Submission Guidelines

Spark provides flash fiction romance and romance sub-genre stories under 1,000 words. We want stories that will grab the reader and put a lil’ spark in their day. Sadly, there’s no quicker way to get your masterpiece rejected than to ignore our submission guidelines. So please read through the following information before sending us your story.

Your Story

  • Your well-edited story should be between 700 and 1,000 words long.
  • We accept stories that fit the following genres: contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, rom-com, and fantasy/sci-fi romance. YA in these genres is also accepted.

WE DO NOT PUBLISH:

  • Previously published flash fiction.
  • Scenes/excerpts/synopses from novels (however, you can use existing characters from your own novels).
  • Excessive violence, profanity, or erotica in any form. Use a PG-13 movie rating as a guide.
  • Conversely, we don’t want thinly veiled stories that preach from a soapbox of any sort, whether political, religious, or otherwise.

FLASH FICTION SAMPLE STORIES: We encourage you to peruse our previously published issues so you can get a feel for the type of well-written flash fiction we typically publish.

Submission Process

  • We only accept submissions when the submission window is open. (See Upcoming Themes for submission periods.)
  • We only accept submissions within our accepted genres (contemporary & historical romance, romantic suspense, rom-com, fantasy/sci-fi, YA in these genres).
  • We only accept submissions through our Submission Form with attached MS Word docs (.doc or .docx file extensions).
  • Review our Manuscript Formatting Guidelines carefully for instructions on how to format your story.
  • Fill out our Submission Form completely and attach your properly formatted story.

Acquisitions/Rejections

Stories that are accepted for each issue will be notified by email after the submission period has ended.

IMPORTANT: Add sparkflashfiction@gmail.com to your allowed senders list, or our reply may go to your junk/spam email folder.

NOTE: Due to the volume of submissions, we are unable to respond to each submission. Rejection emails will NOT be sent. Only those stories which are chosen for an issue will receive an acquisition email.

Fees & Payments

There is usually no fee to submit your stories to Spark. This changes for contest issues, for which there will be a small entry fee ($5).

At this time, we do not pay authors when we acquire a story for an issue, but we provide social media exposure, a publishing credit for your portfolio, and sometimes a gift card for winning a contest or a “Reader’s Choice” vote per issue.

Before You Submit

Double check to make sure you’re fulfilling all guidelines and that your story is formatted correctly. If not, you will need to resubmit it properly before it will be considered for publication.

See our Upcoming Themes page for submission open periods, deadlines, and themes for each issue.

Please contact us with any questions.

Submission Form

Thanks for your interest in Spark. Happy writing!