Welcome to the Sally Port submission guidelines page. Please review the guidelines appropriate to your content category and follow them.
Note:
We use a form system for reviewing and accepting material. All the questions in the form are there for a reason. We’ve provided links to the content scoring rubric for each submission type in the appropriate area. Stories, art, and non-fiction articles are blind-reviewed, meaning that only the story content is considered.
Another note:
While we do ask for a short (100 word) biography with story, art, and non-fiction article submissions, the biographies are not used as part of the review process (blind review means we don’t know who submitted the story…). The bios exist so that we can publicly celebrate the achievements of those whose work is selected and not as a portion of the selection process.
Note the third:
We revise these guidelines (and the linked helps) occasionally in response to the material we’re getting and developments in the company and industry. The guidelines you’re held to are the guidelines that are current at the time of your submission. That means it’s probably a good idea to check the guidelines each time you submit, just to be sure.
General Submission Guidelines
Style Manuals and Style Choice
Back in college, I “grew up” with APA style. MLA style was a distant second. But, I’m not in college anymore and neither is the magazine. Therefore, please format your written work in the industry standard Chicago Style.
Note that every publisher (including Forever Mountain) and most publications have their own perspectives on how a style should be applied. For Sally Port Magazine, we ask you not to include the name and address block on the front page of the manuscript. Instead, put it in the submission form where we ask for it (it’s the blind submission thing…).
Here is an example of what a story manuscript should look like for Sally Port.
Submission Files
We do blind submissions. That means your identifying information shouldn’t be in the story manuscript. It also shouldn’t be in the filename when you submit. Don’t worry. If you use our story submission form, we’ll know who to contact once your story’s accepted. But, in the meantime, please use the first twenty characters of your story as the submission file’s filename.
While we’re at it, we need to open the file to evaluate it. So, please submit your story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file.
Time Frames and Response Times
Our schedule of themes is updated each year. We update it in June each year (the 2025 theme list went live in June 2024…). At this time, submissions are “always open” but there is a moving window for particular themes and issues. The selection window for an issue/theme is open for a three-month period as listed on the theme list. If you submit your work less than three months before the issue you want to be in, you won’t make it.
The moving window gives a reasonable time for you to get stories to us while also giving us a reasonable amount of time to put the issue together (that’s why we don’t accept stuff after the window (no matter how good it is)).
We do our best to respond to submissions in a reasonable amount of time. The “sweet spot” for response times is 2-3 months before the issue goes live (if you submitted something for the October issue’s theme and got it in during the acceptance window, you can expect to hear from us in June or July).
Submissions, Contract, and the Submission Procsss
A submission isn’t a contract. It’s something you do before the contract happens.
If we accept your piece, a contract will be included with your acceptance email.
Pay Rates
We are developing a sliding scale of author pay vs work needed to support emerging writers and pay the bills here at FMP. More on this will be released in a future update to these guidelines.
At this point, the base offer for written work is $0.05 per word for finished pieces (stories and articles as they are published in the magazine).
Rates for images depend on their use and industry standards.
Contact Information and Mailing Lists
We won’t sell your contact information. In fact, we won’t give your contact information to anyone unless we really have to (if you send us illegal content, that’s on you). But if your work is selected for publication, we will need to contact you. That means we need your contact information in order to consider your work for publication.
If you’re interested in submitting to a magazine like ours, there’s a good chance you’re interested in the kind of content we publish (and making progress in your publishing career). We send out email newsletters and information approximately ‘every so often’. If you’d like to be on the list, no problem. Your contact information will be added to the list automatically. If you don’t want to be on the list, make sure you check the “don’t include me” box in the submission form.
Reprints and Simultaneous Submissions
At this time, we are not accepting simultaneous submissions (they create managerial headaches).
Generally, we don’t accept reprints. If your piece previously existed on your blog (less than 1,000) views, tell us in the other notes part of our submission form and we’ll consider the situation. If any person or group has paid you for your work previously, we’re not interested.
AI Policy
Short and sweet, there is a time and a place for AI generated content. Sally Port Magazine ain’t it!
We do not accept AI generated art or writing. Our magazine is about good, human generated, creativity. Do not submit AI generated pieces, they will be rejected immediately (and any that slip though will be viewed as a breach of contract on the “author creator’s” part).
Violence, Pornography, and "Adult Themes"
Sally Port Magazine does fantasy fiction.
It’s predictable that there’s going to be a fight or two along the way. However, any violence depicted should be at a level appropriate to the audience/age group you’re writing for and should not be excessive.
As for pornography and similar content. Seriously? What part of family friendly don’t you understand? Pornography and similarly sketchy content are not, and will not be, accepted.
