We’re currently open for submissions. Our next submission period closes on August 15th.
Criteria
Luna Station Quarterly publishes speculative fiction written by women-identified authors. We think women write awesome characters and really cool stories and we want to show it to the world. We will consider stories submitted by any woman writer, regardless of experience or writing resume. If you consider yourself on the woman end of the gender spectrum in any significant capacity, you’re welcome here!
Basic guidelines
| Word limit | 500 – 7000, no exceptions |
|---|---|
| Payment | $10 USD, via Paypal |
| Genre | Science fiction and fantasy short fiction. No horror, but dark SF/F is permitted. |
| Language | English, translations accepted |
| Simultaneous submissions | None accepted |
| Reprints | Accepted, 3 years after most recent publication. Note that these are a harder sell. |
| Rights | FOR NEW WORKS: first electronic rights, prefer 3 month exclusivity, non-exclusive anthology rights for future “Best of Luna Station Quarterly” anthologies. FOR REPRINTS: Reprint rights, non-exclusive anthology rights for future “Best of Luna Station Quarterly” anthologies |
Important details
- Our response time varies, but you will hear from us no later then one month before publication.
- Reprints must be at least 3 years past their initial publication date to be considered.
- Multiple submissions are not considered. One submission per period.
Deadlines
Luna Station Quarterly is published once a quarter, and has the following schedule:
| Publication Date | Submission Dates |
|---|---|
| March 1st | September 15th – November 15th |
| June 1st | December 15th – February 15th |
| September 1st | March 15th – May 15th |
| December 1st | June 15th – August 15th |
Full guidelines
Stuff we want:
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Space Opera
- New Fairy Tales (not retellings)
- Some creepiness
- Stories that explore the nooks and crannies of an original world
- Big events from the everyman perspective
- Unique settings and storytelling forms
- Well written stories with strong characters
Stuff we don’t want:
- Extreme gore or sexual content, in particular no explicit rape or sexual assault. (everything in moderation)
- The first chapter of a novel
- Bizarro fiction
- Poetry
- Plays
- Fan Fiction (original stories only, please)
- Bad grammar/punctuation (please proofread and watch your sentence structure!)
- Plagiarism
A further note about sex and violence in submissions.
Science fiction has a long-standing tradition of pushing boundaries and asking difficult questions. It is meant to challenge us and ask us to look at ourselves and how we treat each other and the world around us. That said, LSQ is centered on uplift and so any story that contains explicit sexual situations or violence especially toward women will be considered more carefully than other stories and the content must be justified within the story’s plot.
Reprints & Multiple submissions
We prefer original works, but will consider reprints. Authors should be sure they have the right to sell reprints. If your work is a reprint, include any necessary reprint information at the bottom of the work, such as “First appeared in XYZ Magazine, May 2011.
Reprints must be at least 3 years past their initial publication date to be considered.
Multiple submissions are not considered. One submission per period.
Response Time
Our response time varies, but you will hear from us no later then one month before publication.
Feel free to contact us (via the contact form) if we do not acknowledge your submission. If you want to ask about something you have submitted, it is extremely important to use the contact form) and include the date when you sent the submission.
If your story is accepted, you will receive an email that includes the publication date and a short, simple contract. This must be returned before publication or your story will not be published.
Rights
Copyright remains yours at all times. We simply ask for the right to publish your story in the ebook (epub, mobi, pdf) and print editions of Luna Station Quarterly. If you want us to remove a story from our archive, please write us via the contact form to let us know.
Final Notes
We reserve the right to change the submission process between issues. If you have any futher questions regarding this process, please use the contact form to get in touch.
Thank you for reading our guidelines!