Submission Window: July 1st – July 15th, 2022
Payment: $50
Theme: Stories that are “scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad”

At 34 Orchard, we like dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth. We’re not genre-specific; we just like scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad. We like things we can’t put down and things that make us go “wow” when we’ve finished. But our main goal here at 34 Orchard is to publish the stuff we like to read, and you’re not in our heads. So don’t over think it. Just submit.

We are an international journal and welcome submissions from everyone, all over the world. As of our Spring 2022 issue, we have published work from Africa, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response and high demand for what few openings we have (a maximum of 24 per issue), we are cutting our submissions window in half going forward.

Our next submissions window is open from July 1 – July 15, 2022.

We look forward to reading your work!

Word Counts

Short fiction from 1000 to 5000 words

Poetry any style or length

When We Publish

We publish two issues per year, one in the spring (April) and one in the autumn (November). Issues are hosted on this site as PDFs.

Submissions Window

As of January 1, 2023, our submissions window for the Spring Issue is January 1-January 15. Please only send submissions between January 1 and January 15. Submissions received before or after these dates will be deleted unread.

Our submissions window for the Autumn Issue is July 1-July 15. Please only send submissions between July 1 and July 15. Submissions received before or after these dates will be deleted unread.

We only accept submissions, therefore, during the first fifteen days of January and July. Anything submitted to us outside that timeframe will be deleted unread, and no response will be sent.

Simultaneous Submissions

Yes, we welcome and encourage them! Just notify us at [email protected] if it’s been accepted elsewhere as soon as you know.

Multiple/Subsequent Submissions

No. We only consider one piece of fiction per writer per submissions window.

Poetry: you may send up to three at once as three separate documents attached to one email. We only consider a total of three poems per writer per submissions window.

If a rejection letter is received, please wait until the following submissions window to submit to us again. This ensures opportunity for everyone.

Reprints

No. We don’t accept anything from our open submissions call that has been previously published.

How to Submit 

Pieces which do not follow guidelines will be rejected unread. 

We prefer Shunn formatting–it’s a good idea to learn this anyway, since unless a market asks for something highly specific, you can’t go wrong. Above all, please ensure your name is on the actual document. We get many documents without names and contact information, and we can’t consider those–they could get misattributed and/or are at risk of never getting a response.

Here are links to the format guides:

Shunn formatting for fiction

Shunn formatting for poetry

Document: .doc or .docx

Cover Letter: Your name and contact info, the story/poem title, word count, if it’s a simultaneous submission, third person 100 word or fewer bio. Please paste your cover letter into the body of the email. Trigger warnings are not necessary; we publish dark stuff. We’re prepared.

Email Subject Line should read: Submission: “Story Title,” Last Name or Submission: “Poem Title,” Last Name

Send to [email protected]

Response Time

We’re writers too, so we do our best to process submissions as quickly as possible so that work is free for other opportunities if we decide to pass–however, it could take a few weeks. Writers who have met the submission guidelines will hear back from us no later than February 28 for the spring issue and August 31 for the autumn issue.

We do not provide feedback on rejected pieces.

Rights

We buy Exclusive First World Electronic and Archival Rights. That means we are buying the right to publish your piece first online, and ask that we be the only ones to publish it for a period of six months from the date of publication (we DO make exceptions for “best of” and writers publishing in their own collections automatically, and we are open to discussion if there is another reason before the time is up). After that six months is up, the rights revert to you, so you may offer reprint and other rights to other publishers, publish it yourself, or do whatever. Archival Rights means we have the right to keep it available in the issue in which it appears, so as long as we’re up and running, your piece is online. This is standard with most online publications. We will not remove a piece from an issue under any circumstances, so please make sure that you are okay with this before you submit.

If you’d like more information about these rights in depth, you can visit here: https://www.writing-world.com/rights/rights.shtml

Payment

Payment is $50 on signing of the contract. You will need to have a PayPal address to receive payment; we don’t use any other form of internet cash transfer service. If this doesn’t work for you, we’re happy to send you a paper check. If you are overseas, please ensure you have a PayPal account. We apologize for the inconvenience, but, again, we don’t work with any other cash transfer service. No exceptions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us through our Contact page, or send an email to [email protected].

Yes! We are listed on Duotrope, and you can find our listing here. We encourage everyone to check them out and sign up. Our editor, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, has been using them as a submissions tool since shortly after they started in 2005. https://duotrope.com/

We look forward to reading your work!

Want more insight? Read our interview at Six Questions For … here or by Angelique Fawns at Horror Tree, here!

Via: 34 Orchard.