The Rules

(There have to be some)

1. Entries must be in English.

2. All work must be the entrant’s original writing and must be free from AI generated content.

3. Entries should not have been published in print, or accepted for publication elsewhere. However posting a story on your own social media site or blog will not preclude you from submitting it.

4. Wordcount should be between 200-256 words, not including the title (which should be a sensible length given that these are single page flash fiction pieces)

5. Layout guidance: We aspire to produce an attractive, compact printed volume, with one story per page. However, pieces with many paragraph breaks (e.g. dialogue-rich text, or unorthodox layout) risk spilling onto a second page, which will add to printing costs and thence the price of the published volume. Some stories will unavoidably be 2-pagers (which matters not in a digital version), but please review the layout of your story before submitting it, and avoid excessive paragraph breaks if possible.

Using ” rather than ‘ for speech quotes would be enormously helpful.

6. All entries should be submitted in regular document format – either Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Open Document Text (.odt), or text file (.txt, .rtf).

7. Submit each entry online along with a £2.56 entry fee. Each entry should be submitted separately. 

8. You may enter as many stories as you wish. However to ensure fair author representation, we reserve the discretion to hold back some multiple entries for a subsequent volume.

9. There is no closing date for entries, as this is a ‘rolling’ project. Submit at any time.

10. Copyright: By submitting a story, you are granting ‘256 Stories’ a once-only permission to publish it in one of our anthologies (copyright will remain with the author).

11. Content: Entries will be read to ensure that they do not contain racism; incitement to violence or suicide; direct targeting or denigrating of an ethnic, religious or social group; or gratuitously erotic content. Such stories may be referred back to the author, who can then amend the content or substitute a more acceptable story (there will be no additional fee for this).

This does not mean we will be employing sensitivity readers, just common sense.

12. No amended versions will be accepted (unless we have specifically requested amendments. Stories this short must be edited thoroughly before submission.

13. Once submitted, entries may be withdrawn by sending an email request to 256stories@mail.co.uk (please check we have received your email and confirmed your request). No refund will be made for withdrawn entries.

14. Each story will carry the author’s name or their pen name (and optionally their age) under the title. If this is not in your submission we will use your default entry name.

15. Author notes and web link, if supplied, will appear on the Contributors‘ page of website, on or around the time of publication. However, for reasons of space and printing costs they will not appear in the printed anthology.

N.B. – Personal information will not be used by 256 Stories for any form of marketing or communication, other than connection with the anthology, nor passed to any third party without permission (see our privacy policy for more details)