Submission Guidelines

Current Status

We are currently CLOSED for story submissions until April 1st, 2010.

What we are looking for

We are interested in speculative fiction stories. Whether your story is character-driven or is a breathtakingly and painstakingly created world that reverberates with unknown adventure…we want to read it. More importantly, we want to publish it.

We want stories with some meat on their bones. We aren’t interested in flash fiction. We want something we can sit down and sink our teeth into. We want to read stories with a minimum of 5,000 words. We don’t have a maximum word count cap, although if someone ever sends us a 30,000 word novella we might have to worry about it, but as a general rule we don’t want you to feel as though your story has to fit into some specific word count or we won’t look at it.

The way we see it, stories are what they are. We aren’t here to tell you that your story is too long, that you need to shave 500 words off of it to make it “sell-able” to the mass public. You don’t tell your kids how to grow up…you just guide them the best way you can and however they end up is how they end up. Stories are the same way.

We publish to an adult audience. Keep in mind that while we generally don’t want to censor authors we won’t publish anything with gratuitous violence, sex, or language. If it’s part of the story that’s one thing, but we aren’t looking to publish any “shock and awe” stories here. Just quality, well-rounded, speculative fiction.

What about art work?

We are OPEN in terms of considering artwork. We are not accepting unsolicited submissions of art, however.

Please send us a link to your online portfolio (blog, website, DeviantArt, whatever) as well as a detailed cover letter. If we like what we see via your online portfolio, we will contact you about creating art for our publication. Please send your cover letter and portfolio information to queries@marginalboundaries.com.

ALL ARTISTS MUST HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT TO BE ELIGIBLE. We do not pay via any other method.

We pay $10.00 per interior art piece. Each interior art piece will be black and white and relates to a specific story.

We pay $100.00 for full-color cover art.

Artists will be contacted on an as-needed basis and commissioned for original art.

Publishing schedule

Marginal Boundaries publishes on a quarterly schedule.

• March
• June
• September
• December

Reading schedule

One of the primary reasons Marginal Boundaries was founded was due to the rather informal approach that most major publications take to the whole publication process. Here at Marginal Boundaries we want to establish a relationship with you, the writers. After all, these stories are your creations, your children. In order to maintain a high level of personal interaction between our editors and our authors, we only allow stories to be submitted during specific times of the year. This way, we can maintain that personal level of interaction and avoid getting overwhelmed with thousands of submissions that would force us to use form letters.

Our current reading schedule is as follows:

• January
• April
• July
• October

Stories sent to us outside of these reading periods will be deleted without being read.

Our process

Marginal Boundaries is a quarterly publication that is strictly published in the digital world. As such, we only deal with clients via e-mail. Each issue that comes out is strictly in PDF format. We accept speculative fiction from people in all corners of the world. It doesn’t matter where you live, so long as your story is in US English. (UK or Australian English is fine as well, but keep in mind that our format is in US English, and there is some difference in punctuation and spelling)

Our process is very simple. We have a one month submission window. During that month we accept stories, read stories, and get back to the authors as quickly as possible. At the end of the reading month we close submissions. The second month is spent finalizing decisions regarding the stories we feel are the best for our publication and getting them ready for publication, which includes getting rewrites from the authors, polishing the stories, and getting them sent out to our art department. Every story comes complete with its own original artwork. The third month is spent putting any final touches on the stories, doing the layout for the issue, and getting it ready for sale. Then, at the end of the third month, we publish. The process repeats.

One of our goals is to keep interaction with you, the writers, as high as possible. By keeping a strict reading schedule, we can avoid being overrun by submissions. We endeavor to get back to our authors within 2-6 weeks of their story being sent in. It all depends on the number of submissions coming through our door, and how quickly we can get through them. One thing we can promise you is that we will never take several months to get back to you. One of the major reasons (we have many!) we founded this publication was to provide a place for stories to find a home quickly, rather than dealing with 6+ month waiting lists. We will be holding true to that promise, no matter what.

If for some reason you have not received a physical communication from the staff after 6 weeks, please query us at queries@marginalboundaries.com.

One thing that sets us apart from many of the pro ‘zines on the market is that Marginal Boundaries will never, under any circumstances, publish work from its staff (other than forewards and editorials). Everyone on staff here is an author in some form or another, and we are selling our stories in other markets. We started this venture as yet another branch into the industry. While many of the other pro ‘zines on the market reserve up to half of their ‘zine space for staff writers, thus reducing the chances that writers actually have at getting published, we don’t believe that’s fair to you, the authors. Marginal Boundaries is all about your stories, not ours.

Submission guidelines

• We accept submissions in e-mail format only.
• All submissions should be sent to submissions@marginalboundaries.com
• Submissions must be sent as an attachment, in Rich Text Format (.rtf), US English.
• Submissions must be in Standard Manuscript Form (see the SFWA for more information).
• The subject of your e-mail should read Submission: Story Title, Approximate word count.
• Your e-mail should include a brief cover letter detailing who you are, where you’ve been published (if anywhere), and a little bit about you. We aren’t just interested in your stories. We want to know you.
  
• We do not accept multiple or simultaneous submissions.
• We do not accept unsolicited reprints.

