Submission Guidelines
| What we look for |
| We like hard genre fiction. That means crime, detective, fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction. Some people call "Literary" a separate kind of short story, but it's not. Genre fiction today can be just as literary as any fiction in the way it develops characters, spotlights the human condition and is told with elegant style. On the other hand, the story comes first. We like good, old-fashioned pot-boilers. Some publishers decry a twist ending as a gimmick. We disagree. There is nothing as fun as a surprise at the end of a story, as long as it fits logically into the narrative and is neither forced nor telegraphed. We don't publish romance, cozies, children's, poetry, erotica, polemics or non-fiction. |
| Length |
| We prefer 200 words to 5000 words (use your Word program word count). We also publish Super Shorts. These are stories that are from Twitter-length (140 characters) up to 200 words. We don't pay for these, but they are fun for Readers and give Writers publishing credits and a biography listing. Any submission should be in the same genres as we publish for longer fiction. |
| Format |
| We accept only email submissions. We don't accept simultaneous submission, but our response time is currently less than one week, so try us first. EMAIL SUBMISSIONS -Send to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -Include in Subject line: Submission, your last name, number of words (example: Sub, Jones, 1867 words) -Include in body of email:
-Attached to your Email, in Word or Word-compatible .doc or .docx format (that's regular Word) -Completely ready to print (that means no typos, grammar mistakes or other issues, and formatted) -Single spaced with no space between paragraphs, but indented first words of each paragraph (as you would expect to read it in a book) -Times New Roman 12 pt font -A header that includes the title, genre, your last name, word count and any other information you wish to include -Strong Hint: Come up with an attention-grabbing title. In today's world, a reader may linger to read your story or skim on by based solely on those few first words |
| Payment |
| We're starting out with lower than professional payment rates, but hope to increase these as our Readers increase. We pay Semi-pro rates of 1¢ per word, up to a maximum of $10 US. We pay only by PayPal. You can sign up for a free PayPal account here. |
| Rights |
| We are purchasing publishing rights for electronic media and methods for an exclusive period of three months and exclusive print rights for one year. Thereafter we retain non-exclusive rights for both electronic and print media and methods. Unlike other publishers, we have an exception to these rights, in that you are able to publish, during our rights periods, your own stories on your own site. We expect stories to be "Publish Ready," but we reserve the right to make edits if we deem them to be needed. Further details are in our Author Contract. Please DO NOT send us an executed copy of the contract until we notify you that your story has been accepted for publication. Signed contracts can be emailed to read(at)Short-Story(dot)Me or mailed to Short-Story.Me!, 471 Country Hill Circle NE, Suite 4, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 |
| Other Requests |
| --Writers cannot be successful without Readers. We ask that story submitters subscribe to our story distribution service in the left hand column. If you unsubscribe later, that's fine, but please give yourself and other writers help in building distribution. Besides, you might enjoy reading our stories. --Since we, unlike most publishers, allow you to post your stories on your own site even during our exclusive publishing period, we ask that if you do post it, you include a notation that says something similar to: ″First published by Short-Story.me!″ or use one of our Featured Author badges, and a link back to our site. --Please consider reporting to duotrope's digest at http://www.duotrope.com/market_4065.aspx your experience with us. They are a wonderful way for Authors to keep informed about the experiences other Authors have had with different publishers. |
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