Fortean Bureau Submission Guidelines\

The Fortean Bureau is closed to submissions indefinitely. Any remaining submissions will be responded to before the end of March.

What we look for in a story:

Stories that make passes at explaining the unexplainable. Stories of science dealing with the bizarre. Stories regarding events so unusual they defy explanation. Stories that debunk all of those things. Stories on the edge of reason, teetering on the brink of logic. Stories just gone over the edge. Folklore, wives tales, and urban myths so strange they just might be true. Most important; weirdness. We've seen ghost stories. We've seen stories about vampires. We're looking for things that are not common knowledge in U.S. pop culture, unless you're putting a new spin on it that we haven't seen. We especially like exotic locales and a variety of time periods. We also have a fondness for good, old-fashioned pulp-style adventure, but not without speculative elements. We rarely see hard science fiction that deals with Fortean themes, so you'll get our attention with a science fiction slant at this point. Yes, we do like slipstream, but no, don't ask us to define it.

We enjoy looking at stories that don't quite fit into that standard mold, and may be more inclined to purchase a non-character centered story than some.

What we're not looking for in a story:

We do not publish sword and sorcery, high fantasy, or space opera . When we talk about weird, we don't necessarily mean a horrific kind of weird, either. We're not interested in horror unless we're doing a special issue. Nor "Dark" genre work, as a general rule. Stories that revolve around a paralyzing fear of the unknown aren't going to pass muster with us. The Fortean philosophy seeks to understand those things, and at this time.

Confused?

Read the Fortean Times or The Charles Fort Institute websites to learn more about the man and his ideas. This information shall prove useful if you wish to be published in the Bureau.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be addressed to editors@forteanbureau.com with the subject "Submission- (Your Title Here)." Submissions must be attached to the email in standard manuscript format in a Microsoft Word (.DOC) or Rich Text (.RTF) format. Submissions in the body of an email will be returned unread. The body of your email must contain the following information.

• Author's Name(s)
• Title
• Word Count
• Standard mailing address
• A short (<150 words) biography and links.
• Email Address

Please do not make simultaneous submissions, and please wait to receive a response on one story before sending another.

Story Length and Rights

We would like to see stories up to 4000 words. We don't want you to submit things longer than that, but you may if you think you have something only we would be interested in. Anything longer than 8000 words will be returned unread.

We pay 3 cents a word, up to a maximum of $60 per story upon publication. This is an increase from our previous $40 limit. We purchase First Worldwide Electronic Rights, posting the story exclusively to our website and no other publication for 4 months. After 4 months from the publication date, the rights revert to the author. We continue to archive stories after this period unless requested by the author to do otherwise. We do not purchase unsolicited reprints.

Reading Periods

Reading periods just don't work for us, but with our reduced schedule, we fill our slots more quickly. We will reopen for submissions January 1 of each year, and close to submissions when we have enough fiction. We reserve the right to reopen or close at any time. Them's the breaks, and honestly, we do this for your benefit. We don't believe writers should have to wait more than a year to see their story online (or in print).

Return Times

Please allow us a minimum of two months to consider your story before querying. Most will hear responses within a couple of weeks, but stories that are close to what we are looking for will take a little longer.