Interested in submitting?
Please read through our guidelines before sending us your work. We can't wait to read your story!
We have gotten rid of submission deadlines. Submit at any time!
Guidelines
Starspun Lit accepts stories for three categories: 6-9 year olds, 10-13 year olds, and 14-16 year olds. When submitting your story, please indicate which category you believe your story fits best. It's ok if you are unsure! Just give your best estimate and we will take it from there.
Stories may be up to 6,000 words in length. While all story lengths will be considered equally, stories under 3,500 words are more likely to be accepted.
Stories must be fantasy (adventure, sword and sorcery, literary, high, etc.) and set in a different world. We do not accept urban fantasy. Dark fantasy is welcome but a hard sell.
Stories may not include any extreme swearing, excessive violence, or mentions/explicit depictions of sex. Think PG to PG-13.
We accept simultaneous submissions (submitting the same story to multiple markets), provided you let us know in your email. We do not accept multiple submissions (submitting multiple stories to us at a time).
Starspun Lit will NOT consider any work created, developed, or assisted with the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or DALL·E beyond basic grammar checking or prompt generation. Attempting to submit AI-assisted works may result in being banned from submitting works in the future.
Submission DOs:
DO have a strong main character.
DO ensure the speculative element is noticeable from the start (if it only shows up halfway through the story, then it will be a hard sell).
DO submit light-hearted and/or emotional pieces. Make us laugh! Tug on our heartstrings!
Submission DON'Ts:
DON'T include your name or contact information anywhere on the submission document.
DON'T submit stories revolving around death! This is very important!! This magazine will be donated and read aloud to children at local hospitals so stories of death are absolutely not going to work. Mentions of injury or disease should also be kept to a minimum, but we won't reject stories on the basis of this.
DON'T self-reject! If you are unsure whether your piece fits, then submit it anyways and we will decide.
Attention New and Young Authors!
If you are a new (unpublished) or young (under the age of 18) author, please let us know in your cover letter! We will provide priority consideration for your story.
Ready to submit?
Submit stories as a .doc or .docx attachment to submissions@starspunlit.org (submissions AT starspunlit DOT org). Shared links will not be accepted. Use standard Shunn manuscript format, but you do not need to include your address or phone number.
In the subject line of the email, type "SUBMISSION: [age category of your submission]". For example, if you had a dinosaur story for ages 6-9, you would type "SUBMISSION: 6-9" in the subject line. If the story was for ages 10-13, then you would type "SUBMISSION: 10-13" in the subject line.
In the body of your email, please include your name and title of the piece. Let us know if you are previously unpublished as we will give your story priority consideration for publication. Please also mention if you are a young author (and congrats on submitting)!
Response times will be a couple of weeks. We try to give as many personal responses as possible, but due to time constraints, we unfortunately won't be able to do so for all submissions. If it has been 1 month without a response, please query and include the name of your story and date sent (if possible). For queries, email query@starspunlit.org (query AT starspunlit DOT org).
P.S. We're listed on The Submission Grinder!
What happens once your story is accepted?
Accepted works will be published on our website. Once we are further along on our journey, we will start releasing a print anthology at the end of each year. We will also be providing a couple of illustrations per story to be featured in all avenues of publication. Additionally, if we host a read-aloud at a hospital or clinic near you, we will invite you to join us and read your own work!
At this time, we are unable to pay our authors. We aspire to change this in the future as we believe our authors should be rewarded for all their hard work, but until then, we hope our personalized illustrations can convince you to submit to us :)