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Payment: 8 cents per word

Scout delights in spreading original ideas about the social implications of technology. We accept submissions of original science and technology reporting, speculative and science fiction on a rolling basis. We also make periodic calls for content on specific topics.

In a world of rapidly evolving science and technology, imagination and moral foresight are our greatest human advantage.

Scout.ai combines science fiction and journalism to publish online dispatches on the future of technology. We’re building a platform that gives you the power to create your own model of the future and to play through possibility with a community of brilliant thinkers.

Scout.ai, an online community that combines science fiction and journalism, is seeking speculative and science fiction vignettes that illustrate the social impacts of emerging technologies.

We pay 8 cents per word for vignettes and short stories, most often between 250 and 2,000 words. We seldom buy stories longer than 3,000 words, and we don’t serialize novels. 

Story Content

We’re especially interested in character-driven vignettes that explore the near-term impacts of artificial intelligence, automation, genetic augmentation, and space travel, and the impacts of technology on governance, climate, and social structures. We also enjoy being surprised by original or unexpected topics.

Thoughtful but accessible fiction will constitute the majority of our purchases, but there’s always room for humor. Also, a note that when we say near-term, we’re looking for vignettes that portray what you think will be viable or probable in the next 1-7 years. We realize there’s plenty of variability in that range based on human optimism and pessimism and we’re OK with that.

We often pair fiction with existing Scout reporting, but we’ve also been known to build Scout’s journalistic product around particularly compelling speculative or science fiction vignettes.

Rights

We buy First English Language serial rights plus certain non-exclusive rights explained in our contract. We sometimes publish, but do not typically purchase, excerpts and reprints.

Scout will consider material submitted by any writer, previously published or not. We are especially interested in writers who bring perspectives or voices to their work that contribute to diversity in science and speculative fiction.

Reply Time

We publish online content on a regular, rolling basis. Our average response time is three weeks. If you have not heard from us in two months, you can query us about the submission at [email protected]. Thanks for your interest in Scout and good luck!

Via:Scout’s Submittable.