Holy potato, are you
closed for good?
Why yes, the gates of Writers’ Bloc have been
forever welded shut by the hand of destiny. That’s
a cool way of saying that there wasn’t nearly
enough time for one person to read 150 submissions
a month, despite this being pretty much the coolest
thing ever, and one of the most popular markets
of its time. Luckily, the website will remain up at least until Nov. 2011. Now if you will excuse us, we must
investigate how, exactly, a potato can be holy.
It was the 13 that did you in.
This is indeed issue thirteen you’re ogling,
and if superstition floats your boat, it may
appear to be the cursed 9th symphony of
our existence. However, we don’t partake in
such foolish nonsense, and believe instead—
in a more rational way—that we were forced
to shut down when a dire imprecation was
uttered on the last witch’s sabbath under
a full moon.
Come back to life, dammit!
…and stuff.
Yes, we’d like totally love to continue,
but we can’t. We know how you feel.
In lieu of flowers please send a donation
to your favorite charity. Or in lieu of
a charitable donation please send flowers.
AFTER THE BLUE DOT YOU SHALL FIND
NOTHING OF CURRENT USE, BUT ONLY
THAT WHICH HAS BEEN PRESERVED
FOR HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP
·
ABSOLUTELY
FOOLPROOF
SUBMISSION
GUIDELINES
(DON’T NOT FOLLOW THESE)
Yes! |
|
No! |
DOC or RTF
Separate documents for each submission
Short interesting third-person bio
Headshot (recommended)
Simultaneous submissions
Sending us something we’ve never seen |
|
DOCX
Pasting submissions into email
Previous publications
Gratuitous sex or violence, erotica, fan fiction, genre fiction
Getting published in two consecutive issues
Getting paid (sorry ’bout that) |
If you’re sending prose:
- Don’t. We’re closed to submissions right now.
- A story’s length should be justified by its polish. Length is not strength.
- Send up to three pieces of up to 5,000 words in separate documents. Fiction or nonfiction.
- Every month we get a skillon jillion stories about bad relationships and smoking pot. Unless you have something new to say, don’t.
- Double-space if you wish, but not by hitting “enter” after every line.
- Accepted authors are 83% awesomer when they make MP3 recordings of their stories. Scientific fact.
If you’re sending poetry:
- Don’t. We’re closed to submissions right now.
- Send up to three poems in separate documents. Try not to exceed 50 lines apiece.
- We like free verse better than we like rhyming poetry.
- If you get accepted, it’d be real cool if you made an MP3 of you reading your work. (Not Gwendolyn Brooks real cool—legit real cool.)
If you’re sending art/photos:
- Don’t. We’re closed to submissions right now.
- Send the largest images you have.
- We prefer JPEG/JPG or PNG files.
- Titles and descriptions are optional.
Send all submissions to
 |
When will I hear back from you?
You will generally hear back from us in a day or two. If it’s been over 10 days, check your spam box, then send us an irate email.
What are my rights?
You keep the rights to your work, because they revert back to you after the run of the issue. We claim First North American Serial rights, and the right to archive your work to infinity and beyond. If your work is reprinted, please cite Writers’ Bloc as the initial publisher. You may always withdraw a work unless it’s published in a PDF anthology. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
What about Duotrope?
If you don’t use Duotrope, you should. It’s a lit market search engine and personal submission tracker. You do have to sign up (it’s quick and free), but the people who have signed up have literally kept the Bloc alive by reporting their response times to keep us on The Swift List. We work very hard to stay there, so you should do this if you like us. We like you.
t o p
