by Stuart Conover | Dec 10, 2018 | Events, Flash, Flat Amount, Online
Deadline: December 24th, 2018
Payment: Short Fiction (<150CH) $3AUD per story, Long Fiction (>150CH/<200CH) $2AUD per story
What is the Story Seed Vault?
The Vault is an online periodical that adheres to the limitation of Twitter publishing. We consider all types of fiction with one condition – your story must be based on science.
We’re looking for stories that act as story seeds – prompts for spin off plots and weird tangents. We want to think in new ways about how our world works and the possibilities for future worlds, expanding tangentially from what we know now.
Who can submit to the Vault?
The Vault will takes submissions from all sorts of writers, from established writers to new, science communicator, or people who have a personal passion for science. As long as you adhere to our guidelines, we will publish your work!
In accordance with the ethics and values of our editorial team, the Vault is also a diversity-oriented publication. As such, we welcome and encourage submissions from a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, particularly those from marginalized and under-represented groups. Science communication is done by all sorts of people – and we want writers who reflect that diversity.
Where can I find science to be inspired by?
We suggest taking a look at science news websites and science magazines, such as the below:
Ars Technica Technology news, provides breakdowns on the latest scientific advancements. Main focus is IT and ‘gadgets’.
Science Daily Scientific research news. Does not report on general science news.
Science Mag Reports on research and general science news. Almost always evidence-based reporting.
Science Alert and Live Science Pop science news. An easily accessible form of science news that doesn’t use academic language. Prone to clickbait titles.
If you’re still stuck on what to write, take a look at our submission archives for inspiration and an indication of what we’ve accepted in the past.
Disclaimer: Story Seed Vault is not partnered with nor sponsored by any of the sites listed above and our authors should research as widely as they can. Have a favourite news site? Let us know! Shoot us an email or @ us on Twitter.
When does the Vault open for submissions?
Submissions are open from the 10th to the 24th of every month. We recommend submitting your story the month it is written, in order to publish it as close as possible to the release of the inspiration of your work.
Thinking of writing a story based on a specific event? Email us and let us know – we can work together to schedule it as close to the event as possible!
Submission Requirements
A number of writers have been asking how we would handle the new 280 character limit on Twitter. When we asked what people loved about the Vault, the most valuable components were: 1) the conciseness of our stories and 2) the science editorial.
Writers enjoyed the challenge of the shorter format. So, we have decided to provide you with more room to write but give a higher fee to writers who write shorter stories. See our payment terms below.
Length of Submission
The Vault now accepts two types of submissions – short and long fiction.
Short Fiction – Up to 150 characters.
Long Fiction – Between 150 characters and 200 characters.
Number of Submissions
Each writer can submit up to three stories per submissions period.
Payment
Despite limited resources, we strongly believe in paying our writers! We pay the following rates for fiction:
Short Fiction (<150CH) $3AUD per story
Long Fiction (>150CH/<200CH) $2AUD per story
Once we’ve accepted your story, we’ll get in touch about the best payment method for you. If you plan to submit more stories in the future, we can hold payments until the amount is larger.
You can also donate your commission to Story Seed Vault (we appreciate it!) to help us pay for future stories. If so, we’ll be sure to send you a complimentary copy of any e-book or zine if it spontaneously creates itself.
How do I submit?
Email your story to us at [email protected]. The following must be in your submission:
- Add ‘Story Seed Vault Submission’ in the subject line of your email
- Your story, with a link to the science you were inspired by.*
A brief explanation of your inspiration is optional but strongly suggested. - Include a short bio, up to 140 characters. Link to any portfolios or social media accounts you would like to promote.
*We might require additional evidence of a claim to publish.
How long do I need to wait for your response?
We do our very best to respond within 14-21 days. If you don’t hear back, shoot us an email at [email protected].
You’re paying me – so what rights do I have?
You own your story and can do with it whatever you wish after publication. We retain the right to keep the story in our archive and to include it in future electronic or print anthologies. By submitting, you agree to give Story Seed Vault these rights if published. Story Seed Vault takes no responsibility for other parties taking inspiration from these concepts or ideas.
When will my story go up?
We publish a new story approximately ever three days, around 1PM AEST. Currently, the Vault gets approximately 10 submissions a month, which we then schedule up to a month in advance. Your story will go up between 2-4 weeks after it is accepted.
Via: Story Seed Vault.
by Stuart Conover | Dec 7, 2018 | Events, Flash, Flat Amount, Poetry
Deadline: December 23rd, 2018
Payment: $3
Please make sure to read ALL the instructions on this page (especially the sections on ‘Copyright’ and ‘Compensation’ before submitting a piece of writing or artwork.
We take a submission to With Painted Words as your permission for us to publish your work and do not send out other formal contracts.
Thank you.
