From the Web Site:
How to Send Us Your Work: We accept submissions only through our electronic submission system. We do not accept submissions through postal services or email. You may send us manuscripts for the following submission categories: General Submissions, Narrative Prize, Story of the Week, Readers’ Narrative, or a specific Contest. Your manuscript must be in one of the following file forms: .doc, .rtf, .pdf, .docx, .txt, .wpd, .odf, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, and .flv.
Technical Difficulties: If you have any questions or encounter technical difficulties, please Contact Us.
Formatting Your Manuscript: All manuscripts should be in 12-point type, with at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. Fiction and nonfiction should be double-spaced. Poetry should be single-spaced. The author’s name, address, telephone number, and email address should be typed at the top of the first page. Contributors are asked to include a brief biographical note with their submissions.
Timing: Submissions may be sent to us at any time, year-round.
Response Time: Our response time varies from four to twelve weeks, with the slowest times usually being August/September and December/January.
Submission Fees: Narrative is a nonprofit organization with the ambition of encouraging good literary work. We do not charge readers for the magazine. However, for unsolicited submissions, we do charge a nominal fee, which helps cover the basic administrative costs related to receiving, reading, and responding to submissions. Also, a portion of the reading fee helps fund our annual Narrative Prize. Our desire is to connect readers and writers, and we strongly encourage anyone interested in submitting work to read the magazine before submitting. You may read the magazine for free. If you enjoy reading it and wish to submit, we hope you will feel that the reading fee, which is lower than most literary magazine subscription fees, is more than justified by the quality of the work the magazine offers. We are strongly committed to publishing debut and emerging writers. The reading fee is $20 for prose manuscripts, $15 for up to five poems, and $20 for audio or video submissions.
Payment to Authors: Narrative is strongly committed to supporting our authors’ work. Our current rates for work are as follows:
—$150 for a Story of the Week, with $500 each for the annual Top Five Stories of the Week.
—$150-350 for 500-2,000 word manuscripts.
—$350-$1,000 for 2,000-10,000 word manuscripts.
—$1,000-$5,000 minimum for book-length works, and we may offer more, depending on the length and nature of the work.
—$50 minimum for each accepted poem and audio piece
—We do not pay for Readers’ Narratives.All submissions with a reading fee, from new or emerging writers, are eligible for the $5,000 Narrative Prize, awarded annually.
From the Web Site (Fiction Guidelines):
Word Limit: 1000-8000 words (preferred length is 4000)
Pay Rate: 10¢ per word up to 4000 words, 5¢ per word after
Genres: Science fiction and fantasy
Rights: We claim first world electronic rights (text and audio), first print rights (author must be willing to sign 100+ chapbooks), and non-exclusive anthology rights for Realms, the yearly Clarkesworld anthology.Stories must be:
1. Well-written. Language is important. There is no distinction between “style” and “substance” or “story” and “writing.”
2. Convenient for on-screen reading. Very long paragraphs or typographical trickery may work against you.Science fiction need not be “hard” SF, but rigor is appreciated. Fantasy can be folkloric, medieval, contemporary, surreal, etc. Horror can be supernatural or psychological, so long as it is frightening. There are no barriers as to levels of profanity, gore, or sexuality allowed, but high amounts of profanity, gore, and sexuality are generally used poorly. Be sure to use them well if you do use them.
Though no particular setting, theme, or plot is anathema to us, the following are likely hard sells:
* stories in which a milquetoast civilian government is depicted as the sole obstacle to either catching some depraved criminal or to an uncomplicated military victory
* stories in which the words “thou” or “thine” appear
* talking cats
* talking swords
* stories where the climax is dependent on the spilling of intestines
* stories where FTL travel is as easy as is it on television shows or movies
* time travel too
* stories that depend on some vestigial belief in Judeo-Christian mythology in order to be frightening (i.e., Cain and Abel are vampires, the End Times are a’ comin’, Communion wine turns to Christ’s literal blood and it’s HIV positive, Satan’s gonna getcha, etc.)Fiction Submissions Process Guidelines
Clarkesworld uses an online submissions system that has been designed to streamline our process and improve communication with authors. We do not accept email or paper submissions. Go here to submit your stories.
