How to submit
At the moment, we're only accepting submissions through our online submission form. This helps us keep track of all of the submissions as efficiently as possible. Please don't post us anything, as it won't reach the right people. We may try to accept postal submissions in the future if there's a demand for it, but try the form: it's quick and simple to use, and you don't have to pay for postage. (You could always put the saving towards a subscription...)
What we're looking for
This is a tricky question to answer.
We're looking primarily for entertaining literary fiction, but we don't by any means rule out genre fiction: this would mean ruling out some of the most interesting and exciting work being produced in the UK today. Do bear in mind that our anthology series is a mainstream publication, so stories can't rely on readers having any knowledge or strong interest in genre conventions. There are better homes out there for a lot of the harder genre material. If you're not sure, then by all means submit!
One other thing to note is that we're looking for stories about people and places, rather than about writing itself. If the most important thing about your story is its narrative technique, or if the character is a writer who's writing about the challenges of writing a short story about the challenges of being a writer, then it may not be for us.
Rights
We ask for first serial rights on any story we publish. This means that the story should not have appeared anywhere else, either in print or online. (This includes publication on an author's own website.)
Word count
We prefer to see stories that are between 2000 and about 7000 words in length, give or take.
Payment
We pay around £20 to £30 for stories we publish, with the amount varying slightly according to length. Contributors get two complimentary copies. There's also a cash prize for the best story in each issue. More information on this will be announced on this website in the coming weeks. (Or sign up to the newsletter for updates.)
Multiple and simultaneous submissions
It's fine to send us more than one story at a time. In fact, we prefer to see two or three (depending on length).
Submitting stories for publication can take a long time, so we do understand if you want to submit to more than one magazine at a time. However, please let us know if a story you've submitted to us has been accepted elsewhere!
Our response times
We aim to reply to all submissions within three months. It's usually much faster than that.
If you submitted less than three months ago, please just sit tight and wait. Chances are that we just haven't got to your submission yet. If it was more than three months ago, first check your junk mail folder, in case our reply wound up there. If you still haven't heard from us after three months, email us: submissions@thefictiondesk.com. It would be very helpful if you could include your submission code (the number you received when you fired off the submission).
More information here.
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