Piece of Writing
We accept works of fiction – and poetry – of up to one thousand (1000) words, at most, in length. This is the maximum amount – if you can tell a compelling story in as little as fifty words, for example, then you are more than welcome to do so.
All submissions must be inspired by the current section (Topic: The Beacon.)
Key to fiction types:
Flash Fiction 501-1000 words
Micro Fiction up to 501 words
Poetry
Please make sure to include your full name/s, e-mail address, and bio (including a link to your personal site/blog) with your submission and, if you so choose, the thought process behind your story.
Please send your submissions by the deadline stated in the current section . Pieces received after the deadline cannot be considered for publication.
‘With Painted Words’ reserve the right to reject any submission without explanation.
Deadline:- This will usually be the 25th of the month, each and every month – any exceptions will be clearly notified.
Piece of Artwork
‘With Painted Words’ is always open to artwork submissions – they are the heart and soul of the site and inspire the stories! We prefer .jpeg files for artwork submissions. Please don’t upload files larger than 1mb – if your image is larger than this then use the email submission method instead.
Please make sure to include your full name/s, e-mail address, and bio (including a link to your personal site/blog) with your submission and, if you so choose, the thought process behind your artwork.
There is no deadline for artwork but if submitting a seasonal/themed piece of art please allow up to 60 days advance notice.
‘With Painted Words’ reserve the right to reject any submission without explanation.
Copyright
The author maintains complete rights to their work.
‘With Painted Words’ requests Exclusive World Electronic rights for 90 days and non-exclusive anthology and archival rights. At this time we do not require any rights to your immortal soul but that is always subject to change.
All stories and artwork ‘With Painted Words’ publish will be archived on the site – authors/artists may, of course, link to their stories/artwork.
Compensation
We believe in the importance of being compensated for your work, even if it’s only a token amount. At this time, we are able to offer three dollars ($3) for each published story/artwork, to be paid via PayPal. This will take place one calendar month afterpublication.
However if you are so inclined you can waive/donate this compensation back to ‘With Painted Words’ to help us pay for the running costs – ‘With Painted Words’ is a labor of love and all resources are ‘home grown’ so your donation would be truly appreciated.
If you are donating your compensation back to With Painted Words please choose the ‘no’ option for User Compensation when submitting (and thank you!!!)
Occasionally compensation may also take the form of a special, limited edition (there will be only 2, at most!) print of the artwork that inspired the story – this will be notified in advance (the artist also gets a copy).
Queries & Email submissions
For any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at: [email protected]
If querying a submitted piece of writing please allow up to 30 days from the date that you submitted the piece
If you are unable to use the online submission section please feel free to email your artwork/writing to the following address: [email protected]
Please make sure to include your full name and e-mail address at the top of the email.
In the subject area please use the following format:
Submission – Title – Full Name
Paste your work into the body of an e-mail (emails with attachments will not be accepted at this time). Do not worry about prescribed formatting as all pieces will be reformatted prior to publication.
Ready to submit
Please use the following links to submit either a piece of writing or a piece of artwork – the relevant pages may take a few seconds to load so please be patient.
Submit a piece of writing Submit a piece of art
Via: With Painted Words.
by Stuart Conover | Dec 5, 2018 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine, Poetry, Token Payment
Deadline: December 31st, 2018
Payment: Short stories: 1 cent a word, to a maximum of $20. Poetry: $5 per piece.
Note: NZ and Australian authors only
Guidelines
We publish SF, horror and dark fantasy short fiction from NZ and Australian authors.
We publish bimonthly and open for submissions for the month prior to release. Our submission periods for 2018 are as follows:
Issue #08: August (to publish in September)
Issue #09: October (to publish in November)
Issue #10: December (to publish in January 2019)
In the Zine
All work must be original and previously unpublished. We pay for first worldwide publication rights for six months and nonexclusive reprint rights. Copyright belongs to the author or artist. We simply ask for you to credit Breach as the site of first publication if your work is then subsequently reprinted elsewhere (after the six month exclusive period).
Stories between 500 and 2000 words, in doc format.
Poetry of a page length, doc format.
Cover art in A4, 600dpi, RGB.
Payment
Short stories: 1 cent a word, to a maximum of $20.
Poetry: $5 per piece.
Cover art: $20 per piece.
From August, 2018 we’ll also accept submissions of longer works of novella (17,000 to 40,000 words) and novelette (7,500 to 17,000 words) length. Our short stories lean toward horror and the darker side of science fiction and we’d like to carry that over to longer works. If you’re interested in publishing with us, please send the first chapter and a single-page synopsis as a Word doc using the form below. All work must be original and previously unpublished.
Breach pays 50% of royalties from all print and ebook sales – we don’t offer advances. We pay for exclusive worldwide publication rights for one year and non-exclusive reprint rights. Copyright belongs to the author.
