They have a very polished and well executed website. Personally I struggle a little with the video aspect of many of the pages and find it distracting, but I am sure it appeals to others.

They are print on demand with no traditional distribution. Their website is very much geared towards readers rather than writers and they are clearly actively trying to build their email list, which is always a good sign.

A number of the books they have published are in fact written by the Publisher, Publishing Director, and Publishing Associate. Still about 20% of the books they have published were written by people on the masthead of the press, although a number of these individuals were hired by the press after their books were published.

Their covers are a little mixed but mostly impressive. They offer royalties 40% of net which is preferable, but that might be minus distribution charge, which is presented in a kind of confusing way in the FAQs. Although a percentage of net is very much not preferable to gross.

They have very detailed FAQ and submission guidelines and all authors must be at least moderately active on a wide range of social media. They go into the details of why in the FAQs.

Please follow all of their submission guidelines. To learn more, go here. Their open reading period starts on December 1st 2025, and ends on January 31st, 2026.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2020 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

Helmed in Baltimore, Ligeia has been published quarterly online since 2019. Each digital edition contains work from around thirty contributors.

Right now through March 15, Ligeia is open to submissions. Authors published in Ligeia are eligible for prestigious nominations, including The Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net.

Poets may submit up to five poems. The editors are looking for engaging, descriptive poems that are a little weird.

Authors of fiction and nonfiction may submit up to 2,000 words. Ligeia also accepts flash writing. Authors may submit multiple flashes, totaling 2,000 words or fewer. Ligeia accepts both literary and genre fiction.

Ligeia accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere. They don’t accept previously published work.

Ligeia only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you’d like to learn more or submit to Ligeia, please visit their website here.

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Westerly
They publish short stories, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, essays and literary criticism. Non-subscribers will be asked to take magazine subscription as part payment for their work. Scholarly articles are accepted year-round.
Deadline: 19 March 2021
Length: Up to 3,500 words for fiction and creative nonfiction; up to five poems; up to 5,000 words for essays; 500-700 words for reviews
Pay: AUD200 for short stories and articles, AUD120-150 for poetry, AUD120 for visual art/intro essay, AUD100 for reviews
Details here.

Deep Magic
They want clean fantasy and sci-fi stories. They will not publish fiction with graphic violence, mature sexual themes, or profanity. They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 31 March 2020 (see Twitter)
Length: 1,000-40,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word, capped at $599 for stories longer than 7,499 words
Details here.

Escape Artists: PodCastle
PodCastle publishes fantasy short fiction on their website, and in a podcast format. They are open to all sub-genres of fantasy, from magical realism to urban fantasy to slipstream to high fantasy. Fantastical or non-real content should be meaningful to the story. They also accept reprints. (Escape Artists’ SF magazine, Escape Pod, is open in March for Black writers, for Black Future Month; general SF submissions resume in April.)
Deadline: 31 March 2021
Length: Up to 6,000 words for PodCastle
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
(Another magazine open for a brief submission period for fantasy fiction is Lightspeed; they’re open for BIPOC writers’ submissions until 7 March, and for general fantasy fiction submissions during 8-14 March. They pay $0.08/word for stories of 1,500 to 10,000 words.) 

MetaStellar
This magazine was launched in 2020, and they want flash fiction submissions of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. They also accept reviews and essays, though they do not pay for these. 
Deadline: 31 March 2021
Length: Up to 1,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction
Details here.

The Threepenny Review
This respected quarterly journal is open for submissions. They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and submissions for their ‘Table Talk’ column. They have a shorter reading period this year.
Deadline: 30 April 2021
Length: Up to 4,000 words for stories or memoirs, 1,200-2,500 for critical articles, up to 1,000 words for Table Talk, up to 100 lines for poems
Pay: $400 per story or article, $200 per poem or Table Talk piece
Details here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

When someone tells you they’re a fiction writer, what do you imagine they write? 

Maybe the next great literary novel comes to mind. Or perhaps a series of short stories, à la Edgar Allen Poe. What if they told you there is a form of storytelling that can occur in as little as six words? News flash, it’s called micro-fiction, and that’s just the beginning.

When I decided to take on fiction writing, I thought it meant I would be writing a novel, and my goodness, I was overwhelmed. 

