Deadline: February 1st, 2018
Payment: $250 with a possibility of more

We are seeking original YA short stories. Stories should be between 2,000 and 7,000 words.

We especially encourage submissions from underrepresented voices, including writers of color; Indigenous and Native writers; LGBTQIA+ writers; gender diverse writers; writers with disabilities; and religious, ethnic, and cultural minorities.

NEW VOICES:

Every issue of FORESHADOW will feature a short story from a “new voice”—a writer who is very early in their career, and this story will be selected and introduced by a beloved, established author.

New voices guidelines:

• Writers being considered as a new voice in our serial anthology cannot have a previously published:
  • A young-adult, middle-grade, or adult book-length work of fiction.
  • A full-length poetry collection.
  • More than a few short stories, whether in print or online—we will look closely at the markets where they’ve been published to decide (e.g., someone with three stories in the New Yorker would not count as a “new voice”).
• Writers also, at the time of submission, cannot have a YA, middle-grade, or adult book of fiction under contract that will be published before January 2020.
• Writers who have written picture books or poetry chapbooks can be considered a new voice for our serial anthology, so long as they have published only one of such a book by summer 2018.
• To be considered for a new voice slot, please include “NEW VOICE” next to your name in the subject line of the email and please mention it in your cover note. Directions on how to submit a story can be found below.

CHOOSE (OR FORESHADOW) YOUR CLUE:

To foreshadow in storytelling is to leave hints and drop clues, so each story in FORESHADOW will be introduced by a single-word title that offers a suggestion of what to expect. To find that title, you might ask yourself this question: If you could distill your story into one word, what would it be? This title will act as a clue to what may be discovered in your story—and the issue. Perhaps the clues in our first issue might be Magic, Invention, and Heartbreak. Or Thrillride, Starstruck, and Canary. It’s your choice—and we’re open to most anything!

When you submit your story, please include your one-word clue. Ideally this will be the title of the story, but if not please still include the clue.

MORE DETAILS:

Your story cannot be previously published. This also means we won’t consider stories published on your personal blog, website, Patreon, or elsewhere.

Excerpts from longer works are okay, so long as they can stand alone and work effectively as short stories without any context for the reader. And so long as the book the excerpt is from will not be published before your story appears on our site in 2019.

Yes, we do accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please reach out to us at [email protected] to withdraw your submission as soon as possible.

DEADLINE:

To be considered for publication in Issue Zero, which will be showcased during our fundraising campaign this summer, stories must be submitted by February 1, 2018. The deadline to be published in our first issues of 2019 will be September 1, 2018, and by that time fundraising will be complete and the amount we pay per story will be public.

PAYMENT:

It is our goal to pay all short story contributors the same amount, emerging and established alike. To do so, we will be launching a fundraising campaign in summer 2018, and will be showcasing an early debut issue, Issue Zero, to give a taste of what’s to come. Please consider supporting our fundraising effort this summer to help us pay artists for their work!

Contributors to Issue Zero will be paid $250 USD per story, and if more is raised in the fundraising campaign, they will receive the difference after fundraising has closed. Once the fundraising campaign is complete, we will clearly state how much we can pay all contributors and will notify any accepted writers of the amount before publication in Issues #1-12. You are welcome to withdraw your submission if you are not happy with the potential payment (submissions can be withdrawn by emailing [email protected]). If you prefer to know exactly how much you would potentially be paid for a story, please wait for our fundraiser to be complete and submit for the September 1 deadline. Payment will be a nominal amount per story—the same amount for all stories we feature—not per word. Please note that we are not a SFWA qualifying market.

AUTHOR RIGHTS:

When you agree to let us publish your work in FORESHADOW: A Serial YA Anthology:

• You grant us first serial rights. Once we have published your piece, the rights immediately revert back to you.
• Your work will live on our website permanently.
• You grant us the non-exclusive right to pull quotations from your work to promote the anthology.
• After your work appears on our site, you’re free to republish it, or to give others permission to republish it. If you do so, please credit it as first appearing in FORESHADOW: A Serial YA Anthologyand email us at [email protected] to notify us of the publication.
• You grant us the non-exclusive right to include your work in a future possible print version of the anthology, unless you fill out the opt-out form in the contract or withdraw your story from consideration from us in writing by emailing [email protected]. We are not currently planning to collect stories in book form, but may decide to do so at a future date and would work to provide further payment for such a project.
• If your work is an excerpt from a longer work that will be published in book form, in exact or adapted version, your story must appear exclusively on our site for six (6) months before your book is published. These works are disqualified from appearing in a future printed version of our anthology.

WHEN YOU’LL HEAR FROM US:

We expect to be able to respond to submissions in 3–4 months, depending on the size of our reading staff. However, if your work is being held for further consideration, we may contact you to let you know.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

• Email foreshadowsubmissions@gmail.com with your name in the subject line.
• In the body of the email, include the single-word title, word count, author bio, and any publication credentials.
• To be considered for a new voice slot, please include “NEW VOICE” next to your name in the subject line, and mention it again in the body of your email.
• Attach your story as a .PDF or .DOC file. Please don’t paste your story into the body of the email.
• Documents must be double-spaced with the writer’s name appearing on all pages.

Writers should be aware that we haven’t gathered our readers yet. This means we may not be able to begin responding to story submissions until late spring 2018.

Staff members are disqualified from submitting their work for publication, so if you plan to apply for a staff position, please do not submit a story until after you hear from us about the position.

QUESTIONS?

For any submission-related questions, feel free to email the editors at [email protected].

Via: Forshadow YA.