Submissions

Welcome to Swordreaver.com! My purpose with this web page is to generate as much interest as possible in as many new science fiction/fantasy authors as I can. My method is simple. I plan to publish articles and short stories on this page and then to promote these stories in a monthly email newsletter as well as on my "Heroic Fantasy" Facebook page (sign up now if you haven't already done so).

Before you are enticed to start sending me articles and short stories, perhaps you wish to know the credentials I possess which justify my involvement in an enterprise such as this.  That's fair enough since I suppose I will be judging the work you send me, so I suppose it's only reasonable that you be allowed to judge me as well.

I've worked as the Chief editor for a couple of small magazines and ezines.  My duties involved sorting through good short stories and articles, editing and eventually publishing them.  The magazine I worked for had a circulation of 5,000, and the ezine had a weekly email newsletter that went out to over 30,000 people.

I have a degree in English literature (Summa cum laude for whatever that's worth) with a minor in Physics (so you can see how the science fiction fits in) and I've had short stories and articles published in a plethora of print and online magazines (it's easier to get stuff printed when you're the chief editor).

What I'm interested in receiving from you are the following: some good sci-fi or fantasy stories (up until about 10,000 words is best, but I prefer stuff in the 2,000 range), some sci-fi/fantasy related articles, craft of writing articles, etc.  I'm most interested in hearing from authors who have novels published with small presses and who are looking to generate some buzz for their works.  If you let me know the name of your book and who you've published with, I'd be happy to do an author interview.  Artwork/photos will also be gratefully accepted.

I'm sorry to say that this is a "For the Love" site for the moment (which means I can't pay you).  If that should change at any point in the future, however, you'll be the first to know.  I would like you to keep in mind, however, that since the purpose of this site is to bring together a lot of small press authors, there will be a great opportunity for networking and mutual marketing.  This site is slightly different than the usual ezine since it is meant to promote authors who have some sort of product to sell.  I have absolutely no problem whatsoever promoting your book's blog, reviewing it, or even reviewing the book itself (although the prospect of that will take a little negotiation...I prefer the interviews since they're a lot more efficient and feelings aren't so likely to get hurt).

Rights:

For pieces accepted for publication, we ask only first Electronic Publishing Rights. We have no problem with the author submitting the work to other magazines or ezines after publication with us.  Our wish is to keep the story on our page for as long as Swordreaver.com exists, but after publication, you can request for us to remove your story from our page after a period of three (3) months.  It should be noted that other magazines and ezines are less likely to accept a work that has already been published elsewhere and that the story might still appear in search engines even after we have deleted it from our archives. Bearing this in mind, if you still feel swordreaver.com is a good place to try out your work, then by all means send it!

Please send your submissions imbedded in the body of the email to:

walterrhein at gmail.com

That's also the email you can use to find me on Facebook.  Please remember to put the following items in the subject line:

Submission--Your name--Title of work

Also, make sure to include a brief bio including URLs to your previously published works, your blog, your web page, etc.

When you send me your story, I will read it and assign it a Rhein Rating.  I will then send you an email with the Rhein Rating and a short contract which you will have to acknowledge and paste into the body of the response email.  At this point, you can decide whether or not you wish for me to continue with publishing the work with the Rhein Rating it has earned.  If you agree that I may publish the story with my chosen Rhein Rating send me the email with the acknowledged contract, if not, then don't reply (please no emails begging for higher Rhein Ratings...I don't have the time).

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to reviewing your submissions!