Closed: Capricious

Submissions

All submissions are OPEN. Please read these guidelines carefully before submitting – they have recently changed

Capricious publishes short speculative fiction and essays about speculative fiction and related topics. Read on for more details about what we’re looking for and how to submit.

Fiction

We err towards the literary/experimental/slipstream side of speculative fiction, but appreciate a strong plot as much as anyone. We welcome stories told in second person, with unusual tenses, or other less common language choices

We publish both themed and unthemed issues. We are always open to stories that do not fit into our current themes, but are currently particularly looking for stories that include or are centered around the following:

• Dinosaurs
• Strange plants
• Senses – especially those not currently posessed by humans. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense#Non-human_senses for inspiration.

We do not have deadlines for these themes – they will be removed from these guidelines once the issue has been filled – but we will always welcome stories on these topics for our unthemed issues.

We actively welcome stories written by people from marginalised groups, and representations of characters from such groups.  We are very happy to publish stories using gender neutral pronouns.

Stories should be around 3000-5000 words (we’re flexible with works close to this range, but don’t send us flash or your latest novel).

Payment is a flat US$50 made by Paypal.

How to submit

No reprints or simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are welcome but please submit each work separately.

Please present your work in a clear, easy to read format and submit in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Calibri or Times New Roman are preferable to Courier, but we won’t be basing any decisions on font unless you choose something truly ridiculous.

A cover letter isn’t required, but some basic autobiographical information or a link to your website would be appreciated. If you do write a cover letter you can address it to “Hi Andi”, “Dear Editor”, “Hey there”, “Dear Mx Buchanan” or some variant of the above.

Our response times are currently between one day and four weeks – please don’t read anything into how long it takes us to respond, it’s mostly just chance. In some cases we may hold your submission for further consideration; we will let you know if this is the case. If you haven’t heard from us after four weeks, feel free to query [email protected], but please do not submit to this address.

Please use our Submissions Form to submit your work. We appreciate it if you log your submission at Duotrope or The Grinder, and we’ll occasionally tweet submissions stats as well.

Non-fiction

We’re looking for essays and articles of around 3-5000 words relating to aspects of speculative fiction. We’re especially interested in in-depth discussions of a theme across a number of works of fiction, explorations of the work of under-recognised marginalised authors and well crafted personal essays on the relationship between the essay author’s experiences and a work or works of speculative fiction. Discussions of disability and non-normative bodies in speculative fiction are particularly welcome. We want to see personal and/or critical enagagement with the topic rather than simple biographical or other descriptive articles.

We’re unlikely to be interested in stories of your own writing journey or articles detailing recent controversies in fandom. These have their place, and can be very valuable, but as a general rule they’re not for us. We’re not interested in reviews or “how to write” articles.

If you have an idea you’d like to pitch, or a blog post or similar you’d like to rework into an essay, please feel free to email us at [email protected]. While we’re unlikely to commit to works on this basis, we will be able to give you an indication of if it’s a good fit for us. (Please note this applies to non-fiction only – please submit fiction as above.)

How to submit

No reprints or simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions are welcome but please submit each work separately.

Please present your work in a clear, easy to read format and submit in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Calibri or Times New Roman are preferable to Courier, but we won’t be basing any decisions on font unless you choose something truly ridiculous.

A cover letter isn’t required, but some basic autobiographical information or a link to your website would be appreciated. If you do write a cover letter you can address it to “Hi Andi”, “Dear Editor”, “Hey there”, “Dear Mx Buchanan” or some variant of the above.

Our response times are currently between one day and four weeks – please don’t read anything into how long it takes us to respond, it’s mostly just chance. In some cases we may hold your submission for further consideration; we will let you know if this is the case. If you haven’t heard from us after four weeks, feel free to query [email protected], but please do not submit to this address.

Please use our Submissions Form to submit your work. We appreciate it if you log your submission at Duotrope or The Grinder, and we’ll occasionally tweet submissions stats as well.

Via: Capricious.