I always find the reading of guidelines interesting. Most times you can figure out more about the publisher/editor than about the magazine itself. But these guidelines, posted below, for a new publication have me stymied. (Except that the editor might be a bit anal.) What kind of stories are they looking for? I always believed that short stories have to have some kind of conflict to make a reader want to continue, but they seem to want no conflict whatsoever in their stories. The world doesn't wear rose-colored glasses and neither should our stories. So, does anyone have any idea of what exactly these people are looking for in a story? The guidelines seem to have eliminated every genre.
No profanity! No exceptions! If even one word of profanity is found, your story will not be considered for publication.
No sex, nudity, or other lascivious subject matter. No exceptions!
No violence! No exceptions!
No witchcraft, sorcery, magic, occult, supernatural or horror content. No exceptions!
No holiday or occasion stories whatsoever (ex. Christmas, Halloween, birthday, etc.). No exceptions!
Stories submitted must not promote hate, discrimination, illegal activity and the like. No exceptions!
No spelling, grammar or punctuation errors whatsoever. No exceptions! If even one is found, your story will not be published.
11 comments:
While I understand your frustration, I'd actually like to know what site this is, because it would have the kinds of stories I enjoy reading.
You could write for any genre you wish, except possibly horror, and fit those guidelines. They are open to all kinds of conflict. Conflict doesn't have to include swear words or excessive gore to be conflict.
While I read a lot of horror, science fiction, and mysteries--often fiction that breaks all of the rules listed, there is also a good quantity of that same fiction that would meet those standards. In fact, until very recently, most fiction met those standards.
So buck up. It is possible to write a compelling story with tons of conflict without making the characters swear with every other word. :-)
This is going to be a new print magazine, Amy. The Bubble Fiction Magazine. They're looking for submissions for their first issue, one of the reasons I couldn't get a handle on what exactly they're looking for. Here's the link http://www.thebubblemag.com
Yeah, I know you can write without swearing, but when you look at the list of things they don't want, they pretty much preclude any kind of conflict, except maybe two people arguing with each other about something. And that's pretty iffy because they don't want any hate - discrimination - illegal activity - and the like. Pretty much what everyone argues about in one form or another.
Sandra, you've spent too long on the dark side.
Come to the light, Sandra, come to the light.
We have people who can deprogram you.
It starts with 52 weeks of Woman's World romance stories, all of which would seem to meet this publication's requirements. Perhaps it will include several children's stories, such as the Little Train That Could and a selection of Dr. Seuss stories. Perhaps we'll even include a few classic mysteries in which the clear moral is that crime does not pay.
On the other hand, maybe not. That seems like an awful lot of work spent deprogramming you just so you can submit to a non-paying publication...
I agree, Micahel! Besides, I grew up reading the shorts in Good Housekeeping, Red Book and McCalls. My favorite was a story where an old woman cursed a housewife because she didn't stop to help her! As for fairy tales and children's books, my favorites were Grimms and my Golden Book of choice was "Little Black Sambo" - that kid beat the bully by outsmarting him. I do read Nicholas Sparks, but even he has sex in his books! The light continues to evade me ;-) I cannot be deprogrammed.
I doubt that I'd be interested in reading stories written to such guidelines, but they reflect a kind of Hallmark card world of pleasantries and happy endings that many readers are content with.
Yes, there is a market for such stories, Ron, just not my cup of tea either. While I do enjoy cozy mysteries and such I still like a bit of an edge to them. I prefer my Hallmark moments in TV movies - I usually cry like a baby when I watch them. My reading and writing has always tended toward the darkness in world. Not sure why.
Sounds more like a joke by editors who are really, really tired of the submissions process.
My best educated guess would've been the Hallmark type stories. However it seems to me that they would be doing this tounge planted firmly in cheek.
Then again, I ran across an agency that made it known on their website that they didn't want any stories about cats or featuring cats.
Interesing, my word verify is "loutsubs".
Perhaps you can use that to describe this particular process?
This is a brand new magazine, Naomi. I found it over at Duotrope and they seem to be deadly serious about their guidelines. For me, it seems like they want to have a magazine, but don't want to do any editing. but that's just my opinion.
I like that, G! loutsubs, it is!
It looks to me like an example of someone who started a magazine so that he/she could act like a martinet toward prospective writers. It's not so much the limitations as it is the "No exceptions!" after each one that give that impression. Sort of like Eric Cartman as a police officer: "You must respect my authoritie!" (sic)
That's it, Justin! The "No exceptions!" really floored me. I've found that most editors will work with writers, and most of them will expect a mistake or two - try as we might, we can't catch them all.
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