Year of the Bear

literature of apocalypse and origin myths in all their many forms

Writing Guidelines | Submission Guidelines | Pay Rates
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Writing Guidelines

Submissions to Year of the Bear must be between 3,000 and 15,000 words in standard manuscript format for short stories (or a comparable format).  Include your name, e-mail address, and word count at the top left-hand corner of your submission (your address is not required).  Line spacing should be 1.5.  You may include a short biography, written in the third person, in the body of your e-mail.  {If you are interested in publishing a serialized novel, please e-mail your contact information and a short synopsis of your story to the editor.}

Please pay attention to your spelling, grammar, syntax, and transitions when you submit to any publication.  Word processors can't catch everything, y'know.

Submission Guidelines

Send your work as a .doc or .rtf attachment to editor@yearofthebear.com.  You may wait up to three months to receive a response; all submissions are given thoughtful feedback or criticism, so please be patient.  (HINT:  The faster the response, the more likely it is to be a rejection--this counts for most publications.)

Pay Rates

Year of the Bear pays 0.275 cents per word.  This may not be much, but it's something.  We pay via PayPal--and you must be able to accept Paypal to receive payment.  We do not pay royalties.  Continue to the "Publication" section for more information regarding the format of your accepted work.

{You are welcome to waive payment in place of a 120x120 pixel ad on our homepage for a year, which could conceivably be more profitable...}

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Rights, Terms, and Conditions

    Year of the Bear asks for one-time print and electronic publication and anthology rights.  We'll publish your work once on our website and in a future "Best of" electronic/print edition at the editor's discretion.  We also reserve the right to archive your work on the website for an indefinite period of time.  All rights revert back to the author--you may do with your story whatever you wish.  If your story is published elsewhere, it would be nice if you mentioned Year of the Bear... of course, you don't have to...

By sending work to Year of the Bear, you guarantee the work is exclusively your own, and you have the right to grant us the use of it.

NOTES:
  • Only send your finest work to Year of the Bear. 
  • Multiple and simultaneous submissions are not allowed. 
  • Works that have already been posted on your personal webpage are allowed.
  • Reprints from other magazines are not permitted.
  • Topics that explore race, sexuality, religion, etc are perfectly permissible and encouraged--although not necessary.  However, they must be included along with the designated themes of Y.O.B.

Publication Details

Upon acceptance of your short story/novelette, it will be published on our website on the "Read" page as a .pdf.  Each issue will contain either a single longer story or multiple shorter stories.  To further protect your story, it will be assigned an Electronic Serial Number (EIN) using the Numly system.  You may reuse this number to reference your work in any way you see fit.  If you have any further questions, or you'd like to submit your own artwork for the cover, you may send it with your publication as a .jpg or .gif attachment to editor@yearofthebear.com.

Right now there is no set publication schedule, but we'll try to publish something once a month.
{guidelines last updated 9/12/08}

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