We’re looking for quality stories! We tend to publish stories with some element of speculation. This includes, but is not limited to: science-fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, flash-fiction or any melding of these. If it’s interesting, we’ll read it. If it has some element you can’t find in today’s world, we’ll probably like it even more. Mostly, we want to give a damn about the character and be interested in what happens next. We prefer stories of 1000-6000 words in length, but will consider shorter or longer.
We only accept email submissions, in some semblance of manuscript format. If it’s illegible and filled with typos, grammar or spelling errors, you’ll get it back very quickly. Please make it a separate attachment, and do not paste the story into your email.
The Nautilus Engine puts out a new issue each Quarter. (March 31st, June 30th, Sep 30th, Dec 31st.) So stories submitted Jan-March will be considered submissions for the March issue and, if accepted, published in the March Issue. Payment will happen just before publication.
You should receive an acknowledgement of your submission within 24 hours. We try and respond to submissions within two weeks, but there may be circumstances that will delay this. Nautilus Engine pays $10 (U.S.) per story for exclusive electronic rights for a three month period. Author retains ownership and full copyright, but we request that your story not be published elsewhere during the three month Nautilus Engine publication period. Works will be archived for a year once an issue ends, however the author may request that the work be removed from the site (after the original three month period) at their discretion. Send submissions in standard manuscript format as .doc file or .rtf attachments to this e-mail : nautilussubmissions@christianklaver.com.
Include your name, physical address, and word count in your e-mail. Contact information should include an email address for us to contact you and a physical address for us to send you a check, if your story is accepted. Please also include a small "about the
author" blurb for us to use.
We prefer original work, but we are willing to consider reprints. Re: reprints: While we feel that the story market is large enough for a good story to appear in two different places, the pay rate is half ($5) what we pay for original fiction. Please identify if the story you're submitting to us is a reprint, and where and when it was published. Simultaneous submissions are ok.
Should we buy your story, we reserve the right to make small changes to the text for publication (limited to correcting spelling, typos, out-of-place commas and other equally microcosmic changes).