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Submission Guidelines
Please take the time to fully read our submission guidelines. Any piece that does not conform to these guidelines will be declined. If you have questions or concerns after reading these guidelines, please reach out to us, and we will be happy to communicate with you. This is a volunteer-run magazine, so please be patient with our response time, as most of the team members have other daily obligations and health concerns in addition to working to bring this magazine to life. It may take us some time to read and reply to all of our messages – be it through email or socials. Thank you.
What can I submit?
You can submit the following:
- Creative non-fiction
- Personal essays
- Poetry
- Flash fiction
- Book/novel reviews
- Photography
- Graphic Designs
- Illustrations
General Submission Guidelines
★ Language/ Use of Derogatory Terms/ Profanity: Please remember your submission is being read by a human being who has feelings and emotions. We will not publish hateful or hurtful works. If you have to ask if it’s hateful/hurtful,maybe revise some before submitting. Additionally, we do not publish racist, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise damaging content. Use your best judgment and when in doubt, give content warnings for readers or ASK.
★Simultaneous Submissions: Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please let us know if your piece gets accepted elsewhere so it can be withdrawn from our reader’s submissions pile.
★ Re-submissions: If we have declined your piece for an issue, please respect our decision. You are welcome to work on revising the piece and try resubmitting during our next submission window, and we will happily read your revised work.
★Submitting After Publication: The Wishbone team encourages previous contributors to submit to future issues if they have more writing they would like to share. However, being a previous contributor does not guarantee publication, and the piece of writing/artwork must go through the general submissions queue to make it into the magazine.
★ Payment: At this time, we cannot pay contributors. Our staff is currently all volunteers, and the money we make from selling copies goes toward website maintenance. However, contributors will receive discounted access to their issue of the magazine.
Genre-Specific Guidelines:
❖ Flash: 3 pieces max per submission period, individual pieces cannot exceed 500
words
❖ Poetry: 3 poems max per submission period, individual poem length cannot
exceed 3 pages
❖ Prose: 2 pieces max per submission period, TOTAL word count cannot exceed
2000 words
❖ Hybrid: 2 pieces max per submission period, TOTAL word count cannot exceed
2000 words
❖ Reviews: 3 reviews max per submission period, individual reviews cannot exceed
500 words
❖ Translations: 3 translations max per submission period, any language mix of
languages is allowed as long as one of the two languages is English
❖ Visual Art/Photography: 5 pieces max per submission period
Formatting Guidelines:
❖ Font: All pieces should be written in a standard font such as Arial, TNR, or Calibri
❖ Size: All pieces should be in size 12-16pt
❖ Spacing: Prose pieces must be double-spaced; poetry can play with spacing as
long as it remains readable
❖ Individual Piece Titles: All pieces should be titled or be named “untitled.”
❖ Submission Title: Please title your submission: First Name _ Last Name _
Individual Piece Title (Example: “John_Smith_Disability as Visibility.” If sending
more than one piece, please send them as individual attachments.
❖ Formatting: Written submissions must be in .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Art submissions
should be in .jpeg or .png format. Please reach out to us if you are having
difficulty formatting your submission.
Misc. Guideline Information:
★ Author Bio: Please include a short, third-person author bio. Your author bio
should not exceed 150 words. 75-100 words are preferable.
★ Socials: Please let us know, if any, which social media platforms you would like
us to share in the magazine upon publication.
★ Submission Window and Publication Dates: In 2023, we are launching on a
quarterly schedule (every three months). This means issues will be published in
January, April, July, and October. Submission windows run for two months
before the publication launches but are subject to closing early if the issue fills.
★ Turn-around Time: Please be patient. While we try to respond to all submissions
in a timely manner (within a few weeks), please be patient and allow up to 6
weeks to be notified of whether your submission has been accepted or rejected.
While we read through submissions please do not ask us about your piece’s
status on social media or through email. The more people who reach out, the
less time we have to dedicate to reading through the queue.
★ Remember: Just like our contributors, everyone who volunteers their time to
Wishbone Words has their own health struggles. Please be respectful with our
team members when communicating on social media or through email. We love
to hype up past and current contributors, so if you are being published
elsewhere, tag us – we love to see it!
If you have questions or concerns during the submission process, need help with
exporting your submission into the proper file type, or need to withdraw a submission,
please do not hesitate to reach out to us: Contact@WishboneWords.com. Please be
patient with our response time, we will likely not reply immediately, and it may take us