Summary

Lit Up is a publication that accepts fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction submissions, with a focus on storytelling and quality, and provides guidelines for authors to follow for successful submission and review.

Abstract

Lit Up is a literary platform dedicated to publishing high-quality short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Updated in June 2019, it invites writers to submit their works, emphasizing a preference for narrative-driven content structured in a storytelling format. The submission guidelines are strict, allowing a maximum of two simultaneous submissions per author and requiring adherence to formatting and grammatical standards. Lit Up's editorial team, including A Maguire, Chris Drew, and Pat Link, thoroughly reviews each submission, ensuring that content is polished and free of errors before publication. The platform does not accept nonfiction personal articles, opinion pieces, or certain poetry forms like Haiku and Tanka as individual submissions, unless they are part of a larger narrative. Lit Up values meaningful content and encourages writers to present their work professionally, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The publication process includes multiple stages of editing and review, with a commitment to promoting and helping beautiful stories gain visibility.

Opinions

Lit Up prioritizes quality over quantity, emphasizing the importance of well-crafted stories.
The editorial team is dedicated to a meticulous review process, with a zero-tolerance policy for racism, sexism, or hate speech.
Submissions must be as polished as possible, with the expectation that writers take pride in their work and present it in a professional manner.
Lit Up encourages the use of poetic forms and subtitles to enhance the understanding and appreciation of poetry submissions.
The publication values storytelling and is not interested in pieces that lack a clear narrative or point.
Lit Up is committed to supporting writers by providing editorial guidance and promoting their work across social media platforms.
The platform's main goal is to expand its reach while also promoting quality stories that engage readers.

Lit Up: Submission Guidelines

Updated June 2019

Image by Kaori Nagata (Website, Instagram)

Welcome to Lit Up — The Land of Little Tales!

Here you can read and submit short stories, flash fiction, poetry — in brief, your own legend.

We have a passion for untold stories, and we are always happy to welcome new writers. These are the submission guidelines.

First, a few words about Lit Up’s content:

What do we publish?

Lit Up’s primary focus is that of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction structured in the format of storytelling. The publication is not accepting nonfiction personal articles and opinion pieces at this time.

Please note: there is absolutely no way we will ever publish a piece that contains racism, sexism, or hate talk in any form.

Submissions are limited to two simultaneous works per author. Once a work has been published, you can submit another.

When responding to prompts, please ensure you add a subtitle that makes the related prompt clear.

Please read our editor’s advice on writing:

“On Writing”

The Submission Process

A few words on what’s happening backstage:

Lit Up is taking submissions seriously. We are not here to act as an open page for every submission. We are here to deliver the highest quality fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry on Medium.

In order to achieve that, we are always in search of new, more effective ways to work as a team, but also to help our beloved writers.

When you submit fiction:

Your story will be reviewed by our editors A Maguire, Chris Drew, or me. If the story is accepted, the editor will click “accept” and you will be able to see the Lit Up logo at the top of your draft. That means we are processing the story. Next, Pat Link will review the story a second time to ensure that every sneaky typo or mistake that survived the first review IS NOW DEAD. Once Pat Link is done, he will leave a note indicating that your story will be in my hands. I will do a final review and place the story in line for publication.

Why don’t we publish immediately? We know that waiting for your tale to be published is annoying. But we receive many submissions every day. First, we need to ensure they’re free of typos and grammar issues, and then, if we don’t space them out, they’ll be simply buried under each other and you will lose views and feature time in the homepage. We don’t want that. We don’t only want to expand our publication, our main goal is to promote and help beautiful stories, and that’s exactly what we do. ❤

Does Lit Up edit the content? Yes, whenever needed. We are making sure published stories are free of typos and grammar mistakes.

What if major changes are required? We will never make major changes without communicating with the writer first.

Please note: We make light edits but please understand that the submissions should be as polished as possible. We encourage you to take the time to ensure your drafts are read through and presented in the most professional manner possible, with a minimum of typos and grammatical errors, and formatted to standard, accepted publishing conventions. We do hate to reject stories when they fail to comply with our standards, but we will. We are looking for writers who are as proud of their work as we are to publish it.

When you submit poetry

Things are easier here: poetry is reviewed by me.

If you have used a poetic form, you should always subtitle your poem with the form you used so we can double-check it for you. We encourage you to subtitle your draft even if it is a free verse.

Example:

(Title) “Wandering”

(Subtitle) Sonnet / Free Verse / Sestina / etc

Here, I’d like to remind you that after a lot of thought, we have decided to not accept one-line poetry, Haiku, Tanka, and Senryu as individual poems. We will make, however, an exception for stories told in a mix or series of these forms. That means, if you combine a few Haiku, for example, in the same poem, and the entity tells a story, you’re good to go.

Can’t wait to read them!

P.S. For poetry submissions:

In addition to the requirements above please note that the poems should have something to say. We do love beautiful language — we really do — and we do appreciate masterful use of language — yes, we really do — but if your poem doesn’t say anything in particular, it will be rejected. Example:

“In the beautiful song of a golden-haired angel, Wooden boats in the sky, I called my mom, Peace!”

Will not be accepted — dammit! (:D)

Acceptances and Rejections

Please allow some time for review and publication. We are doing the best we can.

If we are to reject a submission we will always let you know through private notes.

The best stories of each month will be featured in Lit Up’s newsletter and some will be offered an audio recording as well!

How to submit and general submission guidelines

If you’re not yet a writer for Lit Up Fill out this form:

Lit Up’s Submission Form

Once we have added you as a writer:

Create a new story and paste your text. Add tags and a picture (don’t forget to provide the source).

Once your draft is ready to submit click on the three dots (top right of your story) ->Add to publication -> Lit Up -> Select and Continue.

***Please do not publish your draft. All published drafts will be rejected.

In other words, every story should:

Be a draft
Have tags that determine its genre and content. (Fiction, nonfiction, short story, flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, romance, horror…)
Have a featured image and its source (You can find some free images on Pixabay, Unsplash, etc. If it’s your own image, please indicate that)
Be read through and presented in the most professional manner possible, with a minimum of typos and grammatical errors, and formatted to standard, accepted publishing conventions. Though we do offer editorial guidance when needed, we simply don’t have the time to clean up your drafts for you.
Have a meaning or point. Stories that ramble from subject to subject without beginning, middle and end will not be accepted. We are looking for quality stories that have something to say.

Social Media Accounts

Make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and our brand-new Instagram account! We will be promoting your work there!

Don’t hesitate to tag us when you share your Lit Up-published tales so we can repost, retweet, and share!

On Instagram, we will be sharing selected quotes from your wonderful tales!

On YouTube we will be posting readings and some of the workshops! Please subscribe to our channel :)

(Click on the icons to find our accounts)

❤

We are looking forward to reading all your wonderful tales.

Love, DiAmaya Dawn