Monthly Contest Submission Guidelines

The following is for regular, monthly contests, not for the BTGS contest. There is a separate link for that. See bar under header.


Contest submissions are only accepted each month beginning at 12 a.m. on the first day of the month and ending at 11:59 p.m. on the second of each month. These are Eastern Standard Times.

I am actually begging you to read these guidelines. Please.

Special note: Current and past students of mine (Katharine Wolford), at IUSB, ARE NOT eligible for any writing contest.

Overall Information For Contest Submissions
* You must be 18 to be published in Enchanted Conversation.
* The content age level is 13 or above. Think The Hunger Games and late Harry Potter books for content level. But EC is NOT a young children's publication. No sci-fi, high fantasy, space travel, werewolves, vampires or zombies, unless I very specifically call for it. Dark is just fine, but always try to celebrate the human condition, even if the story or poem involves tragedy. No erotica. Retelling a classic fairy tale is not required. The publication has not has themes for some time. But your work should reflect the essence of classic fairy tales, even if they are current in setting, mood, etc.

* All formatting must be clean, clear and in the body of an email. No attachments will be opened or considered. If you copy and paste from a word processing program, be sure each line breaks normally as though you were writing across the email message box.Tricky spacing or elaborate breaks, a huge amount of paragraph breaking and symbols like *&%^) will harm a submission's chances of being chosen. Updated: Please do not indent paragraph openings. Just break once between paragraphs. Just one, clearly defined space.
* Please edit your work. Since American punctuation and spelling is what I know, please consider that when writing. It's not that I think it's superior, it's just that it's what I know. That said, I greatly welcome submissions from outside the US.

* All submissions must be accompanied by a very short bio, written in the third person. No more than two sentences, please. Please do not provide a list of all of your publishing credits.

* You must be a follower through Twitter, Pinterest, Google Friends/Followers OR are part of a Google+ circle of mine to be considered for any publication.You do not need to follow in more than one way. You must indicate how you follow when you submit.

* Only submit work using an email address you check often. If I send you a message letting you know a submission has been chosen and you don't respond in seven days, I will move on to the next work that was closest to being chosen.

* No contracts will be used. Just please read this page.

* Send all submissions to enchantedconversation@gmail.com

* Do read work EC has already published to see what gets published here.

* There is NO FEE for submitting anything to Enchanted Conversation.  

* Each month, two works, a story or poem or some combination, will be chosen for publication. The winners will each receive a $25 gift certificate from a place like Amazon. The gift certificate will be through email only and will be in US dollars only.

* Each writer may submit only one story or one poem (previously unpublished) for each monthly contest. I generally do not want resubmissions of work. Also, please do not submit a work to another site while it is still being considered for Enchanted Conversation. After the calendar month has ended, your story/poem is released from consideration, and you need not wait for an announcement. At that point, exclusivity is my problem, not yours.

* Works submitted for a contest will be acknowledged with a very brief email back to let you know it has been received. No feedback of any kind will be given, at any time. Only winners will be notified, briefly, via email. Winners will also be announced on the site. Those whose works have not been chosen will not be told individually. (I am sorry for this, but I do not have the time.) 

* EC claims the first rights to works chosen for publication on this site via the contest, but once I publish it, the writer or poet may shop it elsewhere. I do reserve the right to archive indefinitely, but will remove a work upon request. By accepting the contest prize, the winner acknowledges that EC has the right to first world-wide publication.

* There is no minimum or maximum word count. However, very long poems also have less chance of publication.

Guest Posting Information--Suspended as of now, unless a writer has a book to promote. Please query at enchantedconversation@gmail.com, about guest posts.

Kate Wolford
Editor, Enchanted Conversation