Submissions

Fiction

Guidelines

Length: About 4,000 to 6,000 words

Pay: $100, plus lifetime “paid” subscription to Incensepunk Magazine. Stories included in annual anthology also receive pro-rata share of 50% of profits (each story’s author receiving a share from that 50% proportioned by the length of their contribution to the total length of the book) and a print copy of the anthology. See the sample contract for details.

Rights: First digital print plus one-time non-exclusive digital and print rights for the annual anthology.

How to Submit

Send submissions as an attached .doc/.docx to editor@incensepunk.com.

We aren’t too picky on formatting, but don’t try to get clever with it - Substack, where the magazine is hosted, is designed to send posts as emails, which means formatting is more or less barebones. Bold/italics/underlines, special characters, and horizontal rule/divider work fine, but multiple fonts, indenting, tables, etc., are no-go.

What We Want to See

  • Sci-fi worlds that embrace the breadth of human religion

  • Complex characters that experience doubt as well as faith

  • Compelling journeys, whether metaphysical or adventurous

  • A light at the end of the tunnel, even if the way there is fraught

  • Thoughtful re-imagining of religious aesthetics in future settings.

What We Aren’t Looking For

  • Apologetics or sermonizing on any particular faith

  • Made-up religions or unstructured spirituality

  • Characters who are walking exemplars of their church

  • Bashing other religions or the non-religious

  • Transparent allegories of contemporary political issues

Additional tips

A few additional tips to keep in mind:

  • Read the Incensepunk Manifesto to find out if your story is a good fit.

  • AI-generated content is not accepted.

  • Include in your cover letter a one or two sentence summary explaining how your story is incensepunk.

  • We request one-time electronic publication rights (for the website) plus an additional one-time digital and print publication rights (for an annual anthology).

  • Simultaneous submissions welcome, just let us know if it gets accepted somewhere else first!

  • Single submissions only. We try for a fast turnaround so wait until you hear back before sending us another story.

  • If you do not hear from us after 30 days, feel free to send a follow-up query.

  • Here’s a preview of our contract. Note that this is just a sample; actual contract may vary slightly.

Reprints

We accept reprints at a flat rate of $25 per story. Reprints will be published as a mid-month “bonus” story while original stories are the flagship content.

For reprints, we only ask for one-time digital publication rights. Be sure that you have the rights to republish before submitting.

Indicate in your cover letter if a submission is a reprint.

Nonfiction Articles

We are also open to submissions for pitches for nonfiction articles exploring the intersection of faith and emerging tech, as well as book reviews and other related topics. Guidelines are the same as above, with the following changes:

  • Currently, nonfiction articles are not paid; however lifetime “paid” subscription benefits will still be provided to nonfiction authors.

  • We accept pitches as well as completed articles; just include “PITCH” in your email subject so we know what we’re looking at.

  • Word count is flexible but generally on the shorter end—more likely sub-1000 words.

  • Only one-time electronic publication rights are requested.

  • Multiple submissions are also accepted.