Deadline: June 15th, 2023
Payment: Prose 2p per word, Poetry 20p per line, Photography £5 per image, Comics £5 per page
Theme: Childhood

Neon publishes dozens of writers and artists each year – all from unsolicited submissions. If you’ve got something which might fit the magazine, please read the guidelines below to find out how to get it published.

Before sending work for publication…

The best possible thing you can do to increase your chances of being accepted is to read the magazine! This is easy to do: the print edition costs less than a sandwich and a coffee (and ships to anywhere in the world) and you can set your own price for the instant-download digital edition.

Not only will reading the magazine give you the clearest possible idea of Neon‘s aesthetic, but by subscribing, purchasing a copy or donating you’ll be supporting one of the UK’s longest-running independent literary magazines.

On top of that, anyone who supports the magazine in any of these ways will receive expedited responses to submissions, complete with editorial feedback. If that’s something you’d value, please consider supporting the magazine before making your submission.

What we’re looking for

We prefer darker pieces, especially those with an element of the surreal or speculative, but are open to anything and like to be surprised.

Images, comics, and graphic poems are also welcome, as are self-contained extracts. If you have any doubts about whether something is suitable, go ahead and send it anyway.

Themes

Most issues of the magazine are themed. We’re currently looking for submissions on the following themes:

Machines
(Deadline: 15^th January 2023)

Childhood

(Deadline 15^th June 2023)

Please feel free to interpret these themes any way you like. Submissions with only a loose or tenuous connection to a theme are still very welcome.

Terms

We ask for non-exclusive, one-time, worldwide rights to publish your work in print and digital formats, and then to archive it indefinitely.

We pay on acceptance, via PayPal, at these rates:

Prose	2p per word
Poetry	20p per line
Photography	£5 per image
Comics	£5 per page

(Minimum payment of £10 per contributor)

How to submit

• Include a covering letter
• Include a third-person bio (up to 100 words)
• Include the word “Submission” in the subject line
• Submissions are read by Krishan Coupland and Lee Mackenzie
• Up to 6 poems, 5,000 words of prose, 10 images
• Simultaneous submissions: okay
• Reprints: welcome
• One submission at a time, please

Send work to [email protected]. Please add this email address to your whitelist or “safe sender” list. If you don’t, you may not receive a reply.

Please query if you have received no response after six months (expedited submissions can expect a response within six weeks).

If you are new to sending your work out for publication you might find this guide useful.

Feedback

If you are a subscriber to the magazine, or if you have recently made a donation or purchased a sample copy, please mention this in your covering letter.

You’ll receive an expedited response with some personalised notes from the editor.

Via: Neon Magazine.