| Silver Blade (ISSN 1946-8105) is a publication of Silver Pen. It has been sharpened with an expanded submission policy. Writers of cutting edge Science Fiction, Slipstream, Classic and Modern Fantasy are invited to submit their works for possible publication in our quarterly magazine. Our mission? Inspiring people to dream of faraway places; swords and sorcery; triumph over evil; worlds where nothing follows the rules and everything fires the imagination. if your story, poem, novella or artwork bears any of these elements, we'd love to see it. |  |
Genres Accepted: Submissions must be in one of the following genres: Modern Fantasy, Folkloric Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Slipstream, Medieval / Feudal Swords and Sorcery, Epic Adventure or Children Oriented Fantasy. Romance might be accepted, provided it has a strong fantasy element to it. Erotica and items with a predominantly carnal or violent nature will not be accepted. Please be mindful of the fact that our audience contains readers of all ages.
While most subject matters are considered okay, please be aware that the following items will be “hard sells” here:
• Vampires
• Stories possessing several of the cliche elements listed here or here.
• Fan Fiction
• Anthropomorphism
Format and Details: Short Stories should be 1000 to 4000 words in length. Flash fiction should be between 100 and 1000 words. Poetry should be no longer than 1000 words. Art should be in Jpeg/jpg, or Photoshop psd format.
Novella length items between 10000-30000 words will be considered for our serial fiction feature. Please be mindful that we only accept 2 or 3 Novella length items per year, due to the intended use (it’s no fair to you as a writer to keep your work tied up for years, after being accepted).
Submit your work by using the email address at the bottom of this page. We generally acknowledge receipt within a week. Feel free to contact us if we do not acknowledge your submission after 10 days. We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please be courteous and let us know if your work has been accepted elsewhere.
Deadlines: Silver Blade is published once a quarter, and has the following schedule:
| Issue | Publication Date | Submission Deadline | Accept / Reject Notifications Begin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Six | March 2010 | February 1, 2010 | February 2, 2010 |
| Seven | July 2010 | May 31, 2010 *** | June 1, 2010 *** |
| Eight | October 2010 | August 27, 2010 | August 28, 2010 |
| Nine | January 2010 | December 17, 2010 | December 18, 2010 |
*** indicates a revised date
If an item arrives after the deadline for a given issue, it will be placed in the queue for the following issue. Our rejection / acceptance notifications start to be sent on the day after submissions close for a particular issue. Please do not expect a notification before then. Publication is currently online-only, but our mostrecent edition has a PDF version and we plan PDF and Print Editions for Summer 2010.
Payment and Rights: Silver Blade pays a flat fee of $5 per accepted item, except Novellas, for which we pay $40. An additional $1 will be added for authors who accept payment via Paypal (which shall be the assumed payment method unless you specifically state otherwise). In exchange, we require:
- First North American Serial Rights;
- Exclusive world electronic rights for 18 months;
- Non-exclusive print anthology rights for 36 months.
- Authors to:
- Name Silver Blade as first publisher if the work is republished.
- Ensure submitted items are not in a “public” internet location.
- Ensure the submitted work is not previously published (some exceptions can be made).
- Warrant that they are the sole author of the work, that the work is original, and that no other entity has reserved the rights required by Silver Blade.
- Warrant that the work does not contain libelous material or material copyrighted by another party.
If you use Duotrope, please remember to report your responses. It helps us track how well we’re doing.
Please send your submission to submissions@silverpen.org. Written works should be attached as Word Doc, Adobe PDF, Plain Text or Rich Text Format RTF files. Graphic art should be attached as jpeg/jpg or photoshop PST files. Make sure to include your contact information, a brief BIO and a summary of your submission. Your email MUST have “Silver Blade Submission” in the subject, or it will be deleted without notice as spam.
