Helpful hints for your submissions.

During our open period, we have received well over 300 submissions. Many of these are simply outstanding. However, i just want to take a moment and make some friendly suggestions that will help your submission find a home:

1. Please make sure you send only .rtf or .doc files. Please check your file extension. If it is .docx we cannot open it.
2. I am finding it difficult to place many 4000+ word stories. We have only limited space, so the shorter your story, the more opportunities for publication it creates for us. This is not to say we do not want nor enjoy longer tales, just that we can only publish a few of them.
3. We love flash fiction and microfiction. I was a bit skeptical at first, but over the past year, short short fiction has really grown on us, PLUS it's easy to find room for (see #2 above).
4. Short bios and short synopses are a plus. We will read your story without them, but we like them.
5. It is helpful if you at least tell us what sub-genre the story falls into (noir, crime, creature horror, etc.)
6. Should we publish poetry? We do not currently publish poetry, but if you want it, we will provide it.
7. We still prefer monsters over vampires, ghosts over serial killers, and atmosphere over gore.
8. Include your title in your subject line please, and be creative with your title. It's the first word(s) of your story anyone will read;
9. Please do not send your first, unedited and unseen draft. Pass that baby around to your writer buddies and get some feedback. Carve it down to its essential elements. Proofread it please.
10. About #9. A good story may still contain a few errors. We run all of our stories through a copyeditor anyway. However if the errors are so egregious s to distract from the content and quality of the tale, we will probably send it back your way.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Tim