Writer’s Guidelines
What we want
We want low fantasy, space opera, pulp fiction, swords-and-sorcery tales of mystery and adventure. We want your weird fiction, your eldritch horror, your wuxia, and your steampunk. Give us cryptids, give us aliens, give us vampires. If you think ‘lowbrow’ is an insult then we are not the right magazine for you. We also accept high fantasy, literary fiction, and ‘hard’ science fiction.
We want to publish:
- Writers living in Wales,
- Writers who identify (fully, in part, or by ancestry) as Welsh,
- Stories with Welsh themes.
- We’re also enthusiastic about stories with insightful associations but are not necessarily Welsh in origin. Examples include: Stories from along the primordial Central Pangean Mountain range (eg, Appalachia), coal mining, dragons of all varieties, and stories from other Celtic regions.
We take it on good faith that anyone submitting to us has read these guidelines and understands that some link to Wales, however small, is required. You do not need to disclose how you qualify.
We also strongly encourage submissions from people of colour, the LGBTQIA+ community, and other marginalised groups.
Short stories
- No more than 10k words per short story
- No minimum length.
- All short stories must be submitted in the standard manuscript format: https://www.shunn.net/format/classic
- You MUST tell us if your story is a simultaneous submission and notify us as soon as possible if your story is no longer on the market.
- Stories must be well-written, entertaining and comprehensible. We care about substance over style; we can fix grammar, but we can’t change a meandering plot.
- Serials will be considered.
- You may send up to 3 stories at a time. If you wish to send more, please wait for a response before submitting again.
Poetry
- Please do not submit poetry any longer than 30 lines
- You may send up to 3 poems at a time. If you wish to send more, please wait for a response before submitting again.
Reviews
- We accept short book reviews of 200 words or less.
Fanfiction
- We do not accept fanfiction due to copyright issues.
- We DO accept fanfiction reviews and recommendations. This can be for your own fanfic: Tell us in 200 words or less why we should read it, and include a link to your work hosted on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org). Other external links will not be accepted.
What we don’t want
Stories which contain extreme graphic sex and violence that goes beyond the average 18 rated movie will be a hard sell.
If the women in your story experience excessive violence without much character development beyond that, or can be replaced with a sexy lamp, we probably don’t want it.
Stories which mention Wales but are not genre fiction. We know Wales is a magical place but if your story contains no supernatural or science-fiction elements then it’s not for us.
We have a zero tolerance policy for sexual scenes and extreme sadistic violence involving children and animals. Submissions containing this will be rejected unanswered.
Payment and rights
As a semiprozine, we are currently not able to pay the going rate for submissions. We offer a token gift of £15 per accepted story or poem. We acknowledge that this is not much, but hope to change this in the future. Because of this we are not expecting ‘first rights’ or previously unpublished submissions. The editorial team are working pro bono until appropriate payment can be made to contributors.
We will review this regularly if our financial situation changes.
Gwyllion will never charge submission fees.
We would like to publish accepted submissions digitally and in a limited print run. We require:
- One-time Non-exclusive Electronic Rights
- Second Serial Rights (if applicable)
- Non-Exclusive Audio Rights
- Non-Exclusive Anthology Reprint Rights
This means that you retain all rights to your work, but you grant us permission to use your material once (but not necessarily ‘first’). Non-exclusive means you can license your work to more than one publication. In the future we may want to release audio versions of past stories, or release an anthology collected edition. Any further reproductions of an author’s work beyond what is stated above will be negotiated separately.
How to submit
Please note: Gwyllion publishes issues twice a year on Calan Mai (May 1st) and Nos Calan Gaeaf (October 31st). Our submissions are open during the months of January, February, July and August.
Email your manuscript to submissions@gwyllionmagazine.com along with a cover letter. You can submit up to three pieces at a time, but please be aware that you are more likely to get multiple stories published if you stagger your submissions.
Format: Please attach your manuscript to the email as a .doc or .docx file. We do not accept links to third party hosting sites, such as Google Drive.
The first page of the document must include: Your name, title, email address and word count.
All story submissions must use standard manuscript format or risk appearing unprofessional: https://www.shunn.net/format/classic
Cover letter: Please keep it short, but include any relevant information you think will help in making a decision. For example, you may want to mention where you’ve previously been published. We do not need a synopsis of your story because we read all submissions.
Your subject line must include the word “Submission” otherwise it risks going to our junk mail.
Our aim is to get back to you within four calendar weeks after the submission date. If you don’t hear from us by then, feel free to chase.
If you have been published with us before please leave at least one issue in between submissions so that we can showcase a wide variety of writers.
If your story has been rejected, please do not submit it again. We do not accept unsolicited rewrites. Rejection is never personal and we encourage all writers to submit further work. We tailor our rejection letters to try and give as much constructive feedback as possible.