Demensions is a web-published speculative fiction magazine, issued on a monthly basis. We primarily publish short stories, by both established and up-and-coming authors. We also publish reviews of genre movies, games, and books; interviews with authors or other people associated with the fantasy and science fiction field; and topical articles and opinion columns. We have been publishing regularly since 1998.

We want original science and fantasy fiction with strong plotlines and interesting, sympathetic characters—just like everyone else. The art of writing fiction may be nothing more than the ability to make up interesting lies, but they should at least be well crafted and believable lies. If you're going to change the laws of physics, then you'd darn well better come up with a plausible explanation.

We are always interested in hearing from fresh voices or exploring new horizons. Webzines are the ideal place for experimentation because—and let's be honest, here—most of the mainstream publications won't touch it. Pushing the envelope is great. Ripping it to shreds then stamping it into the ground, however, is probably best submitted elsewhere. (See What We Don't Want below.)

Sci-fi and fantasy artists interested in having their work featured on a Demensions issue cover should send inquiries to art@demensionszine.com. Please provide a link to a place where we can view a sample of your work, and we'll get back to you either way. Don't send an image as an attachment unless we've requested it; we have our inboxes set to vaporize attachments.

Demensions does not publish horror, mainstream fiction, or poetry. The only exception is unmetered, "epic" style poetry with either a science fiction or fantasy theme. Think Beowulf or the Poetic Eddas, and you'll know what we mean. Stories told in heroic verse are still stories. Sonnets and haiku are poems.

We do not accept unsolicited reviews, articles, or commentaries. If you have an idea for an article, or a book or movie review that you'd like to contribute, please query first to features@demensionszine.com.

We do not publish fan fiction. There are no exceptions to this rule, and any story featuring copyrighted characters or settings will be rejected out of hand. By submitting a story to us, you guarantee that you own all rights to the work, including the characters. If the lawyers call, we'll be sending them your way.

Please do not send us stories filled with gratuitous sex, violence, or profanity. A good test of the "gratuitous" criteria is how easily you can remove the offending passage, without interrupting the flow of the plotline or the development of the characters. In other words, if you can take it out, you probably should, because it doesn't need to be there. We're in the publishing business, and the First Amendment is as dear to our jaded little hearts as anyone's, but sex for the sake of sex, and gore for the sake of gore is not good writing. It's pandering, and we don't do that here.

We primarily want stories between 2,500 and 10,000 words. Short-shorts (stories less than 1,000 words) and flash fiction (under 500 words) are also acceptable. Stories within these guidelines may be sent without prior query, following the submission instructions below.

Multiple stories that together make up a series are more than welcome. We define a series as a sequence of self-contained stories, linked by a setting, character, or some other common thread. Stories in the series do not need to be read in any particular order, and each episode can be read and enjoyed as an independent story. The Tales of the Arabian Nights would be an example of a series of stories we would accept. Please submit a query first for any series, including a brief synopsis of the overall theme or common elements, and a listing of all stories/episodes currently written to editor@demensionszine.com. We will not consider any series that does not have at least three entries already written.

We will consider novelettes (up to 17,500 words) or short novellas (up to about 25,000 words) that can readily be serialized across multiple issues. Only completed novelettes or novellas will be considered for publication. Unpleasant experience has taught us this rule is an absolute necessity; don't bother sending us Chapter One, if you're still working on Chapter Two. Waiting around for a year or so between chapters frustrates our readers; frustrated readers make us grumpy; and grumpy editors are something best avoided. Trust us on this one.

Please submit a query first on all novelettes or novellas, including a plot synopsis and a chapter/episode outline, to editor@demensionszine.com. If we think there's a good fit, we'll ask for the manuscript.

Demensions is open to simultaneous submissions, but please note on the submission if it's also being considered elsewhere. We'll try to give you a decision on the story as quickly as possible; should we be the first to accept the story, we ask that you immediately withdraw the submission everywhere else.

Reprints are fine, provided the story hasn't appeared in print or on the Web within 6 months. We don't mind if a story is simply archived at another site—it just can't have run as a featured story in the last 6 months. Please provide the first publication information, including publication title, volume, issue, and site URL if applicable, on all reprints, so we may properly credit that publication.