Fabulous Fantasy Fiction
For All Stories
The secret (if there was one) to being published in Sally Port Magazine is to tell a good story. The second secret (again, if there was one) is being a good person to work with. Collectively, that means your piece should actually tell a story and tell it well (or at least the best you can do) and that you, the author fulfill a few expectations (we’ll hold up our end if you hold up yours…):
- Follow our writing guidelines. (See, since you’re reading this, you’re off to a good start) If there’s a question, you could send an email.
- Use the submission form. (link) Answer the questions we ask and put information in the place we ask for it. Your bio doesn’t count for story acceptance. In fact, trying to embed your bio into the story space pretty much guarantees we’ll reject your story…
- Know which audience you’re writing for and choose the right option on the form. (information on specific audiences is given below).
- Make sure your story fits the parameters we’ve set for your chosen audience. If you have small and reasonable variations on the guidelines, send an email before you submit. (Note: asking us to serialize your 150,000 word erotic horror novel in our mid-grade section is not (and will never be) small or reasonable!)
- Write a fantasy story, not some other genre. Magical realism is ok. Fuzzy animal characters are ok. Science fiction is something we might get around to someday, but we’re not accepting it right now. Horror? No. (If you want to get published here, don’t give me nightmares…) True crime? No. (Fantasy fiction, not real-life horror…) Literary fiction? Please see your local university literary magazine. (we ain’t it) Erotica? Hard No. In fact, given that the magazine is family friendly and we accept work for 8-18-year-olds sending us erotica may get you on a very special list.
- Make your characters interesting and unique. But, make them interesting in a way that makes us want to read more. Give us characters that feel like real people and draw us into the story. Making us ask why would he/she/whatever do that is good. A character whose entire personality is being a green skinned, purple-haired whatever that spells all their f-bombs with a Q may be different, but may not resonate with readers (and ain’t all that original in today’s market…).
- Characters, especially main characters (good and bad) should be three dimensional and engaging. (no stereotypes or cardboard cutouts) Your character might mostly be a ‘typical whatever’ but you need to show us why the character isn’t typical.
- Whatever details you include should matter in making the character real and/or be important in the story. (That goes for everyone. If you spend three pages clarifying that the character is from Ammon Idaho and not Idaho Falls Idaho, it’d better matter in the story. (I’ve been to both and it doesn’t matter 99.99% of the time) The same goes for spending three pages on whether the character orders a salad with or without carrots…
- Don’t put in ‘representation’ for representation’s sake. We have no problem with male, female, unsure, black, brown, green, purple, pink, human, Elven, Dwarven, Orcish, dragon, blind, deaf, paraplegic, etc. Characters. But, unless it actually matters in the story, why waste word count on it?
- Your story should have stakes. It doesn’t always have to be a literal world ender. But if the story doesn’t matter to the people in it, why would it matter to us?
- Behave in a manner that’s both human and professional. One purpose of Sally Port is to help emerging authors learn (and break into) the publishing business. We understand mistakes will be made. But do your best to follow rules and guidelines and behave professionally. We’ll do the same.
Mid-Grade
Our mid-grade audience is 8-12 old. Stories in this section should have protagonists 8-12 years old as well. Stories should have subject matter appropriate to this group and challenges that can be (creatively) met with the resources available to a character of this age. There is a hard maximum of 10,000 words in this section. Stories between 2,500 and 5,000 words are preferred.
Young Adult (YA)
The young adult audience runs 12-18 years old, but often includes the eighteen to twenty something new adult audience (and includes advanced readers under 12…). Again, protagonists should also fall into this age group. The range of appropriate subject matter is considerably wider for this age group, as teens are exploring new parts of their lives and moving into more mature relationships and responsibilities. ‘Moving into’ is a key term. Though readers and characters in this age range are exploring new parts of life specifically mature content and issues should probably be avoided. (Do the math… It’s very unlikely that a 16-year-old is considering ending a 10 year marriage…) Relationship issues and dating are very much part of the teen experience, but stories should remain age appropriate.
The YA section of the magazine is the largest; however, there are still limits. The section has a hard limit of 20,000 words. Stories of 2,500 to 10,000 words are recommended. In some issues, this section may share space with game content (Which drops the word count available for stories to 10-15,000 words…)
General (Fantasy) Audience
This section’s readers are most likely to be over 18, as are the main protagonists. A full range of life experiences and challenges are available to these folks. However, remember that the magazine contains content for all ages (please don’t make me say the thing about excessive violence and erotica again…). The hard limit for word count in this section is 13,000 words. Don’t pad your story, but use the word count you need to tell the story well.
Ready to Submit?
If you have carefully reviewed all the submission guidelines, the button below will take you to our submission form.
Submit Your Story