Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression - Relief Recommends: A Web Presence

The long hard road to the cross is not something everybody wants to walk. But the authors in Issue 2.3 don't back down! With pieces by Texas Poet Laureate Larry D. Thomas, Martha Serpas, Stacy Barton, Lynn Domina, Brian Spears, Melanie Haney, and Mike Duran, you'll be plumbing the depths of death, burial, and resurrection. Click here to see everyone you'll be reading!

Coach has completed the brand new Relief Store! Click here to check it out!
Cover art for all four issues in Volume 2 provided by artist Joshua Barkey!

Relief is a print literary journal that allows a full palette of colors for authors to explore reality and God. Seeking high quality fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, we are open to works from both veteran writers and new talent alike. Generally around 150-160 pages, we have plenty of space for high quality works that aren't afraid of God or what's real.

Click here to learn more about Relief.

ccPublishing, NFP, is a 501c3 nonprofit publisher committed to advancing Christian writing. Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression is our flagship literary journal. You can help support the cause in the following ways:

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The Relief Writers Network was created to connect writers, readers, editors, and even publishers who desire to read and write with a broader palette of colors to explore reality. It’s blog-based, so you can start and join conversations about what you’re interested in. We also have folks who sponsor genre based groups for interest-specific groups and writing critique.

Click Here to sign in or join now!

Not only will you be able to connect with other authors and readers on the Relief Writers Network, you'll be able to submit your work for publication in Relief and track your work all throughout the submission process. We are actively looking for Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry.

Click here to sign in or sign up on the RWN and submit your work today!

Relief Recommends: A Web Presence

Written by Lisa Ohlen Harris

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Ally, Ally Oxen Free! or An Editor Attempts to Locate an Author

Here’s how it happens. I’m reading through one of the many print literary journals I subscribe to, and I come across wonderful work. A poem that haunts me, or a short story with characters I think of for days. Or, most often (for me), I read an essay with a voice so unique that I feel I must meet this author. I must publish this author. I will publish this author, I think, if only I can find her.

Twice in the past few months I've read outstanding essays in literary journals and have wanted to contact the authors to solicit work from them for Relief. But in both cases, no search engine on the worldwide web was able to sniff them out. I couldn’t contact them. I couldn’t publish them. This is so frustrating for an editor. Why, why aren’t you guys making yourselves easy to find out there in the writing world?

The two essays I’m thinking of were truly outstanding. Neither author had yet published a first book. What if a literary agent went through the same process I did and came up empty? Or an acquisitions editor?

It is foolish for the writer who hopes to further his career not to have a web presence. By web presence, I mean having your name and contact information up somewhere where an editor, agent, publisher, or fan can easily find contact information for you via an Internet search engine.

The most professional way to do this is to establish your own writing website by claiming (and paying for) your domain name. I grabbed up lisaohlenharris.com years ago, before I’d published much, because I read a horror story from Annie Dillard about some Internet smarty pants reserving anniedillard.com, putting up porn on the website, then bribing the author to redeem her domain name for a ridiculous sum. I doubt anyone would ever have thought to snatch up my domain name and post nasty pictures, but now I’ll never know. I pay about seven dollars a month to keep my lisaohlenharris.com G-rated, and there are cheaper deals out there. Having your own website is not the only way to be easy to find, though.

My friend and fellow writer Jill Noel Kandel opened a free blog account with Xanga.com in order to give herself a web presence with minimal expense and effort. She had a publications history and so was able to apply for Poets & Writers online directory. When she published a piece online, she included an email contact in her bio. When Jill gets discovered on the page, she will not be in hiding. Smart cookie.

If finances are too tight for you to establish your domain yet, and if you can’t stomach the thought of setting up a blog, do this: leave comments on the blogs you read. Leave comments on this blog. When you comment, include your email address as part of your signature. Do a vanity Google every few weeks to make sure that if I search for you I’ll be able to find you. It’s classier than writing your name and number on a bathroom wall, and when I read your work in a journal and want to contact you, I’ll be able to virtually find you.

Now about the public email address. Yes, I’ve heard that some writers are very private and don’t want their email address offered up to the demons of spam by publishing it on a website. That’s fine. Don’t publicize your primary email address. You can open a supplemental G-mail or Yahoo account for free, and the email software will sort your spam for you. Check the account once a week or so, and you may just be surprised. Maybe you’ll get an email from me, soliciting work for Relief. Maybe you’ll hear from an agent. Maybe you’ll make a new writing friend, one who will someday be as famous as Annie Dillard and will write a jazzy blurb for your book.

And when you do get those acceptances and have work published, use your bio to include a URL or email address, so I can find you!

Lisa Ohlen Harris serves as both Assistant Editor and Creative Nonfiction Editor for Relief. She is in the Rainier Writing Workshop’s Low-Residency MFA at Pacific Lutheran University, and her creative nonfiction has appeared in Arts & Letters, The Journal, River Teeth, and elsewhere. Visit Lisa’s website at www.lisaohlenharris.com or email her at lisa (at) reliefjournal.com

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