Submissions to More Distant Shores
We are currently open for submissions. At this time, we are only accepting fiction submissions. Read on for guidelines, or submit to More Distant Shores now (you must be logged in).
Quick Facts
- Send us only unpublished short fiction that you have written. No generative AI—not for brainstorming, not for writing.
- No genre limitations. Writing quality is key consideration.
- Pay at 10¢ per word, 1,000-10,000 words. This buys first digital rights (text and audio) and non-exclusive anthology rights.
- As we try to respond to piece within two weeks, we do not consider simultaneous submissions. If you desperately need to submit your piece to another market, please withdraw it from your submissions before submitting it elsewhere. You can always re-submit that story later (courtesy not extended to stories we have rejected).
What We Want
First and foremost, the most important criterion in whether we select your piece for publication is the quality of the writing. We want pieces that are clear, tight, and highly edited. Overly literary passages may work against you (or they may not; as with all writing advice, you can flout the rule if you do a good enough job of it).
As mentioned, you may submit pieces of any genre (or pieces that defy genre classification). We are especially interested in pieces that are just a little odd—think The Twilight Zone. If a pieces feels too speculative for a traditional literary magazine, but not speculative enough for an SFWA magazine, it might find a good home with More Distant Shores.
Fiction Guidelines
| Category | Our Policy |
|---|---|
| Word Count | 1,000-10,000 words. The longer your piece is, the better it must be. |
| Pay | 10¢ per word. Payment via PayPal or wire transfer. |
| Language | We are only able to accept stories written in English. We do not accept translations of stories. |
| Genre | We accept short fiction pieces, irrespective of genre. |
| Rights | We buy first digital rights (text and audio) and non-exclusive anthology rights. |
What We Don't Want
- Do not send in a story created with a generative AI tool (such as ChatGPT), nor one using any generative AI tool for assistance in any way.
- Do not submit published work, even if it has only appeared on your blog, newletter, website, etc.
- Do not submit work that is under consideration for a different publication. Do not submit work that is under consideration at More Distant Shores to a different publication.
- Do not submit a story you did not write. Not for the AI reasons above, not because you translated a story from a different language.
- Do not submit fanfiction or other intellectual property violations.
- Do not submit nonfiction or poetry. We do not publish either at this time.
The Submission Process
To begin, submit your story through our submissions form. You will recieve an email confirmation; the submission should also appear under your account submissions. If either does not appear, please contact us.
You can track the status of your submissions from your account page. We aim to respond to all pieces within two weeks. If your have not heard from us after one month (about four weeks), please reach out; we may have lost track of your piece, and we want to make sure it is given proper consideration.
If your piece is rejected, we ask that you wait at least two weeks before submitting again. If your piece is accepted for publication, we will reach out for additional details and to provide the contract.
On Em Dashes and Generative AI
We here at More Distant Shores do not want any story that was created with generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT, Claud, Gemini). Do not send us a story created with a generative AI tool, nor one using any generative AI tool for assistance in any way. Every word that you submit should be a word you (the human) chose specifically because you felt it served your piece. If you submit a piece created by or with artificial intelligence, we may revoke your submission priviliges.
Em Dashes
Use of em dashes will not inherently result in your piece being rejected for "using AI," nor will it raise red flags in and of itself (whereas if you're writing sentences like "All systems go—ready to assist you!", you might want to edit your writing anyway).
With that in mind, there is an undeniable association of the humble em dash with generative AI. Don't fret—this can be an opportunity. Take a look at the previous sentence. An em dash was used, but it didn't need to be. A semicolon or period would have sufficed. A comma and "as" could have been added to join the clauses. Or maybe the sentence deserved re-writing altogether.
Or maybe the setence was perfect. That is up to you as the author. But take some time to think about what other punctuation—what other ways of expressing ideas—you might be losing out on by choosing the em dash.
Other Notes
No other notes at this time.
If you have reached this point, and you have your short fiction piece polished and ready to go, submit to More Distant Shores.