Submission Guidelines

Black Heart is currently open to fiction and poetry submissions. We are looking for:

Submissions from these categories are posted as part of our ongoing publishing cycle, featuring new fiction updates every Friday and poetry updates every Monday.

FEE VS. FREE SUBMISSIONS: We love literature. We also love our writers. But we also receive lots of submissions from people who’ve never read our submission guidelines, and we have an extremely small staff to sift through the slush pile. Therefore, due to the volume of submissions we receive, we have sub-divided our submissions stream into FEE and FREE submission options. Writers using the $3 paid submission service will receive a brief written response to their work, while those who prefer to submit fee-free will receive a less personal response.

We would love to reply to everyone who sends us work, but we just don’t have the time. Thanks for understanding.

-=-Free submissions will always be available for those who prefer them, and no preference will be given to fee-based submissions.-=-

BOOK REVIEWS: Black Heart is currently open to submissions for paid book reviews. We offer 100% honest opinions from professional reviewers for just $75. Reviews will be published on a bi-weekly basis on Wednesdays. To submit your book for review, please click here for full details.

*NEW* CHARACTER CRUSHES: In 1,000 words or less, describe a character from a book that you have a literary crush on. Tell us why this character kicks ass or makes you swoon, the way you might describe your relationship to a lover or a friend. Convince us that this is the fictional character of your dreams, and don’t forget to include a brief (100-word) bio for yourself. Indie authors are welcome to describe fictional characters from their own books. Accepted crushes will be published on the Black Heart website on a bi-weekly basis. For an example, see our piece on Tyler Durden, of Chuck Palahniuk’s book, Fight Club. Send finished pieces in the body of your email to crushes [at] blackheartmagazine.com. DO NOT send any other submissions to this address or they WILL be destroyed.

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS: If you’re an indie author who’s written a book, we may be interested in interviewing you! Send details about your book (title, genre, where people can buy it, brief synopsis) to interviews [at] blackheartmagazine.com. If we think your book would be of interest to our readers, we’ll send you a list of questions you can answer at your leisure.

RESPONSE TIMES: Vary. If you haven’t heard from us in over 6 months, we’re probably not interested in publishing your piece, as we usually respond sooner.

PAYMENT: Book reviewers receive $50 per review. As our review service grows, we will begin to offer payment for short fiction and poetry as well. For now, we regret that no monetary payment is available, as Black Heart’s day-to-day activities are run on the sunshine and rainbows that emanate from our volunteer staffers’ asses. Want to help pay our writers? All sales generated by our online store and fee-based submissions are reinvested into the magazine, so the more you buy, the more we can afford to pay our writers.

How to Submit

Send us your best work via our submissions manager. Options are available for each genre; please choose appropriately.

(Last updated 5 May 2012)