Lit Up: Submission Guidelines

New and Improved

DiAmaya Dawn

Published in

Lit Up

10 min readJan 11, 2021

Image by Kaori Nagata (Website, Instagram)

Welcome to Lit Up — The Land of Little Tales!

Here you can read and submit short stories, flash fiction, poetry — in brief, your own legend.

We have a passion for untold stories, and we are always happy to welcome new writers. These are the submission guidelines.

First, a few words about Lit Up’s content:

What do we publish?

Lit Up’s primary focus is that of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction structured in the format of storytelling. We have writing-related articles by our editorial staff and by select invitation of other writers. The publication is not accepting nonfiction personal articles and opinion pieces at this time.

As the ‘Land of Little Tales’, all forms of fiction, poetry (including Haibuns), and creative nonfiction — ALL published works have to tell a story. Articles might be accepted when they are couched as personal memoirs instead of fact journalism.

Lit Up’s aims are for a quality literary online magazine that showcases a broad range of subject matter and forms, and encourages writers to professional writing.

Submissions are limited to two simultaneous works per author. Once a work has been published, you can submit another.
Lit Up does not accept published stories.

Please note: there is absolutely no way we will ever publish a piece that contains racism, sexism, or hate talk in any form.

Meet our team:

DiAmaya Dawn, Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Interview
A Maguire, Managing Editor: Interview
Julia Kantic, Fiction Editor: Interview
Ray Harvey, Poetry Editor: Interview
Dermott Hayes, Prompt Editor: Interview

The Submission Process

A few words on what’s happening backstage:

Lit Up is taking submissions seriously.
We are not here to act as an open page for every submission. We are here to deliver the highest quality fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry on Medium.

In order to achieve that, we are always in search of new, more effective ways to work as a team, but also to help our beloved writers.

FAQ: Submissions may be declined for the following reasons:

The piece contains grammatical, punctuation, spelling and formatting errors, showing a lack of care and/or professionalism. In this case, we will ask for issues to be corrected before resubmitting.
The piece does not have a structure — no beginning, middle or end — and is unsatisfactory to read. This might be the result of poorly thought out plot, lack of plot, lack of characterisation, no flow or tension, lack of meaning or purpose, etc.
The piece has a marked political or religious ideological slant, attacks a segment of society, ridicules a segment of society or otherwise acts as an attack.
The piece is an unsolicited article on writing from an author who was not invited to submit the piece.

Works that are sought are:

Original ideas or satirically acknowledged derivations.
Written clearly, with skilled and knowledgeable use of language.
Presented well, formatting, grammar, spelling and punctuation to a high standard and not requiring hours of editing.
Having a strong authorial voice and style.

When you submit prose:

Your story will be reviewed by our editors Julia Kantic, A Maguire, or me. If the story is accepted, the assigned editor will click “Accept” and you will be able to see the Lit Up logo at the top of your draft. That means we are processing the story.

Next step is proofreading, so our fiction editors (and when Pat Link recovers and returns) will review the story a second time to ensure that every sneaky typo or mistake that survived the first review IS NOW DEAD. Once proofreading is done, our majestic editors will leave a note indicating that your story is accepted.

At this point, I (and sometimes A Maguire as well) step in, do the final review and schedule your story for publication. Lit Up publishes prose twice a week (Tuesday and Sunday).

We aim to publish your stories within a week but please understand, sometimes it might take a little longer depending on the volume of submissions we receive.

FAQ: Prose

⦿ Why don’t we publish immediately?
We know that waiting for your tale to be published is annoying, but we receive many submissions every day. First, we need to ensure they’re free of typos and grammatical issues, and then, if we don’t space them out, they’ll be simply buried under each other and you will lose views and feature time in the homepage. We don’t want that. We don’t only want to expand our publication, our main goal is to promote and help beautiful stories, and that’s exactly what we do. ❤

⦿ Does Lit Up edit the content?
Yes, whenever needed. Our published stories are edited to ensure they are free of typos and grammatical errors. Other corrections, like mixed tenses, unclear phrasing, incorrect word use and the like are highlighted and the writer notified to correct before resubmitting.

⦿ What if major changes are required?
We will never make major changes without communicating with the writer first.

⦿ Will I receive a note if my story is rejected?
Always.

Please note:
We make light edits but please understand that the submissions should be as polished as possible. We encourage you to take the time to ensure your drafts are read through and presented in the most professional manner possible, with a minimum of typos and grammatical errors, and formatted to standard, accepted publishing conventions.
We do hate to reject stories when they fail to comply with our standards, but we will. We are looking for writers who are as proud of their work as we are to publish it.