Our average response time is under two days, but we have occasionally held a submission for as long as a week. We ask that you:
* Please do not send queries until after a two-week period has passed. Please check our Neil’s blog or our forum for any important announcements first. Use your tracking number to check on the status prior to that.
* Do not send revisions to a submission unless specifically requested.
* Do not submit another story for a period of seven days after receiving a rejection.
* Please do not re-submit stories that have been rejected. Do not query for permission.
* Writers whose work is accepted may not submit again until six months after their story is published.
* Please do not argue with rejection slips.
From the Web Site:
Orange Coast publishes all kinds of non-fiction stories: narratives, profiles, investigative pieces, memoir, essays, and more. But before you submit, please make sure you’re familiar with the magazine’s format. If you can pitch an idea into one of Orange Coast’s existing front-of-the-book departments or formatted slots, your odds of success go up dramatically.
Generally, the best approach for having a feature story accepted is to write a short query letter outlining the proposed piece, or a series of thumbnail ideas for stories you think might work in the magazine. Use those queries to sketch out your ideas in broad strokes, from which we can tell if you’re proposing the type of story that might be appropriate for Orange Coast’s audience. When we find an idea that might work, we may ask for a fuller and more deeply researched pitch on that particular topic.
The quality of pitched ideas is paramount, but we also consider other factors, including the writer’s point of view on the topic, the writer’s ability to tell the story with a strong, authoritative voice, and the writer’s demonstrated success at writing similar stories in the past.
Just e-mail pitches to Orange Coast
Editor-in-Chief Martin J. Smith ([email protected]),
Senior Editor Anne Valdespino ([email protected]), or Managing Editor Jim Walters ([email protected])
If your idea involves food, fashion, or home design, e-mail it to
Senior Editor Chris Christensen ([email protected]).You also may send query letters to us at 3701 Birch Street, Suite 100, Newport Beach, 92660, though response time for mailed submissions can be slower. In all cases, we will try to get back to you as promptly as possible. Manuscripts and photographs will be handled with care, but the magazine assumes no responsibility. Unsolicited material will not be returned unless accompanied by return postage and envelope.
From the Web Site:
We publish a mix of articles and each issue will generally have three or four feature stories, plus several departments. Our feature articles are about 1200 to 2000 words. Departments are about 500-1500 words. Each issue has a theme and this influences the choice of feature articles. These themes and the corresponding issues are:
Jan/Feb: Our Wellness Issue
Mar/April: Our Green Issue
May/June: Our Style Issue
July/August: Our Music Issue
Sept/Oct: Our Food Issue
Nov/Dec: Our Celebration Issue—how we celebrate our history and culture.SkyWritings’ hallmark is upbeat editorial. We never preach, editorialize or dwell on the negative. Copy must be lively, entertaining, and stylishly written, as well as informative. We also appreciate ideas for visual material and suggestions as to where suitable photographs and illustrations may be available. Articles should be accompanied by service information to include contact numbers, internet addresses and rates.
New writers are always welcome. We recommend that you send a pitch by email to [email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The pitch should give some detail of the approach and sources for your story ideas. You should also send examples of items you have already produced and/or had published. It would be a good idea to get hold of past issues of the magazine in order to get a feel of our style of writing. We work on a minimum of a 90-day commission cycle (i.e. October 1 commissions for Jan/Feb issue).
We pay on publication and our rates vary according to the article and the skill and experience of the writer. We pay a rejection fee for work commissioned but considered unsuitable in the final analysis. Unsolicited manuscripts without stamped, self-addressed envelopes are not returned.
Leisha Chen-Young
Editor
Creative Communications Inc.
29 Munroe Road, Kingston 6
Jamaica
[email protected]
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.
876-977-5020-4