Light Speed
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Lightspeed is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine edited by John Joseph Adams.
Instructions for submitting to Lightspeed follow. Please read everything on this page and read the magazine before submitting.
NOTE: If Lightspeed is currently closed to submissions, please do not query asking when we'll be opening again. When we know when we're opening, we'll make that information available on this page and spread it widely.
Guidelines: Lightspeed is seeking original science fiction and fantasy stories. All types of science fiction and fantasy are welcome. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope. We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. You may submit one SF story and one Fantasy story at any given time; you must wait until seven days after our reply to submit another story in that genre.
Format: Submissions should generally follow standard manuscript format, though we prefer single-spaced instead of double-spaced. Your manuscript may be submitted in either .RTF or .DOC format.
Word Count: We are open to stories of 1500-10,000 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred.
Pay Rate: Lightspeed pays 8 cents per word for original fiction, or 2 cents per word for reprints.
Rights: To see which rights we’re seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction or our contract template for reprinted fiction.
Cover Letters: Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history, and any other relevant information (e.g, if you send us a hard SF story about black hole clusters and your doctoral dissertation was on black hole clusters, mention that). If you’re not sure what should go in your cover letter, this article on cover letters might help.
Questions/Problems: Email submissions@lightspeedmagazine.com for all fiction-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system. Please do not email your submissions to this address.
Rejections/Response Times: We cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. If we say, “send more,” however, it does mean that we hope to see something else from you. We will reply to submissions as quickly as possible, but expect that replies might take as long as a month. Please do not respond to rejection letters, even just to say “Thanks for the quick turnaround” etc. We appreciate the thought, but it is unnecessary and will just clutter up our editorial inbox.
Diversity Statement: We believe that the science fiction/fantasy genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.
Review Copies: If you would like information about how to submit books for review, you may send review copies to editor John Joseph Adams at the mailing address your publicity department likely already has on file (either for Lightspeed, Nightmare, or The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy); email reviewbooks@lightspeedmagazine.com for more information.
Art: If you wish to have your art considered for Lightspeed Magazine (either science fiction or fantasy), please send an inquiry, along with a link to an online gallery (if possible), to art@lightspeedmagazine.com. Please note that we only use 12 covers per year. We are presently commissioning original art for all of our covers. If you submit your gallery, we will review it and get in touch if we want to commission something. However, we do have a core team of artists we work with already and assign most of our covers among them.
We welcome the submission of translations of stories from other languages. Stories that have never before been published in the English language would be considered “original.”
Sexual themes and stories with strong sexual content are acceptable, but Lightspeed is not a market for erotica. If in doubt, feel free to send your story in and let our editors decide.
Lightspeed is not a market for media-based fiction (i.e., stories set in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes, etc.), or any kind of fan fiction. (Note: We don’t have a problem with people reading or writing fan fiction or media-based fiction, we’re just not legally allowed to consider publishing it.)
Lightspeed is not a market for poetry.
If you’re not sure if your story is suitable, don’t query; please just go ahead and submit it and let our editors decide.
If editor John Joseph Adams has previously rejected your story, please do not submit it to Lightspeed, unless it was rejected as being unsuitable for the market (due to theme, etc.) or unless it has been significantly revised to the extent that it is no longer the same story.
Lightspeed is a SFWA-qualifying professional market.
NOTE: If Lightspeed is currently closed to submissions, please do not query asking when we'll be opening again. When we know when we're opening, we'll make that information available on this page and spread it widely.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES FOR SHORT FICTION
Instructions: All fiction must be submitted through our Moksha online submission system. Please do not email your submissions.Guidelines: Lightspeed is seeking original science fiction and fantasy stories. All types of science fiction and fantasy are welcome. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope. We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. You may submit one SF story and one Fantasy story at any given time; you must wait until seven days after our reply to submit another story in that genre.
Format: Submissions should generally follow standard manuscript format, though we prefer single-spaced instead of double-spaced. Your manuscript may be submitted in either .RTF or .DOC format.
Word Count: We are open to stories of 1500-10,000 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred.
Pay Rate: Lightspeed pays 8 cents per word for original fiction, or 2 cents per word for reprints.
Rights: To see which rights we’re seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction or our contract template for reprinted fiction.
Cover Letters: Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history, and any other relevant information (e.g, if you send us a hard SF story about black hole clusters and your doctoral dissertation was on black hole clusters, mention that). If you’re not sure what should go in your cover letter, this article on cover letters might help.
Questions/Problems: Email submissions@lightspeedmagazine.com for all fiction-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system. Please do not email your submissions to this address.
Rejections/Response Times: We cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. If we say, “send more,” however, it does mean that we hope to see something else from you. We will reply to submissions as quickly as possible, but expect that replies might take as long as a month. Please do not respond to rejection letters, even just to say “Thanks for the quick turnaround” etc. We appreciate the thought, but it is unnecessary and will just clutter up our editorial inbox.
Diversity Statement: We believe that the science fiction/fantasy genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.
OTHER SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
Nonfiction: All of our nonfiction is currently assigned in-house. We are not open to submissions or queries in this area.Review Copies: If you would like information about how to submit books for review, you may send review copies to editor John Joseph Adams at the mailing address your publicity department likely already has on file (either for Lightspeed, Nightmare, or The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy); email reviewbooks@lightspeedmagazine.com for more information.
Art: If you wish to have your art considered for Lightspeed Magazine (either science fiction or fantasy), please send an inquiry, along with a link to an online gallery (if possible), to art@lightspeedmagazine.com. Please note that we only use 12 covers per year. We are presently commissioning original art for all of our covers. If you submit your gallery, we will review it and get in touch if we want to commission something. However, we do have a core team of artists we work with already and assign most of our covers among them.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Lightspeed is edited and published by John Joseph Adams. You can see the rest of our staff on our Staff Page.We welcome the submission of translations of stories from other languages. Stories that have never before been published in the English language would be considered “original.”
Sexual themes and stories with strong sexual content are acceptable, but Lightspeed is not a market for erotica. If in doubt, feel free to send your story in and let our editors decide.
Lightspeed is not a market for media-based fiction (i.e., stories set in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes, etc.), or any kind of fan fiction. (Note: We don’t have a problem with people reading or writing fan fiction or media-based fiction, we’re just not legally allowed to consider publishing it.)
Lightspeed is not a market for poetry.
If you’re not sure if your story is suitable, don’t query; please just go ahead and submit it and let our editors decide.
If editor John Joseph Adams has previously rejected your story, please do not submit it to Lightspeed, unless it was rejected as being unsuitable for the market (due to theme, etc.) or unless it has been significantly revised to the extent that it is no longer the same story.
Lightspeed is a SFWA-qualifying professional market.
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