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Submission Guidelines
Looking for the contest submissions page? Please click here.
We welcome submissions of previously unpublished manuscripts of all lengths, ranging from short short stories to
complete book-length works. Narrative regularly publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including
stories, novels, novel excerpts, novellas, personal essays, humor, sketches, memoirs, literary biographies,
commentary, reportage, interviews, and features of interest to readers who take pleasure in storytelling
and imaginative prose. For poetry submissions, Narrative is open to all forms and genres. We look for quality and
originality of language and content. We do not accept translations. If you are interested in sending your work for
consideration, please read the following guidelines carefully. You may wish to print out this page so that you can
refer to it as you submit your manuscript.
Submissions may be sent to us at any time, year-round. We accept multiple submissions, since we
feel that it’s unreasonable to expect writers to give a magazine an exclusive look at a work unless the
magazine can respond within two to three weeks. We want writers to have every possible opportunity for
success, so we’re willing to risk losing a story we want when someone at another magazine may have done
their reading before we have, and in that case we’ll be sorry to lose the piece but happy for the writer.
Our response time varies from four to twelve weeks, with the slowest times usually being August/September
and December/January.
Except during our open-submission periods, we require a reading fee for submission, as follows:
Open Submission Period
Narrative accepts open submissions during the first two weeks of April
and the first two weeks of August each year. During these periods,
you may submit work via the Open Submissions Upload page, which will
be linked and accessible here.
—a $20 reading fee for short short stories of 750 to 2,000 words.
—a $10 reading fee for up to five poems in a single submission.
—a $10 reading fee for short audio (MP3) submissions of poetry. Audio poetry submissions may be up to five minutes in length.
—a $10 reading fee for short audio (MP3) submissions of prose, for our TELL ME A STORY category (see description below). Audio prose submissions may be up to five minutes in length.
—a $20 reading fee for a single manuscript (fiction or nonfiction) of 2,000 to 10,000 words in length.
—a $20 reading fee for novellas and book-length works.
All submissions, with a reading fee, from new or emerging writers are eligible for the $4,000 Narrative Prize, awarded annually.
For all accepted manuscripts of 750 to 2,000 words we pay between $150 and $350 on publication.
For all accepted manuscripts of 2,000 to 10,000 words, we pay $350 to $1,000 on publication.
For all book-length works accepted for serialization, we
pay a minimum of $1,000 to $5,000 on publication and may offer more, depending on the length and nature of the work.
For more information on our program of serializations, please click here.
For each accepted poem and for each short audio piece, we pay a minimum of $50, on publication.
Contributors are asked to include a brief biographical note with their submissions.
We accept only online submissions: Please read the following instructions in full and/or print out the
instructions before making an online submission:
1) Online submissions should be formatted as follows: Fiction and nonfiction should be double-spaced,
with 12-point type, at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. Poetry should be single-spaced,
with 12-point type, at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. The author’s name,
address, telephone number, and email address should be typed at the top of the first page.
2) Save your document in one of the following formats: .doc, .pdf, or .rtf. To read instructions for putting a document in Microsoft Word Rich Text Format (.rtf), or any other word-processing program using .rtf, please click here.
3) Before sending us your document, read the details below and fill in the appropriate form fields.
SHORT SHORT STORY
manuscripts must be between three and five pages in length, and no less than 750 and no more than 2,000 words.
MANUSCRIPTS OF UP TO 10,000 WORDS can include short stories, essays, and other complete short works of nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of fiction and nonfiction.
NOVELLAS AND OTHER LONG WORKS THAT ARE LESS THAN BOOK LENGTH may run between 10,000 and 40,000 words. For works of this length, please submit the first 10,000 words with a synposis.
(Based on our reading of the first 10,000 words, we will ask to see the complete manuscript if we think the work is suitable for Narrative.)
COMPLETE BOOK-LENGTH WORKS. For consideration for serialization, please send the first chapter and a one-page synopsis of the book. (Based on our reading of the first chapter and synopsis, we
will ask to see the complete book manuscript if we think the book is suitable for serialization in Narrative. We accept submissions of completed, previously unpublished books. For
further information on our program of serializations, please click here.)
POETRY SUBMISSIONS may contain up to five poems. Your submission should give a strong sense of your style and range. We accept submissions of all poetic forms and genres but do not accept translations.
AUDIO POETRY SUBMISSIONS must be in MP3 format and may be up to five minutes long.
TELL ME A STORY audio prose submissions may be fiction or nonfiction but should take a storytelling form. Audio prose submissions must be in MP3 format and may be up to five minutes long.
Thank you for your interest in Narrative. We look forward to reading your work.
If you encounter problems while submitting a piece, please direct your questions to Manuscripts@NarrativeMagazine.com.
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