SUBMISSIONS
WE ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR SUBMISSIONS
(As a guide - we are usually open around February and Aug/Sept - but please check here before submitting.)
The best way to know if your writing is suitable for the magazine is to buy a copy or two.
INFO FOR SUBMITTING WHEN WE ARE OPEN BELOW:
We are looking for submissions from of short stories/prose, creative non-fiction and poetry. (We are sorry but we can't accept plays or scripts.)
If you’re not from round here or not writing about rivers, we won’t hold it against you! Really – it would be boring if all we published was poems about rivers!
We aim to publish writing from our Delta, your Delta and from everywhere else in an amazing mingling of words. All rivers are one river!
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please do ensure that you contact us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. If you have not heard from us within 30 days after the submission window closes, then you can get in touch to enquire as to the status of your submission.
We do not accept translations or work that has been previously published in print or online. Only original unpublished work submitted by the author will be considered. No submissions by publishers, presses or agents please.
We aim not to publish the same writers in two magazines in a row, to give everyone a chance, so if you have been published in the previous issue, then do send us your writing, but dependent on the makeup of the issue, if selected, we might hold it over for the next one.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Email your submission as ONE attachment to: confluencesubs(at)gmail.com with ‘POETRY / STORY TITLE by NAME’ in the subject line. (Eg ‘5 poems by Wanda Wax’ / ‘Waiting for Charlie by Herbert Berry’.)
In your email please include your full contact details including postcode, and a short bio, no more than 50 words. This is important. Please don’t forget!
Please proofread carefully, though we will proofread as we layout the magazine, we can’t always be sure whether you might have meant something that looks like a typo!
WHAT WE WANT
Short stories/Prose/Hard to define non-fiction and fiction: 2,500 words maximum. One story only.
Poetry: Please send us up to 5 poems. In order to give readers more of a feel of your writing, we want to print more than one poem; we will only be printing single poems in exceptional circumstances (or longer pieces).
Flash: We do sometimes accept flash fiction - but we tend to prefer longer pieces. However, we are happy to be amazed.
In Microsoft .doc/x formats.
If your poem is in a specific layout – please also include a pdf which shows us the correct layout in case of version incompatibility.
Typographic notes: Please do not put two spaces after a full stop. This is an old fashioned practice and messes with our layout software!
The magazine is A5, so you might want to think about whether long lines in poems will suit the format.
We will separate the submission from the email and it will be read anonymously by our editorial team – so make sure that your name is not featured anywhere in the attachment and make sure that the title of your submission matches the title of your email.
Important note about quoting from songs or poems
Please don’t quote from poems or songs in your writing (unless they are in the public domain and so old that nobody will care, you can usually find that out by doing a websearch or going on Wikipedia). Even if it’s only a line in quote marks, or an obvious paraphrasing, we would still have to seek permission from the original publisher, or owner of the song, and that is prohibitively expensive and time consuming, and something that as a small publisher, we cannot justify doing.
REVIEWS AND WEBSITE CONTRIBUTIONS
We are currently developing the reviews section of the Confluence website and would love to hear from you if you'd like to write reviews or features for the website, (currently unpaid), or if you'd like to send us a book (poetry, short stories, or novel) to review.
TERMS & CONDITIONS OF PUBLICATION
We ask for non-exclusive online and UK print rights. All content remains the copyright of the writer. We ask that your work does not appear in another publication (print or online) for a period of 1 month from the date of publication in Confluence. We also ask that Confluence is acknowledged with any subsequent publication of your work by another website or press.
If your work is selected for the magazine we will send all contributors a complimentary PDF version. A reduced price for hard copies is available for contributors. As a small press funded only through sales, are unable to offer payment at this time - though from 2022 we aim to give writers a profit share on sales, once production costs are covered.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and consider us.
WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR DATA
When you send us your writing – we keep electronic and paper files for the duration of the production phase for the issue for which it was sent. After the issue is produced we destroy these electronic and paper files. If it doesn’t fit into that issue and we would like to hold it over, we will contact you and ask your permission to keep it on file until the next issue’s production phase is over.
We will use your contact details to let you know the outcome of your submission, once we have notified you of this, we will not contact you again.
At any time you may contact us and ask to withdraw your work (if it’s published elsewhere, or if you change your mind about submitting). We will also erase your data at this point – unless you tell us otherwise, for example, one poem gets published elsewhere, but you’d like us to keep the 3 others you sent under consideration.
If you subscribe to Confluence or buy a single issue, or another publication from Wordsmithery, we will keep your data on file as long as we need it to send you publications, then erase it. If you subscribe to Confluence you have the option to be added to our newsletter mailing list which is used to send you info on our events and publications. At any time you can opt out of this and your data will be securely erased.
Please check out Wordsmithery’s GDPR policy for more info. Or email us if you have any questions.
