For new writers looking to hone their craft and get paid for their fiction.
Wouldn’t it be nice if new writers could get professionally published without competing Against big name authors?
Discover a significant literary award, a professional short fiction magazine, a supportive writing community, and an education hub all rolled into one… exclusively for aspiring authors.
With roughly 8 books published per minute, this is a tough industry to break into.
It’s hyper-competitive for new writers, and seeing your name in print often feels like a pipe-dream.
Only a few magazines pay professional rates, and it’s easy to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on craft books and courses.
That’s why I’m focused on helping the next generation of authors get their first publication—and earn their first dollar from writing stories.
With over $50,000 paid out in the first year, we’re off to a good start.
Your Story Starts Here
A few years ago I realized this industry had big problems.
Professional magazines had shrinking budgets, and spent them on big name authors…
Contests and awards either had high entry fees for tiny prizes, or pit new writers against seasoned pros for the big bucks…
Blogs are full of surface level information, and MFA programs cost an arm and a leg…
And maybe worst of all: most writers work in isolation.
It’s lonely work, prone to frustration and easy to give up on.
Fortunately, I discovered all these problems could be fixed.
So I did what any sane person would…
I invested my life savings into a professional magazine that doesn’t publish professional writers!
This grew into a supportive community of new authors, sharing feedback and collaborating to improve their work.
Finally, after reading over 3000 short stories, coaching dozens of students, and publishing 17 issues of the magazine, I implemented AuthorHQ: an education hub providing practical instruction to improve your craft.
Education. Community. Publication.
A one-stop shop for authors beginning their career.
Working For Your Success
Many authors write their first story and start shopping it around, growing increasingly discouraged with each rejection.
As it turns out, publication is a poor measure of success.
The industry is a slave to its readers. Editors and agents must select work based on what they think they can sell, which changes day to day based on market trends and their own preferences.
This is not a reflection of your skill.
Instead, success should be measured based on your dedication to the craft, and your improvement over time.
There’s a progression to this:
- Learn the basics
- Join a group to receive feedback and support
- Practice your craft and learn advanced techniques
- Receive expert instruction (optional)
Focusing on consistent personal growth will make you a better author, and publication will become inevitable.
At Elegant Literature, I want to help make that inevitability happen as soon as possible.
In the past, community, education, and publication were all found separately.
Maybe you join a local writers’ group, or lurk on internet forums.
You buy books, purchase multiple pricey courses, or even spend 30k on a degree (yikes).
Then you send your manuscripts out to 50 different magazines and start stapling rejection slips to your wall.
You need a better system.
Elegant Literature brings all those activities under one roof, in a far less competitive environment, designed to help new writers succeed.
Education, Community, and Publication.
All in one place.
The answer seems obvious to me now, but it took months to figure it out and put everything together.
The solution, of course, is taking the best bits and cutting out all the rest.
It’s combining what works, and discarding what doesn’t.
Elegant Literature reworked everything good about fiction magazines, writing contests, and communities to make something new.
Something positive.
As a magazine, we are:
- Free to read
- Only publish new writers
- Pay rates that count towards a professional writing credit
As a contest, we:
- Allow unlimited submissions
- Award $3000 every month
- Only accept submissions from new writers
Our education hub, AuthorHQ, provides:
- Detailed instructions for improving your craft
- Writing courses and challenges
- Lessons by industry pros
We are a community of new writers, who read and provide feedback on each others work both before and after submitting.
We celebrate wins together.
We support and encourage when times are tough.
Most importantly, we grow and learn together, becoming better authors.
Whether you’re brand new or have been writing for years and just starting to think about publication, we want to help you succeed.
The Simple, Elegant Solution
Instead of charging readers, or charging writers per submission, we work on a membership basis.
Your membership gives you access to the community. You’ll meet dozens of authors eager to improve, and we also place you in a small writing group based on your preferences.
(This is a white glove service: we’ll find you the best fit, handle disputes, and replace rogue members. All you do is write, collaborate, and improve.)
You’ll unlock AuthorHQ, a library of articles going deep on writing, mindset, and the business of publishing. It includes hours of video courses and instruction by professional authors, editors, publishers, and more.
