Publishing Trends/Calls for Submissions

In a blog or two each year, I focus on publishing trends. Onlinecolleges.org has compiled a list of trends that exist in “ghastly little numbers” and suggest that these trends need to go away because the trends are “poisoning beloved bookstores and libraries for far too long." Here’s the list:
1. Lackluster graphic novel/comic book adaptations
2. "Self-help" guides doing more harm than good
3. Bandwagon-jumping [writing to trends]
4. Self-indulgent celebrity memoirs
5. "Revolutionary" diet plans
6. Celebrity authors who just can't write
7. "Women's literature" with reductionist views of women
8. Remixing the classics
9. Assuming genre fiction has nothing to say
10. Dismissing all self-published literature
You can read the entire article at
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.org/blog/2011/10-literary-trends-that-need-to-go-away/
What do you think? Should any of these trends go away?

Check out more contests on my blog: http://nancykellyallen.blogspot.com/

Call for submissions for adult writers:
Milkweed Editions poetry prize: The Linquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry is an annual regional prize, presented in partnership by Milkweed Editions and the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation. Established in 2011 with the aim of supporting outstanding Midwestern poets and bringing their work to a national stage, the prize will award $10,000 as well as a contract for publication to the author of the winning manuscript. The winner will be selected from among five finalists by an independent judge.” NB: “Submissions for this regional prize will be accepted only from poets currently residing in the Upper Midwestern United States, defined as: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.”
Deadline: January 31, 2012.
Details at http://www.milkweed.org/content/view/396/72/

Call for submissions for young writers:
"Kids Count for Earthday" Earthday Haiku Contest 2012. Kids
will need to count to create their Earthday haiku and help
all of us to learn how to keep the planet clean and healthy!
The contest is open to individual students 7 -20 years old.
Deadline: March 22, 2012.
Details at http://www.planetpals.com/earthdayhaikucontest.html

Age Groups:
7-9 years old
10 -12 yrs old
13-15 yrs old
16-18 yrs old
19-20 yrs old