Submission Guidelines

Short Story Submissions

If you’ve had a short story published through a competition, magazine or anthology, or have had a story you've written performed on radio or TV, then you could write a post for my blog.

What I Need

I'm looking for previously published short stories only. I need to be able to publish your story on my website in the short stories section.

I'll need you to accompany your story with details of how you went about getting it published. So, if you were published through a competition, I’ll ask you to write about your experiences with that competition (same with magazines, anthologies… however the story was published):

• What market research did you undertake?
• How did you go about writing your story?
• Why do you think it won or was selected for publication?
• Do you have any correspondence with the judges or editors that you can share? (I’ll be happy to include their bios and/or details of their competitions and magazines.)
• What advice can you offer other writers based on your experience?
• How can they use that advice to improve their own writing and chances of being published?

The key is to give readers something they can take away and put into practice to help them become published, win a competition etc. Clearly show the reader how your story and accompanying advice give them a better chance of experiencing success with their own writing, particularly via the publication that accepted your story.

I will also need a biography and photograph (a clear mugshot, nothing abstract) to accompany the post.

The copyright of any stories I publish remain with the author.

Examples

Here are some example posts that are already on the site, clearly showing the format I require. Please review them so you understand the preferred style.

• Gabriel's Halo, by Rhiannon Lewis - this story won the Writers' Forum short story competition and was published in the magazine
• The In-Between Days, by Cameron Dunham - this story was published by Fictive Dream
• Traffic, by Nick Sweeney - this story came runner-up in the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, run by The Royal Society of Literature

Writing Advice Submissions

I'm looking for highly informative posts containing lots of practical writing advice, written by authors that are qualified/have the relevant experience to talk with authority about their chosen subject matter.

What I Need

Posts that contain advice backed up with real-life experience. I ask all writers to clearly show how they have used any tips they give in practice to generate success. These posts will appear in the Writing Advice section of my website.

I welcome the following blog post formats:

• Case studies
• Expert editorial tips
• Expert writing advice
• 'How to' tutorials

I'll need your biography and a photograph of you to accompany the post.

Examples

Here are some example posts so you can see the style I prefer.

• 7 Creative Writing Tips That No One Else Will Give You by Dr Lynda Nash, creative writing tutor and critical reader
• Case Study: Self Publishing, by HR Kemp, a self-published author from Australia
• Do You Make These 7 Big Mistakes When Entering Story Contests? by Dr John Yeoman, founder of Writers' Village, author, tutor and writing contest judge
• How to Become an Amazon Bestseller by Simone Elise, an Amazon bestselling author, published by Inkitt

Frequently Asked Questions

Below you will find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and other general submission guidelines.

How Long Should My Post Be?

There is no strict word limit - I'm open to posts of any length. As an example, some of the resources on this site are in excess of 50,000 words, so there really is no upper word limit.

In contrast, some of the short posts are about 200 words. How Long is a Short Story? is a good example of a short post. It's short because the subject matter doesn't require a lot of words to answer the question.

I prefer highly informative posts, so they don't tend to be short. All the posts I've accepted to date are in excess of 1,000 words. Most are between 2,000 and 5,000 words. If you're submitting a short story, this would NOT include the word count of the story itself, just the post that accompanies the story.

What Style Of Post Should I Write?

Posts should be written in an informative but casual, conversational style, in your own voice. I like humour, so feel free to be entertaining, but give the reader takeaway pieces of advice which they can then:

• Apply to their own writing to improve their stories
• Use to give them a better chance of being published
• Use to sell more books
• etc.

Any advice given must be backed up by real-life examples. So, if you provide writing tips, I will ask you to share a story you've had published that shows how you used the tips in practice.

Be sure to review the posts linked to above so you can clearly see the style I prefer.

Plagiarism

I only accept original guest posts. All submitted posts are checked for plagiarism. Any posts containing advice that is already published elsewhere on the internet will be rejected.

If you are submitting a post that contains a short story that has already been published on the internet, just mention it when you contact me. The plagiarism checks mentioned above are for the advice that accompanies a story, not the story itself.

What Will I Get Paid?

Sweet FA.

Hmm, while my frank honesty should be commended, maybe I should be more PC and put this into context...

At the present time I’m unable to offer monetary recompense for guest posts (yes, that wording is probably more appealing…). I hope to be able to offer payments in the future, but at present the site doesn't generate enough money to make offering payments to guest writers viable.

So What’s In It For Me?

You’ll be required to provide a biography and an author photo as part of your post. You can also include a link to your website.

You’ll enjoy exposure to a large audience by having your marvellous words published on my website. The site currently receives from 25,000 to 35,000 visits a month.

You’ll be featured in my emails. My email list has over 5,500 subscribers.

And I'll share the post on social media.

If you submit a short story, your post will also be linked to from my short story competition or short story magazines lists – whatever is most relevant. The aim is to give other writers information about the competitions and magazines in the lists, so they can learn about them and have a better chance of being published through them.

If a competition you’ve won or a magazine that has published your work does not appear in the lists, don’t worry – I’ll add them to it.

If you’ve been published by some other medium that I don’t currently mention on the site, don’t be put off. I’m happy to create new resources that other writers might find useful.

What I Don’t Want

I do not accept:

• Advertorial posts, telling readers how amazing your books, products or services are
• Generic guest posts by digital agency writers who have no expertise or direct experience with writing and publishing fiction
• Paid posts, where you offer me money to host content for you so you can get a link
• Posts that have nothing to do with writing

How to Submit – Get In Touch

Before writing anything, please send an email to me at chris@christopherfielden.com providing details of your fiction writing experience, including links to examples of your published stories.

If you're not a fiction writer, please clearly outline why you're qualified to write for a website focussed on fiction writing.

Please also outline what you would like to write about and why you think it would be appropriate for my readers.

For more details, please see my contact page.

I do not accept posts about self-published stories – your story has to have been previously published by someone independent.

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