How to submit
The Source
of all joys and woes: Submission guidelines
— — — — Updated May 2024 — — — —
We are here at the source, the beginning of things, from here the words will flow and wash their way along wherever they find their course. The strange, the weird, the faerie words, the experimental, the surreal, the hypnotic waters — pour them on the page and send them to us.
We are looking for stories of 1500 words or less, poems of not too longness, belles lettres, the musings of the prettily insane, and the tears of the lost. You can send us longer works but they’ll need to be extra special. We delight in previously unpublished work, but also take great joy in previously published pieces if they belong here (make sure to let us know where it has appeared before, and that the rights have reverted to you).
Seek out the still waters, the ripple shadows, and the babbling brooks. Listen to their whispers and feel their flow. Only then cast your words into the current of The Mad River.
Here at the beginning of things we do not know how long it will take us to get back to you, but it will be just as soon as we can. We are not a factory but a fairytale workshop so all submissions will be treated with tender loving care. This can take time, and sometimes time can take us.
The river is mad, the river is poor, the river is unable to pay you at this time. But if you are part of the Partner Program we accept works that hide behind the pay wall as well as those that dance free in the wide world. We are able to nominate for the Boost program.
Rights:
By submitting works to The Mad River you agree that it is original, of your own composition, and that you have all the relevant rights to do so.
If your work is accepted, you agree to give The Mad River first serial electronic rights to your work and nonexclusive electronic and print rights in perpetuity. You are agreeing to let us archive your work on our website www.The-Mad-River.com and to include it in future publications and anthologies. Your work is yours, but we will continue to have the right to share it. For this reason, please pay close attention to our submission process, and always submit by email.
If your piece has been previously published elsewhere you agree that you have informed us and give The Mad River the right to republish, print, and archive the work (and that you have the right to do so).
All other rights revert to the author upon publication.
If you publish the work elsewhere in the future, we ask that credit be given to The Mad River for first publication.
How to submit:
Send your submission (the full text) in the body of an email, along with a link to the draft version on Medium (you can get the link by clicking ‘share’ on your draft page), to: submissions[@]the-mad-river[dot.]com (minus the square brackets and the written ‘dot’).
If you are not a member of Medium (and even if you don’t want to be a member of Medium) you can still submit your work to us.
Please use the subject line with the following format: Submission-[fiction/poem/other] - [original/reprint]. If you choose ‘other’ then please tell us why in your cover letter. If the piece has been previously published please tell us where, and reassure us that you have the right to offer it for republication. Feel free to include a short bio.
If you are already a writer for The Mad River please add the draft to the publication and follow the same steps as above.
No simultaneous submissions please or we shall be drowned.
Big thanks to Vidar Kristiansen for our current cover photo.
