Submission Guidelines

Hey all! We have a new submissions manager called Duosuma, so from now on, head over there to submit! (That means we no longer accept email submissions. For accessible options please contact us via email.)

So in case you didn’t know, we’re totally taking submissions. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know:

• • • We accept submissions on a rolling basis.
    • We publish a new piece every Monday at noon Pacific Time. We sometimes post fun extras (like our podcast episodes) on Wednesdays or Fridays.
    • SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: We accept them but please LET US KNOW if you’re sending us one. If you receive an acceptance from another magazine, we congratulate you! But please do not email us to withdraw a submission. You should update your submission in Duosuma directly.
      
    • Include an optional cover letter plus a short contributor’s note written in the third person (this is important!). Include your social handles in the cover letter if you’d like us to tag you.
    • You may only submit to ONE call at a time. (Otherwise, we will automatically reject the most recent submission.) Please wait until you have received a response from us before submitting again.
    • If you’re not sure you submitted to the correct call, never fear! We won’t reject you because of that.

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Submission Requirements for General Call:

• You may submit up to two (2) pieces at a time of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or miscellaneous work. (For poems, this means 2 individual poems, not 2 blocks of poetry.) Miscellaneous work includes but is not limited to: plays, screenplays, hybrid pieces that utilize prose and poetry, etc.
• 3k words maximum per piece. (This is a soft limit, but please don’t get carried away. In general, we tend to prefer shorter pieces.)
• Formatting: For writing, stick to .doc .docx .txt or .rtf formats.
• Place EACH of your submissions in its own individual file.

Submission Requirements for Micro Call:

• You may submit up to five (5) pieces of micro fiction or non-fiction, with a max of 150 words for each piece
  OR up to five (5) poems of 3 lines each. (We actually prefer if you submit more than one micro piece! But no more than 5, of course.)
• Please stick to .doc .docx .txt or .rtf formats.
• Place ALL of your submissions together in a single file.

Submission Requirements for Art & Miscellaneous Call:

You may submit up to two (2) pieces of:

• Visual art, collage, or photography, but we do NOT accept AI art
• Web comics / illustrations / comic strip style pieces / graphic novel or picture book excerpts
• Experimental pieces (3,000 words max) that work well in an online format, such as:
  – Audio pieces / monologues / spoken word
  – Ergodic stories
  – Multimodal stories that include gifs or hyperlinks
• Anything else up to 3,000 words that doesn’t fit neatly into one category–surprise us! (And check out our Wish List for more ideas.)
  
  
• For art, please include details about camera, lens, drawing/painting medium, collage materials, etc. and a short description of your piece, such as the location, what inspired you, how long it took to complete, etc.
• For art please stick to .jpeg, .png or .tiff files. Audio/video should be in .mp3 or .mp4 
• Place EACH of your submissions in its own individual file. (separate docs for writing, separate jpegs for images).

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Other stuff you should know:

• • • If your piece is accepted, you retain the copyright.
    • We currently do not pay for submissions. (But check out our Donate page because we want to change that.)
    • We accept reprints as long as you hold the copyright. Please indicate in your cover letter if you are submitting a reprint, as well as where and when it was last published.
    • Submissions you send us should be ready to publish. If we see an excessive amount of grammatical or verb tense errors, we may not accept your piece.
    • Current response time is about 3.5 months.
    • If you’re notified of an acceptance with us, we ask that you wait 3 months before submitting again.
    • We nominate for the Pushcart Prize.
    • Since we’re an online publication, we do not accept traditionally mailed submissions. Please REMOVE YOUR ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, OR OTHER SENSITIVE INFO from your submission. For cyber security reasons we actually recommend not sending your address, phone, etc. to anyone when you don’t need to. WE ONLY NEED YOUR NAME, CONTACT EMAIL, AND WORD COUNT. And socials if you want to be tagged. You can mention your general location if you’d like, since we’re a global magazine and it’s fun to see where our submitters hail from 🙂
    • Page numbers are helpful.
    • We accept anything and everything. We’re focused on fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art but we’d love to see graphic novel excerpts, scripts, or other experimental works that are suited to this digital platform as well! (Take a look at our Wish List or listen to podcast episode #12 where we discuss what we’d like to see.)
      • We accept literary as well as genre fiction.
      • We accept creative non-fiction, but we do not accept essays. (hint: if it reads more like a research paper or news article than a story, we won’t accept it.)
    • We’re fine with controversial subject matter as long as it suits the story.
    • Accepted submissions will be published approximately 3 months after your acceptance notification. You will be notified in advance of the date your piece will be published.
    • We accept submissions from people of all ages
      • Q: But what if I’m eighty?
      • A: We don’t care.
    • If you get a rejection, don’t be afraid to submit again! We’re always happy to see repeat submitters in our inbox.
    • It’s “The Metaworker.”  Not “The Metalworker” or “The Meta worker”.

Now head on over to our Duosuma listing to submit, then go write some more!