WestWord submissions are open for one month for each edition and we charge a small submission fee (£5) in order to pay our writers and cover production, design and admin costs.
We understand that this will be unaffordable for some people so we have 4 free submissions available in each period. Contact us to get one. No need to provide any explanation or evidence, just ask. They are first come, first served so if you do need one, best to get in touch as soon as the submission period opens.
If you would like to sponsor a submission so we can increase the number of free submissions available, then you can do that here.
Author Payment
For each edition, the writers we publish will share 50% of the submission fees received. All stories selected for an edition will receive the same payment no matter the length of the story.
We will also nominate stories for prizes (Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Pushcart, etc.).
Submission Guidelines
All submissions must be sent through Submittable and we cannot accept email submissions. Anything sent via email will not be read.
Please submit no more than one story per category in each submission period. If you are submitting to more than one category then each submission must be made separately and the submission fee paid each time.
Word Counts
- Short Stories: up to 3000 words
- Flash Fictions: up to 1000 words
- Micro Fictions: up to 350 words
Please use a legible, easy-to-read font of 12pt or 14pt.
All submissions must be previously unpublished (never published in print or online, including a personal blog) and in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format ONLY.
Simultaneous submissions are fine but please withdraw your submission via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere.
Our submissions are open to all adult writers worldwide. All work must be written in English.
Please do not send us stories with racism, sexism, homophobia, religious hatred or any other kind of bigotry and hate. Any sex must be relevant to the story. Do not send us stories of rape, incest, child abuse, bestiality, or gratuitous violence. We won’t publish it and we do not want to read it.
Until we have editions online, to get an idea of the kind of stories we like you can read the winners from our flash and micro contests on the Retreat West website. For longer pieces, read an anthology of the winning stories in the annual RW Prize.
Authors will retain all rights and copyright to their works. WestWord requests one-time, non-exclusive rights to publish your work.
Submission Periods
- 1st to 31st January for the April edition
- 1st to 31st May for the August edition
- 1st to 30th September for the December edition
We will respond within 5 weeks of the submission period closing.
Submit using the button below during the submission periods. It will not work outside of these times. Sometimes we will have themed submissions and we will post all info here and on our Twitter page when we do.
WestWord 