When you submit poetry

Your poem will be reviewed by Ray Harvey, Peculiar Julia, or me. If accepted, the assigned editor will click “accept” and you will be able to see the Lit Up logo at the top of your draft. That means we are processing the poem.

Next step is proofreading, so the poetry editor (and sometimes A Maguire, Peculiar Julia or I) will review the poem a second time to ensure it is free of typos. Once proofreading is done, our poetry editor will leave a note indicating that your poem is accepted.

At this point, I (and sometimes Peculiar Julia or A Maguire as well) step in, do the final review and schedule your poem for publication. Lit Up publishes poetry twice a week (Monday and Friday).

We aim to publish your poems within a week but please understand, sometimes it might take a little longer depending on the volume of submissions we receive.

Please Note:

Poetry submissions must have a subtitle indicating the poetic form so we can double-check it for you. We encourage you to subtitle your draft even if it is a free verse.
Example:
(Title) “Wandering”
(Subtitle) Sonnet / Free Verse / Sestina / etc

Here, I’d like to remind you that after a lot of thought, we have decided to not accept one-line poetry, Haiku, Tanka, and Senryu as individual poems. We will make, however, an exception for stories told in a mix or series of these forms. That means, if you combine a few Haiku, for example, in the same poem, and the entity tells a story, you’re good to go.

Can’t wait to read them!

P.S. For poetry submissions:

In addition to the requirements above please note that the poems should have something to say. We do love beautiful language — we really do — and we do appreciate masterful use of language — yes, we really do — but if your poem doesn’t say anything in particular, it will be rejected. Example:

“In the beautiful song of a golden-haired angel,
Wooden boats in the sky,
I called my mom,
Peace!”

Will not be accepted (dammit!).

FAQ: Poetry

⦿ Does Lit Up edit the content?
Yes, whenever needed. We are making sure published stories are free of typos.

⦿ What if there are mistakes in meter, rhymes, etc?
We will contact you through private notes

⦿ Will I receive a note if my poem is rejected?
Always.

When you submit a prompt entry

Prompt entries are reviewed by Dermott Hayes or me.

The theme and deadlines are announced in our newsletters.

Prompt entries MUST be subtitled as indicated in the prompt announcement otherwise your entry may be lost in the submission cue and mixed up with general submissions.

If accepted, the editor will click “accept” and you will be able to see the Lit Up logo at the top of your draft. That means we are processing the entry.

Next step is proofreading, so the prompt editor (and sometimes A Maguire, Peculiar Julia or I) will review the entry a second time to ensure it is free of typos. Once proofreading is done, our majestic proofreaders will leave a note indicating that your submission is accepted.

At this point, I (and sometimes A Maguire or Peculiar Julia as well) step in, do the final review and schedule your entry for publication. Lit Up publishes prompt entries every Wednesday (and Thursday when there are no Tales in Parts in line for publication) so make sure you submit in a timely manner as indicated in each prompt announcement.

Lit Up will be selecting the best prompt entries of each month and binding them in their own trimestral digital mag issue!
Additionally, a montly newsletter will be sent, announcing the winners and the full list of entries!

New Writer Requests

New writers are encouraged if they adhere to the above standards. Lit Up accepts new writers once a month to Lit Up, through the submission form online.

The form is currently open.

How to submit, and general submission guidelines

If you’re not yet a writer for Lit Up
Fill out the submission form :

Lit Up’s Submission Form

Please submit only one piece for consideration.

Once we have added you as a writer:

Create a new story and paste your text.
Add tags and a picture (don’t forget to provide the source).

Once your draft is ready to submit, click on the three dots (top right of your story) ->Add to publication -> Lit Up -> Select and Continue->Submit.

***Please do not publish your draft. All published drafts will be rejected.

Submission Checklist:

Every story should:

Be a draft
Have tags that determine its genre and content. (Fiction, nonfiction, short story, flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, romance, horror…)
Have a featured image and its source (You can find some free images on Pixabay, Unsplash, etc. If it’s your own image, please indicate that)
Be read through and presented in the most professional manner possible, with a minimum of typos and grammatical errors, and formatted to standard, accepted publishing conventions. Though we do offer editorial guidance when needed, we simply don’t have the time to clean up your drafts for you.
Have a meaning or point. Stories that ramble from subject to subject without beginning, middle and end will not be accepted. We are looking for quality stories that have something to say.