Submissions Schedule

The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T.

For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers.

We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 8¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles.
For new poetry, we pay $1 per line, and for reprints we pay 50¢ a line  We’re looking for poems up to 40 lines. We’ll consider longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 8¢ per word.

We sponsor The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn aboutThe Kepler Award here.

You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc.

 

Writers Guidelines

We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, from a minimum of 1000 words on up.   All else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored, and we have yet to find a story over about 9-10,000 words we have even considered. 

We do not accept any ‘ai’ – machine generated text or images.  We support the work of sentient beings, not machines.

We  only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you’re new or established.  Only submit work you are proud of — if you don’t love it, neither will our readers!  If in doubt, edit it down further.  And further.

 No simultaneous submissions
No multiple submissions

For the many writers who valued our feedback on their stories:
We have brought back a modified version of the feedback system which will not be time intensive for the editors:    
     — Writers who would like feedback on their stories should request it at the end of their submissions comments.
     — You will receive feedback only if you request it.
     — Writers requesting feedback must understand that this is Unedited Feedback Not Intended as Diplomatic Critique; it is the honest and considered opinions of our first readers and assistant editors, meant only to help the editors in their assessment of stories.
     — There may be repetition and contradictory opinions.
     — Readers can opt in or out of having their feedback passed on, so there may be few or no opinions to send you.
     — Comments will be passed on without reader names.

In your submissions comments, tell us only:
— your name, and any pen name you wish to be published under
— story title,
— genre
— word count
— whether your story is new or would be a reprint, and if a reprint, where and when it was first published. If a reprint, it must not have been published within the preceding twelve months and must not be currently available to read for free or be for sale as an individual story.
— Do not include a resume; we will judge the story solely on its own merits.
— any comments or personal information directly related to the story, e.g., your story is about an alien taking over the Earth, and you yourself are an alien taking over the Earth.

We may ask for revisions on a story we are interested in, whether it is new or a reprint, but a request for revision is not a guarantee of acceptance.

Please follow standard manuscript format

We prefer text in .docx and Times New Roman, and images as a jpg or through a link.  If you write a story in .doc and then just add an x to the end of the file extension,  the document may not open for us.

Use letters and numbers only for filenames or else your file may not load.

For video, if possible send links, and have it available in both MP4 and WEBM formats for compatibility across all browsers. 

On the submissions page, check that you agree with the terms of our guidelines before you submit.

A small percentage of people may find that the spam filters on their email host don’t allow them to register.  Adding donotreply at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com and submissions at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com
to your address list may solve this problem.  If it doesn’t, you can email  submissions at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com  and we will manually input you into the system. 

Addresses to note and add to address books:
cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com/portal  — login for subscribers to the magazine.
submissions at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com — for questions about submissions.
editor at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com   Fran Eisemann, editor-in-chief
fantasyeditor1 at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores dot com  Joel Roosa
assistanteldritcheditor at cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com  Tara Grimravn

Fiction

We are looking for: well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. We care about character, plot, ideas, and storytelling ability.  We accept both serious and humorous work. We like science fiction in all its states of matter, from solid to gaseous to plasma, i.e., from hard as steel to as insubstantial as interstellar space.  If you use real existing science, please get it right.  You can also read the About Us page for more information.

Science Fiction – must contain elements of science which are intrinsic to the functioning of the plot. Adding laser pistols and calling it sci-fi will not transform a standard story into science fiction

Fantasy – must include essential elements of the fantastic. Talking about witches or wizards is not enough. There must be magical or mystical components without which the story cannot work. Knights and swords do not a fantasy make on their own.

Myths, Legends, & Fairy Tales – These stories should not just contain elements or characters from these genre, the stories should have the feel of the genre.  So, a story set in the Wild West with gunslingers and stage coach robberies does not become a myth simply be naming one of the characters Athena.

And what is Eldritch? some people ask.  It’s not horror, but it’s an elusive thing to try to define: try to pin it down and it may flutter away.  Eldritch is the strange, the indefinable, the liminal, the uncanny things between the spaces that sweep tingles over us… good luck finding it!

Hard Sells: Vampires, werewolves, zombies, monsters in general, super-heroes, Lovecraftian stories, anthro, robots with feelings, gritty and despairing post-apocalyptic worlds.

We don’t accept: horror, hate, blood & guts, explicit language, excessive violence, angst-ridden romance, fan fiction*, sex, axe-grinding, or stories that leave readers feeling they’ve had the energy and joy sucked out of them.
We don’t accept stories involving animal abuse, hunting, or eating of animals.
Also, seems we have to say it, we don’t take work that makes fun of grief, suffering, and death, whether of real, imaginary, or religious/historical characters.

 

Fact

We are looking for fact-based articles, interesting information, reviews, and humor in any discipline that relates to the type of stories we publish or that might provide inspiration and information for writers and artists.

 

Artwork and Other Imagery

We’re looking for storytelling through images.  We want to see skillful composition, use of color, rendering of form, character, and emotions.   For photomanipulations or photography using models, etc., all stock and resources used must be credited and used according to the stock provider’s rules.

We are not presently commissioning any work.  We are looking only for already existing work for use on site pages or for illustrating stories.  We pay $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used.

For video, if possible send links, and have it available in both MP4 and WEBM formats for compatibility across all browsers.

Just as for written works, we’re not looking for romance, fan art*, hate, horror, blood & guts, excessive violence, sex, nudity, copies of photographs, propaganda, or work that leave readers feeling they’ve had the energy and joy sucked out of them.  We do not accept work using materials that required the death or mistreatment of animals.

*If the original work is still in copyright and was not commissioned or sanctioned by the creator or owner we will not accept it.  Some fan art is accepted or encouraged by the copyright owners — e.g., cosplay, and these works we welcome.
An illustration of a fairy tale, myth, legend, old classic, or any work no longer in copyright would not be counted as fan art.

 

We get a large number of submissions, so please be patient.  Turn-around times are generally between one and twelve weeks.  If you haven’t heard back after twelve weeks, feel free to query.

Interstellar submitters please use standard Earth formats or query in advance for other arrangements.  We’d love to be the first to publish your work here on Earth!  🙂

 

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  Please Note: When creating passwords for the submissions manager we suggest 12 characters or more with a combination of numbers and both upper case and lower case letters.  Please avoid using the ampersand &, percent sign %,  
plus sign +,  quotation marks “,  less than <,  or greater than > 

After reading our guidelines, you can login to the submissions manager and submit stories here:

Submissions Manager

For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers.
Our thanks go to Glenn Lyvers at Prolific Press for creating this feature for us.

Good luck, and we look forward to reading you!

For people interested in becoming readers for Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, you can read about the process here:

 Becoming a Reader

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