Borderlands

Submissions.

Type of fiction.

Borderlands is open to unsolicited submissions of Australian quality speculative fiction, that is fiction with some elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror or related genres. Australian means Australian citizens, Australian born, or Australian resident. We are very flexible on the speculative (a hint of magic realism might be enough), somewhat flexible on the Australian, but not on the quality.

Type of non-fiction.

We are interested in Australian non-fiction that addresses issues relevant to speculative fiction, or futurist topics. We are also open to non-fiction that is either about Australian speculative fiction, or about speculative fiction and by an Australian (using the same definition of Australian as for fiction).

We much prefer submissions for non-fiction to come in the form of an abstract or summary. In general, if you are not sure if a non-fiction idea is right for our magazine, send us a summary or abstract.

Artwork.

We are looking for artwork, but we are not usually interested in unsolicited submissions. We are primarily interested in illustrations solicited for a particular story or article. If you are interested in providing us with artwork, contact our art editor with samples, and they will respond.

The preferred way to contact our art editor is via email at Art Editor Physical artwork samples will not be returned, and we prefer electronic formats. If submitting your work electronically, a web link (URL) to a page of your art is vastly preferable to a file attachment. If you are going to send a file attachment, e-mail first before sending it. Unsolicited e-mail attachments may not be read.

Sequential Art.

Borderlands will consider works of sequential art (i.e. comic strips), but they must qualify under our normal standards as both art and fiction, that is they must include speculative elements, be of high quality, and of an appropriate length (less than twelve pages).

Letters.

We welcome letters, but most letters to the magazine that we publish will be on our web site rather than in the magazine. Letter manuscripts remain the property of the magazine and we reserve the right to publish letters we receive in either physical or electronic format. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of length and clarity, but will endeavour to preserve the intent. We prefer letters in electronic format, to Feedback

Length of Submission.

500 to 10,000 words for fiction or articles. We prefer works between 1000 to 6000 words, and we do not serialise.

Other Submissions.

If you are interested in submitting a work that does not fall within these guidelines, please contact us and we will let you know if we are interested. We do not accept unsolicited poetry. We do not even have a poetry editor.

Format of Submission.

We prefer electronic submissions where possible, mailed to Submissions. Physical mail can be sent to P O Box 276, Bayswater WA 6933. All manuscripts sent will be deemed disposable, and will not be returned to the author. We prefer Microsoft Word or RTF documents, but please contact us if document conversion is a problem. Paper submissions should be on white A4, formatted double-spaced with wide margins in at least 12 point type using a serif face if possible, and include title, author and page number on each page. Either format should be accompanied by the authors name, full address, and email address, and also the submissions title and word count.

Multiple Submissions.

If you have a good reason for submitting more than one piece at a time, please ask us. Otherwise, please stick to one submission at a time.

Rights.

Stories must be original and the authors own work. No stories that infringe on anothers copyright will be accepted. We usually purchase first publication rights, including electronic publication rights for each issue of the journal. We do not normally accept reprints, though we may do so occasionally, particularly if the work has appeared in only limited circulation.

Feedback.

We regret that we are not able to offer feedback on every submission.

Reimbursement.

We offer $25 for stories or articles, $50 for works over 7,000 words, $25 for black and white illustrations, and $50 for cover artwork. You will also receive a contributors copy.

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