Short Story Guidelines
With straight talk from
Devin Marcus
Short Story Editor
shorts@aphelion-webzine.com
What I'm looking for:
Aphelion is here to help authors gain experience and to give stories
exposure, but, above all, to entertain
our readers. The number one piece of advice I can give to inexperienced
authors is to tell a complete
story about engaging characters. Generally speaking, you get about 200
words to rope in the reader before he or she clicks on some other link,
so don't waste those words. Start strong, make your character likable
or engaging, and give them a real, serious problem to overcome.
They may or may not overcome that problem, but write the ending in some
way that
makes the reader feel like they've learned or shared something in
reading about the experience.
Reach a satisfying resolution. The biggest problem I usually see is
that authors send in ideas rather than stories. A good idea is cool,
but without a logical endpoint or meaningful development, it ends up
lacking. Fill in the world, show us why we should care about it and
your characters, and give it an ending.
Be creative. I want to be able to see the author’s mind behind their
piece, however subtle. What makes this story yours? If you’re
trying to write in order to emulate somebody or something else, I’m not
interested. This might be the first time a reader is encountering your
work; make sure they remember it.
General:
Aphelion will accept original stories with a science fiction, fantasy,
or horror theme and will not accept fan fiction stories because of the
risk of copyright infringement this often entails. Note, however,
that the boundaries of 'science fiction', 'fantasy', and 'horror' are
nebulous things, and we have been known to stretch the point.
Fan fiction, of course, is anything that involves copyrighted
characters or institutions, including (but not limited to) Star Trek
(TM), Star
Wars (TM), etc., etc.
I will edit to a PG-13 level. (Think to yourself, 'Could I say this
on CSI?') If you feel your story needs to contain all those 4-letter
words, send it somewhere else. Aphelion is an all-ages magazine.
Stories that, in the opinion of the editors, contain bigotry or
slander will not be published.
No simultaneous submissions.
I hate spending 2-3 hours getting your story ready only to have it go
to
someone else, so just don't do it. Plus, I will remember you, and not
in a good way.
Copyright:
Aphelion asks only the right to publish the work once in our webzine
and all other rights are kept by the author. We ask to be able to
archive the published work, but will remove a work from the archive at
the authors request (so as not to interfere with potentially paying
markets). From time to time, we may run 'best of' selections, in which
we may re-run previously published material. If you do not wish to
allow your work to be included for consideration in this manner, please
let us know.
Pet
Peeves:
After you've done all the above and sent me your best work, then I
spend a lot of time fixing it up and formatting it for
the magazine. Next, I send you an acceptance letter with a link to your
story as it will appear in the magazine. DON'T
reply back with an all-new version of the same story that you want me
to use instead. I’ve already sunk so much work and care into this
version, and to have you pop up another one at that point is just
insulting.
"All right" is two words.
"Already" is one.
Also, there is no legitimate reason to start a sentence with the word
"And." Really.
Punctuation goes inside
the quote marks, not after.
SPELL CHECK and PROOFREAD your story. Let me repeat that: SPELL CHECK
and PROOFREAD. I mean that.
Please, PLEASE try to vary your word choice. If every paragraph has
“said” in it, time and time again, I’ll end up miserable and bored to
tears halfway through.
If you use italics in every paragraph, I swear I will
not even finish reading your story. A little goes a long way.
'Helping' me out:
If you feel inclined to "help" with formatting, don't use smart quotes.
We use the inch and foot symbols because some older browsers won't show
smart quotes right. Replace ellipses(...) with three periods, and use a
space after them when trailing a thought off, like... Hyphens and
EM dashes "—" don't always show up right, so we replace those with "--"
every time. Don't try
to put in the html tags. Nine
people out of ten do it wrong, and then I have to redo them, which
irritates me. Don't use extra lines between paragraphs. The system does
that automatically.
I go over all these things in your story anyway, but do yourself a
favor. The content of the story is the deciding factor on whether or
not we'll accept it, but the easier you make it on an editor, the more
inclined he or she will be to approach your tale in a happy mood.
Editors have a lot to do and day jobs, too, so fixing your stream of
consciousness without capital letters or punctuation isn't something
I'll consider.
Length:
Short stories (1,001 to 7,500 words) should be sent to Devin Marcus at
shorts@aphelion-webzine.com.
Flash stories (1,000 words or less) should be sent to flash@aphelion-webzine.com.
Stories longer than 7,500 words should be sent to Lester Curtis at
serials@aphelion-webzine.com
All Mare Inebrium stories should be sent directly to the
senior editor and publisher of Aphelion, Dan Hollifield
at
mare@aphelion-webzine.com
All poetry submissions should be sent to Iain Muir at poetry@aphelion-webzine.com
Writers will receive copyright notices at the end of each story,
and a
short biography. If you do not supply a bio, don't be surprised if I
make a humorous one up. Aphelion will also provide an optional link to
your homepage and an e-mail link at the end of each story. Include the
bio and URLs with your submission!
Cover Letter:
The cover letter should state that you are submitting the manuscript
to Aphelion and should contain a brief biographical
sketch. One or two sentences will be enough, more if you are so
inclined. If you have published other work, please list
the most recent ones, preferably work in the same genre as the
story you are submitting.
Format:
Submit all stories as Rich Text Format (.rtf). The latest versions
of Word have been giving the old versions owned by the Shorts Editor a
lot of headaches. If you can't do .rtf, then use word .doc, but keep it
to the 1997-2003 standard.
---------------
length of story in words
your email address & bio information
Title
By (Your Pen Name)
[Text left justified]
THE END
---------------
Always include a title for your story.
Always indicate your byline beneath the title.
Always place the words "The End" at the end of the story so we will
know that I have received everything.
Response Time:
Currently, response is within 2 months. Aphelion editors have day
jobs
so don't be surprised if it takes longer, but if it gets to double that
time, send me an email so I can be sure I didn't copy it into the wrong
folder or something like that.
In practical terms, there's a limit to the number of stories an
editor can get ready in a month. There's a steady flow of them coming
in. I've
got to balance helping authors learn and grow, audience needs, and time
available. Some stories are rejected
because they're not the right fit for our audience. Others are refused
because I have already enough tales that I feel will better entertain
our
readers, and those are the ones I need to focus my available time on.
It is not personal if you are rejected. I'm an author and I hate
rejections, too.
Keep trying with another story.
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