Submission Guidelines

Please read overall information first. This information applies to every kind of submission, no matter what the circumstances. Then, keep scrolling until you hit the guidelines for entering a writing contest ("Basic Contest Information") or for being a guest poster.

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

Overall Information For All Kinds of Submissions
1) You must be 18 to be published in Enchanted Conversation.
2) The content age level is 13 or above. Think The Hunger Games and late Harry Potter books for content level. We are NOT a young children's publication.
3) Absolutely no sci-fi, space travel, werewolves, vampires or zombies, unless I very specifically call for it. I probably won't. Dark is just fine, but always try to celebrate the human condition, even if the story or poem involves tragedy.
4) No erotica.
5) 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.
6) Please look up how to write dialogue. Many people don't. Also, 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.
7) Tricky spacing or elaborate breaks, a huge amount of paragraph breaking and symbols like *&%^) will harm a submissions chances of being chosen.
8) All submissions for either a contest or guest posting must be accompanied by a very short bio, written in the third person. No more than two sentences, please.
9) Work from unpublished authors is welcome.
10) You must be a follower through Twitter, Pinterest, Google Friends/Followers or or part of a Google+ circle of mine to be considered for any publication. Please note that when decisions are being made about any submission, people who are active on the blog as commenters will have a better chance of being chosen, provided works under consideration are considered close in quality. In other words, being a frequent visitor who comments will help a writer get chosen if the works under consideration are equal in quality or close. It won't trump quality overall.
11) 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. The message line should include the month, the year and whether it is a guest post or contest submission.
12) Don't plagiarize. I will find out.
13) If you are willing to be considered for an unpaid honorable mention publication, please indicate this in the submission.
14) There are NO themes for any contests unless they are specifically announced.
15) No contracts will be used. Just please read this page.
16) Send all submissions to enchantedconversation@gmail.com
17) Do read work we have already published to see what gets published here.
18) Paypal addresses and snail mail addresses are not required.You must indicate how you follow in your submission.

Basic Contest Information:
1) We are now in contest format only for submissions of poems or stories.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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.) Once the winners for a month have been announced, submitted works not chosen are fully released from Enchanted Conversation.
5) We are not buying the rights to works chosen for publication on this site, so once we publish it, the writer or poet may shop it elsewhere. We do reserve the right to archive indefinitely.
6) Retelling a classic fairy tale is not required. The publication has not has themes for six months. But your work should reflect classic fairy tales, even if they are current in setting, mood, etc.
7) There is no minimum or maximum word count, but stories over 2,500 words have less chance of being published than those that are shorter. Very long poems also have less chance of publication.



Guest Posting Information
1) Guest posts may be on any topic related to fairy tales or fantasy. They should be non-fiction. You may promote new work of your own, but it should not be the sole focus of a submission.
2) Only one guest post should be submitted per month. The length should be from 250 to 500 words.
3) Guests posts will be acknowledged when they are chosen only. No other acknowledgement will be given. No feedback will be given. Do not resubmit a post if it has not been chosen for the month it was submitted.
4) Work should be new, but previously published work will be considered.
5) Published guest posts will be archived indefinitely. A work not chosen is released completely from any connection to EC once the chosen guest posts for that month have been announced.
6) The submission window for each months guest posts is from 12 a.m. EST on the fifteenth of each month to 11:59 p.m. EST on the 16th of each month. Posts submitted at other times will not be considered.
7) Guest posters with blogs will be given a badge to post on their own sites to promote their post on EC.

Updates will be made as needed.

Kate Wolford
Editor, Enchanted Conversation


*If you submitted any work that was not chosen during the last two years of EC's publication, you may resubmit it once. After that, the no resubmission rule applies.