SORCEROUS SIGNALS
edited by Carol Hightshoe
Submission Guidelines
Welcome to Sorcerous Signals


Sorcerous Signals will be a quarterly Fantasy electronic magazine.

Each issue we hope to publish at least 6 fantasy short stories, 2 poems and 1 flash fiction piece that meet the
following guidelines:

My primary guideline is simple:
Write a good Fantasy story.

What I am NOT looking for - erotica / slash / or other such stories.
Although well written love scenes that are IMPORTANT to the story may be considered on a story-by-story
basis.

1) Stories should be no longer than 10,000 words.
However, tell the story - if it takes more than 10,000 words to tell the story properly so be it.
Just try to cut it down if possible - but remember the story is the important part.

2) I will accept reprints as long as it has been at least 1 year since the story was previously published, rights
have reverted back and you tell me where it previously appeared.

3) Please keep the graphic gore down to a minimum (only what's needed for the story).

4) Please keep the obscene language to a bare minimum (again, only what's needed for the story).

5) Humor similar to what has appeared in the "Chicks in Chain Mail"; series of Anthologies will also be
considered.

6) Simultaneous Submissions will be considered IF:
a) You tell me up front
b) You inform me immediately if the story has been accepted elsewhere
If I have too many occurrences of finding out a story was accepted somewhere else when I contact an author
to tell them I would like to accept their story for Sorcerous Signals  - I will no longer accept simultaneous
submissions.

I am partial to Sword and Sorcery style Fantasy stories,
but will consider anything that fits into the fantasy genre.

All stories received will be considered first for Sorcerous Signals and also for The Lorelei Signal.
Please do not submit to both e-zines.


FORMATTING:

If you have a Fantasy story you think meets the theme of this magazine then send it to me via email as a .rtf
attachment. Please note: I use Word as my wording processing program - if you save your file in Works, I will
not be able to open it.

I am no longer accepting stories in the body of an email, because too many stories are coming in without being
properly formated in plain text and then cut and pasted in the email - this has caused too many
headaches in dealing with cleaning up stories.

Make sure your story meets these formating guidelines:

1) Do not indent

2) Single spaced with an extra space between paragraphs.
Do not use the paragraph spacing option, use carriage returns (or hit the enter key twice between paragraphs)

3) Use _to indicate italics_
Please do not place an underscore around every word in a section you are indicating as being italicized.
Only place them at the beginning and end of the italicized section.

4) Make sure your contact information is on the manuscript.
I print the stories out to read them and it helps if I have your information on the manuscript instead of trying to
wade through the emails to match your manuscript to your email.


I will not respond to submissions deleted for failing to properly follow the guidelines.
I don't want to have to reject a story because of formating,
but if I have problems reading it due to formatting or
will have to spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning it up, I will reject it.
Please note: stories that are badly formatted automatically go the bottom of the review
pile and may not be reviewed if I find acceptable stories that are properly formatted and
readable


RESPONSE TIMES:

I plan on waiting until the end of each of the reading periods before reading the stories that have come in. So if
you submit early in that period you will have to wait a few weeks before I start on the submissions.
Each submission should also receive an acknowledge email within a few days of it being received by the editor.
Response times will depend on the number of submissions being received, my personal time schedule as well
as any writing deadline's I may have. However, I do hope to keep response times down to less than 2 months.
I will make every effort to respond to each story with something other than a form letter.


RIGHTS:

Author's grant to Sorcerous Signals one-time rights to publish in electronic and print
(starting with the Feb - Apr 2009 issue) format.
We request 6 months exclusivity, after which they are free to market the story elsewhere.
Authors are also encouraged to post a short excerpt on their own website with a link to Sorcerous Signals
Please note if you are not sending a reprint this does constitute first rights for your story if it is accepted.

Sorcerous Signals also requests non-exclusive print anthology rights for possible inclusion in an end of year
Anthology issue.
If an author's story is selected for this anthology they will receive $10.00.
If an author's story is not selected for the Anthology covering the year their story appeared, Sorcerous Signals
no longer has any claim to the anthology rights without the permission of the author.


SUBMISSION:

Please provide the following information in a "cover letter" at the beginning of your submission:
Your name (pen name if desired) / e-mail address and web-site if you have one.

Also let us know if you are open to receiving feedback from readers. If so we will provide a link to your email
address with your story. If not specifically stated we will assume you do not want the feedback link. Please title
your email as SORCEROUS SUBMISSION: (the title of your story)


Something to be aware of, stories used in magazines such as this, are a matter personal taste.
While I may not accept your story for the magazine, it does not constitute a personal rejection of you -- only
that your story may not have met my personal vision for the zine.

To submit to Sorcerous Signals:

Send your submission as an .rtf attachment to submissions@sorceroussignals.com





REVIEWS:

Sorcerous Signals is also looking for reviews of Fantasy.
Please title your email as SORCEROUS REVIEW: (the title of the story you are reviewing).
There is no payment or donation button for reviews.
Reviews may be submitted outside the normal reading periods.


PAYMENT:

We're trying an experiment. Each story will contain a PayPal donation button, so readers can show their
appreciation to the author. Money received through this method will be split 60/40 between the author (60%)
and the magazine (40%). Authors will be paid at the end of the quarter in which their story appeared. As issues
will remain archived for a period of one year after publication, authors will again be paid when the story is
removed from the archive if it generates any new revenue.
Authors will receive an initial advance of $5.00 for stories and $2.00 for poems and flash (<1000 wds) fiction
pieces within 30 days of receipt of signed contract.

I am hoping to publish an anthology at the end of the year which will feature the best stories from each issue.
A poll will be set up to allow readers to vote for their favorite stories each issue. The fan favorites will be the
ones selected for the anthology along with some picks from the editor.

Authors will be paid $10.00 for the rights to print their stories in the anthology.
Payment will be made at the time the anthology is prepared for printing.

All payments will be made through PayPal.


ARTWORK:

We are also looking for artwork that fits the theme of the magazine.
Payment will be made the same way as the stories - with links for reader appreciation donations to be split
between the magazines and the artist.

Any artwork used in the anthology will be paid the same $10.00 fee.

Please send samples of your work to the editor (yes, I will accept these as attachments).
If I like your samples you will be offered the chance to do an illustration for an upcoming story.


READING PERIODS:

Sorcerous Signals is currently a quarterly magazine scheduled for publication during the following months:

February / May / August & November

Our reading periods will be

Feb 15th - Mar 15th (Aug - Oct Issue)
May 15th - June 15th (Nov - Jan Issue)
Aug 15th - Sept 15th (Feb - Apr Issue)
Nov 15th - Dec 15th (May - Jul Issue)


EDITING

All stories appearing in Sorcerous Signals will be edited as needed. Authors will, when I am able be given
advance notice of their story being posted, before an issue goes live and have the opportunity to review the
edited work along with the artwork that will appear with their story.


ADVERTISING:

For information on advertising in Sorcerous Signals, click here.


Thank you for your interest in Sorcerous Signals and I hope to hear from you -
even more I hope to receive a wonderful story from you.


PRINT ISSUES

Starting in 2009 WolfSinger Publications will also be issuing a print magazine - Mystic Signals - which will
include the stories published in both Sorcerous Signals and The Lorelei Signal.
Our contract will be modified at that time to reflect this change.

For each issue of Mystic Signals, I will be selecting a story to appear exclusively in the print issue, with only a
brief teaser online - if you do NOT want your story to be considered as the print issue only story for that
quarter, please let me know with your submission.
.