Submissions

Starting in the late 50s, researchers associated with militaries and academic institutions around the world focused their energies on developing the very technology you’re using right this second: the Internet. For this issue of Saros, we’re interested in stories that examine the ramifications—personal, social, psychological, political—of the Internet and Internet culture. This is broad on purpose; online existence is too subjective to be anything but. Dark web urban legends, livestream parasociality, keyboard warfare, dark nights of the soul on Club Penguin, revolutionaries posting short-form content, coltan mining, consoling chatroom denizens twice your age when you should’ve been doing your homework, listservs, cryptocurrency high-control groups. Any era, any niche, as long as it’s Terminally Online.

• Stories between 500-5000 words relating to the Issue #7 theme of Terminally Online.
• Both original and previously published stories are welcome, though reprints should not currently be available to read for free anywhere online.
• Epistolary fiction is certainly welcome, but we’re also looking for stories told in a more traditional narrative format. Experimental approaches are welcome, as well. Please don’t self-reject.
• We are wholly uninterested in stories generated using any form of AI assistance.
• Due to the nature of this issue’s theme, discussions of bigotry, exploitation, and violence are somewhat expected. However, we are wholly uninterested in stories that celebrate racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, or other forms of bigotry.
• No fanfiction, but yes to stories about fanfiction and fandom spaces.

Payment and Rights

• Payment is a $25 CAD flat rate, in addition to one print copy and all digital formats of the magazine issue containing your work.
• Our preferred method of payment is PayPal. If you live in a region where PayPal is not available, we will do our best to work with you and find an alternate method of payment.
• For original fiction, we purchase first world electronic and print rights in English, with an exclusivity period of 30 days from the date of publication. For reprints there is no exclusivity period. Copyright of both original and reprinted fiction remains with the author at all times.

Art

• Cover art submissions must relate to this issue’s theme
• All styles are welcome!
• Ensure that any piece submitted can be comfortably reformatted to fit a 5″x8″ digest-sized cover.
• Payment is a $50 CAD flat rate, in addition to one print copy and all digital formats of the magazine issue containing your work.
• Our preferred method of payment is PayPal. If you live in a region where PayPal is not available, we will do our best to work with you and find an alternate method of payment.
• We purchase non-exclusive licensing rights to your artwork to be used as cover art.
• No AI art

About the Editor

K. Thompson is an American writer whose parents didn’t supervise their computer time, so now they’re like this. Their work has appeared in Crow & Cross Keys, Horrific Scribes, and Exquisite Death, and is forthcoming in Penumbric Magazine and nachtljocht. They have autism and live in Philadelphia with their cat, who will naturally be consulted on all editorial decisions.

How To Submit

• Stories may be sent in RTF, DOC, DOCX file formats. Something approaching Shunn’s Modern Manuscript Format (12 point legible serif font such as Times New Roman, double spaced lines, page numbers) is greatly appreciated.
• Please do not include your mailing address in your cover letter or manuscript, as we do not require this information unless we publish your story and need to send you a print contributor copy of the issue. If you publish under a pen name, we also do not need to know your legal name unless we accept your story (in which case we will need to know it for contract purposes).
• Please do include content notes at the top of your manuscript if applicable (e.g., warnings for sexual assault, self-harm, physical abuse, graphic violence, suicide, etc.).
• Please also include a brief cover letter stating your story’s title and word count as well as any other relevant information (e.g., noting that you, the author of a story about an audio engineer, have worked as an audio engineer). You may include a brief bio or list of a few previous publications if you wish; however, a lack of prior publications will not count against you.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please immediately withdraw your story from consideration if it is accepted elsewhere.
• Multiple submissions: please submit no more than one story at a time. If your story is rejected while the reading period is still open, you are welcome to submit again.
• Stories previously rejected from Saros Speculative Fiction or Fusion Fragment are welcome if they are relevant to this issue’s theme.
• Stories must be submitted through the Moksha submission system, which can be accessed by clicking here or on the image below. Stories sent to the email address above will be rejected unread.
• You will receive an automated email confirming receipt of your submission that will include a link where you can check your position in the queue. If you do not receive this email, you should email a query to kthompson@sarossf.com to make sure that your story has been received. (In some cases, you may need to whitelist moksha.io in your email settings.)