Guidelines
About Submissions
- All submissions must be submitted via this submission platform in a copy/paste format. We cannot respond to unsolicited submissions via post or email.
- All participating writers must live in the Philadelphia metro area.
- We welcome submissions from established and emerging writers alike.
- Submissions must be short stories, poems, or creative nonfiction of maximum 7,500 characters (spaces included).
- Regarding Poetry: because the Dispenser paper is only 8cm wide, we advise you to take this into consideration when formating your poems. One line on the Dispenser holds approximately 40 characters, spaces included.
- Works may be previously published or unpublished originals. If previously published, please note where it was published at the bottom of your submission so we can give due credit to the original publisher.
- Short Stories and Poetry must be fictional works, but they may be in any style or genre, excluding erotica.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please let us know as soon as possible if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
- Regarding multiple submissions, we accept:
- up to 3 poems,
- up to 1 creative nonfiction piece,
- and 1 short story at a time.
- Our response rate could be anywhere from a few days up to two months, depending on the number of submissions we receive.
About Publication
- Each selected piece will be published as a part of the Philly Storied City project in our Short Story Dispensers located in Philadelphia and on the project website, philly.short-edition.com. The authors will not sign any publishing agreement, nor will they get any royalties for publishing their works. They will keep the rights to publish their texts outside of Short Édition and will be able to delete their stories from the website and the Short Story Dispensers at anytime.
- All submissions will be considered by Short Édition for international publication across all 300+ Dispensers around the world.
If selected for international publication, Short Édition will contact the author to enter into a publishing agreement, paying an advance payment against annual royalties for the author's work (50 euros for each unpublished selected text and 25 euros for each previously published selected text).
- Concerning rights to your work, we ask for:
- the non-exclusive right to publish your work in the Short Story Dispensers located in the Philadelphia metro area.
- the non-exclusive right to publish your work via all other media, such as on our website.
- Please read our Publishing Terms and Conditions here in detail. Submitting your work via this submission platform is an agreement to the full Publishing Terms and Conditions.
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