I had a story to tell, but how could I make it last 60,000 words or more? I began researching how to accomplish this huge project. What I ended up learning was more helpful than what I expected I’d be taking away. You’ve heard the phrase one size fits all, but fortunately for fiction writers, there are many options.

In this piece, we will discuss different types of fiction, including micro-fiction, flash fiction, short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels. In addition to the average word count, we will look at other aspects that set them apart, including narrative pacing, character complexity, and plot. 

Micro-Fiction & Flash Fiction

The lengths of both these types of fiction are what you expect them to be. But just because they are short doesn’t mean they can’t pack a punch. 

Micro-fiction is a subset of flash fiction, usually running around 300 words or less. You can think of micro-fiction as a snapshot of the most intense moment in any given scene. Because you’re working with a limited word count, it’s crucial to get the message across without fluff. 

Writing micro-fiction can be a great exercise if you find yourself having trouble with being straightforward and to the point. 

Flash fiction varies by market but falls somewhere between 500 to 1,500 words. With up to five times the word budget of micro-fiction, flash fiction has room for more than one character and a short but poignant plot. 

The writing advice to show, and not just tell, is essential to creating a great piece of flash fiction. The narrative pace moves rapidly, so consider opening your plot in the action. You’ll be able to engage your reader and bring them to resolution quickly.

Short Stories 

Short stories have been around for centuries. The length of a short story holds space for a full narrative arc, including an introduction, complication, crisis, climax, and resolution. 

As their classification suggests, a short story shouldn’t be lengthy. Typically it runs somewhere between 1,000 through 10,000 words. Regardless of where your word count falls, a short story is designed to be read in one sitting by your reader.

Short stories have more room for complex plots than flash fiction, but like flash fiction and micro-fiction, they typically involve one main character. The character in a short story has one sole purpose. They may be learning a lesson or teaching your reader one. The plot will revolve around a single instance of conflict. 

Novelettes, Novellas, and Novels

Before falling down the literary rabbit hole, I’d only ever been aware of a novel. Novelettes, Novellas, and Novels are different based on their word counts.

Novelettes can range between 10,000 through 17,000 words. Because of the shorter length of your novelette, the rules of writing them, with regards to character complexity and plot, are similar to a short story. 

Novellas are tricky. Their word count bridges the gap between a novelette and a novel, falling somewhere between 17,000 and 40,000 words. Because of their increased length, subplots can develop within the plot. The conflict may be between characters, as opposed to just within the circumstances surrounding the main character. 

Novels are what most of us recall from our high school education. From titles like To Kill a Mockingbird to The Great Gatsby, a novel allows the author to build complex characters and have multiple subplots. The narrative pace isn’t hurried or rushed. This slower narrative allows for main characters, supporting characters, and their interactions to add to the overarching conflict within the novel. 

Depending on the genre of the novel, the average word count will vary from 50,000 words up to 130,000. None of these are set in stone and will vary by publisher. 

• Young Adult (YA) 50,000-80,000
• Thrillers/Crime/Mystery 70,000-90,000
• Generic Romance 70,000-100,000
• Historical 80,000-100,000
• Science/Fantasy 90,000-130,000

Takeaways 

If you’ve ever wondered what the right category of fiction is for your work, know there are many different options.

In this article, we’ve discussed six different types of fiction. There are differences between word count, the complexity of the plot, characters, and pace of the narrative. 

Before deciding what type of fiction you’d like to write, answer a few questions about the story you want to tell. 

• Are you looking to pack a punch concisely? 
• What is the pace of your narrative? Is your message short enough you can pull your reader in with one good opening line?
• How many characters does your story involve? Are they static or dynamic? 
• What is involved in your plot? Are there several conflicts to be resolved, or is the focus on one main problem?
• Are your characters multidimensional? How do they change throughout your writing?

These are only a few things to consider when starting to work through your fiction story. Being able to answer these questions will ensure you choose the right format to tell your story. Happy writing! 

Bio: Holly Garcia is the author of an upcoming self-published poetry collection, All The Ways I Loved You, and is working through her debut historical fiction novel. When she isn’t working on these projects, she writes non-fiction essays and is a freelance resume writer. Keep in touch at garcia.hc0502@gmail.com