Submission Guidelines
We are open for submissions.
A word of advice: as with any magazine, there's generally certain types of stories we're looking for and love, and certain types that we will not, under any circumstances, publish. We could give you a long list of likes and dislikes, but the easiest way to figure out if your story or poem has a good shot is looking at previous issues. They're free!
Poetry
Send One to five poems in a .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment to basementstoriesmag@gmail.com, with the subject line POETRY: YOUR LAST NAME. There's no length limit here: we at Basement Stories are huge fans of epic poetry, so if you've got it, send it. We now pay a flat rate of $30 a poem, for Issue Three, onwards.
Short Stories
We're primarily looking for science fiction or fantasy stories, but will take anything that's good, so if you have a more conventional story you think would fit Basement Stories, send it our way. We prefer short stories under 6,000 words, because after that our minds tend to drift a bit (and they start getting expensive), but if you have longer pieces that you feel are exceptional enough to merit a longer word count, we'll take a look at them. Send your stories in in a .doc, .docx, or .rtf files to basementstoriesmag@gmail.com with FICTION: Your LAST NAME in the subject line. Pay rate is now three cents a word.
Non Fiction
We're accepting all kinds of non fiction - articles, interviews, reviews,academic papers, or essays - as long as they're somehow related to science fiction and fantasy. If you have an idea that you think would fit our magazine, please query first. Send an email with a short description of your piece to basementstoriesmag@gmail.com, with the subject line NONFICTION QUERY: YOUR LAST NAME. Pay rate is, like for fiction, now three cents a word.
Art
We love art almost as much as we love spaceships. We're looking for cover art for each issue, and would love to have more art to pepper throughout the issue as well. Any medium is welcome. Please send your pieces to basementstoriesmag@gmail.com with ART: YOUR LAST NAME as the subject line, preferably as a .jpeg. Currently, our rates are $60 for cover art and $20 for interior art for issue three onwards.
We're also interested in publishing narrative artwork (i.e. comics), so if you'd like to send yours along, feel free, just please try to keep the file format limited to something we can read (.jpeg, .pdf, etc.), and keep the submissions under twenty pages.
Reprints and Simultaneous Submissions
We accept both. Please let us know if your work is a reprint or a simultaneous submission, and if it's a reprint, where it was previously published. If your simultaneous submission is accepted elsewhere, please let us know, so we can remove your story from our submissions pile.
Response Time
If we haven't sent you a response to your submission within a month, feel free to send us an email telling us to get our act together. Never fear! If we have recieved your work, you will recieve a response.
Rights
We want first-printing world exclusive rights for two months, after which you're free to reprint the story anywhere (though we'd appreciate it if you mentioned it was here first.) We'll also keep the story online here on the website, unless for any reason you'd like it removed.
Reviews
If you're a publisher and would like the staff to review something for the next issue, email (you guessed it!) basementstories@gmail.com, and we'll get back to you shortly. We're also interested in doing more interviews in the future - with publishers, editors, writers, artists, and scientists. (We love scientists.)