Via: Breach.
by Stuart Conover | Dec 4, 2018 | Contributor's Copy, Events, Flat Amount, Magazine, Poetry
Deadline: February 1st, 2019
Payment: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 – $10.00 for poetry and a Contributor’s Copy
To celebrate twenty years of publication, we’re going to revisit the past. There are no new first lines for 2019. Each issue will be comprised of original works based on past first lines.
Were you inspired by the fall 2008 first line (Roy owned the only drive-thru funeral business in Maine.) but didn’t see the sentence until 2015? Or maybe you started writing a story for the spring 2005 issue (Life would be so much easier if I were a cartoon character.) but you never got around to submitting it. Or maybe you sent us a story that just missed the cut and you reworked it and want to try us again. Well, now is your chance to make up for missed opportunities.
The following is the schedule/list of first lines for the 2019 issues (click the season to see the entire list of first lines for each issue):
Spring 2019
All submissions must begin with one first line from Volume 1, Issue 1 to Volume 5, Issue 4.
Due date: February 1, 2019
All submissions must begin with one first line from
Volume 1, Issue 1 to Volume 5, Issue 4:
Vol. 1, Iss. 1: Just like his fifth grade teacher, Mr. Young, had always told him, Brian put on his thinking cap.
Vol. 1, Iss. 2: The rules are clearly spelled out in the brochure.
Vol. 1, Iss. 3: “Well, there’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back.”
Vol. 1, Iss. 4: As the curtain rose, the scenario began to play itself out.
Vol. 2, Iss. 1: The picture told the entire story.
Vol. 2, Iss. 2: The person on the train kept saying, “I believe,” over and over and over.
Vol. 2, Iss. 3: My father and I left on a Thursday.
Vol. 2, Iss. 4: I remember the radio was playing the best song.
Vol. 2, Iss. 5: Whitney Heather Yates knew she was in trouble from the moment she learned how to spell her name.
Vol. 2, Iss. 6: It sounded like she said, “Every day when I get home, I find a naked body in the bed.”
Vol. 3, Iss. 1: “It was the only thing he couldn’t do for her.”
Vol. 3, Iss. 2: The party was only the beginning of what would happen tonight.
Vol. 3, Iss. 3: Hal couldn’t sleep.
Vol. 3, Iss. 4: “Step this way as our tour of Earth continues.”
Vol. 3, Iss. 5: “Please state your name for the court.”
Vol. 3, Iss. 6: “How did you end up with a nickname like that?”
Vol. 4, Iss. 1: The first thing I saw when I woke was Chris’ face.
Vol. 4, Iss. 2: “The incident on the island is the stuff of legend, but let me tell you the real story.”
Vol. 4, Iss. 3: Jimmy Hanson was a sallow man who enjoyed little in life save for his _________. [Fill in the blank.]
Vol. 4, Iss. 4: I can’t believe I just heard that.
Vol. 5, Iss. 1: Paul Fischer was a graduate student studying biochemistry at Emory when he met my mother.
Vol. 5, Iss. 2: The view from up here is incredible and makes me feel _________. [Fill in the blank]
Vol. 5, Iss. 3: “So, all of it was just a lie?”
Vol. 5, Iss. 4: I opened my e-mail with a mix of apprehension and excitement.
Don’t just resubmit a story we’ve already rejected. We will know. We have every story submitted to us on file and why we rejected it.
Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that’s cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines.
However, if you used one of our past first lines for a story that was published in another journal or magazine, write and tell us about it.
Fiction: All stories must be written with the first line provided. The line cannot be altered in any way, unless otherwise noted by the editors. The story should be between 300 and 5,000 words (this is more like a guideline and not a hard-and-fast rule; going over or under the word count won’t get your story tossed from the slush pile).
Poetry: All poems must be written with the first line provided. The sentence can be broken across lines, but the punctuation cannot be altered or dropped. Poem length is up to the poet.
All Submissions: Writers should include a two- to three-sentence biography of themselves that will appear in the magazine should their story run.
Multiple Submissions: We don’t mind if you want to submit multiple stories or poems for the same issue.
Submissions: We prefer you send manuscripts via e-mail to submission (@) thefirstline (dot) com. We accept stories in MS Word or Word Perfect format (we prefer attachments). Please do not send pdf versions of your story or links to Google docs. Make sure you tell us what issue you are submitting to in the email Subject Line. Make sure your name and contact information, as well as your bio, are part of the attachment. Stories also can be sent to The First Line‘s post office box. No manuscripts will be returned without an accompanying SASE with sufficient return postage.
Notification: We don’t make decisions about stories until after each issue closes. We typically send notices out within two to three weeks after the issue’s deadline to everyone who submitted a story. You can also check the home page of the Web site as we will indicate each issue’s production status there.