Payment and rights

We pay 10 USD per story upon acceptance. We’d love to pay more, but we are currently in our start-up phase, with the first issue due out in March. The best way to get better rates for your stories is to help us get more subscribers. The more copies we sell, the more money the ‘zine has to spend on production costs, which means we can afford to pay our writers, artists, and editors better. We would love to move to a per-word payment plan, and you can help us do that by promoting our ‘zine and getting your friends and family members to support your career as a writer, and generate a fan-base in the process.

We pay via PayPal, only. We will not pay via wire transfer, and we will not send checks. PayPal. Only. Period.

We buy First Exclusive Worldwide Electronic Rights for three months. After that, you can publish your story where you like. We also purchase Reprint Rights, in the case that we decide to put out a “Best of” copy at the end of the year. We would also love to have Archive Rights to your stories to keep them up on our database even after they have moved on, but we will gladly refrain from doing so at the Author’s request.

Dealing with rejection

Just because your story was rejected doesn’t mean it’s a bad story, or that you are a poor author. All it means is that we didn’t feel it was the right fit for our particular publication. Our ultimate goal with Marginal Boundaries is to inspire people to write, inspire people to read, and inspire people to further their love of speculative fiction.

Dealing with rejection is something that every author deals with, even the highest paid authors in the industry. With that in mind, we will not publish a story simply because it is from someone who is a “name” in the industry. Sure, it might bring us more sales, but one of the major issues with publishing today is that there are far too many poor quality stories coming from people with a name, simply to generate sales for the publications in question, while truly amazing stories get passed over because the people who wrote them aren’t established authors. Here at Marginal Boundaries, we treat everyone equally. The merit is in the story itself, not the name behind it.

Rejection is a building process, a learning curve. The one thing that makes us different from the pro publications, however, is that we will always find the time to give you a critique of why your story didn’t work for us. You will never, ever, get a form letter from Marginal Boundaries. We hold a firm commitment to insuring that we are helping build up your strengths as a writer, not simply giving you a rejection letter and telling you “good luck”.

That does not mean we read each and every story that comes through our door in their entirety. We can and will reject stories which have beginnings that don’t jive with us. It might be that your story had a great middle and end, but its beginning was just too slow for us. However, we will let you know exactly why your story didn’t work for us, every time. Again…you will never, ever get a form letter rejection from Marginal Boundaries.

Remember, we are not here to crush your dreams, stab you in the back, or slaughter your babies. We want to see you write the best possible fiction you can, and we will do everything in our power to let you know exactly why your story didn’t work for us if we end up rejecting it.

What we want from our authors

Marginal Boundaries is an indy publication. What does that mean? Well, for starters, it means we don’t have the budget of a pro ‘zine. It means we don’t have the subscription numbers of a pro ‘zine. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have the passion, the professionalism, the qualifications, or the talent required of the best.

It is a well-known fact that there are literally hundreds of thousands of stories that go unread and unpublished every year. The pro market is generally dominated by half a dozen major publishing houses these days that own most of the minor publishing imprints, and they are interested in one thing and one thing only: sales. Stories are rarely looked at for their individual merit anymore, but rather looked at by a committee of editors who have a style guide that tells them what the current reading trend statistics of the genre are. What that means is that there are literally thousands of stories slipping through the cracks every year, not because they are bad stories, but because they don’t fit the statistics of the publishing industry at that given time.

We want those stories. We know they are good, and we know they deserve to be read. We also know that there is a difference between self-publishing them on your blog or forum and having an organization like ours pay you for them. It might only be an indy credit, but a credit is a credit in this industry, and every step on the ladder is another step up.

But here’s the thing: being an indy publication, we can’t afford (yet) to spend thousand on advertising to generate readers. What we rely on is a grassroots movement. Rest assured, if we accept your story we will do our absolute best to promote it and market it as the best thing since sliced bread, but we expect our writers, our artists, and our editors to do the same. Even if you only mention it on your blog or your website, that’s something, because it motivates people to buy the publication.

We also require our accepted authors to provide us with an updated photograph + a bio and a link back to their website and/or blog, which we then put up on our Contributor section of the website. The reason for this is simple: promotion of the author. By showing other places your work can be found, as well as allowing readers a chance to connect with you on a more personal level by letting them know who you are behind the scenes, you establish a higher level of credibility and accessibility than if you are just some random name behind a story. We whole-heartedly believe in staying connected with readers, and it’s part of what sets a true professional apart from the non: their willingness to interact with the fans and readers.

We would also love if our authors could be available for interviews and behind-the-scenes features. It’s not mandatory, but keep in mind…the more press you generate, the more sales we get, and the more sales we get, the better we can pay you in the future, the more people read your work, the more chances there are for your work to be seen by the major publications and move you up the ladder.

Keep in mind that just because we have accepted your story for publication, doesn’t necessarily mean you are done. Some stories will be fine as-is, and will only require brief face-lifts to make them ready for publication. Others will be diamonds in the rough; that is, stories which show potential, but need some serious work to get them ready for publication. The simple fact that we have accepted your story means we loved it…but doesn’t mean your work is done. Remember, an editor’s job is only to point out the potential flaws in your story, and ways it could be made better. We are not going to do that work for you. It is your responsibility as an author to craft the finest story possible, and we want to be able to help you reach that point. Just keep in mind that any editing changes done are a collaboration between you and our editing team, and we will be in contact 100% of the way helping you make the most out of your speculative fiction short story.