Guidelines
10Flash Quarterly no longer accepted submissions. The April 2012 was the last issue.
10Flash Quarterly publishes speculative flash fiction stories — fantasy, horror, science fiction, suspense or slipstream — between 800 and 1,000 words. We may fudge on the bottom number, from time to time, but the top limit is firm.
We do not publish poetry or unsolicited non-fiction articles.
Each quarterly issue will feature ten stories, all written around a common prompt. These prompts are not intended to be restrictive, but rather to provide a thread to pull the issue together. However, the prompt is important. Its minimalization (or absence) suggests to us that an author has sent a trunk story with the prompt stuck on. Such submissions will be rejected.
However, as authors, you are encouraged to freely interpret the prompt and use the genre of your choosing. Write what you are familiar with or experiment with a tale that is outside your usual genre.
We are open to new ideas and reinterpretations of genre — as long as your work is well written.
We want to experience frisson. We are looking for stories that have been crafted with care and an eye for detail, that offer characters and a plot free of cliché and that proceed to a conclusion that is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying.
Most of all, we are looking for stories that are fun to read.
That’s why we were drawn to genre fiction as young readers. We suspect that is true of all of us who still read such stories.
Even so, 10Flash is not intended for a juvenile market. We will consider work that includes content of a mature sexual nature, as well as moderated use of profanity and violence — as long as we are convinced that such elements are not hard core and are integral parts of the story.
Please, no simultaneous or multiple submissions.
10Flash uses Hey Publisher Submissions to handle all submissions. Here’s the link to the Hey Publisher Submission Page.
Please include a biographical paragraph at the bottom of your manuscript. The biography should include the city and state in which you live (it’s a personal quirk of the publisher), your best three or four publication credits, writing awards you may have won, major workshops you have attended (or degrees, if they are in creative writing) and professional memberships. We’re not interested in your hobbies, how long you have been writing or how many unpublished novels you have written.
We are willing to work with writers on story ideas, but please don’t send first drafts. We expect submitted work to be in standard manuscript format, edited and proofread prior to submission, but we do understand that the occasional typo slips past us all. We will correct such errors as we find them.
Here’s a great article from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America on how to format a manuscript. Manuscript Preparation.
We may also come upon individual words or short phrases that we believe need to be changed to strengthen the story. We will not make such changes without the explicit approval of the author and will provide the author with written notice of all requested changes. We may also ask for a rewrite, if we believe the story concept warrants it and there is sufficient time before publication to do so. A rewrite request is not a guarantee of publication.
We will provide notice of acceptance or rejection, via e-mail, within 45 days of the receipt of a story. We also will provide a publication contract — via e-mail — for each accepted story and will require return notice of agreement prior to publication. The contract will ask for first-time electronic publication rights, and the right of perpetual archiving of the story.
Payment for an accepted story is $20, regardless of word count. Payment will be made within six weeks of publication, either by Pay Pal or a check sent via snail mail. Author’s choice.
Details of these guidelines may be added or edited from time to time. If you have questions, we can be reached via e-mail at editor@10flashmagazine.com.
We look forward to reading your stories.
K. C.
Read the good stuff at 10Flash Quarterly