Payment: We pay on publication: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 – $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction (all U.S. dollars). We also send you a copy of the issue in which your piece appears. You’ll receive your money and issue at the same time.
Note to our international writers: Postage cost for sending author copies overseas is becoming outrageous, so we are reducing international author payment by the amount it would cost to send one author copy overseas. However, if you would like to receive an electronic version of the issue (PDF) instead of a hard copy, author payment will not change.
Via: The First Line.
by Stuart Conover | Dec 4, 2018 | Contributor's Copy, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: March 31st, 2019
Payment: $10 and a contributor’s copy
Death’s Head Press will be accepting submissions for Breaking Bizarro, an anthology of weirdness, starting December 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019
Have you watched Eraserhead? Have you read The Breast by Philip Roth? These things are WEIRD! Bizarro is a genre that thrives on absurdity and satire and often grotesqueness. It’s surreal and imaginative. Breaking Bizarro will scream weirdness to its readers. We predict an instant cult classic here!
What we’re looking for:
- Death’s Head Press is seeking short stories between 3,000 to 8,000 words.
- The short stories MUST BE BIZARRO FICTION. If you’re unsure what that means, look it up. Or read pretty much anything by Carlton Mellick III or Danger Slater.
- We will only accept one submission per author for this anthology. So, send us your best! Simultaneous submissions are fine, but let us know if another publisher picks up your story before us.
- We are not scared away by graphic content. Although, this anthology does not necessarily require such content. Whatever it is, make it weird!
How to submit:
- Email your submission to [email protected] with the Subject line reading BREAKING BIZARRO ANTHOLOGY.
- Consider the body of your email the cover letter. Give us a brief description of your work (3-6 sentences), list any previous published works, and tell us any relevant information about yourself.
- Attach your entire manuscript to the email in .doc, .docx, or .rtf formats.
- Use 12 pt font in Times New Roman.
- Your author name, email address, book title, and word count should appear on the first page of your manuscript. All subsequent pages should have your name, title, and page number in the header.
- Get your work as clean of grammatical errors as possible. We don’t expect a perfect manuscript, but if it is riddled with one mistake after another, then we’re unlikely to accept it.
Payment for this anthology will be $10 and a contributor paperback copy.
*Due to the graphic themes of our publications, and possible legalities, we ask that potential authors be 18 years-of-age and older.
*Reprints may be accepted on a limited basis. Basically, if you’re sending us a reprint it needs to be damn good and not under contract anywhere else.
*Be respectful. We’re a new press and still ironing out the wrinkles. Sending us nasty emails instead of politely asking us questions is a good way to never find your way into our books.
Via: Death Head’s Press.
by Stuart Conover | Nov 30, 2018 | Flat Amount, Magazine, Ongoing Submissions
Payment: $60
Note: As the name suggests, this is a humor magazine so be sure to read the guidelines. Speculative fiction “can” be humrous so I felt I would throw this one out there for anyone who has a sense of humor out there. I’m not funny so can’t submit to this one.
So they tell you you’re funny, huh? Great! That’s exactly what we’re looking for!
Here are a few things you should know to submit your funny cartoons and stories to Funny Times:
Our print publication pokes fun at politics, news, relationships, food, technology, pets, work, death, environmental issues, business, religion (yes, even religion) and the human condition in general. Not much is off limits, so do your best to make us laugh. Plus we’re advertising free, so whatever we like, we use.
Cartoons should be hard-copy printouts of high-res images (please don’t send your originals … we’re awfully clumsy with our coffee). We accept both single and multi-panel formats, color and black & white, though reproduction is nearly always in black and white.
Stories — the funniest you have ever written — should be about 500-700 words. Don’t send us things that aren’t funny. We won’t publish them.
There is a lead-time of several months because of our editorial calendar, meaning, i.e., December holiday material should be mailed for consideration in September. Please include a SASE for return of your material and/or our response. We do not accept electronic submissions of any type, nor can we reply to you in any way other than your SASE. We’re old school and unapologetic about it. We buy one-time reproduction rights and do not require exclusives; your work is ultimately yours to keep. We pay upon publication, not acceptance, and the rates are $25-$40 per cartoon based on reproduction size and $60 each for story. You’ll even get a complimentary subscription to Funny Times and some serious bragging rights.
Submissions should be mailed to:
The Funny Times
C/O The Editors
P.O. BOX 18530
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
Our website is not a complete reflection of the type of material included in our magazine. Might we suggest you send an 8.5″x11″ SASE with proper return postage (about $1.61 these days) for a sample copy?
Bonus Hints: Don’t overwhelm the editors. Send your top 5-10 cartoons or 3-5 stories. Tell us where you’ve been published before and let us know who else thinks you’re funny (this will not necessarily be held against you). Don’t take rejection too hard; it could be that the third time is the charm and we just didn’t “get” you before then.
Via: Funny Times.
