Deadline: January 14th, 2026, or the 31st for members
Prizes: $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, and $250 for the new reprint category
Theme: All genres welcome
Submissions to our contest run annually from October 14th through January 14th (WRITER LEVEL MEMBERS can submit until January 31st through our members portal.
Contest guidelines below. READ CAREFULLY. Failure to do so may result in disqualification!
Please note that we have additional perks and leeway for WRITER LEVEL MEMBERS, highlighted in GREEN, granting access to special content and bonuses in the submission process, plus it helps keep the lights on and pay all yee writers!
Speaking of ‘Members’, (Imagine some yokel hollering from the back of city council meeting, “Point of clarity!”) we have two terms that you should note the difference:
“Subscriber” means our free, basic subscription.
“Member” means our paid, annual membership. Click on our Member’s page to learn more about the different tiers and perks for each.
Boom, now you’re informed.
Story Guidelines:
Attention storytellers: we just want good stories! There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc – we don’t care as long as it’s written and told with quality and care. The story itself cannot exceed 7,000 words (except for WRITER level Members, who get a bonus 3,000 words added!). There are no restrictions on age or location of participant, and no need to ask us for permission to participate in the contest – just follow the guidelines below.
What do I win?
A $3,000 $5,000 prize package will be divvied up like so: $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, and $250 for our new REPRINT CATEGORY (more info below). The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely’s website, and will be strongly considered for our annual (print) sample magazine, which means a lot of exposure to the winner. All three placing stories (and reprint winner) will be published in the monthly issue, and all three will be illustrated by real, professional, human artists!
Don’t forget about the honorable mentions! That’s right, you honorable little losers. Is that harsh? It’s supposed to be a compliment. Anyway, we do NOT notify honorable mentions (or semi finalists or finalists) ahead of time, because we’re lazy busy, so very, very lazy busy. Rather, we announce them in the monthly issue after the reading period ends, which you need to sign up for in order to be eligible to enter. If your name appears on this list of honorables, you’ll be prompted to contact us and we’ll send you a fancy-schmancy certificate for proof that you, indeed, almost won a writing contest. But not quite. Plus, if there is a strong showing, we tend to pick up a few of the finalists for publication in our monthly magazine! – per our standard guideline pay.)
When can I submit?
The submission period runs from October 14th through January 14th, midnight central standard time (or January 31st for WRITER level Members.When will my story be published?
Stories will be published – at our whimsical discretion – the following calendar year between June and December. Winning authors will be notified, at the latest, by May 31st. All authors MUST be signed up for the Story Unlikely monthly magazine (free!) to be eligible for prize and publication. Please note that although you’re welcome to unsubscribe at any time, just wait until the contest is over, otherwise we’ll consider that a disqualification of your entry. DO NOT mark our emails as spam (and we know when this is done) – not only will you forfeit your entry, but you’ll be barred from future submissions. Harsh judgement, sure, but easily avoided.
Reprint Category
New to this year is our REPRINT category. If it was previously published, you can still win some cash – $250 will be awarded to the winning reprint story! When you submit, CLEARLY mark the submission as a reprint both in the TITLE and the BODY, and it will get shuffled into the right pipeline. Please note that if you are not a WRITER level Member, you can only submit one story (IE if you submit a reprint, you cannot submit a previously unpublished, or vice versa. Only Members are WRITER level are allowed multiple submissions).
Note that all reprint submissions must be free of any exclusivity period by May of the following year. Reprints will not be assigned Honorable Mention, Semi Finalist, or Finalist – you either win (or get picked up and published like we do with some finalist stories), or you don’t.
How do I submit?
If you’re a Writer level Member, make sure to use the Member submission form HERE, otherwise your story will get shuffled into the wrong bin, and you may lose out on all those perks (will come back to this later). For everyone else:
We accept email submissions only, and from legitimate email addresses, not tied to some private school server that will bounce back. If your submission (or email you use to subscribe) comes from one of these, it will be disqualified. Attach the entire story to the email (Microsoft word doc or docx) Do not put a link to Google doc – actually attach the document. Be sure to remove ALL forms of identification from the story (If your story happens to be about you, just remove your last name).
Due to our endless quest to get our stories past overreactive spam blockers, we’ve changed our submission email to: [email protected]. As long as you type the word ‘Submission’ in the title, your story will end up in the right place. And this is important, so we’ll say it again: make sure you type the word ‘submission’ in the title of your email, otherwise it may be lost! So email submissions to [email protected] in the following format:
(Email Subject Line) Submission: TITLE/GENRE/“REPRINT” (if applicable)(In the body of the email)Dear Editor,TITLE, GENRE, WORD COUNT, “REPRINT” (if applicable)[Insert FIRST 250 words of your story (rounded to the nearest sentence) here]# (insert page break, or double space if you can’t)(Insert short author bio, including any previously published stories, as you want it to appear below your story if/when published)(Tell us how you found Story Unlikely, and why you decided to submit)Sincerely,
NAME
Contact information
(Type the following verbatim) I have not, and will not, submit this story anywhere else until May 31st.
Story doc attached!
