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Submission Guidelines

Sound & Color considers original, human-derived works of speculative fiction, including science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism and their associated subgenres.

We are an inclusive Black, queer, femme-run market and as such welcome submissions from writers from underserved identities and lived experiences as well as interpretations of our themes from decolonial and intercultural lenses.

Rates & Rights

Flash fiction: Up to 1500 words - $80 USD flat rate

Short fiction: Up to 4500 words - $0.09 USD/word

We buy first-printing world exclusive English-language rights (including audio rights) for six (6) months. After that period, you are free to republish the story elsewhere.

Authors accepted for publication must be able to receive payment via check, PayPal, or Zelle.

Instructions

  1. Review the Issue Brief for your chosen prompt
  2. Submit your work through our portal where you will be prompted for the following information:
    • Title of the work
    • Byline
    • File attachment (docx, pdf) - documents should be reasonably formatted for easy reading using a minimum 11pt standard serif or sans-serif font and 1.5-2 line ("double") spacing. Your mailing address and legal name are not required at this stage.
    • Bio (up to 150 words)
    • Pitch: A brief introduction to your story and its fit for the theme (up to 150 words)
    • Content warnings - please include only warnings for the following for the benefit of our slush readers: sexual assault, death of a child, hate speech, depictions of genocidal violence

Note: Please double and triple-check that you are submitting the file you would like considered and that you are confident enough in the work to have it read. We will be very cranky to receive follow-up emails or withdrawals citing improvements made to the manuscript after submission, and will not accommodate requests to update the document we have on file.

Simultaneous Submissions

No restrictions, but please let us know if/when the work has been accepted elsewhere.

Response Times

30 days

Hard Sells

  • Second-person narration
  • Prose-as-listicle format
  • Graphic depictions of sexual assault

Do Not Submit

Though we hope to open to these formats in the future, at the this time we are unable to consider submissions of:

  • Unsolicited reprints
  • Essays/Nonfiction
  • Poetry
  • Reviews/Criticism

We are permanently closed to submissions of:

  • generative A.I./LLM-derived projects — see our policy here
  • works of genocidal or fascist apologia
  • works espousing racist and queer/transphobic ideals or other forms of hateful rhetoric