Deadline: October 31, 2014
Payment: 12.5 cents per word

Fireside is open for submissions through the end of the day Oct. 31. We have very few slots open for short stories at this time, but are looking to buy at least a dozen pieces of flash. Please read ALL of the guidelines below before submitting. They have changed slightly since our June reading period.

Lengths, payment, etc.

Fireside publishes original, previously unpublished flash fiction of up to 1,000 words and short stories of 1,500 to 4,000 words. (Firm limit.) We pay 12.5 cents per word, with payment on completion of edits. We buy first world publication rights and six-month exclusivity, as well as the right to reprint the story once, non-exclusively, in a Fireside anthology.

 

Please DO NOT resubmit stories that we have previously rejected, even if you have revised them. They will be rejected unread.

We do not accept simultaneous or multiple submissions. (We are not looking for poetry, nonfiction, reviews, or anything else but fiction.)

What we are looking for

Fireside’s goal is to publish great storytelling, regardless of genre. What do we mean by great storytelling? We want stories that go somewhere, with plot and a beginning, middle, and end. We’re not looking for character studies or metafiction or hallucinatory visions. (We LIKE those things; it’s just not what we publish in Fireside.)

 

I’ll let Neil Gaiman say it again, as I have in our Kickstarters. This is from his introduction to his “Stories” anthology, writing of his response to a question about what quote he would want inscribed on the wall of the kids’ section in a public library. He captured the reason why we love good stories in his response:

 

I’m not sure I’d put a quote up, if it was me, and I had a library wall to deface. I think I’d just remind people of the power of stories, of why they exist in the first place. I’d put up the four words that anyone telling a story wants to hear. The ones that show it’s working, and that pages will be turned: “and then what happened?”

 

And yes, we seriously mean any genre. We have published sci-fi, horror, romance, crime, fantasy, Westerns, near-future, and modern non-speculative fiction. The stories were all terrific, and we are looking for more of those and from all the many genres we haven’t explored. Just tell us a good story.

 

Vague? A little. But we think it’s exciting, too. No two issues of Fireside have the same feel, and we hope that makes every issue a little more surprising.

 

If you’re not quite sure if your story fits, please send it and our editors can decide. If you want to get an idea of what we’re looking for, all of our issues are free to read online (there’s links at the bottom of this page). Issue 4 was the first to follow our current usual format of two flash stories and one short story.

Diversity

Fireside wants to reflect the endless array of diversity in the world. We welcome stories from all writers, and we are especially interested in stories including (but not limited to) the lives, experiences, and viewpoints of women, people of color, QUILTBAG people, people with disablities, members of religious minorities, and people outside the United States. We strongly encourage submissions from people of those backgrounds, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded.

Here’s what you should not send

There are some things we absolutely do not want. If you send us stories with these, the story will be rejected and you will be blacklisted:

*Depictions of rape or sexual assault
*Depictions of child molestation or brutalization of children
*Depictions of brutalization of women
*Depictions of brutalization of people with disabilities
*Depictions of graphic torture
*Depictions of animal abuse

This is not saying stories cannot touch on, address, or talk about these issues. But we don’t want these acts illustrated in detail in Fireside.

 

This isn’t negotiable, so don’t ask. If you need to have these things in your story, find a different market.

What about sex, violence, and profanity?

Sexual content is ok, but we are not a market for erotica. We are also fine with profanity and violence. We’re not looking for gratuitous violence, though.

How to submit

Please send your stories to [email protected] as an attachment in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. We strongly prefer .doc and .docx if you have that option. No need to send a cover letter in either the body of the email or as an attachment, the files are processed automatically and these will not be seen.

 

We plan to respond to all stories by the end of November. Please do not query about your story before then.

More questions?

If there’s something we haven’t addressed here, please feel free to email editor Brian White at [email protected]. (Please do NOT send submissions here. Any stories sent to this address will be deleted unread.)

Via: Fireside Fiction.