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CANDIS SHORT STORY GUIDELINES

* PLEASE NOTE NEW WORD COUNT: Minimum 2300, Maximum 2500 (we will not read anything longer or shorter than this)

Who you're writing for: Women aged 30-58 and their husbands/partners

What we're looking for: Clever, keep 'em guessing story lines; twist in the tale/tales of the unexpected style writing. Stories of modern love, romance, friendship, family life. Short, tightly written whodunits. Warm, likeable central characters. Original storylines that are all your own work and have not been published in the UK before.

What we're NOT looking for: Children's fiction, Mills and Boon stories with predictable endings; anything science fiction based or set in the future; stories written from an animal or ghost's point of view; anything with detailed violence or graphic sexual descriptions.

Short stories to be sent in the first instance by email to fiction@candis.co.uk

Fee: £300 payable by cheque or bank transfer. Once you receive written acceptance you will be asked to submit an invoice for payment.

How to submit copy: By email as a .doc document or .rft (rich text format). Please do not send .docx documents as we can't open them.

Alternatively cut and paste your copy into the body of the email.

When will I hear anything?

Unfortunately the selection process takes time. Remember we can only select twelve short stories a year to print in Candis and we choose them from an average of six hundred stories sent to us each year.

When we receive your story, it is put in a holding file until we can read it in batches to make our shortlist. Those that don't make the shortlist will receive notice at this point.

Short-listed stories are then held until they are sent, in batches of three, to our reader panellists for that month's issue. If your story is chosen, we will send you confirmation that you've been successful and which issue your work will appear in - at this point you can send your invoice in.

If your story isn't selected the first time it's sent to our reader panellists, it will go out again the next month to a different set of panellists. If it isn't selected again, then you will receive notice that you haven't been successful.

As you can imagine, this process isn't quick. We will, however, aim to get in touch either way, within four months of your first submission.

Please note: Due to the sheer number of stories sent in, we are NOT able to give individual feedback on why your story wasn't selected.

GOOD LUCK!

Download an easy to print version of the Short Story Guidelines