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Payment: At least $1.60 / page. You will also receive a free copy of the publication and royalties

Submission Guidelines

Please send your submissions to [email protected]. We prefer attached Word Docs or Google Docs.

General Guidelines

We seek exciting stories that our readers will speed through. Our main goal is always to entice our readers to pick up the next issue of SERIAL. We accept all genres, however we specialize in genre fiction like action-adventure, science-fiction, mystery, fantasy, horror, thriller, and romance. While “exciting”, “entertaining,” and “fun” are the main qualifications for a SERIAL story, we also appreciate stories that manage to communicate a positive message as well. We want stories that make readers feel good…even if they’re a little dramatic, crazy or suspenseful.

The reading level for your story can be whatever you see fit, however the content of your story must be suitable for young adult audiences. We will not accept submissions that have explicit sex scenes or use known racial or LGBTQIA+ slurs. If your sci-fi or fantasy story is an allegory for issues surrounding these minority groups though and you’ve made up your own unique slurs, then send it in and we’ll see if it’s a good fit!

If your submitted work has been published before, please let us know where. We accept previously published work, however we want to make sure that we’re truly helping you gain more exposure. SERIAL stories are published under a non-exclusive publishing agreement. We do not require copyright transfer, exclusivity, or first rights.

SHORT STORIES:

We accept short stories that are 500-10,000 words.

NOVELLAS, NOVELS, SERIALIZED FICTION

We publish serialized fiction. The word count for each “chunk” or chapter of fiction must be 7,500 – 10,000 words. There’s some wiggle room there, but that’s what you should be aiming towards. In order to be accepted, we require that you submit two chunks of the story and an outline of the remaining story with an estimate of how many chunks remain. We ask that serial fiction writers commit to publishing at least one chunk a month. We also ask that writers keep in mind that each chunk should end on a mild to extreme cliffhanger.

Genre Specific Guidelines

Below are a couple notes to keep in mind for specific genres.

SERIAL MYSTERY, HORROR, AND THRILLER

• For these genres in particular, please make your outline extremely thorough. Include every red herring, scare, and twist you plan. The more, the better. We want to know exactly how you’re going to keep the suspense going.

ROMANCE

• It’s said that romance can’t be romance without a Happily Ever After ending, but we’re totally okay with you blowing that idea up. We love unexpected endings, romances that dip into melodrama, or even romances that completely switch genres midway through. Romance-horror anyone? Traditional romances will be accepted too of course, but if you want to have fun with the genre, you are welcome here.

Illustrations and Comics

We also accept black and white illustrations and comics that fit within our genres. While we love the aesthetic of vintage pulp fiction magazines, we’re open to all styles.

What to Expect

After we receive your submission, a few things will happen.

1. You will receive a response within 10 days with constructive feedback.
2. If we plan to move forward with your piece, two things may happen:
   • We may make line edits to your piece and ask you to approve them.
   • We may ask you some follow up questions in order to draft a quick contract.
3. You will be sent a contract that explains your rights, our rights, and your payment.
4. Before the magazine sale date, you will receive a payment of at least $1.60 / page. You will also receive a free copy of the publication.
5. Every 20th of the month, you will receive a royalties payment if applicable. This payment is calculated by # of issues sold x net revenue per issue (typically $1.00 or more) / 2 x the percentage of pages you contributed to the issues sold. Essentially 50% of our revenue goes to our writers and 50% goes to covering business expenses. We keep our back issues (up to a certain point) in stock, so writers may continue to earn on old issues.

Via: Serial.