General Guidelines / Themes / Individual Collections
To submit a manuscript for consideration for our anthology, please be sure to address the envelope to: The MSR Short Fiction Anthology, PO BOX 690100, Charlotte, NC 28227-7001.
Also important: Since we have more than one editor reading fiction for us and each is assigned a specific project, please be sure to mention on the envelope which theme the author is targeting. Authors who want to submit stories for more than one theme, please send them in separate envelopes. Anything that arrives without a specific destination ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE will be sent to the editor in charge of selection for The Main Street Rag--our quarterly literary journal--and not considered for anthology publication at all.
For those who may have skipped over the General Guidelines on the Submissions Page where it says "NO EMAILED SUBMISSIONS," that guideline applies to the short fiction anthology as well unless you LIVE overseas (Canada is not overseas, by the way) or are a subscriber to The Main Street Rag. Even so, those who want to submit this way need to query first so we can instruct them on how the manuscript should be sent. Unsolicited manuscripts that arrive with attachments are trashed without being read.
Authors may submit as many as 2 stories at a time; maximum length: 10,000 words (each). Please wait until we report on that submission before sending additional stories for consideration.
Please double-space on 8.5 X 11 paper using 11 or 12pt serif font (Times, Times New Roman, etc.).
We can report by email to save return postage, but if you want your manuscript returned, be sure to include an SASE that is large enough to fit the manuscript and be sure it has the proper amount of postage.
Report Time: We will try to report in 2 months or less, but prose does take longer to read than poetry and the Associate Editors who select manuscripts for our anthologies do so around teaching duties. We appreciate your patience.
Also of note:
Because our literary magazine does not consider previously published or simultaneous submissions, the most frequently asked question has been: "Are previously published stories eligible for the anthologies?"
The answer is a not-so enthusiastic, "Yes." Yes, but with conditions which mostly center around who owns the rights, where it has been previously published and when. We'd rather not publish a story that already appears or is scheduled to appear in a journal, collection or other anthology that will be available for sale at the same time as our anthology.
If you think you have a previously published story that fits one of the themes for which we are reading, please email an inquiry first to editor@mainstreetrag.com and include where it was previously published and when.
No simultaneous submissions for our anthologies. We are usually pretty good at our turn around and we read on a particular theme for as long as a year, so if you have a story submitted elsewhere that you think will fit our theme, either wait for the other publisher to respond or withdraw it from wherever else it is submitted before sending it here.
We will begin accepting stories for consideration on three new themes again starting in January 2009. Please do not send submissions until that time. We will be reading on these themes until we fill the pages or until September 15, 2009 (postmark date).
Themes for 2009:
The Commute (stories regarding travel including everything from bicycling to busing to driving to riding a horse—getting from here to there)
Food (stories about eating, cooking, restaurants, barbecues, picnics—if food is a centerpiece of the story, it’s eligible)
Coming Home (stories of soldiers returning, people visiting a place that they've been away from for a while, children growing up as well as stories about people overcoming physical and emotional challenges).
We are not open to unsolicited submission of full-length manuscripts of short fiction for the most part. There are exceptions and the information can be found on the Publishing Options page along with our reasons why.
We will invite authors to send full-length collections on the basis of how much we like stories that have been submitted to our Short Fiction Anthology or in our literary magazine, The Main Street Rag. So if you are looking for someone to publish a complete collection of short fiction and you think you want it to be Main Street Rag Publishing Company, the first step is to submit something for us to read for our anthology or our literary journal.
In December 2001, Main Street Rag began circulating a monthly electronic newsletter. Among other things, our goal with this service is to provide subscribers with a monthly reminder of events, deadlines, contests, and magazines that are actively seeking manuscripts. If you would like to learn more about this service, just click.
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704-573-2516, contact us