Rotten Leaves Magazine is currently CLOSED for submissions. We accept short stories, poetry, novellas, and novel excerpts. Copyright remains with the author at all times.
We are looking for mostly dark fiction. What it means is that we are not here to read Disney-like stories, sitcoms, or your diary entry thinly disguised as a horribly vague and pseudo-deep coming of age story where nothing happens.
We want fiction that will grab the reader by the guts and won’t let go. Make things happen. We want events. And events doesn’t necessarily mean big explosions. It can be internal changes or emotional earthquakes. We want originality and quality, and we want your work to be as polished and precise as possible.
We are open to any genre – save for fan fiction and erotica.
While the editors have a special place in their blackened hearts for noir, science-fiction, horror, and any kind of slipstream, we are always pleased to see other genres take us to new places.
A line has to be drawn, though. Although we enjoy dark stories, please understand that nonsensical, shock-value violence does not interest us. Gore, blood and flying limbs should serve your story.
Dark does not necessarily mean depressing, violent, or a negative ending. What we would like to see are conflicts, either internal or external, and how your protagonist(s) handles the cards that were dealt. It is entirely possible to see an ugly hero get the pretty girl, a post-apocalyptic world getting back on its feet, or a murderer finding inner redemption.
A special note regarding fantasy stories: any sort of Tolkien-like clichés will lead to an immediate rejection of your story. That means no elves with pointy ears, no green orcs, no bearded dwarves living under mountains – you get the drift. Fantasy is a wonderful genre, and it’s high time for it to extract itself from what has now become a too familiar setting. If you are considering sending us fantasy, please think A Song Of Ice And Fire, Chronicles Of Amber, or Perdido Street Station. Not Lord Of The Rings.
Finally, a few lines about simultaneous submissions. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. We understand it’s not easy being published, and sometimes magazines will make you wait months, only to reject your story with an automated email. So feel free to send us simultaneous submissions. However, please let us know immediately if your story is picked up somewhere else and we haven’t given you any feedback yet. We would hate to step on another magazine’s toes, or be in any kind of legal trouble. So be good and honest about it, and it’ll all be okay.
GUIDELINES
SPECIAL, TEMPORARY NOTE: we are going online first. Print issues should start in a few months. In the meantime, any story/poem sent our way will appear online. Thanks for your comprehension.
- For the online version of Rotten Leaves, the word count limit is 3000. We might push it to 4000 or higher if your story is mind-blowingly good, but otherwise, longer stories are reserved for the print version. Flash fiction is of course welcome. If you can break our hearts in five hundred words or less, go nuts.
- Decide beforehand whether you would like your story to appear in the print version of the magazine, or the online version, either, or both.
- Write or copy/paste a short biography, with any information that you’d like the readers to have. Full name, website, published works, etc… Author pictures are welcome.
- Send us your submission to CLOSED FOR NOW. ATTACH the submission to the e-mail, do not paste it directly inside it. Same goes for your biography.
- In the subject of the mail, make absolutely certain to let us know where you want the submission to be published. Online, print, either, or both.
- A flawless submission would look like this: SUBJECT: submission type, story title, author name. BODY: a few words about the story or poem or yourself, and letting us know if you sent the work someplace else. ATTACHMENTS: a doc, RTF or PDF document with your submitted work, and a second document with your short bio.
- We will get back to you. Do NOT contact us regarding your submission, unless it is simultaneous and you would like to retract it in order for another magazine to publish it. If we haven’t gotten back to you within three months or so, send the editors an email.
- If you followed all the steps properly, we love you, regardless of the quality of your work. If you skipped a step, we still love you but not anywhere near as much.