Demensions is a small-press publication, which means we are not a paying market at this time. All contributors do, however, receive the satisfaction of knowing their work will be seen and appreciated by someone other than their mother. (Be sure to give her our URL, so she can pass it around to everyone she knows. Word of mouse is a webzine's best friend.) We will also gladly feature links to your commercial or personal website.

Submissions selected as an Editor's Choice (one story each issue) are eligible to become the Editors' Choice Story of the Year, as selected by our staff. The Story of the Year author will receive a prize of a minimum US $25 value, in a form to be determined each year. Potential prizes may include online gift certificates, free web hosting of your personal page on our servers, or cash, among others.

Each story includes a Reader Ratings box that allows the Demensions audience to rate the story on a scale of 1 to 5. Each ratings submission is, in effect, a 'vote', and at the end of the year, these 'votes' are added up. Editor's Choice selections receive a bonus of 5 points. The story with the highest aggregate point total on December 31st of each year will become the Readers' Choice Story of the Year, with a prize awarded to the author as described above. In the event of ties in aggregate totals, mean score will be used to break the tie. In the event of a tie in mean score, the Demensions publisher/editor will select from among the tied selections. An example of how the ratings 'votes' are added up follows:

Story A ratings: 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2 | Aggregate Score: 20 | Mean Score: 3.33
Story B ratings: 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1 | Aggregate Score: 20 | Mean Score: 2.5
Story C ratings: 5, 5, 5, 5 | Aggregate Score: 20 | Mean Score: 5.0

In this example, all stories have the same aggregate score, 20. Story C, with four perfect 5 ratings and a mean score of 5.0 will become the Readers' Choice Story of the Year.

You retain all rights to your work. We request that your story not appear in another web publication for a period of three months after its publication in Demensions; should a reprint be published elsewhere after that time, we ask that Demensions receive the proper first publication credits if applicable. We also request the right to maintain your story in our archives, until otherwise notified by you. Should you need to have a work removed from our archives for publication in another web-based venue, please provide a link where readers can access the story if at all possible. It looks better than an empty hole where your story once was.

All stories must be submitted electronically. Paper is such a remarkable substance that we feel strongly about conserving it, which is why paper submissions will be shredded and used to supplement the filler material in the Magical, Mystical Kitty Box. (Cody the Hut is a large kitty, and goes through considerable amounts of, er, 'filler.') Plus, electronic versions eliminate the need for our editors to re-type your submission. They type badly, and there's no telling what might happen to your beautifully polished prose.

All submissions must include the following information:

•Your real name

•Your name as you would like it to appear in the issue (no handles!)

•Your email address, and whether we may publish it for readers to send feedback

•Your web site address, if you have one

•Your story's title

•Approximate word count—the count your word processor gives you is fine for our purposes

•Genre—either sci-fi or fantasy

•Whether the story is a simultaneous submission or reprint, and any information pertinent to those situations

•The year the story was first written, for copyright purposes (If prior to the currrent year, we'll include both years in the copyright statement, like this: ©1998, 2002.)

All submissions must be in a plain text format. Microsoft Word in particular is a complete pain in the backside to paste into HTML editors, with the exception of Microsoft's own abysmal Front Page. Our Friendly Neighborhood Webmaster invents new curse words when he has to mark up documents saved in Word format, and we'd rather he used all that creativity on site design.

To save your documents as plain text, just click "Save As" and choose "Text Only With Line Breaks." The standard file extension for plain text documents is .txt. We can also accept documents in .rtf format, but plain text is preferred.

To indicate italics in your plain text document, please enclose the text to be italicized in double angle quotes, like this: «italicize this stuff.» Boldface should be used sparingly; but if it is necessary, please indicate boldface by enclosing the text in double parenthesis, like this: ((boldface this stuff.)) If you have any special formatting requirements, please indicate these in your cover letter or the 'Notes' section of the online submission form, and we'll work with you. One of the things we like best about online publication is the ability to use font attributes (size, color, stroke weight, etc.) to enhance the message of the text. We've simulated the text on a mainframe terminal, inserted hand-drawn Hebrew characters, and recreated newspaper articles in stories we've published. If you tried to do this stuff in print, you'd go broke, but we're geeks. We think of it as 'playing around.'

