Abbey Hill Literary Short Story Submission Guidelines
E-Mail submissions are encouraged. Please include the following in ALL submissions:
- Your Name. Please use your given name rather than pen name.
- Address (for prize payments).
- Brief bio of yourself (up to 40 words), if you choose.
- Current phone number.
- Title of your story. All entries, whether submitted through e-mail or snail mail, should include a title.
- How you heard of Abbey Hill Literary: web site name, friend, college class, previous participant, etc.
Send your submission(s) to Editor@AHLiterary.com, (or use our contact page) with entry fee(s) to be paid via PayPal. Instructions for snail mail submissions follow below. Review prize list and entry fees here.
Short story entries from non-U.S. authors are welcome, providing the stories are written in English, submitted via e-mail, and with entry fee(s) to be paid only through PayPal. International entries submitted via snail mail with coupons, stamps, international currency, etc., will be discarded. Entries from previous Abbey Hill Literary winners are also welcome.
All submissions made via e-mail must include the work within the e-mail itself. Submissions made as e-mail attachments will NOT be read or judged, the e-mail and attachment will be deleted, and the entry fee will be forfeited.
When submitting via e-mail, your short story genre or category must be placed in the subject line of the e-mail, followed by your last name. Suggested genre labels (in alphabetical order) are:
| Family | Historical | Mystery | Suspense |
| Fantasy | Horror | Religious | Women’s |
| Futuristic | Humor | Romance | |
| General | Men’s | Science Fiction |
Does your genre fall outside this list? Please feel free to add it.
For those of you who prefer snail mail, U.S. submissions may also be made via United States post office mail. Your mailed submission must include your name, address and phone number, and must be typewritten and double spaced in standard manuscript style. Please also include the entry fee as a money order made out to Abbey Hill Literary (sorry, no personal checks accepted). Mail the submission and entry fee to:
Abbey Hill Literary
PO Box 445
Denville, NJ 07834
By entering any Abbey Hill Literary short story competition, each author affirms that the story submitted is his or her original and previously unpublished work, and offers first publication rights for the winning work to be posted for up to one (1) year on the Abbey Hill Literary web site.
All prize payments to winning authors will be mailed no later than the 20th of the month following the announcement and posting of the winners, and all purchased critiques will be mailed within forty-five days after the close of the contest. All prizes will be fully awarded without regard to the number of entries received.
Although we are adults at Abbey Hill Literary, we can’t guarantee that all readers of your winning fiction will be 18 or older. Therefore, in their best interests, we do not accept submissions of Erotica (although adult themes, tastefully written, are not discouraged). Similarly, although we welcome Horror and Suspense, we ask that highly explicit violence, gore and bloodshed also be kept to a minimum. This is not intended as a criticism of these genres, but only as a gentle reminder that many young people, including the literary minded, use the internet.
Unfortunately, we also do not accept poetry, children’s or young adult fiction, essays or memoirs. Again, no criticism is intended, but we believe it to be extremely difficult to fairly judge these works in comparison to conventional short stories. In addition, submissions made simultaneously to other contests and magazines and/or ezines are also discouraged.
All decisions by Abbey Hill Literary judges are final, and by submitting works for evaluation and possible publication, all authors and/or submitters agree to hold Abbey Hill Literary, including its principals, associates and/or employees, harmless with regard to any alleged or actual copyright or ownership issues or infringements.
NOTE: Abbey Hill Literary is NOT a literary agent and does NOT accept book length manuscripts. Any book length manuscript forwarded to Abbey Hill will be discarded without further notice to the author.