CREATIVE WRITING | SUBMISSION GUIDELINES | AUTHOR SKILLS

The Fiction Writer’s Den — Submission Guidelines

How to contribute to our upgraded publication

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We updated our submission guidelines. Please find the new guidelines here. All requests to join The Fiction Writers Den should be posted there!

My friend JF Danskin recently announced the merger of the publications Creative Writing 101 and Web Novel Reviews into a new home for everything related to fiction: The Fiction Writer’s Den.

Sadly, fiction is a niche on Medium, and we realised that spreading ourselves thin doesn’t make sense. The Fiction Writer’s Den combines the strengths of its predecessors that focused on the craft of fiction writing and reviewing fiction stories on Medium.

While Creative Writing 101 and Web Novel Reviews did not accept submissions of fiction stories, The Fiction Writer’s Den encourages you to publish with us.

It gets even better because we look forward to hosting all your fiction, from drabbles and flash fiction to short stories and web novels!

Guidelines for authors

1. What we accept: as you can see from the categories displayed on The Fiction Writer’s Den’s page (see screenshot above), we will host fiction stories (short stories, drabbles, multi-part fiction and web novels) as well as content related to fiction writing as a craft (writing prompts, reviews and guidance for creative writers).
2. What we don’t accept: articles should not be about general/non-fic blogging, earning on Medium, etc.
3. Genre: The Fiction Writer’s Den does not publish NSFW (not suitable for work), like erotica or stories containing graphic violence. We understand that some stories need a bit of extra spice, but more amorous tales may be turned away for a different, more suitable home. We expect our writers to always stick to Medium’s rules.
4. Length: We are flexible on this depending on the kind of story you submit. Usually, 3–7 minutes read time articles tend to do best on Medium. Very long pieces, particularly from authors who haven’t published with us before, are likely to be rejected. Consider breaking such works in two or more parts (and see below).
5. Multi-part works: For novels and other series fiction, please add a comment on the first chapter/section to indicate your intentions, for example what the overall length will be, how frequently you intend to publish, and if any later sections are likely to include any problematic content. We reserve the right to reject later chapters if they violate any of our rules, but opening a dialogue will make things much smoother all round.
6. Tags: Please use at least one of the tags shown in the screenshot above that fits your story (e.g. web-novel for a web novel). Exception: please use the tag “Creative writing” for all stories relating to writing craft, author skills, etc.
7. Headline, subhead, kicker: Headlines should be in title case. You must include a subheading, too, which should be in sentence case. You can use Medium’s kicker feature as you see fit.
8. Photo: use a featured image after your subheading. Ensure the source is attributed (or keep the automatic attribution from Unsplash), and add ‘alt text’ to the picture. You can include images and gifs later in the articles, but again, attribute them.
9. CTA/footer: you are welcome to add some text at the end of your article, such as a ‘call to action’, Ko-Fi link, link to subscribe to your emails or such. You can see examples in our existing articles. Just keep it moderately short. You can add up to two other articles as embedded links.
10. How long does it take for you to publish? We aim to publish/schedule your articles within 24 hours, though occasionally, it might take a little longer. You are very welcome to indicate a preferred time/date of publication using a private note. Update: We receive several submissions daily, and it is impossible to publish all within 24 hours. Please understand that it might take us 48 hours or longer. Update: Please make sure that you react to your editor’s feedback or resolve issues your editor pointed out. We cannot publish your story if you don’t. Sometimes, it makes sense to check your draft to see if you missed a comment.
11. How do I get added? If you want to be added as a writer to The Fiction Writer’s Den, please tell us so in the comments on this article!

Are you relieved that I wrote something other than my satirical breaking news? You can motivate me to keep at it on Ko-fi and Patreon or by (re-)joining Medium with my referral link. It is only a small payment for you, but a big step for humanity. (Pinky promise!)

If you join Medium with my referral link, you can enjoy all my fictional tales and those of other writers. Subscribe to my email list and never miss another fantastic story!