If you agree to be published in our magazine, you accept the publication policies outlined below.
General
If we accept your work, we will contact you and tell you which issue we plan to publish your work in. You have 5 working days to accept or decline publication in our magazine, but we really hope you’ll say yes. If you don’t respond, we will consider that a…rejection.
That’s right, you can reject the rejectors. Obviously, we hope you don’t.
If you agree to be published, we will publish your work on our website. We will also publish excerpts of your work on social media. If we accept a fiction piece that’s longer than 6,000 words, we reserve the right to serialize it on our website across multiple weeks, but we will notify you of that plan when we offer publication.
If we publish your work, please wait 30 days from the date of publication before submitting again.
Rights Acquired
- For text-based work, we acquire Exclusive First Electronic Rights and Exclusive Social Media Rights for 90 days. After the first 90 days:
- We also ask for Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights and Non-Exclusive Social Media Rights indefinitely so we can include your work in our archives and throwback posts on social media.
- You can publish your work somewhere else, but please credit Unfortunately, Literary Magazine with initial publication.
- For image-based work, we acquire Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights and Non-Exclusive Social Media Rights indefinitely. This is so we can include your work in our current issue and social media posts, and subsequently in our archives and throwback posts.
- For translations, we acquire Exclusive First English-Language and Exclusive Social Media Rights for 90 days. You must provide a statement that certifies you have received permission from the original rights holder (either the publisher or the author, as applicable) to give us these rights. After the first 90 days:
- We also ask for Non-Exclusive English-Language Electronic Rights and Non-Exclusive Social Media Rights indefinitely so we can include your work in our archives and throwback posts on social media.
- You can publish your work somewhere else, but please credit Unfortunately, Literary Magazine with initial publication.
Money
We have no money to give yet, but we will promote the hell out of your work on social media.
Editorial Process
Imagery
Nothing really, we’ll reach out if we have questions.
Text
For poetry, we probably won’t edit anything, but we will contact you if we have any questions.
For prose, we will do a light round of editing—nothing substantive. We’ll make sure that you have your periods (heh), the first letters of your sentences are capitalized, and your commas are where they belong. You should do this before submitting, but we’ve got your back.
If we have substantive concerns or want to see more in-depth revisions to your piece, we will say so when we offer publication.
