September 6, 2004

Earnest Plea for Quality Short Fiction

By: David Skinner

We, the foolish editors of Doublethink, are inviting short story submissions. No, this is not a joke or, worse yet, a contest. We’d simply like to broaden Doublethink’s lineup of features, news articles, columns, and whatnot to include short stories, at least as often as we can find ones we think worthy of publication.

Here’s how it works. A writer sends us a short story (david[at]americasfuture.org, subj: fiction submission), we consider it for publication. A few caveats. This is a not a promise to the agreeable readership of Doublethink that we are going to deliver quality fiction any time soon. Nor is it a promise to submitters that no matter how often they send us work, we’re going to read every last word.

Still, we’re optimistic that we can find good work written by good writers, and that we can get that writing to our good readers.

Guidelines. We’re going to favor pieces in the 2,000- to 4,000-word range, though we are open to other lengths. Similarly, there are no thematic restrictions, but it is possible we’ll look a little more kindly on fiction written with an audience of youngish, ambitious, intellectually engaged, politically astute readers in mind.

Okay, this is really just a super-earnest call for writers, writers who think they’re on their way up, believe they have some ideas that might be up our alley, and care more about beautiful writing than most anything else. Oh, and we do pay. Just not well.