PLEASE NOTE: Supernatural Tales is closed to submissions for the foreseeable future.
Length
It's hard to spell out what I'm looking for in a short story, but I think the word 'short' is awfully useful. The shorter a story - and I mean this in a blindingly obvious sense - the easier it is to fit into a little magazine. So while I set a quite arbitrary upper limit of 8,000 words on a submission, in practice anything that long had better be really superb. I have a soft spot for very short stories in the 1,500 word range. But, as with the long 'uns, the short-shorts have to be pretty damn good to stand out.
Submissions
I prefer files in Word format submitted by email to:
davidlonghorn@hotmail.com
I will consider multiple submissions, up to a point.
I hope authors who have made multiple submissions will be polite enough to tell me so.
I will try to respond to submissions quickly (in weeks, rather than months) but can't guarantee this.
I must insist that a story submitted to Supernatural Tales might - however tenuously - be described as a tale of the supernatural. Awfully restrictive, I know, but there it is. That said, a conventional and predictable ghost story of the kind we've all seen, heard and read a thousand times should not be submitted to ST. Come to think of it, such stories should not be written in the first place.
Horror is all very well, but there are plenty of horror magazines out there. Try them first if you're into writing about people's viscera exploding all over the tea things. You will impress me by showing subtlety and wit, as opposed to gore-porn and OTT prose.
Rights and Related Matters
The rights to a story remain with the author, and I have no right to do anything with it at all, ever, after it appears in ST. By the same token, though, I would rather not receive stories that are about to be published in book form i.e. within 12 months of ST publication. Stories that have appeared on websites are a tricky area and I can't generalise. But obviously publication on a very popular site will mean that the story is effectively second-hand and I'd be obliged if an author would tell me this.
'After all this, what meagre reward can I expect?'
Precious little, really. Contributors to ST receive two free copies of the magazine in the case of fiction, one free copy in the case of non-fiction. There is also a small cash prize for the story that garners the most reader votes in a given issue. The prize is currently £25, plus the kudos of knowing people like your work. I wish ST were a professional, paying magazine, but then I also wish I had an indefinable allure. You play the hand you're dealt.
