. This is a member-only feature.


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