Sounds Of The Night - Guidelines

 

Sounds Of The Night is a biannual full-sized perfect bound magazine published on 1 February and 1 August.  The first issue was be published on 1 August 2007.  Sounds Of The Night is edited by L. A. Story.  Tyree Campbell serves as the spiritual advisor.

 

Sounds Of The Night publishes original SENSUAL SF/F short stories, poems, and b&w illustrations and color cover art.  Although we will consider reprint stories and poems, these will be extremely difficult sells with us, and we will accept a maximum of one reprint story and one reprint poem per issue, if at all.  Preferred word length for short stories is 3000 to 6000 words.  Preferred line length for poems is under 100 lines.

 

A note about subject matter:  we are looking for sensual science fiction and fantasy.  We will also consider verrrrrry mild horror and dark fantasy.  We are not looking for erotica or graphic narrative.  We prefer chills of excitement [okay, and arousal], not drooling lust.  Please heed this.

 

We also publish articles and reviews, to 2000 words.

 

Pay will be $12 per story [$5 for reprints], $4 for flashfic--1000 words or less [$2.00 for reprints]; $4 per poem [$2 for reprints], $6 for b&w illustrations, $10.00 for articles [$3.00 for reprints], $7.00 for reviews, and $20 for cover art.  Each contributor also receives one contributor's copy of the edition in which her/his work appears.

 

Here are some working notes that may give you a more defined idea of what we want:

 

"Work that is ethereal ... otherwordly ... even supernatural ... but set in this world...work that has a sense of mystery or discovery to it, as if the author is revealing a secret to us that only he/she was privy to.

 

"Work that explores the reality of the human condition but in a (can be optimistic or pessimistic) way that puts our deepest truths out there but with a genre twist .... Fantasy -- high, low, dark, or soft SciFi, veeeery mild Horror... any way it can be done.

      

"We prefer that alien characters have emotions that HUMANS can identify with.  We want to step into misty realms ... dreamy ... magical ... the things we've all seen in our dreams .. yes, Jung would be welcome here."

 

 

HOW TO SUBMIT:

 

Stories:  submit your story as an rtf or Word attachment.  Submit only one story at a time, please.  At the top of the attachment put your snail mail address and contact information.  Double-space.  Indent paragraphs five space-bar spaces--do not tab, please.  Use italics when necessary.  In your cover letter, be sure to include the word count and a brief bio.  Send your story to soundssdp@yahoo.com.  Be sure to put Submission in the subject line.

 

Poems:  submit your poems in the body of the e-mail.  Submit no more than three poems at a time.  Be sure to include your snail mail address and contact information.  Use italics when necessary.  Include a brief bio.  Send your poem to soundssdp@yahoo.com.  Be sure to put Submission in the subject line.

 

Art and Illustrations:  submit art as jpeg attachments.  Ideally each piece should be 700 by 900, and 300 dpi.  Submit one illustration at a time, please.  Be sure to include your snail mail address and contact information.  Include a brief bio.  Send your artpiece to soundssdp@yahoo.com.  Be sure to put Submission in the subject line.

 

Response Time is 2 months.  Query after 3 months if you've not heard from us.

 

For original work we ask for FNASR, exclusive for the life of the issue [6 months].

 

And if you have any questions, please query at soundssdp@yahoo.com.