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Submission Guidelines
Submission Guidelines for The Hiss Quarterly:

Updated 8 November 2008

The Basics:

We ONLY accept original written work, except by specific invitation.

A note about "previously published": Print publication is obvious. Online publication includes your personal website or blog, or anyone else's website or blog, whether or not it represents itself as a publication. In other words, if it can be found with a search engine, it's published. Workshops and similar forums are, of course, exempt -- we use them and love them, too.
We DO NOT accept simultaneous submissions. If you send us something, please don't pull it from our files because someone else is publishing it. On the rare occassion that you are asked for a piece that you have sent to us because you shared it with your Uncle Larry and he's just super good friends with some publishing giant, we will be happy for you and congratulate you. However, if you randomly start pulling your stuff, we'll grumble a whole lot and probably say mean things about you behind your back. (Not you, Norm, you're special. We mean from this date forward.) We know several of you don't like the whole "NO simultaneous sub" thing -- go make your own zine and then we'll talk. On the other hand, if you want to send us some money, we'll take your words and you can pull them all you want.
If you're not sure what this means, write us and ask.
We DO accept attachments.
Submissions in the body of the email are also welcome, especially for short works, and poems without complicated formatting. If you send attachments, please use a format that can be read by MS Word. Poets, please put all your poems in a single document!

Mac users: save your work in rich-text format and be sure the filename includes the .rtf extension, for us poor misguided PC users.
Address for Submissions & Questions:

submit.your.words@gmail.com

questions@thehissquarterly.net

Report your response times at Duotrope's Digest

Themes & Deadlines:

THEME
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS
DECISION DAY
ISSUE WILL APPEAR
HAIR O' THE DOG
The Inagural Issue, more odd than usual.
JANUARY 1, 2009
JANUARY 15, 2009
MARCH 3, 2009 -- SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
ARE WE THERE YET?
The Winter Issue. Fine, The Autumn/Winter Issue
JULY 1, 2009
JULY 15, 2009
SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 -- MARCH 3, 2010

Themes:

BREAKING NEWS!

The new poetry janitor has philosophical issues with everything, including the poetry submission guidelines. Themes will be ignored in the poetry section. You no longer need to submit poems about anything in particular. The new janitor likes narratives, nouns, verbs, concrete details, interesting combinations of sounds, unexpected yet prepared-for juxtapositions, transcendentalism, subscendentalism, reality, understatement, and sheer ballsy hyperbolic beauty. New formalists, language poets, and preachers to the choir are discouraged. Some raving lunatics are okay.

We've given you some hints in the above submission time line that may be elusive. That's intentional, of course. Almost anything might fit, and that's how we want it. The Fiction JOD is a hard core reality junkie. You may want to consider this before sending your Science Fiction pieces, unless they're gritty, funny and or horrific. Watch Metalocolaypse (you can google it) for guidelines.

Submission Deadline:

Self-explanatory.

Decision Day:

Be assured that you will hear from us no later than the date given in the table.



Submission Format for Written Work:

POETRY:

We publish in two formats: Rear View Mirror and Front View Fiction. To be considered for the Rear View Mirror, please submit a maximum of three (3) poems, plus a short bio and/or your three most recent publishing credits.



Please mark the subject line of your submission email with "Poetry: Your Last Name/Theme" -- for example:

"POETRY: Collins/Birds & Bees"


ALL OTHER WRITTEN WORK:

Any form of written work is welcome. Please send us your best, plus a short bio and/or your three most recent publishing credits. We do not have an official word limit, but please send an inquiry first if your work is longer than 5000 words.

Please mark the subject line of your submission email with "GENRE: Your Last Name/Theme" — for example:

"FICTION: Goodjohn/Free Parking" or "ESSAY: Smith/Perilous Journeys"

Deliberate NonsenseTM:

Any sort of artwork/cartoons or short written silliness you feel compelled to share with us will be considered. We'd like to see your doodles, jokes, one-liners, 'toons or whatever you consider deliberately nonsensical! If it fits the theme, we are more likely to accept it, however we are very loose with this consideration for The Deliberate NonsenseTM department ONLY.

Please mark the subject line of your submission email similar to the examples given above:

"DelNon: Your Last Name/Theme"

Featured Artist:

Featured Artists for The Hiss Quarterly are by invitation ONLY. If you would like to be considered, please email links to your artwork or gallery on the Web. Please do not send the actual artwork.

You will typically hear from us within ten (10) days from your inquiry as to whether we will consider it.

RELEASE, COPYRIGHT INFORMATION & PRIVACY STATEMENT:

Upon acceptance, you will be asked to return (via email) a completed copy of our standard release. No work will be published without a release typical of the sample below:
I (your name & pseudonym, if applicable) certify that I am the sole author of the work being submitted to The Hiss Quarterly. I also certify that this work has not been published previously online or in print. I also agree that The Hiss Quarterly may archive my work for up to one year, and publish it in a "Best Of" Anthology after one year.

I retain all rights to my work except First Publication, One-Year Archival and Non-exclusive Anthology Rights as stated above.

If my work should be reprinted elsewhere after its first publication in The Hiss Quarterly, I shall make all best effort to have it noted as having first appeared in The Hiss Quarterly, including the URL: http://www.hissquarterly.com.

In the interest of our writers and artists, each issue is granted one full year of Web visibility -- that is, three quarters past its "current" status. After that, every issue is permanently stored offline, not to be reprinted or used in any way except in a possible future anthology, as agreed to in the above Release.

The Hiss Quarterly contains copyrighted material. You may not copy, publish, upload, download, post to your web page/site, use the URL of any image, transmit, distribute or modify any content of this site. All published and copyrighted material remains the property of the writer/artist.

The Hiss Quarterly respects your privacy as much as we do our own. All information submitted will be kept confidential and will not be sold, reused, rented, loaned, left on some street corner, or in any other way disclosed beyond the Janitorial Staff on Duty. Any information and/or work you submit to The Hiss Quarterly will be held with serious care and will not be used in ways to which you have not consented. In other words, all we want to do is read/view and — we hope! — publish you.

These Copyright and Privacy Statements pertain to unaccepted submissions as well as to work we choose to publish. We respect you, and we promise to continue.

Please note: The Hiss Quarterly cannot afford to pay contributors. We apologize for this, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work, their talent and their time. We hope to be able to, in the future.


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Unauthorized use of graphics or literary material is strictly prohibited.