CLOSED: tdotSpec Magazine

We are currently seeking exciting, entertaining, thought-provoking, and well-written speculative fiction (broadly defined), without limitation on content or theme, in the range of 100 to 10,000 words. Stories in the range of 2 to 5 thousand words are preferred. We offer a semi-professional rate of CAD 1.5c/word for original fiction (CAD $15/1000 words).

We accept reprints at a reduced rate of CAD .4c/word (CAD $4/1000 words).

We believe there are many ways to write a good story, so we won’t try to limit what we’re asking for. In general, a good story keeps you turning pages until the end, and a great story keeps you thinking about it long after that. Of course it’s subjective, and our editors represent diverse tastes, so the best thing to do is to submit and see if we like it. Aside from being a good story, with all that entails, some things that might earn you extra points include: innovative stories that grapple with important issues; diverse perspectives; complex or intellectually-stimulating ideas conveyed in a compelling way; stories that resist simple paraphrase and make the reader think; stories that have cool or exciting premises that readers want to share after reading.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are allowed for original works only, but please limit this to three submissions at any one time; do not submit multiple reprint stories for consideration. Do not resubmit stories that we have already made a decision on; you get one chance per story, so make sure it is polished before you submit.

Use standard manuscript format, or something close to it. Your document should be double-spaced in TNR or Courier font. We accept .rtf, .doc, .docx, and .odt file types. Don’t submit .pdf or .pages.

Rights purchased: for original works, we ask for worldwide first-publication rights for print and digital formats of tdotSpec Magazine and the tdotSpec website, and one-month exclusivity from the time of publication; for reprints, we ask for a non-exclusive license for print and digital format of tdotSpec Magazine and the tdotSpec website.

We accept submissions every Monday, EST, through our online submission form.

Other works:

• Poetry: Yes, we are interested in speculative poetry. We pay CAD 25c/line for original poetry, to a maximum of $10; we pay CAD 5c/line for reprint poetry, to a maximum of $5. We prefer shorter poetry and modern forms.
• Comics, panel strips, and other graphic format stories: Yes, we’re interested in black-and-white panel strips or other forms of graphic speculative fiction suitable for the interior of a magazine. Images should fit within a 6″ x 9″ page. Compensation for this medium is flexible; consider CAD $1.50/panel as an approximate starting point.
• Artwork: Yes, we’re interested in speculative artwork, provided it is a black-and-white line illustration suitable for the interior of a magazine. Images should fit within a 6″ x 9″ page.  Compensation for this medium is flexible; consider CAD $6/image as an approximate starting point.
• Reviews and non-fiction articles: Yes, we’re interested in neutral/unbiased reviews and non-fiction articles. Neutral/unbiased means we don’t want reviews written by anyone with personal or professional connections to the author whose work is being reviewed. These are non-paying.
• Novellas and Serialization: Yes, we are interested in serializing your longer works (paid at the same rate as short fiction), up to 40k words, provided (a) it is fully completed when it is submitted, (b) it is original (previously unpublished; no reprints for serialized works) and (c) you have clearly indicated breaks between serialized sections, such that each section is fewer than 10,000 words (preferably around 5k words) and breaks at a natural and effective point. This is to ensure that serializations are well structured and that stories that start strong do not go awry in future installments. For serialized works in particular, we require gripping stories with strong, memorable characters that the reader cares about, engaged in conflicts with high tension that maintain narrative momentum—enough to carry readers to the next issue.