Are you missing out on publication opportunities because of the submission cost?
While publishing your work can bring in extra cash, for many authors, it feels like a zero-sum, or even a negative-sum game. As submission fees stack up, publishing begins to feel like a financially risky endeavor.
Good news: It doesn’t have to be that way, and you certainly shouldn’t let it stop you from publishing. Many publications don’t charge a submission fee. And yes, they still pay you if they do decide to publish your work.
Too good to be true? Nope! And to top it off, these are highly-recognized magazines. George R.R. Martin, Frank Herbert, and Orson Scott Card all got their start in the pages of these magazines, and these publications boast literally over a 100 Hugo and Nebula Awards between them.
To get you started, we’ve put together a list of three high-paying, no-fee, highly esteemed literary magazines for you to submit to today.
Don’t miss out on a chance to get published. Submit now.
Before you go–a word of warning. With no submission fee, you can bet there are exponentially more authors also submitting their work. Which means exponentially more competition, and exponentially more difficult to stand out.
Just because these opporutnities come at no financial cost doesn’t mean you should submit whatever last draft you have saved on your computer. If you really want to publish, you need to put in the work and get your writing into tip-top shape. Learn more about how we can help you prepare your work for submission. Hop into our calendar for a consultation call.
If these aren’t your thing, no worries. We put out a curated list of the latest publishing opportunities each week. Be sure to check back here in 7 days for 3 more opportunities! Or, you can get on our mailing list to have this list delivered straight to your inbox. Never miss a publishing opportunity again. Click below to sign up.
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The Nashville Review
Who they are: Nashville Review is an esteemed literary magazine published by Vanderbilt University.
What they publish: Fiction, literary nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry, and translation. In terms of genre, they say “From expansive to minimalist, narrative to lyric, epiphanic to subtle: if it’s a moving work of art, we want it. We hope to provide a venue for both distinguished and emerging artists.”
Word Count: Up to 8,000 words from prose, up to 10 pages for poetry.
Pay: $25/poem $100 for prose and art.
Get more information and submit here.
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Who they are: From their website: “From its earliest days in 1977 under the editorial direction of Isaac Asimov, Asimov’s Science FictionMagazine has maintained the tradition of publishing the best stories, unsurpassed in modern science fiction, from award-winning authors and first-time writers alike. In recent years, Asimov’s has placed more stories on the Final Hugo Ballot than all of its competitors combined, and more than twice as many as its closest competitor. Bestselling author Robert Silverberg calls Asimov’s “a truly distinguished magazine, worthy of being set beside such classics of the earlier golden ages as John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction of 1939-42.” The Austin Chronicle lauds Asimov’s as “the most consistently innovative and readable SF magazine on the newsstands today.” George R.R. Martin’s Daenerys Targaryen first appeared in the pages of Asimov’s.
What they publish: Science fiction stories. They say: “In general, we’re looking for “character oriented” stories, those in which the characters, rather than the science, provide the main focus for the reader’s interest. Serious, thoughtful, yet accessible fiction will constitute the majority of our purchases, but there’s always room for the humorous as well. SF dominates the fiction published in the magazine, but we also publish borderline fantasy, slipstream, and surreal fiction.”
Word count: They state that they “seldom buy stories shorter than 1,000 words or longer than 20,000 words. Poetry should not exceed 40 lines.
Pay: $0.08-$0.10/word for prose, $1/ line for poetry.
Get more information and submit here.
Analog Science Fiction
Who they are: From their website: “Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine continues to bring together celebrated authors, new talent, and award-winning stories, poems, and articles, as it has since its launch in 1930. Originally published as Astounding Stories of Science Fiction, Analog remains the unparalleled literary magazine in the genre, and rewards readers with realistic stories that reflect both the highest standards of scientific accuracy and the far reaches of the imagination, as well as lively articles about current research on the cutting edge of science. Analog has published over 60 Hugo and Nebula award-winning stories from the most prominent SF authors in the world.” Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s game as well as Frank Herbert’s fictional planet Dune first appeared in print in Analog.
What they publish: We publish science fiction stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse. The science can be physical, sociological, psychological. The technology can be anything from electronic engineering to biogenetic engineering.
Wordcount: Up to 20,000 words for fiction. 80,000 words or serials.
Pay: $0.08-$0.10/word for short fiction, $0.06/word for serials $1/line for poetry.
Read their guidelines and submit your work here.
Is your work ready for these prestigious magazines?
Just beacuse these publications lack submission fees doesn’t mean you should waste your time–or the editors’ time–submitting a sloppy manuscript. If your first few pages aren’t up to snuff, your hard work will be tossed in the slush pile. If you’re unsure whether or not your work is ready, we can help.
You can sign up for our five page review here to get feedback and professional editing on your work so it’s ready to publish.
Check out how our services helped Lauren get a short story published in an anthology:
