guidelines

We are currently looking for writers and artists to submit their work. We are a non-paying market, but all successful submissions will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine.

Please be aware we are looking for 1st British serial rights. If your work has been previously published please state this clearly. Your work may also be partially published online for teaser purposes.

Artists please contact us regarding our current needs.

By submitting your work you are agreeing to these terms.

Please send submissions as plain, unformatted text-only files (either as an e-mail attachment or, if it fits, in the body of an e-mail message) to morpheustales@blueyonder.co.uk. Two submissions maximum at a time, please.

Fiction:
Must be horror, science fiction or fantasy, or a mixture of those genres. We are looking for high quality work with plot or character driven stories.

Fiction: Maximum 3000 words.

Non-fiction:
Articles and interviews on horror, science fiction and fantasy related subjects may be accepted. Please contact us with your idea first to avoid disappointment.

Articles/Interviews: up to 3000 words.

Reviews on horror, science fiction and fantasy related products, including books, films, dvds, graphic novels, comics, toys, websites, etc.

Reviews: Maximum 500 words.

To give you some idea of what an editor has to go through, we've read through over a hundred stories in the past, almost six weeks, and about seven stories will appear in the first issue.

It's not that the other stories weren't any good, obviously some of them weren't, but some of them very good, they just weren't right for us.

Unfortunately it's difficult to say. We're not looking for one particular thing, otherwise it would be a lot easier. But there are a few simple rules that can help.

READ the writers guidelines. Sending in a submission that's well over the maximum word limit will not endear you to an editor. Sending in a type of story that the magazine doesn't publish is not much good either. Do your homework and, if you can, buy a copy of the magazine before submitting your work.

The easiest way to get rejected is to make mistakes. If an editor has to work hard to read your story then it's much more likely to be rejected. Make sure you check your submission for spelling errors and grammar, typos happen, but good proof-reading should remove most of them.

Try to stick closely to the Standard Manuscript Format when submitting work, for more details:

Make your story stand out. You've got limited words, so make every one count. Make sure your story has something that makes it different, the plot, characters, style, anything that raises it above the level of the other stories the editor is likely to read that week. We sometimes read five or six stories a day, so you need to make your work memorable.

The best type of story is one that makes the reader feel something, whether it's amazement, fear, horror, joy…. Think about the stories you remember and why you remember them, then set out to create something like that.