STORY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

FMAM considers itself a stepping stone for many younger writers as well as a magazine with tremendous variety and creative power for seasoned writers and artists. Please consider that many proudly show their family the content and use appropriate language. When in doubt, feel free to inquire. We nominate for the Pushcart Prize Award each year and are honored to do so; profanity will exclude a Pushcart nomination by their own rules.

We accept submissions via email *only*.

Save your story in PLAIN TEXT, CLOSE the file, RE-OPEN it (to strip away any word processor formatting gremlins) and then COPY AND PASTE it into the body of your email message.

Do not use attachments - often they cannot be opened at this end.

Please get into the habit of checking back here for any new guidelines or just to refresh yourself. Keep in mind that even if you have been featured in FMAM we expect all the information *each* time.

FMAM will consider stories 500 to 10,000 words - send the entire story. Pays $5.00 on publication.

SEE FULL GUIDELINES BELOW:

FOR ALL WORK Submitted: FMAM is only interested in FIRST TIME RIGHTS. Previously published stories are eligible for most of our contests however!

Be sure to tell us if your story is a simultaneous submission.

Also, if this is your first published story be sure we know this, too!

1. All submissions must be in PLAIN TEXT (meaning not html or rich text but always PLAIN TEXT), pasted into the body of an email. NO EMAIL ATTACHMENTS will be accepted. Don't rely on your spellchecker; proofread your work!

NOTE: The Subject Header of your email message for submissions MUST read: FMAM submission: "The Title of Your Story" (or you risk getting deleted as spam.)

2. At the top of your email list the following:

your name

address

email address

word count

genre or subgenre

A brief tagline (twenty words or less) to entice a reader into your story. e.g., “Can Inspector Popinjay find the real murderer before an innocent man is executed? It‘s a race against time.”

3. Beneath the title of the story, insert author name as you would like it to appear in print. i.e., your real name or a pen name if you’re using one.

4. Your story, formatted as explained below. Type THE END at the end of your story. This enables us to verify that the entire manuscript has been received.

5. Follow the story with a 50-word (or less) bio. The bio is a flash synopsis of your writing career. For example: "Mary Writer teaches Physics at Arizona State University and writes mystery tales in her spare time. Her stories have been printed in many prestigious magazines, including…"

IN ADDITION:

6. Use single spaced lines. After each paragraph, SKIP ONE LINE. Insert three asterisks *** to indicate a SCENE break.

7. To indicate italics, use three asterisks around the italicized word(s), thus: ***word/sentence***.

Again, use plain text, no underlining, bold print, accent marks, etc. in your submission. Remember to SAVE AS your file as TXT, then CLOSE it and RE-OPEN it before copying and pasting.

8. Send the entire story. We publish up to 10,000 words.

9. Proofread your story carefully for spelling, punctuation, and formatting before your submit it! If your work is accepted, it will be sent to our Copy Editor for final proofing.

At this point we cannot incorporate any further changes.

Always read at least one copy before you submit
YOU CAN ORDER A COPY HERE.
The PDF issue is only $3.50!

Mystery fiction published in FMAM is eligible for the Edgar Award, given by Mystery Writers of America. You will find a list of stories that we have submitted for their consideration, and please, if your story was published with us, and you do not see that it was included, DO submit it yourself to the committee.

In addition, everything published in FMAM is eligible for the annual FMAM 'Fire to Fly' awards, (not to be confused with our ‘fire to fly’ annual CONTEST!) The winner of our FTF contest will be included in our new, annual DIME anthology, in paperback and audio. We have been invited for a number of years now to nominate six stories from our yearly issues for the prestigious Pushcart Prize (Futures is noted in the PUSHCART PRIZE AWARD Contributing Editors Index, available at Public, University and College Libraries). We have recently been invited by Otto Penzler to submit your mysteries for consideration in BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES. We will also submit to Best American Short Stories.