Write for The Lark
Submission guidelines for a short story and poetry publication
· Submission guidelines · Submission calls for the New Year of 2024 · More rules · Submission guidelines and rules · Submission Format · Photos · Previously published work on Medium · Fiction — short stories and plays · Rules of writing · Poetry · Competitions · Waiting time · Join Medium and become a member
The Lark shares fictional stories and poetry. I am the Editor and Founder of The Lark publication. I have been with Medium since January 2017. I have some help with the publication from a family member but this is only on a part-time basis doing minimal admin duties.
Submission guidelines
Submissions are accepted from writers who write short fictional stories, serial fiction, poetry, and true stories written like a life story about yourself or an incident from your past. You must first have a Medium profile set up and join the Medium partner program before writing to us. If you are from a country where the Medium partner program cannot be added yet, then you are exempt. This means you may write to us stating this fact and the country you are from before we add you.
Fictional short stories, serial fiction, and true short stories already self-published on your Medium profile are also accepted at The Lark Publication, but not poetry. If they have been published in a publication they will not be accepted. All previously published fiction must be only published on your profile and not in a publication.
Please note: You must not delete an article and then republish it on your profile or then send it to us as that would be a violation of Medium’s rules.
Submission calls for the new year of 2024
No writers are being accepted at present for 2023. We will accept new writers at The Lark Publication from 7th January 2024. A maximum of five writers per month will be accepted.
Please apply by emailing The Lark Publication to [email protected] and write in the subject line ‘I want to write for The Lark Publication’. Please let us know what you write and a bit about yourself.
Please see a further newsletter about joining us as a new writer below:
More rules
Writers who have been added can submit their fiction stories or poetry to the publication after they have written it by clicking on the three dots above clicking on add to publication and choosing ‘The Lark’. Once your story has been checked and read, and if it’s successful, it will be published. Please make sure you spellcheck your work and please read the distribution guidelines here on how to structure your heading, subtitle, and where your picture should go.
If it is set up in the right way it will be published much more quickly on The Lark. If your story or poem isn’t set up appropriately for Medium’s distribution standards then it will take longer to be published.
Sometimes we edit your work to fit in with our publication but we will let you know if drastic changes need to be made. These guidelines (follow the guidelines in this article) include your grammar, spelling, format and style, the photo you have chosen, and the image caption for your submission. Please make sure you have done this before submitting your poem or story.
All submissions must be written in American English style format (this is one of the rules of The Lark publication).
It is a good idea to use Grammarly for spelling and grammar and to make sure your work is written in American English style.
Please also add the following tags, ‘The Lark’, ‘Poetry’ for poems, and ‘Fiction’ if you submit fictional short stories and flash fiction, or the tag ‘serial fiction’ if you submit serial fiction to The Lark.
Submission guidelines and rules
Please read the Medium rules before submitting your short story or poem. Follow the Medium guidelines before you send your work here. Read the photo guidelines and the setting out guidelines there. Read more on Medium’s rules.
Submission Format
All submissions must have the following format:
- Title — short titles are preferred ie. One line for a title is enough and no more than two lines long.
- Subheading — a short sentence stating what the poem or story will be about.
- Photo — free photo ie. from Unsplash photos (that can be accessed in the draft process while writing your Medium post), or use one of your own photos. All photos must state in the image caption: the name of who the photo belongs to and a web link from where the photo was found. (Read more about photos below including what kind of photos you can use).
- The poem, fictional story, or true story’s first paragraph.
- Then the rest of the poem or story.
Photos
You can use your photos but if you do, make sure you state it’s your photo in the image caption underneath the photo. Use Unsplash when you need a photo by clicking the plus sign in the space and clicking on the ‘add an image from Unsplash’ search button to find an image. Unsplash is preferred as a photo if you do not use your own. Photos and art created by the author are also acceptable. Other photos are allowed providing you say where it is from and who it belongs to with a link. Photos from these places are allowed — Unsplash, Pexels, Pixaby, and Free images, only.
Read this article on how to access Unsplash photos within your draft. Be advised — if you do not add an image caption your photo will be changed to an Unsplash photo of our choosing!
All photos used must have the Creative Commons License which means it permits you to use and share these photos on Medium for poems, fictional short stories, and true stories ie. for a poem or a story. You must check if the photo has a Creative Commons License. Always Assume the Image is protected by Copyright. Public Domain and Creative Commons (CC), or GNU Public Licenses allow free usage of images and photos on Medium and the license status makes them safe to use whilst writing for Medium. Please read more about Creative Commons License here.
Please also read Medium’s rules here which must be followed if you want to write for The Lark Publication.
No damaging photos of any kind ie. photos of children holding guns; ie. a picture of one gun is fine as long as it is from Unsplash photos. We do not allow damaging pictures of children, nudity photos, or any photos of a sexual nature even if they are from Unsplash.
Previously published work on Medium
We now accept fictional short stories, serial fiction, and true short stories already published on Medium profiles but not poetry. Poetry must be newly written (or it can already be published on your blog) and submitted in draft form only.
Read Medium’s rules on duplicate content. Plus, it is a violation to publish the same story twice anywhere on Medium and you cannot delete your story and then republish it by adding it to a publication.
