Flashing Swords

Writers

Please read all the guidelines before submitting.

What we are looking for

Fiction, Poetry and non-fiction articles or essays with the following themes:

*Please see definitions below

What doesn't fit in this magazine.

These items will net you an automatic refusal to publish:

Special Note

Tales where 90% or more of the story is about nothing more than two guys killing each other. Or one guy killing a monster, or a couple of people kiling this, then going over there and killing that, then killing something else, or someone rescuing a helpless female from an evil being by killing (or causing the death of) said evil being, or a whole bunch of guys getting together to kill each other, will almost always be rejected. Those are easy to write, but regardless of how well the action and setting is described, there are far too many of those on the market.

Poems

Fiction

Payment will be made to the author when the work is accepted and after the author returns a signed contract allowing us to publish the piece.

Flashing Swords defines 'previously published work' as the following: any work presented to the public by a professional entity whose primary mission is to publish works for pay through contracts. We do not consider work that has been put online in your personal blog, posted on a forum, or printed out for personal friends and relatives to be 'previously published work'.

We welcome reprints of work previously published by other press or magazines, but we ask that you provide proof that you have the rights to the item you are submitting. If you are still under contract with someone else, please wait until that contract expires before submitting your work to us. We also ask that you provide us the previous publication date(s) of the work. This is in case we accept it, so we can credit the work and publication appropriately.

We do not accept simultaneous submissions.

We do accept multiple submissions, however keep in mind that we only publish one item per author per issue. If you send us 3 items, you'll get two of them back even if they're all good. Our best advise is to send in one, and then if we turn it down, send in the next one.

For all submissions, we are buying the following rights:

  1. Non-exclusive anthology rights. We intend to publish a print edition once a year that will contain what the editors consider the best of that year's work. We don't guarantee that every item accepted for publication will be included in the anthology. Authors of items that are selected will receive a printed contributor's copy.
  2. Non-exclusive rights to publish the item in the Flashing Swords quarterly digest in various formats including, but not limited to: print, .pdf, .html and other electronic or audio media. The right to retain the item in the online, public archives for a period of at least one year. We would prefer to keep it in the archives indefinitely, but after one year if you wish us to remove it, we will do so. In no case will we remove items from printed issues or anthologies.
  3. The right to have Published by Flashing Swords Press (and a link to our magazine's site) included as part of the item if you submit it anywhere else after it appears in our magazine.

Note: Pay rate for first publication and for reprints is identical.

Definitions

Sword and Sorcery:
Sword and Sorcery is different from general fantasy. General fantasy encompasses everything that has a fantastic element to it. Fairy Tales qualify as general fantasy. They do not qualify as sword and sorcery.
Technology is limited to fairly low level. Catapults, ballista, battering rams and shield walls should be the most advanced things that any army possesses. Individuals use normal bows (no compound bows), cross-bows, swords, shields and daggers. Or slings and sling bullets or rocks. They may also use quarter staves to fight with. Think Robin Hood.
Magic is available, but restricted. Perhaps it's very hard to master. Perhaps only certain people have an affinity for the magical energies. Perhaps it's tightly controlled by a guild. Whatever the reason, most of the population shouldn't have access to it. They may even be suspicious of those who use it. The exception is magic used for healing. It should still be rare, but the populace should normally welcome those who can wield it (though not always).
The world may, or may not, have normal earth-type animals as well as fantastic creatures such as dragons, unicorns, fairies and the like. The animals (of all types) may, or may not, be able to talk to humans, or use magic. However there should be elements of the fantastic which the hero considers normal. Otherwise, the story falls out of the sword and sorcery realm and into the heroic fantasy category.
Sword-and-sorcery follows a traditional story arc with a beginning, middle, and end; a problem and solution; a climax and resolution. Most important of all, sword-and-sorcery moves at a headlong pace and overflows with action and thrilling adventure.
Sword and Planet
Sword and Planet may have both magic and various psionic powers such as telepathy; however, either should be somewhat rare, or difficult to use, with most of the populace depending on their wits and more mundane skills to survive. The ability to cast even a minor spell or to use a bit of psi should set that character apart from those around him (or her). It might even get that character lynched as some sort of evil spirit (or worshiped as a god) if the general populace found out.
A perfectly acceptable story line is a modern pilot who crash lands a private plane in the deep jungle. His plane is wrecked, his radio dies, and the natives he meets are living as though the year were 3000 B.C. The pilot, and the gear he has that still works, are high-tech, but he's stuck using primitive, native weapons and his wits to survive. Woe to him if his hosts see him flick a Zippo™ to start a fire!
Heroic Fantasy
This type of fantasy includes a quest of lesser magnitude than Epic fantasy. The quest may be of a personal nature to the hero, or it may be something that only affects a few other people. There should be an element of risk to the hero; however his life need not be at stake.
Epic/High Fantasy
This type of fantasy revolves around a quest of large magnitude. Typically, the hero must save the world, rescue an important person or perform some other daunting task at great personal risk. Failing to complete the quest usually results in horrible consequences for a major group of people. The hero may have associates along to help, but the quest can only be completed if the hero is involved at the end, and he usually has to give something up of personal value to succeed. The Lord of the Rings is the most enduring example of an Epic quest.
Swashbuckling Adventures
Swashbuckler is a term that came about in the 16th century and was applied to rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It came about due to the popularity of the fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler". Pirate tales traditionally fit within this category.
Historical Adventure
These are fictional adventures with real world, historical settings. It is important that you make sure all your facts are accurate. An adventure concerning Christopher Columbus sailing up to New York harbor might be interesting and well written, but not very factual. We don't want to have to send your story back with a rejection slip because you didn't make sure all your facts were correct.
Essays and Articles
These are non-fiction pieces. Essays are your personal opinion about something. Articles must be factual and should include valid citations. Our editors will check your facts so please be as accurate as possible and spare us both the embarrassment of having to send the work back for revisions due to inaccurate citations or nonfactual material.
Articles and essays must have something to do with the theme of our magazine. An article about the publishing industry in general might be interesting, but we're not likely to accept it. However an article about the publishing industry that focuses on our theme genres will be of more interest to our readers.

Format

Email Submissions:

Address submissions to The Editor at: submissions@flashingswords.com

Note: If the email bounces (it's not supposed to, but it does once in a while), please access our forum and post a reply to the 'Bouncing Email' thread with an email address at which we can contact you.

Email submissions must be a file attachment in either Word (.doc), Open Office (.odt), or Rich-Text Format (.rtf). All manuscript files must be made to conform to our formatting guidelines. Submissions sent within the body of an email WILL be rejected.

Response time

Acceptances/Rejections within 10 weeks. We can't tell you what our decision is until after the reading period is over, but we will make every effort to contact you as soon as possible after it ends. If you have not heard from us by then, contact us at flashingswordspress@gmail.com.

Publication Release Dates

Submissions are open year round. Acceptances, requests for revisions and rejections will be sent as soon as the editorial team has finished reading a submission.

Please make sure your contact information is correct and that your spam filters will not prevent our communications from reaching your inbox. We will make every possible effort to contact you; however, please keep in mind that life and internet gremlins happen to everyone.

Tips

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Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:10:46

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