Submissions
Writers new to the world of publishing may find the following resources helpful: our Submission Tips for New Writers, our recent interview with Duotrope, and our editorials on titles, etiquette, and syntax.
Current Deadline: The deadline for our summer issue has passed, so we are currently closed to submissions. We will resume reading for our winter issue on August 15th after Conte 6.1 debuts in late July.
Submission Guidelines
Conte publishes narrative writing of the highest quality on a biannual basis. Writing that displays some degree of familiarity with our journal is likely to attract our attention, so make sure your work has a narrative bent.
In the interest of keeping Conte as fresh and relevant as possible, we will decline to consider previously published work; nor will we follow links to blogs or personal websites. However, we will accept simultaneous submissions, provided you state clearly in your cover letter that your work is under consideration elsewhere, and notify us immediately if it is accepted by another publication.
Feel free to mention previous publications in your cover letter (though an enumerated list of credits is not necessary), and to share how you heard about Conte. We read submissions year-round, and do our best to respond within three months. If for some reason we temporarily revise or suspend our reading period due to a backlog, we will make every effort to keep you informed.
Poetry: Submit up to three poems, each of 100 lines or less, in the body of an email to poetry@conteonline.net, with subject line "Poetry Submission:" followed by your name. A strong sense of voice, the poetic line, and the aural qualities of language are the easiest ways to grab our attention. We are strongly averse to rhyme schemes and attachments.
Prose: Submit one piece up to 8,000 words in length to prose@conteonline.net, with subject line "Prose Submission:" followed by the title of your piece. Rich Text (.rtf) attachments are preferred, but submissions within the body of an email are also acceptable. Please query us with an excerpt before submitting longer pieces. We publish short stories, chapter-length excerpts from novels and novel manuscripts, and pieces of creative nonfiction. We do not consider academic essays, but are open to travel writing, memoirs, and engaging journalism.
All authors published by Conte retain full and complete control over their works; we assert only the right to keep a copy of your published piece indefinitely within our issue archives. Although we make no claim other than the above, having a piece appear in Conte (or any online journal) will likely be viewed as a "first use" or relinquishing of "first electronic rights" by other publications, both print-based and online.
