Stiry Unlikley Shrot Story Competiton

 Full details 

Please note that we have additional perks and leeway for WRITER LEVEL MEMBERS, highlighted in GREEN, granting access to special content and bonuses in the submission process, plus it helps keep the lights on and pay all yee writers!

Speaking of 'Members', (Imagine some yokel hollering from the back of city council meeting, "Point of clarity!") we have two terms that you should note the difference:
"Subscriber" means our free, basic subscription.
"Member" means our paid, annual membership. Click on our Member's page to learn more about the different tiers and perks for each.
Boom, now you're informed.

Story Guidelines:
      Attention storytellers: we just want good stories! There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc - we don't care as long as it's written and told with quality and care. The story itself cannot exceed 7,000 words (except for WRITER level Members, who get a bonus 3,000 words added!). There are no restrictions on age or location of participant, and no need to ask us for permission to participate in the contest - just follow the guidelines below.

What do I win?
      A $3,000 $5,000 prize package will be divvied up like so: $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, and $250 for our new REPRINT CATEGORY (more info below). The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely's website, and will be strongly considered for our annual (print) sample magazine, which means a lot of exposure to the winner. All three placing stories (and reprint winner) will be published in the monthly issue, and all three will be illustrated by real, professional, human artists!
      Don't forget about the honorable mentions! That's right, you honorable little losers. Is that harsh? It's supposed to be a compliment. Anyway, we do NOT notify honorable mentions (or semi finalists or finalists) ahead of time, because we're lazy busy, so very, very lazy busy. Rather, we announce them in the monthly issue after the reading period ends, which you need to sign up for in order to be eligible to enter. If your name appears on this list of honorables, you'll be prompted to contact us and we'll send you a fancy-schmancy certificate for proof that you, indeed, almost won a writing contest. But not quite. Plus, if there is a strong showing, we tend to pick up a few of the finalists for publication in our monthly magazine!

When can I submit?
      The submission period runs from October 14th through January 14th, midnight central standard time (or January 31st for WRITER level Members.When will my story be published?
      Stories will be published - at our whimsical discretion - the following calendar year between June and December. Winning authors will be notified, at the latest, by May 31st. All authors MUST be signed up for the Story Unlikely monthly magazine (free!) to be eligible for prize and publication. Please note that although you're welcome to unsubscribe at any time, just wait until the contest is over, otherwise we'll consider that a disqualification of your entry. DO NOT mark our emails as spam (and we know when this is done) - not only will you forfeit your entry, but you'll be barred from future submissions. Harsh judgement, sure, but easily avoided.Reprint Category
      New to this year is our REPRINT category. If it was previously published, you can still win some cash - $250 will be awarded to the winning reprint story! When you submit, CLEARLY mark the submission as a reprint both in the TITLE and the BODY, and it will get shuffled into the right pipeline. Please note that if you are not a WRITER level Member, you can only submit one story (IE if you submit a reprint, you cannot submit a previously unpublished, or vice versa. Only Members are WRITER level are allowed multiple submissions).
      Note that all reprint submissions must be free of any exclusivity period by May of the following year. Reprints will not be assigned Honorable Mention, Semi Finalist, or Finalist - you either win (or get picked up and published like we do with some finalist stories), or you don't.

Halftime break!

Reading guidelines is the worst, so we'll try and make this as painless entertaining as possible, if that's even possible. So let's kick things off with a video from our latest acquisition to the magazine, berating our editor-in-chief for not hiring her earlier. All you Office fans may recognize this classy gal: the one and only Meredith Palmer...