.:ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE:. Submission Guidelines

We're lucky enough to have a submission engine from Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld Magazine. Now, instead of e-mailing a story to us, you can go to the new Submissions Page and submit your story there. You'll also be able to log in to the system and check the status of your story. See the end of this page for more detail.

We look at short stories/novelettes up to 10,000 words in length. We will not look at anything longer than 10,000 words, no exceptions. We strongly prefer stories in the 3,000 - 6,000 word range.

Do not submit more than one story at a time. The new submission engine (see more below) will not let you to have more than one open submission in the system at one time.

Similarly, where poetry is concerned, we will not accept anything longer than 100 lines. Most poems (other than haikus) that are published in Electric Velocipede tend to run around 15 or 20 lines.

Please do not send me more than five poems at one time. With the new engine, you will have to send them together in one document instead as individual files. When I get ten or twelve (or more) poems from one person at one time, it tends to numb me to their style. I can't see too much from you all at once. Wait for my response to see if you're on the right track.

We want to see something different. We want to see something unusual. We want to see stories that are a little weird. If you've read the zine, you know what that means. If you recognize the names of the people in the zine, you'll probably have an idea of what we want. Science fiction is fine; we just don't care for hardcore nuts and bolts. Fantasy is fine; we're just not all that comfortable with elves, dwarves, unicorns, etc. Cross-genre is more than fine, and weird is just about perfect.

Things published in Electric Velocipede tend to ride the slippery middle between genre and literary. Too literary for genre magazines, too genre for lit magazines. Just right for us.

We are not looking for horror.

Here are a some names you can keep in mind while trying to decide what to send: Kelly Link, Hal Duncan, Kij Johnson, Jeff VanderMeer, Theodora Goss, Jeffrey Ford, Margo Lanagan, China Mieville, and Kage Baker.

That's a wide enough variety of writing styles to give just about anyone a chance to write something we'd publish. And don't think you have to write in the style of these people to have a chance of getting a submission accepted; we don't want their clones, we want writers with their originality.

Please put your name and contact information somewhere on your document. Submissions that lack contact information on them will be rejected.

We do not want reprints.

We will not accept simultaneous submissions.

Show me something out of the ordinary.

We are not currently looking for nonfiction articles or columns. We are also not currently looking for artists or artwork.

We always get asked what people should put in their cover letters with their submissions. We asked the editor, and he said, "I really want nothing more than:

There is no need to provide me with more information than that. Feel free to add in sales and other relevant information, but don't feel obligated to do so."

Submissions sent to Electric Velocipede should be double-spaced in 10 pt Courier typeface. We know that many people do not like this typeface but we do. It's easy to read, and easy to calculate how much space a story will take up in the issue (which is very important).

Electric Velocipede pays about 1 cent a word for accepted short fiction . This will not be an exact science. Your word count will be rounded, and we typically round up the final dollar value to make a nice number (i.e. $40 instead of $39.62 or $39.15 or even $39). There is a $25 minimum payment for short fiction. Poems will be paid as follows: $15 for one poem, $20 for two poems, and $25 for three poems. All authors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Electric Velocipede acquires First Serial Rights upon acceptance. All rights revert to the author upon publication of the piece. Ask if you have questions.

Spelling, grammar, and formatting errors are distractions from your writing. They make you look amateurish. They make you look like you don't care about your story.

And if you don't care about your story, why should we?

Electric Velocipede no longer accepts mailed submissions. We apologize for the inconvenience, but it's easier for us to keep track of things electronically. Also, at least one of the magazine's readers lives on a different continent (and hemisphere) from the editor, and that's too far to forward mailed submissions.

Please go to our Submission Page to submit your story.

Our submissions form asks for your name, email address, cover letter, story title, and story. Your cover letter should contain the length of your story. All stories should be in standard manuscript format and can be submitted in either .RTF, .DOC, or .TXT format. The system will only let you submit one piece at a given time. If you have something on submission, you'll have to wait for us to respond to that submission before you can send another.

We prefer not to receive simultaneous submissions.

If you have questions, concerns or technical issues, please contact the editor via email.

After you have submitted your story, a tracking number will be displayed and an automated email confirmation containing this information will be sent to you. If you have not received this email within 24 hours, please email us. Your tracking number will allow you to monitor the status of your submission through our website, so please don't lose it.

NOTE: Yahoo.com occasionally treats our email as spam, please keep an eye on your spam folder.

Our average response time is about a month, but we have occasionally held a submission for as long as a two months. We ask that you:

If you are uncertain about anything above, we recommend following the most conservative interpretation.

NOTE: If you notice any errors on these pages, please send a derisive e-mail about them.