If that’s confusing, then emulate our sample below (minus the red lettering part), or even better, become a Writer level Member and submit via our oh-so-easy submission form by clicking HERE.
Perks for members
As mentioned, we have a host of perks for all Writer level Members (giving you a slight advantage over your competition) both for reading and submitting. To view the list click on our Member Homepage HERE!
Contest FAQ
Do you accept multiple submissions?
No, one submission per author.
EXCEPTION: If you are a card carrying MEMBER at Writer level, you can submit up to THREE stories!Do you accept simultaneous submissions?
No – do not send your story entry out to other publishers prior to May 31st (reprint submission excluded), and do not withdraw your entry. We offer a generous prize package with NO cost to enter – in return, we ask that you give us the time we need to give every story a fair shake.
ANOTHER EXCEPTION: Once again, writer level members ARE allowed to make simultaneous submissions. To become a member CLICK HERE.If my story is selected, what is the publication process like?
There will be edits, then payment, then publication. Take a look at what our contributing authors have to say about working with us – it’s quite flattering.If I submit a story, then it gets picked up by another outlet before the contest is over, will it still be considered for the reprint category?
First, don’t do this unless you’re a Member, as you will get banned for simultaneously submitting. But if you’re a MEMBER at Writer level, and your submission gets picked up somewhere else, it will not be considered for the reprint category, sorry. However, you can resubmit it the following year as a reprint.What type of formatting should the story be in?
Standard manuscript formatting is fine – we’re not picky, so long as its not obnoxious. If you’d like an in depth look into modern manuscript formatting, then read this article by Bruce Bethke over at Stupefying Stories, which pretty well sums up how we feel.
Any tips on winning this thing?
Many stories get ‘bumped’ before we finish reading the first page (that’s right, we’re a merciless bunch). A trained eye can tell the quality of a story and the ability of the storyteller from only a few sentences, so tighten that opening! It also helps to read some of our past issues, like our 2024 contest winning story HERE. Besides, you want to become the best writer you can be, right? Well then, to do that, you need to read the from the best writers out there, and who’s publishing better stories than us? Seriously, SUBSCRIBE NOW and see for yourself.
Another pro tip: We see a massive influx of stories in the last week of the submission period and have to cram most of our initial reading right in at the end. True, every story gets a read, but it might just have a better chance of standing out (and moving onto the next round) when we’re not inundated with a thousand other stories at the same time. Just sayin.What are you looking for?
To put it simply, good stories. Entries will be judged both by the technical and literary quality as well as the author’s ability to tell a story. Here’s what we’re NOT looking for: Excessive anything. Think PG-13, R if necessary. We’re not attempting to salt the earth with more cultural dogma couched as mediocre fiction, or writers who are jockeying for the title of Most Woke. There’s enough of that out there already. You want to impress us? Write a good story. You want to win? Write a great one.What about AI?
The stories we publish are for humans by humans; we do not accept AI written material. If you’re using AI to check spelling or grammar that’s fine, but the actual writing needs to be yours.
Can I submit a story previously submitted to this contest?
Yes, but with limitations:
Any story that previously received an Honorable (or Highly Honorable) Mention, Semi Finalist, or Finalist can only be submitted one more time to this contest. Moving forward, we will only allow Writer Level Members to do this. So if you submit a story this year and it reaches Honorable Mention though Finalist status, you can only submit it to the contest (one more time) if you are a Member at Writer Level at both times of submission.
Please note that if you are not, you can always revise the story and submit it again through our general submission period).
Anything I missed?
Likely you skimmed over two things, and they’re OH so important:
#1. To be eligible for the contest, all writers must be signed up to Story Unlikely’s monthly issue. Did we mention it’s free? Because it is. Totally free. You can unsubscribe at any time, just wait until the contest is over, otherwise we’ll consider that a disqualification of your entry. DO NOT mark our emails as spam (and we know when this is done) – not only will you forfeit your entry, but you’ll be placed on our Excrement List, aka lifetime ban from submitting, where only a generous donation to the human fund can bring you back into our good graces. Ok, we’re joking about the human fund, but not on the ban.
#2. Re-read HOW we want you to submit (like, the first 250 words of your story, we really do need that in the body of your email – it is of utmost importance to us).
#3. Now that you’ve waded through all of our rules, how about a little word of encouragement from the Story Unlikely team?
#4. If you have any additional questions, see our frequently asked questions page.
#5. Oh, and if you submit and forget to attach the story, don’t sweat it, just resubmit the whole thing (right away!)
#6. Although we’re not genre specific, we do have a cool deal running with Tangent Online, where any speculative fiction stories we publish get reviewed by them. Pretty sweet, huh? All the more reason to submit.
Rights requested:
The use of the Work by Story Unlikely entails the assignment of first, non-exclusive Anthology Rights, for publication in the English language, and continuing, nonexclusive right to use the Work in the edition as long as Story Unlikely remains in print/publication. (In other words, you can publish your story anywhere else after it’s been published here, we just ask that you mention that it was published in Story Unlikely first, and after a set period of time after original publication, generally 3 to 6 months.)
Via: Story Unlikely.
