Short Story Town Submission guidelines
Short Story Town wants stories from new, emerging and established writers that evoke memories of when stories were wholly stories, with all or most of the elements (characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution) present, when the rules of grammar were understood by writers, and evocative images and minute details were important to painting a picture of words for the readers. Short Story Town wants stories that sing; that rise off the page and lilt in the air long after they’ve been read. I don’t want flowery language for the sake of making the story sound pretty. I want a story that demonstrates the writers “voice” in the best way possible to tell the story; flowery or minimalistic. Give me the best you’ve got in the general/literary or magic realism genres, or a narrative poem that reads like a short story, but is poetic.
Genres: General, Literary, Magic Realism, Narrative Poem
Word Count Requirement: 1000 to 5000 words for short stories. 500 words to 2000 words for narrative poem.
Paste the story in the body of the email. NO ATTACHMENTS. Repeat: NO ATTACHMENTS.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. I try to respond with an acceptance or rejection within 3 days of receiving the submission. If I liked the story and accept it then that is the feedback for that story. If I didn’t accept the story it just means I didn’t like it enough to publish it, and that is the feedback. In other words, I don’t give detailed feedback. I anticipate publishing 5 stories a month as long as I get 5 quality stories for each month, but it could be fewer than that, but no more than 5.
Send your story or poem to SweetycatPress@gmail.com. In the subject line include: Title of story, your name, word count.
Include a bio written in third person of no more than 50 words at the end of the story or poem (after The End). In the bio make sure to state where you live.
I pay $10.00 per story or poem but you must have Paypal to be paid. I’ll gladly still publish your story if you don’t have Paypal, but Paypal is the only way I can and will pay for the story. Include your Paypal address if you have a Paypal account in the first line of your email.
You retain the rights to your story or poem. I’m not a fan of holding a writer’s work hostage. The story must be PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED. I want to introduce your new story or poem in Short Story Town and you can do whatever you like with it after that. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but withdraw your story from Short Story Town if someone else grabs it up first.
I will do only minimal editing, which means I expect you to send me polished work. If I have to stop reading a story every few lines to mentally untangle a grammatical mess, scratch my head at sloppy punctuation, or you haven’t used spellcheck, the story will be rejected, period.
If there is anything morally or socially reprehensible in your story I won’t even bother to reply. It will automatically go into the trash. Bigotry, prejudice, misogyny, ageism, homophobia and the like are only acceptable in a story if it is presented as a character trait, and not espoused as an acceptable way of thinking. Stories about politics are okay, but not if the story displays an obvious ax to grind. No stories with violent or explicit rape, and no stories that has graphic descriptions of child abuse or animal cruelty. Erotica is okay, but only in the literary sense, meaning I really don’t need to read how sex acts are performed.
If you have any additional questions, email the question to SweetycatPress@gmail.com. In the subject line put QUESTION.