THE PRO FILES
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Callout deadline extended
I opened one eye at some point during the night and saw an email from the Chicken Soup for the Soul Editors. That’s what happens once you’ve been published by CS4TS. They email you with pitches. It took me a long time to get used to that as it’s the complete opposite of what writers usually experience.
A little over two years ago Tree Langdon wrote a piece about CS4TS having a callout. I checked out their website and responded to every call they had open at the time. I ended up sending them 18 stories. After that, I forgot about it. Finally last year I got an email. After two years ONE story got curated by them. My story along with 100+ others was published at the end of January. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Lessons Learned from My Dog is now available everywhere. I’m on page 28 just FYI.
Getting into CS4TS is not for the faint of heart. It’s time-consuming, to say the least, and you have to have more patience than the pope while you wait.
So what is it that they’re looking for right now?
Here’s the bullet list from the email I received.
• Angel visitations — just in time!
• Angel sightings
• Mysterious happenings
• Divine protection and intervention
• Guardian angel interaction over the years
• Magical miracles
• Messages from an angel
• Receiving support from angels or spirits
• Angel intervention
• Receiving guidance or lessons from an angel
• Receiving news from angels
• Unexplained healing and miraculous recovery
• Money appearing just when it’s needed
• Rescue from accidents or disasters
• Being saved from death
• Voices that spoke to you and helped you
• Divine appointment
• Love that doesn’t die
• Answered prayers
• Dreams and premonitions that involved angels
• Mysterious visitors
• Restoring faith because of an angel
Now the parameters — or in writer speak, guidelines.
- All stories must be true.
- First-hand knowledge. No “as told to me by…”
- No longer than 1 200 words
- NO ghostwriting and this would (I believe) include no AI-generated caca.
There are some others listed but these are the main ones. For a full list click here.
The EXTENDED DEADLINE for all submissions is MARCH 30, 2023.
This is a rare opportunity. The fact that they have had to extend the deadline but have such a tight deadline indicates to me that they have a book they’re trying to get out on a timetable without enough submissions or enough quality submissions.
CS4TS is not playing around. They have a book coming out on March 14, and then another one on April 18, and yet another one coming out on May 30! The list is here and their FAQs are here.
They pay $250 per accepted story and you receive 10 free author copies to sign and give away.
I’ll see you in the winner’s circle!
