Deadline: October 14th, 2022
Payment: $10
Theme: Crime Fiction

Submissions for the print magazine OPEN September 1st at 1am EST.

Submissions of under 1k words for the flash series also OPEN. See the flash guidelines for details.

Please read the entirety of the guidelines before submitting as guidelines have changed.

​Submissions that do not follow the guidelines will deleted unread, without response to the submitter.

Guilty publishes crime fiction. It is strongly suggested that you read an issue of the magazine to get a solid feel for what we are looking for.

Crime fiction covers a wide range of potential topics, and we are interested in your take on it, but please note, we are looking for stories of criminals, from their perspective.

There are still many ways that can be interpreted, but there are some things we will not consider:

Cozies.

Police procedurals.

Anything with a speculative element.

Anything that glories in violence for the sake of violence, particularly against women, children, minorities, or animals. Violence can be an element of many types of crime stories, but it must be an integral part of the story.

Detective stories will be a hard sell, not because we don’t like them, but because they are not typically crime stories, per se, but have more in common with the police procedural than with other types of crime story. We really are looking for stories from a criminal’s perspective.

Serial killers are also a hard sell, unless your take on them is truly unique.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but any type of hate-speech, whether homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism or any other type you can think of, will not be tolerated. Submissions including such will be deleted without response to the submitter.

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For fiction for the magazine:

Stories from 2,500 to 5,000 words will be considered. This is firm. Stories below or above that range will be rejected. Stories in the 3k to 4k range will have the best chances of being accepted. Stories at or near the upper word-limit are usually the featured story so they’ll have to blow us away to have a good chance of acceptance.

Do not includes a synopsis in your submission; it is neither necessary nor wanted.

A flat ten dollar ($10) payment will be made for all stories, regardless of length, via PayPal after signature of contract. Contributor copies are not provided.

Reprints are not accepted. Stories must be original and previously unpublished in any format, including your personal blog, social media, etc. 

No novel excerpts, please, not even if they read as a standalone story. We are looking for completely original, exclusive material.

Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions will not be considered.

Guilty acquires First World Rights, with a period of exclusivity of one year after publication.

For flash fiction for the website:

Stories from 500 to 1,000 words will be considered. This is firm. Stories below or above that range will be rejected. Submissions must be a complete story, no vignettes or novel excerpts.

Accepted stories will be published exclusively on the website and will be archived perpetually. Guilty acquires First World Rights, with a period of exclusivity of one year after publication.

There is no pay for accepted flash fiction 

Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions will not be considered.
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For non-fiction:

Guilty will consider non-fiction articles of up to 800 words. 500-700 word range will have the best chance of meeting current needs. Pitch first for articles. Unsolicited articles will be deleted unread. A flat five dollar ($5) payment will be made for all articles, regardless of length, via PayPal after signature of contract. Contributor copies are not provided.

Articles must be original and previously unpublished in any format, including your personal blog, social media, etc. 

Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions will not be considered.

Guilty acquires First World Rights, with a period of exclusivity of one year after publication.

How to submit:

Send all submissions and pitches to guiltycrimemag @ gmail.com (without spaces) with the following subject format: Submission – Type of Submission <Fiction, Flash Fiction, Non-Fiction, Art> – <Title of Submission> – <Submitter’s Name>.

In the body of your email, include a cover letter with your story’s title and word-count, your contact information, and  a brief bio of no more than seventy-five words (one or two sentences) written in the third person. Your publication history is neither necessary nor wanted. Whether you’re an NYT bestselling author or this is your very first submission of your work, the only thing that matters is the story.

Formatting

Follow Shunn’s manuscript format with an easy to read font, such as Calibri or similar. Make sure to include your name and contact information in the upper left hand corner of the first page and word-count in the upper right. Send only .doc, .docx, or .rtf files for text submissions. Any other format will be deleted unread.

Do not include headers or footers in the document as submissions will not be printed to be read and, if your story is accepted, it adds an additional formatting step.

For the love of all that is good, do not use Tab to indent. Use the paragraph formatting options in your chosen word-processing program. Additionally, do not double space after a period. Both of these things are

 nightmares to reformat if your story is accepted.

Make sure your file name includes the story title and your surname.

Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be deleted without response to the submitter.

We will try to make a decision within thirty (30) days. Average response time is three days or less. If for some reason you have not heard back after sixty (60) days your submission will not be accepted. Please do not follow up regarding it.

​We are unable to provide individual feedback on rejected works.

If your submission is declined, wait at least one month before submitting again, unless specifically invited to do otherwise.

​Please do not resubmit a work that has been rejected unless specifically asked for a rewrite.

Via: Guilty Crime Story Magazine.