What We Publish
Fiction Attic Press accepts submissions of original flash fiction, flash memoir, micro fiction, and personal essays. We publish one novella-in-flash per year.
If we accept your work, we will publish it on our Substack, FictionAttic.substack.com. Some stories may also be published on our legacy site, fictionattic.com.
Please see below for open submission categories and be sure to use the appropriate submission form.
Fiction Attic AI Policy
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY WORK THAT HAS BEEN AIDED BY GENERATIVE AI.
If you edit your work using AI tools, it should do no more than a basic spell check. Please do not submit work in which AI tools have been used to write phrases or sentences or to develop the plot, structure, characters, or any other story element.
By submitting to Fiction Attic, you attest that your work is entirely your own original work that has been written without the use of generative AI.
Simultaneous Submissions
We accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere while you're waiting to hear from us, just let us know. We'll be happy for you!
Payment
Payment: We pay
- $15 for flash fiction
- $10 for a set of micro-fictions
- $20 for short stories and essays over 1,200 words
- $25 for craft and "on writing" essays
- $75 for novellas-in-flash
Complimentary subscription
Our small submission fees help us to cover operating costs and pay every writer we publish. Your submission entitles you to a complimentary three-month paid subscription to Fiction Attic. (To receive your complimentary subscription, please opt in by checking the appropriate box in your submission form).
Rights:
Non-Exclusive Online and Audio Rights: We require non-exclusive electronic rights to the work indefinitely so that we can publish it online and include it in our online archives.
Accepted submissions appear at fictionattic.substack.com and occasionally on our legacy site, fictionattic.com, usually within three months of acceptance. We may also publish audio of your story (read and produced by Fiction Attic Press) on our substack site.
Print Rights: We require non-exclusive print rights, so that we may publish the work later in an anthology.
All other rights remain yours. You can publish the same work online, in print, or in any other way you choose.
*For novellas-in-flash, please see separate rights guidelines on the submission page.
Fiction Attic Press welcomes submissions for the Fiction Attic Press One Hundred Percent Human First Chapter Prize.
What We're Looking For:
- We seek the unpublished first chapter of a novel or novella.
- We seek high quality writing, a compelling premise, and a clear sense of character and stakes.
- Although we are open to most genres, please do not submit romance, erotica, or YA. You can read flash fictions and short stories on our website (fictionattic.substack.com) to get a feel for our tastes.
Length: up to 3,000 words
Submission Fee: $20 (includes complimentary 6-month paid subscription to Fiction Attic. If you are already a paid subscriber, you will receive a complimentary 6-month extension of your subscription).
First Prize:
- $500
- Publication of the chapter at fictionattic.substack.com
- Feature interview with the writer at fictionattic.substack.com
Second Prize:
- $100 plus publication at fictionattic.substack.com
Third Prize:
- $50 plus publication at fictionattic.substack.com
Notification: Finalists will be notified in March of 2027. Winners will be notified in April.
AI policy: Fiction Attic Press wants to recognize work created solely by human authors, guided by human instincts, without AI intervention. By submitting to the Fiction Attic Press One Hundred Percent Human First Chapter Prize, you confirm that you have not used AI in any way in the writing, plotting, or development of the chapter. You acknowledge that the only acceptable use of AI for the purposes of this competition is basic spell check and grammar check. This means that:
- No sentences have been written or revised by AI.
- No plot points or outlines have been created by AI.
Additional Guidelines:
- Please do not include your name anywhere on the manuscript.
- All entries should be submitted through Submittable.
- Former students of Fiction Attic Press editor Michelle Richmond are ineligible for this contest.
- Eligibility: the chapter should be original and unpublished. (Publication on your website or Substack counts as publication).
Evaluation
- We will evaluate each entry based upon literary merit, quality of writing, the strength of the premise and characters, and whether or not we finish the chapter thinking, "I want to read more."
- In order to protect the original work of the entrants, we will not feed any submissions into AI detection software. The prize operates on the honor system.
Fiction Attic Press seeks personal essays on the writing life and essays on narrative craft for our On Writing series. Essays should be 1,200-3,000 words. We seek both personal reflections and in-depth essays that illuminate some aspect of narrative craft, the daily life of a writer, or writing as a lifetime pursuit.
As we do not publish poetry at this time, we are not seeking essays on the craft of poetry.
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY WORK THAT HAS BEEN AIDED BY GENERATIVE AI.
If you edit your work using AI tools, it should do no more than a basic spell check.
Payment is $25.
Use this form ONLY if we have written to you requesting that you send more of your work. Any submissions through this form that have not been solicited will be automatically deleted.