Once you have read the guidelines below, you can submit your work through our submission form. We pay a £3 honorarium to each accepted contributor after print publication.
An Affirmation of Welcome to All Writers and Artists
We affirm our desire to welcome writers and artists of all countries, backgrounds, traditions and religions to our pages, and our willingness to fairly consider their work.
As creatives, we believe that our ability to confront complex issues with curiosity, nuance, and care binds us together. We are unequivocal in our support of the fact that bigotry against any group – be it Islamophobia or antisemitism – harms our literary and artistic community as a whole. Likewise, we do not condone discrimination and/or bigotry of any kind, including, but not limited to, racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia.
Compulsory Submission Guidelines:
Your submission will be considered invalid if you do not adhere to the following guidelines.
- One submission is permitted per quarterly. This means that you may only enter your work into one category. Your submission will be considered for the upcoming issue only.
- Within each category, you may only submit one piece of work, unless you are submitting poetry or artwork. Please note that we are unlikely to accept more than one work per poet or artist.
- We do not consider previously published or self-published submissions. This includes work that is and/or has been on sale and/or displayed on websites, social media channels, and personal blogs. The one exception to this is if you have previously been published by a magazine which has now ceased to exist. Importantly, your published work must not be available to see or purchase in print on online.
- We do consider simultaneous submissions. However, you must inform us immediately if your work gets published anywhere else so that we can withdraw your submission.
- We do not accept work containing offensive language (anything containing racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory language), graphic erotic detail, and/or radical religious or political commentary.
- We do not accept work which is AI-generated or AI-assisted.
Written Work Guidelines:
Compulsory:
Your submission will be considered invalid if you do not adhere to the following guidelines.
- Works must be written primarily in English. Translations are acceptable and should be accompanied by a copy of the original text. Before submitting, please confirm with the original rights holder that the translation rights are available for purchase. We will ask for a letter than asserts the above if the translation is accepted.
- Submit all written work as a singular .doc/.docx/.odf attachment. Do not send your work as a .pdf. Feel free to use our contact form to let us know in case you are interested in submitting works in file types not mentioned above and are having problems with the form.
- Please name your file names as the title of your work, regardless of the file extension.
Optional:
We really appreciate it if you adhere to the following instructions, but it is not essential for you to do so.
- All works should be typed in 12 point font and single-spacing.
- Centre your title and number the pages of your document.
Compulsory Category Guidelines:
Your submission will be considered invalid if you do not adhere to the following guidelines.
Your work should not exceed more than 10% of the maximum total word/ line/ page count, as detailed below.
We are unable to read more than the permitted number of works per category.
- Poetry:
- Maximum of 40 lines per poem.
- Maximum of 2 poems, all submitted in the same document.
- Note: Free verse, formal verse and anything in between is welcome.
- Note: Be aware that our magazine is published in A5 size and therefore is not the best place for poetry with very long lines.
- Fiction:
- Short Stories
- Maximum of 3000 words.
- Flash Fiction
- Minimum of 100 words.
- Maximum of 1000 words.
- Short Stories
- Nonfiction:
- Creative Nonfiction
- Maximum of 3000 words.
- Flash Creative Nonfiction
- Minimum of 100 words.
- Maximum of 1000 words.
- Note: Creative nonfiction is based on or touches on true events that happened to the author. It is usually written in a narrative style, e.g., may have a plot structure similar to a fictional story, with a crescendo before a resolution.
- Creative Nonfiction
- Drama:
- Stage plays
- Maximum of 5 A4 pages.
- Screen plays
- Maximum of 5 A4 pages.
- Formatting should be as close to Final Draft as possible.
- Note: Play extracts and monologues are welcome.
- Stage plays
- Visual Art:
- Visual art submissions are THEMED. Check back later for the next submission window’s theme.
- Maximum of 3 works. Submit works in .png/.jpg/.jpeg format. For your artwork/photo to be considered for the cover art please submit in A4 format or aspect ratio 1:√2.
- Our form may have problems with file sizes larger than 10MB. Feel free to use our contact form to let us know in case you are interested in submitting larger works and are having problems with the form.
- Note: Paintings, Drawings, Digital Art, Collages and Photographs are welcome.
Important information
- If your work is accepted, we may make editorial changes. We will inform you of any changes that are made so that you can approve these prior to publication.
- If your work is accepted, please note that we are unlikely to accept more than one work per writer or artist within one calendar year.
- If your work is rejected, please wait for two submission cycles before submitting again.
- Our print magazine is published in A5. Please consider this if you have a specific intention regarding the formatting of your work.
- Please wait for our response regarding your submission before submitting another one. We read all submissions once our submission window closes, and we aim to respond within six weeks after that.
- We ask for first-time publication rights, but all rights revert back to the author after publication. We kindly ask that if your piece is published elsewhere in the future, that you please credit Spellbinder with its initial publication.