Because of the recent population explosion among evil geniuses and the resulting flood of viruses, we will no longer accept email attachments. We delete attachments without reading them; so if you want your story to be read, don't attach it. This leaves two options for submitting your plain text document:

Here's the process for submitting a story to Demensions:

1. Read these guidelines. Read them again.

2. Send your plain text submission to submit@demensionszine.com, either using our online submission form (preferred) or in the body of an email. You will receive a short confirmation email stating we have received your story if you've used the right address. Online submissions always have the right address. (Hint, hint.)

3. Wait. We make every effort to respond to submissions in a timely manner, but occasionally the inbox overflows and we get behind. Please keep in mind that everyone on the Demensions staff has what they call a 'day job,' and paying work will almost always win out over incredibly satisfying, but non-paying, work. If you haven't heard back from us within a month, query us. The cat probably ate your story and we don't even know it's missing. We will respond either way—accept or reject—to non-reprint submissions, unless you sent us an attachment. In that case, your email was zapped before we even saw it. To avoid this, don't send attachments. To guarantee we get your submission and keep it away from the cats use our online submission form. (Hint, hint, again.) We reserve the right to reject reprint submissions without reply; if the story's already been published somewhere before, we figure your ego can withstand the hit of not hearing back from us.

These are useful things to keep in mind wherever you may wish to submit, so take a moment to review them.

Read a few issues of the publication you are interested in, to get a feel for the kinds of stories they use. If your stories are very different in tone, style, genre, or length, consider looking elsewhere. All publications have their own style, and all editors have personal preferences. The closer your story matches up in those areas, the more likely it is to be published. There's very little point in submitting a bodice-ripping historical romance to a cyberpunk 'zine. Know your audience before you submit.

Read the publication's mission statement and submission guidelines. Then re-read them. Nothing will get your story thrown out faster than ignoring the published guidelines.

If formatting guidelines are provided, FOLLOW THEM! Most publications—including this one—will reject improperly formatted material without even reading it. If you're lucky, and the editorial staff at whatever publication you submitted to is feeling nice, you may get a polite rejection notice encouraging you to re-format and try again. You may also get a scathing reply making very uncomplimentary remarks about your intellectual capacity and ancestral background. In that case, take your lumps, and vow to follow the guidelines ever after. Editors take guidelines very seriously, and so should you.

Spell check your story at least twice: once using your word processor's software, and once by eyeball. Word processors don't catch things like using "their" when you should have used "there." If you can find someone else to do the eyeball spell check for you, that's even better. After you've looked at the same typo a few dozen times, you probably won't even see it any more.

If you don't own one of the standard style manuals, get one and use it. If you don't even know what a style manual is, think about picking up a basic creative writing class. Many community colleges offer non-credit classes like these at low or no cost. Some of the more commonly used style manuals are The Elements of Style by Strunk and White; The Chicago Manual of Style published by the University of Chicago Press, and The Associated Press Stylebook. For computer related terminology, most publications rely on the style developed by Wired magazine, which can be found in Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age by Hale, Scanlon, and Scanlon.

If the publication has word count limitations, find out what methodology they use to derive a count, use it to measure your story, and honor their limits. Don't submit a 10,000-word story to a market that only wants 5,000 words or fewer! By the way, most publications do not accept word processor counts, which are literal word counts and not a true representation of how much space a story will take up in print. There are many word count formulas, but a good starting point can be found on the SFWA website.

Yes, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure do so matter! If you think they don't, you'll amass an impressive collection of rejection slips. An editor's job is to make sure the story has continuity, and to catch minor errors you may have missed. It's not to completely re-write your unreadable mass of fragments and run-ons. After about the third or fourth fragment in a paragraph, the average editor's eyes glaze over and they stop reading. If you're like most of us and slept through 7th Grade English, consider picking up a good, basic grammar book. And read it. If your idea is important enough to write about, isn't it important enough to write about well?

If you're rejected, don't give up. If there are comments or suggestions in the rejection letter, consider them carefully. The editor took enough time to send something beyond a standard form letter, so you can take the time to learn something from it. If you neglected to follow a guideline, or cut corners in editing and polishing the piece before you sent it out, then use this as a motivation to do better next time. And if you did everything right, sent the best story you can write, followed all the rules, dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's and still got that rejection slip, try somewhere else. Maybe your story just didn't fit the mood they were after for that issue, or maybe they had more submissions than they could use that month, or maybe it just didn't tickle that editor's fancy. A good story will always find a home eventually, so keep sending it out until someone bites!