Submission Guide

Submission Guidelines:

FaW accepts submissions all year. (We're also working on a book!)

Details about our submissions requirements are below.

Short Shorts word limit: 300

Issue word limit: 750

Previously Published Stories: NO (What does this mean? It means we should not be able to find your story anywhere, online or in print.)

Bio: YES

(Note: The bio is for our contributor's page. It is not used during the selection process.)

Simultaneous Submissions: YES, BUT:

If it means you are going to ignore our guidelines in favor of some generic format, then NO.
Please remember to let us know if the story is accepted elsewhere.
Our response time averages around 3 days. If you are submitting to other journals with quick response times, then it might make more sense to send to only one at a time. We have had stories withdrawn as little as 2 days after they were submitted, which seems to make more work for everyone, the writer included.

Multiple Submissions: YES, but only one per email.

Response Time: The current average for stories submitted in 2010 is 3.2 days.

(Note: We almost always respond quickly, but please wait 30 days before querying.)

Rights: First publication, plus archiving, and non-exclusive anthology. In addition to those rights, we ask that you do not make the piece available elsewhere for three months.

Pay: Not at the moment.

What We Like: Just about everything, so it's a good idea to read through the site to get a sense. The three issues below are staff favorites, so they should put you on the right track:

Issue 6, by Spencer Dew

Issue 9, by Lindsay Hunter

Issue 10, by Ira S. Murfin

Last But Not Least: Please report your submissions to Duotrope. We work hard to reply quickly, and this site is a way for us to let people know that we respond quickly.

Clicking on the grey button will take you to our page at Duotrope, and from there you can report your submission, sign up for their service (it's free), and study-up on other markets.

Thanks!

Submission Formatting:

Subject Line: The word "Submission" followed by a colon, followed by your story's title. Like this:

Submission: To Build a Fire

Body: The word count, followed by the text of your story, followed by the word "END," followed by your bio. Like this:

----

16 Words

Once upon a time, there was a really great thing that happened, and blah blah blah.

END

Bio: Eustace Mapplethorpe was born in a small Kentucky town.

----

There is no need for a salutation or closing. If there are any notes about the story or about yourself (such as a reminder for us to use your penname), please put them after the bio.