Well, I made the announcement several weeks ago that White Cat Publications has hired me to Edit a new semi-pro bi-annual science fiction magazine called Blue Shift. Well, I am now officially taking submissions and also I need slushreaders to help me sort through them. Full guidelines will be posted soon here. But, in the meantime, here’s how to send them:

Guidelines:

Who we are:

Blue Shift is the science fiction specific periodical of White Cat Publications, LLC. Our goal is to present the very best examples of the genre we represent. We are a bi-annual publication publishing short stories, flash fiction, interviews, reviews, and columns for print and digital download.

What we seek:

We are interested primarily in good quality writing in the sci/fi genre. We will consider stories of any variant of this genre. We desire First English Language serial print, audio and digital rights so that we might present your work in all formats within the magazine.

How we want it formatted:

All manuscripts should be .rtf or doc/docx format and follow the industry standard for formatting (here is a great example: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html ), however, please make the following changes:

Words in italics should be underlined even in New Times Roman; it’s easier for our design people to see.

Em dashes must touch the words on both sides of them

Ellipses are three dots and do not touch the words on either sides of them. Please use them sparingly.

Please do not use hard returns to indent.

Please use single space, do not double return between paragraphs.

Please do not double return after periods.

All submissions that don’t meet our guidelines will be rejected. We’re trying to improve our response times to submissions, but please bear with us as we gear up to handle a larger than expected volume of stories. Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, just let us know. We’re all writers here and we’re happy when fellow writers sell their work anywhere they can. Since we’re a bi-annual magazine, we strive to respond to all our submissions within three months. Due to the volume of submissions, however, please be patient.

What we pay:

Short Stories and flash fiction: We accept stories up to around 5,000 words in length, three cents per word up to 5,000 words. Reprints are paid out at one cent per word. Send these to[email protected]

Interviews: Query first. The rate is $15.00 per interview. Please submit these to blueshiftmag[email protected]

Reviews: Query first. We are always interested in reviews of genre related books, music, games, products, etc. The rate is .03 per word up to 500 words. Please submit these to blueshiftmag[email protected]

Articles and columns: Query first. We are always interested in engaging and entertaining articles about fiction and non-fiction subjects. We pay .03 cents per word up to 1,000 words. Please submit these to blueshiftmag[email protected]

Art: While we have a couple in-house artists, we’re always looking for more variety. Please send a link for your site to blueshiftmag[email protected]

All the above items require a short bio, preferably with a 300 dpi or better picture of yourself. We also require a picture (again, 300 dpi or greater) of the subject, where applicable. Please let us know if you prefer Paypal or money order and your email/address you would like used. All payments are sent within 45 days of publication.

Slush Readers:

I need people who can read stories and give me brief analysis. I’ll have a worksheet with specific questions. My aim is to process stuff quickly so I’d like 3-4 readers. At this time, I can not offer monetary compensation but I can offer mentoring, a chance to grow in knowledge of story,  genre and editing, and an inside look at the submissions and publishing process in regards to a zine. You won’t be allowed to submit while working for us, at least right now. We don’t want accusations of favoritism. But we’ll try and make it pay off in other ways, including free story critiques from time to time and the opportunity to do reviews and nonfiction articles for the zine (pay rates to be determined). I can tell you from past experience that editing and slush reading are both highly educational and good experiences to have as writers and editors up and coming in the business.

To apply, please email me at [email protected]. (NO STORIES should be sent here. In fact, unless I specifically asked you to send it to me directly, I’ll reject it and ask you to submit properly. The submissions email is for organizing the queue.)

Thanks much. I look forward to working with you.

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Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012.  His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.