Submissions

Mad Scientist Journal is CLOSED to submissions permanently. All submissions have been responded to. Thank you for your submissions and support.

What We Want (Standard Submissions)

Unless specified otherwise, we’re looking for stories that are:

  • 500-8,000 words long.
  • First person.
  • Arguably mad science related.

The mad science is negotiable. The rest is not.

We are strongly biased towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We are also committed to publishing work by authors belonging to marginalized groups. If you are LGBTQ, a person of color, or belong to some other group that is underrepresented in the genre, we really want to hear from you.

When it comes to “first person,” this can includes fictional newspaper articles, press releases, brochures, etc. We’re also happy to consider reprints and more than one submission at a time.

Do not send us poetry, screenplays, stories that are being considered by another market (also known as simultaneous submissions), or long winded ramblings from disgruntled mad scientists without any plot.

Stories should be submitted in Standard Manuscript Format. Here’s an explanation of what that means.

We currently only open for submissions one month at a time. Sometimes we will hold a story until the end of that period before deciding. If you haven’t heard from us within a month of our submission period closing, send us an email.

If Accepted

Stories will require a fictional identity for the narrator, with a bio. Authors will still be credited under their own name as follows:

Title of Your Story
An essay by [fictional narrator], as provided by [your name].

We will send a contract for esignature. For new stories, we will ask for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year and nonexclusive rights afterwards. For reprints, we will ask for nonexclusive reprinting rights.

Payment for submissions is based on story length and whether or not it’s new. We pay everyone via Paypal. 

Length New Reprint
Flash (500-2,000): $10.00 $5.00
Short (2,001-8,000): $20.00 $10.00
Annual Anthology Stories (500-8,000): 2 cents/word N/A

Our contract says we’ll pay before it appears in the book, but we aim to send payment within a few weeks of receiving your contract.

Please Be Aware

Most publications will not reprint fiction that has appeared in online or print format elsewhere. By selling to a token paying market, you are limiting your ability to make more money off of your fiction. It is up to you, the author, to decide whether you want to give up First Publishing Right for token payment.

Ready?

Send your story to us through Submittable.

Questions?

Queries can be sent to madscientistjournal@gmail.com.

 

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