Bylines Cymru: Rachel Morris
Bylines Cymru is a platform for powerful citizen journalism for and by people in, of, or connected to Wales. We’re one of ten platforms in the UK’s Bylines Network, all non-profit and volunteer-run. Believing that no concern or good idea should remain homeless, my inbox is always open to you or anyone you know – friends, family, colleagues, organisations – for non-fiction or creative non-fiction articles of 600-1200 words on things you feel should be more widely heard.
What, you may ask, has all that got to do with Crime Cymru?
Well, we can also republish older work that’s ‘evergreen’, and turn press releases into articles, all under authorial bylines. We publish in whatever language we receive – that is, we mainly publish in English as that’s what lands in our inbox, but also sometimes bilingually. Articles we receive in Welsh will be published in Welsh, but also translated into English to reach a wider audience.
This means we can give the work of Crime Cymru and its writers a boost to our growing global audience. We’ve already published about the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival – two years running – and a piece by Leslie Scase on National Crime Reading month. Indeed, this very morning, I’m editing a press release from Leslie about his latest book into an article.
And of course, there may be non-fiction things you write about too. Memoirs, history, issues in your community or the wider world that concern you, and campaigns close to your heart. All are welcome. You can pitch, but mostly completed drafts arrive, and that’s just fine.
As a crime writer and Crime Cymru member myself, and editor-in-chief of Bylines Cymru, I’m in a unique and privileged position to be able to use this platform to raise our voices. But while I naturally favour Crime Cymru on a personal level, my editorial stance is to welcome all voices within the bounds of civil discourse. So do spread the word among your publishers, societies, communities, and organisations.
My goal is that, someday, everyone in or of Wales will have been published by us. This is an absurdly unrealistic goal, of course, but nonetheless one worth aiming for. One of the biggest barriers in citizen journalism, though, is that those who most need to be heard are the least likely to be, for economic, isolationary, literacy, exclusionary, or other reasons. We’re working on this, having obtained seed funding from Media Cymru for a research project we just started and which runs to November – Redefining citizen journalism: in search of true inclusion.
You can sign up for our monthly newsletter if you’re interested in keeping up with what we’re up to. And just get in touch with me anytime via editor@bylines.cymru. The first time we publish something by you, I’ll also need a short bio, photo, and any social media and sales links to create an author profile for you on our site. We can republish these Crime Cymru and other blog posts if you wish.
And I’ve decided that Bylines Cymru should start publishing short fiction on Sundays – maximum 2000 words – whether short stories or novel extracts. Could you be the first?
You can discover more about Rachel Morris here.
Crime Cymru 