First things first...
What We’re Looking For / Not Looking For:
- Think about our tag (The Intersection of Freedom and Loss) as you write or choose an existing piece to submit. We love nuance.
- Read the magazine. Read early stories and poems and look at early art posted here. They represent the tone we’re looking for.
- This is not an avenue for bashing, insulting, getting revenge upon, etc. Don’t use names of real people, churches, etc.
- We are not looking for hatred, either toward the church or toward God.
- Try to find humor, grace, or at least some lightness.
- This is not an anti-christian space. We like what Jesus said, just not what many of his followers say.
Other Stuff You Should Know:
- We can’t pay for submissions right now.
- We want to hear from you. “You” means anyone.
- When we say, ‘Fiction’ we mean literary, genre, whatever!
- When we say, ‘Nonfiction’ we do not mean a page from your autobiography WIP. Think creative Nonfiction, not an op-ed or research paper.
- Get controversial if you want to. Use salty language if you want to. But good grief, don’t aim to shock. Don’t get sexy. Don’t include violence, hatred, dehumanization, bigotry, etc. We’re sure none of that needs to be said, but, you know, the internet…
- We know how much it sucks to get rejection letters. We’re writers too. If you get one, please know how much we appreciated your submission and please submit again.
- It is our goal to eventually do quarterly print issues featuring the published pieces we love most. We’ll see how things go.
Now to those Submission Guidelines:
- Simultaneous submissions allowed, but notify us if accepted elsewhere.
- Submission quotas (for now): up to one piece per category per submission period (short fiction, micro fiction, poetry, artwork, comic, nonfiction).
- Formats:
- Written: .doc, .docx
- Art: .jpeg, .png, or other common image formats
- Comic: PDF or image sequence
- Google doc
- Word counts:
- Fiction & Nonfiction: ≤ 3,000 words
- Poetry: ≤ 1,000 words
- Microfiction: exactly 100 words
- Cover letter: brief, and include a short third-person bio / contributor note.
- Reprints: okay if author holds copyright; disclose in cover letter.
- Originality: NO AI-generated content. Be godlike and do your own creating.
- Review timeline: target 8–12 weeks for response. It's early days and there's only one editor for now. Please be patient with me while I give all submissions fair consideration.
- Rights: you retain your copyright; Backsliders asks for non-exclusive right to publish on backslidersmagazine.com and on Backsliders social media for promotion.
- Editing: submit polished, ready-to-publish work. If it's not ready to publish, it will not be considered. Check your grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb tense, etc!
- How To Submit:
- Email your finished, fully edited work to: backslidersmagazine@gmail.com
- In subject line, please indicate that it's a submission along with your category. i.e. "Submission - Fiction"
- In the body, please include the following: Name, email, bio (>100 words), title of your submission, genre, word count, and your brief cover letter / contributor note. Include social media links if you want them featured, if published.
- Attached file (see formats above).
- Pat yourself on the back. Submitting takes guts.
- If Your Piece Is Selected...
- We will contact you by email to let you know
- We will publish your piece along with your name, your >100 word bio, your social media links.
- We love imagery juxtaposed with text so we use Unsplash to choose an image to accompany written pieces (fiction, poetry, micro fiction, nonfiction). If you feel there is a certain image you'd like to be featured alongside your piece, send a link to it on Unsplash and we'll do our best to use it. We want your voice, aesthetic, and tone to come through as you imagine it.
- If Your Piece Is Not Selected...
- We will contact you by email to let you know
- Please don't be discouraged. Try to submit again later.