Your membership also includes unlimited entries to our $3000 Award for New Writers.
Each month we host a contest. One new writer wins the grand prize, and we also select the best stories, pay the authors a professional rate, and publish them in our magazine.
Elegant Literature published 122 stories in our first year, with hundreds of writers receiving honorary mentions.
That’s over $50,000 in the hands of new authors, many of whom saw their stories published for the first time.
We use the membership fees to pay the winner, buy work from authors, and produce the magazine (which is free to read, maximizing how many people see your work).
This means you’re not only investing in yourself, but supporting the writing community too.
The best part? As our membership grows we will increase both the prize amount and our budget to buy work from writers, in accordance with our goal of publishing as many new authors as possible.
That means the odds of publication will stay favorable no matter how big our community grows.
If it wasn’t obvious, we don’t accept submissions from pro authors. This makes us way less competitive than any other pro-rate publication out there.
All in the name of helping new authors succeed.
Join hundreds of new writers inside Elegant Literature
Here’s a challenge and a guarantee for you:
If you can dedicate 10 short minutes a day to interacting with the community…
And commit to writing at least 500 words each month — you will improve.
We are a positive and enthusiastic group of writers dedicated to helping each other succeed.
We are a magazine on a mission to help new writers get their work into the world — and get paid for it.
If you are ready to embark on this journey with us, fill out the form below and I’ll see you on the other side.
Magazine subscriptions$3/month
Beta-reading groups$10/month
Weekly premium content$10/month
Multiple contest submissions$20+/month
Editing Services$100+
And last but not least
A $30,000 MFA program that won’t guarantee you a career as an author even after two years of hard studying (just kidding… or am I?)
Unlimited Entries — write and submit as many stories to our monthly literary award as you want without paying anything extra.
Expert Advice — actionable techniques to improve your writing, storytelling, creativity, and motivation to get you into the mindset of a professional author.
Community — Surround yourself with supportive writers of all backgrounds. Make friends, grow together, and celebrate your writing journey.
Discounts — take advantage of special offers from editors and writing services we’ve partnered with.
Special Bonus — Author Mindset Mastery (course value: $79). The secret to starting and finishing your novel isn’t how well you write… it’s how well you think. Discover how to get started when you don’t want to, reach a pro level fast, and use the dead simple formula for success to achieve your dream job without spending thousands of dollars on education.
Get instant access to all this and more when you sign up.
Cancel anytime.
 1) Choose your membership tier.
2) Complete the form on the next page.
3) Meet the community and get writing!
Ready to invest in your writing career…
and yourself?
Here are your options:
Elegant+
Contest & Education-
Submit To The Magazine
-
Join The Community
-
Unlimited Contest Entries
-
Placement In Writing Group
-
Partner Discounts
-
Access AuthorHQ
-
Expert Trainings
-
Author Mindset Mastery Course
Elegant+ Premium
Learn from the pros-
Submit To The Magazine
-
Join The Community
-
Unlimited Contest Entries
-
Placement In Writing Group
-
Partner Discounts
-
Access AuthorHQ
-
Expert Trainings
-
Author Mindset Mastery Course
Elegant Yearly
2 months free-
Submit To The Magazine
-
Join The Community
-
Unlimited Contest Entries
-
Placement In Writing Group
-
Partner Discounts
-
Access AuthorHQ
-
Expert Trainings
-
Author Mindset Mastery Course
Elegant+
Contest & Education-
Submit To The Magazine
-
Join The Community
-
Unlimited Contest Entries
-
Placement In Writing Group
-
Partner Discounts
-
Access AuthorHQ
-
Expert Trainings
-
Author Mindset Mastery Course
Elegant+ Premium
Learn from the pros-
Submit To The Magazine
-
Join The Community
-
Unlimited Contest Entries
-
Placement In Writing Group
-
Partner Discounts
-
Access AuthorHQ
-
Expert Trainings
-
Author Mindset Mastery Course
Oh, did you think that was it?
