Submission Guidelines

Literary Hatchet  Submission Guidelines

PTPlogoMay2015

We accept Literary Hatchet submissions through our submission partner, Submittable.com at this address. We accept short stories, poetry, reviews, interviews, and artwork.

The Literary Hatchet: 

Cutting edge works by authors and artists worldwide. We publish provocative contemporary short fiction, poetry, illustrations, interviews, and reviews by established and emerging writers and artists from around the world. All subjects (except erotica) are welcomed. Now published 3 times a year!

We accept submissions and pay all authors and artists for their work.

Please include a query letter with your submission. We request you include the following in your query letter: short story genre and a short bio (50 words or less, please).

We will respond to your submission within sixty (60) days. If this period passes and you have not heard back from us, a polite note of reminder from the author is not out of order. We discourage phone calls on the status of manuscripts and prefer to communicate by email.

PearTree Press requires exclusive submission for all solicited manuscripts during the sixty days mentioned above. This is for obvious reasons. We can only provide full attention to those stories that we are likely to publish if they are accepted for publication. After those sixty days, you are fee to submit your work to other publishers.

If you would like a written critique of your work, or would like detailed feedback of your writing, there is a small charge. USE THE CRITIQUE FEE SUBMISSION FORM FOR THIS TYPE OF SUBMISSION. Otherwise, submission of your work is FREE.

If accepted for publication, here are our terms

 

Submission Guidelines for The Literary Hatchet:

LHwebsite

We will consider previously published material but prefer original works.

We accept short fiction essays, first-person narratives, speculative fiction, short stories, poetry, photography, art, illustrations, and humor pieces.

We’re interested in new angles on old ideas, or topics that don’t get covered frequently. We like to showcase articles that don’t just sum up some issue but make us think and make us want to read further.

The above is not exhaustive. If you don’t have an immediate idea for a piece, but you’d really like to write for us, let us know and be prepared to show us work you’ve done. We can always think of subjects!


WHAT WE DON’T WANT

We do not accept erotica, either as articles or images
We do not accept articles or images with excessive crude language or outlandish sexual humor
We do not accept simultaneous submissions (submitting a piece to more than one journal or site at the same time)
We cannot consider partial or incomplete stories or essays
We do not accept rewrites of the “Lizzie Borden Took An Axe” doggerel
We do not accept Haiku poetry, unless as a part of a collection of five or more


GUIDELINES BY TYPE OF SUBMISSION—SHORT STORIES:

We accept short stories from 1,000-6,000 words in length. Feel free to contact us with inquiries about the type of stories we might be interested in if you are in doubt. We appreciate the well-written work, and acceptance is determined by whether the piece grabs the editor and holds their interest. We consider works of horror, dark subjects, paranormal, gothic works, detective fiction, and stories about monsters, either real or imaginary.

POETRY:
We are looking for high-quality extraordinary poems (both serious and humorous) that explore the darkness that resides in each of us. Personal pieces that offer a self-reflection are acceptable.

HUMOR:
We accept jokes, short humor pieces, humorous first-person stories, farce, and take-offs.

ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND ILLUSTRATIONS:
All submitted art and illustrations must be in 300 dpi, JPG or GIF formats and no larger than 1200 X 1200 pixels.

INTERVIEWS:
If you would like to interview someone our readers would find interesting (including, but not limited to, authors, celebrities, relatives of Borden case members, experts in a related field of study), you can submit your idea to us for approval.


COMPENSATION, RIGHTS, AND LENGTH

RIGHTS: By submission of your work, you are agreeing to The Hatchet and its publisher PearTree Press holding exclusive first-printing world rights for a period of 6 months. While your piece is online, it may not appear anywhere else on the Internet, in print, or sold for profit. Rights revert back to the writer/artist at the end of 6 months.

We ask, but do not require, that you then give us non-exclusive electronic rights to include your work in our archives after it is rotated off the issue. You have the right to remove your article from the archives at any point after 6 months.

COMPENSATION AND LENGTH REQUIREMENTS: We pay compensation for almost all work accepted for publication. Payment is made upon publication. Checks are sent by mail. Foreign contributors can choose to be paid by check (US dollars), PayPal or Amazon Gift Card. Or you could select to receive a print copy of the issue in lieu of payment.

 

FICTION, SHORT STORIES:

  • 1,000-6,000 words — $10

INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS:

  • compensation is paid to the person conducting the interview — $5

POETRY:

  • we prefer poetry under 100 lines — $5

ART/ILLUSTRATIONS:

  • in JPG or GIF format only — $5

HUMOR PIECES:

  • 500-2500 words — $10
  • 75-499 words — $5
  • 25-74 words — no fee paid

HOW TO SUBMIT

We buy exclusive first-printing world rights for 6 months.

Submissions must be made via Submittable.com

Electronic submissions should be as an attached MSWord. Do not include the text of your submission within the email.

Multiple submissions are accepted—but each submission should appear as a separate file.

No simultaneous submissions accepted.


RESPONSE TIME

Average response time is about 30 days. If you don’t hear from us in 60 days, please query.


EDITING POLICY

We prefer not to edit heavily. If we like your idea, but feel that your article needs significant editing, we’ll send it back to you with lots of suggestions and recommendations. We will correct all typos, grammatical errors, and adjust punctuation to our house style. If we make any substantial changes we will contact you first for approval well in advance of publication.

If we cannot contact you or you do not return our emails, we will assume that you have withdrawn your submission. Feel free to resubmit it at a later date.

We prefer poetry under 100 lines. Please don’t send us poetry unless you have thoroughly proofread it. Accepted submissions may be edited for clarity or to correct minor errors. Poetry submissions which do not meet minimum standards for correct spelling will be rejected.

HOW TO CONTACT US

SUBMISSIONS: Submissions must be made via this link: Submittable.com

or write us at

PearTree Press
328 French Street, Suite 2
Fall River, MA 02720

The Literary Hatchet is open for submissions and we financially compensate our authors and artists for their works.

You can submit more than one work per issue, but please send each submission individually.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES FOR THE LITERARY HATCHET:
March 1 (publication date Apri/May)
July 1 (publication date August/September)
November 1 (publication date December/January)