Short-B-Read Submission Guidelines

What we’re looking for and how to submit your stories

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Welcome to Short-B-Read!

We are Melissa-Jane Nguyen and Dayle Fogarty — sisters who enjoy writing and devouring good books as much as we enjoy devouring a cuppa and some shortbread.

We publish short fictional stories that are anywhere up to 7500 words, as well as non-fiction articles with a focus on fiction writing.

Contents

1. Fiction
2. Non-fiction
3. Writing guidelines
4. Submission process

Fiction

At Short-B-Read we eat up stories that help us escape into other worlds and other minds. We want whimsical wanderings and intriguing yet relatable characters as well as pieces that make us think and view the world in a different light.

All genres, settings, and premises welcome as long as there’s a clear point to your story (think middle, beginning, & end) and the writing is engaging.

We accept stories in the form of poetry, as long as it follows the guidelines.

We’re NOT accepting the following pieces —

• Journal/diary entry, letter, personal essay or blogging style.
• Stories which need more work on the “show don’t tell” technique or has no clear purpose.
• Is riddled with too many errors / is a first draft. (Yep, these two usually go hand-in-hand)
• Stories that include sensitive or triggering content without clear purpose, or with the sole purpose to provoke or garner “shock factor” to readers.

Non-Fiction

We’re looking for useful and practical tips and tricks for fiction writing. We’re not looking for tips for any other kinds of writing but will consider a piece if the advice offered can be used for all kinds of writing.

Writing guidelines

Formatting

1. All pieces require a cover image that you have the rights to. You can find licence-free images on Unsplash or Pixabay. You’re also welcome to use your own images. Just make sure the photographer (even if that’s you) is always referenced in the caption.
2. Use correct heading and subheading formatting — big “T” for headlines and little “t” for subheadings (although subheadings aren’t required if not needed).
3. You can provide a link to your website or mailing list and a bio at the end of your story but keep it brief.
4. All stories need to include at least one of the following tags:

• Fiction
• Writing
• Writing Tips
• Short Story
• Creativity

Editing

Ensure your story has been edited and proofread before submitting.

A helpful proofing technique is to read your work out loud, this will ensure you pick up on those pesky errors our eyes sometimes overlook!

Some light editing may be completed on your story to fix up small typos but your piece won’t be accepted if riddled with errors.

If the story sits outside these guidelines we will offer suggestions to improve or change aspects of your story, which will need to be addressed before we consideration.

Submission process

New writers

To be considered as a writer for Short-B-Read, send an email through to short.b.read.publication@gmail.com with a link to an unpublished draft for consideration.

If your piece is a good fit, we’ll add you as a writer.

Once you’ve been accepted as a writer

If you’ve been added, hit those three little dots at the top right of your screen and simply “add to publication” for review.

We aim to review all stories and get back to you within a week.

Before hitting SUBMIT

Have you…

• Edited and proofed your draft? Including a read through out loud.
• Checked that the story flows, makes sense, has a purpose?

If you have any questions feel free to reach out in the comments or via the comments section.

We look forward to reading your stories!