Fiction — short stories and plays
Fictional short stories in most genres are accepted. Up to 5000 words per fictional short story/post and no less than 1000 words accepted. All fiction must have a plot and a good storyline. We will not accept very short fiction under 1000 words unless it is Flash fiction. Please show the story not tell it which is a must. If you are not sure what this means then read more about creative writing in regards to showing not telling your story. Here are examples below:
We also now accept plays, screenplays, and radio plays from five pages and up which is 5000 words total. You can also post 90 pages split into 5-page (5000 words) posts in a series of posts.
Flash fiction is allowed from 300 words and up and no more than 700 words.
UPDATE 13/06/2023: 100-word stories are not allowed but there is one exception. If the piece of writing is written similar to poetry or it sounds like poetry in any way, then it will be published.
True stories are now accepted using the tag ‘stories’ in the tag system along with using ‘The Lark’ as a tag. The truth will be written like a short story of at least 800 words or more and no more than 3000 words. This means it must read like a short story and not an article. So, add some dialogue to it to make it believable. The true story must not sound like an article, so using dialogue is a must. At least, two or three sentences of dialogue will make it seem like fiction in a true story. No erotica, please. Please remember if you show your story and don’t tell it, then it will be accepted (see the above example).
Serial fiction accepted of up to 150,000 words where a chapter of a short book will be posted to The Lark as a series of submissions one after the other as a continuation of the story which is serial fiction. Please submit no less than 1000 to 3000 words for each chapter/post. If you have written short serial fiction or short storybooks like romance, sci-fi, horror, thrillers, fantasy, etc., then we will accept them here. Even a biography/memoir written with dialogue will be accepted. Remember, show not tell your story (see the above example).
Rules of writing
We do not accept erotica or explicit content of any kind. This means sexual words (if the story has a plot or has a substantial storyline we will accept it but please consider changing erotic words). Explicit sexual scenes are not allowed. Anything written that damages the good reputation of someone; slanderous or libelous wording is forbidden on The Lark Publication.
Poetry
Poetry should be at least eight lines long and no more than 1000 words or 100 lines.
UPDATE: (16/01/2023) In some circumstances four lines of poetry may be accepted but this has to be for special circumstances. For example, this four-line poem titled Angel Feather by Carolyn Hastings was accepted because it mentioned the charity of cancer research, and Butterfly Dance — the passionate poetry book compiled by myself featuring the competition winners’ poetry in The Lark Publication. The poem was also written about a child who had passed away because of cancer. So if you are going to write a poem shorter than eight lines it has to be for special circumstances like this one.
Any genre of poetry is accepted. Prose poems are very desirable. No explicit sexual content is allowed. We do not accept erotic poetry of any kind that has sexual wording or damages the good reputation of someone; slanderous or libelous wording. If you send in poetry that is too short and is too sexually explicit in any way or it sounds like an article it will not be accepted.
Competitions
The Lark publication has now begun doing competitions. The first one is a poetry competition. There will be various competitions in the future. If you are a writer for The Lark you can submit your entry to competitions. Also being a member of Medium’s partner program will boost earnings and get boost Medium page views. It will also allow you to enter all of our competitions. Of course, you can still enter The Lark’s competitions even if aren’t a member of Medium’s partner program, but it will hinder your place in the competition as you will not be eligible to win the first, second, or third place. If you are a non-Medium partner program member or new to Medium, you can still be a runner-up in a competition and be published in The Lark’s books if your work has been chosen in the future.
Waiting time
Please allow up to 72 hours for poetry or fiction to be published unless you have submitted a fiction series then the first post will be published up to 72 hours after it has been submitted, and subsequent posts published thereafter if you have submitted the whole of the fiction series. However, it is preferred that you submit each fiction series post in separate submissions. Sometimes it will be significantly much less than 72 hours after you have submitted your piece especially if you submit your piece on a weekday. It can be published on the same day or a few hours after you submit it. Now that The Lark has become popular there are quite a few submissions to get through each day. We prefer submissions to be sent to us on a weekday. You can send them in on a weekend (and during holiday periods) but please bear in mind that your submission may take longer to be published and sometimes it will not be seen until Monday (or up to 72 hours to be seen). For instance, if you submit something on a Saturday or Sunday it may not get published or seen until Monday, but sometimes it can be seen on a Saturday and published the same day or scheduled for publication on Sunday. This may not always be the case though. It simply just means that we have an open window where our day is less busy. Also, if you send in something late on a Friday it may be scheduled for publication on a Saturday or a Sunday.
Join Medium and become a member
By becoming a member of the Medium partner program you stand a better chance of earning money. Plus you are likely to boost your pageviews from other Medium partner program members whilst boosting earnings. The reason for this is other members are more likely to support your work once you become a member, which will boost page views. Therefore, the potential to earn money is huge. Join Medium’s partner program below so you can enter our competitions too:
Write poetry, fiction, or true stories for The Lark Publication.
Also, check out The Lark Publication online magazine here: The Lark Publication online magazine is now live. Some of your work will be shared there for a more beneficial online publishing social media share and to give each writer the focus they deserve.
Thank you for reading.
The Lark Publication!