Many contests fund their prizes through submission fees, which can be $10-$25 per story. We fund our prizes and the magazine through memberships, which allows us to provide you maximum value for the minimum price. Unlimited submissions, plus community, plus education, for the cost of one submission elsewhere. You can always switch to the free membership during months you don’t plan to submit.
Membership fees are used to pay the winners, purchase work from writers like yourself, and produce the magazine. Excess money is used to increase future prize value and buy greater quantities of work in accordance with our goal of promoting new authors.
No. You can have a free membership and submit work to the magazine. Only contest entries required a paid membership.
Anyone, worldwide (excluding Quebec), can enter the contest as long as they are an Elegant+ member and are 13 years of age or older, though we ask professional authors not to enter.
We have a supportive community who are happy to collaborate and provide feedback.
Contests close at 11:59 pm EST on the last day of each month.
We guarantee that if you participate in the community, implement the information in AuthorHQ, and write at least 500 words each month, you will improve. Since new information, challenges, courses, and expert trainings are continuously added, we cannot offer refunds, but you are always free to switch to a free plan or cancel at any time.
Part of our mission is to promote new talent, so we ask authors with certain levels of publication history not to enter.
Please do not submit work if you have:
a) traditionally published a novel of greater than 40,000 words,
b) self-published a novel of greater than 40,000 words and sold 100+ copies,
c) sold four or more works of short fiction to markets paying 8c/word or greater,
d) self-published short fiction work totalling 10,000 words or more, with profits in excess of $500.
e) won a fiction contest with a prize greater than $2,500.
Published authors can still join the community and participate in the Community Workshops.
If you have not met any of the thresholds above, you are considered a new writer in the eyes of Elegant Literature, and are eligible to enter the contest and submit to the magazine.
Hi! My name is Creag Munroe. The next section will explain who I am.
Who the heck is creag munroe?
I am a fiction contest judge and storytelling coach for new writers.
I help them develop the mindset of a professional author and write books faster without sacrificing quality.
Through Elegant Literature, I have published more than 150 new authors and paid over $50,000 to emerging talent.
“Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller, waiting to be released.”
— Robin Moore
Is there anything truer? I’ve worked with engineers, doctors, and high school students, and the one thing they have in common is a desire to tell stories.
So, here’s a bit about me:
I’m a normal person. I’m not special in any way. The only thing that sets me apart is my consistent dedication to studying fiction and creativity, and making it my mission to help new writers see their work published.
Stories were my passion growing up.
I devoured novels at an alarming rate after I received Harry Potter as a gift on my 8th birthday. It didn’t take long before writing became my hobby.
But life always got in the way.
I’d stop for years at a time. Whenever I’d pick up the (metaphorical) pen, I was frustrated with my slow pace, overwhelmed by the knowledge it would take months or years to write a book, and depressed at the poor odds for becoming a successful author.
I’d stop, and focus on more “profitable” careers.
I attended university, but dropped out
I tended bar, but was unfulfilled
I got a degree in creative advertising (a kind of storytelling), but never used it
I started a few businesses but my heart wasn’t in them
I even sold credit cards on commission (I know, I’m the devil and I regret that one most of all).
This list hurts me. Yet at the same time it taught me A LOT about what is actually necessary to succeed.
From my failures, I am now working in the industry I love, immersed in stories and the people who create them.
It’s given me the opportunity to study prolific authors and how great stories work from different perspectives.
It’s given me the understanding of what it takes to be successful, and how to accelerate the process so you don’t need to spend years writing a story that gets rejection after rejection.
It’s afforded me the chance to work with dozens of new writers.
Starting Elegant Literature was the culmination of a years long dream to run a short fiction publication, but it quickly grew into so much more. It’s become a community, a place for new writers to learn and grow together. It’s taken more work than expected, but the pride I take in having built something positive for the writing industry wildly outweighs the effort.
I’m humbled and honored at the gratitude expressed in the testimonials above, and I’m thrilled at the impact we’ve had so far. I only hope to increase how many authors we publish as time rolls on!
So, if you’ve stuck with it and read all the way down here, I do hope you’ll make the jump and join us on the other side.
To your success,
Creag Munroe