Submissions

Submission guidelines for fiction and non-fiction, and artwork are found here. Please remember that our two online fiction 'zines, Scheherezade's Bequest and Demeter's Spicebox, each have their own guidelines, and that non-fiction is published as a general offering from Cabinet des Fées.

What We Like

Read Scheherezade’s Bequest to see examples of the kind of fiction and poetry we like. Helen’s Spells of Enchantment: The Fairy Tale Cycle is an excellent essay on why fairy tales are important. If you are unclear on what a fairy tale is, Heidi Anne Heiner’s Answering What is a Fairy Tale? is a good place to start. We also suggest Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts for an extensive look at the various tale types.

Because we read hundreds of variants of the same stories during each reading period, old favorites such as Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel are going to be a hard sell.

What We Need

If you are an author, publisher or editor and have a title you’d like us to review, or if you are a blogger and would like to contribute to the site, please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

Cabinet des Fées is always looking for non-fiction articles and essays, first readers, bloggers and anyone interested in fairy tales to join us either as volunteer staff or as one-time contributors to the site.

Artwork:

We welcome artists whose work is inspired or influenced by fairy tales and folklore to submit work for use as covers for Scheherezade’s Bequest. We are especially interested in artists who are happy to talk with us about their work, be that in the form of an interview, essay or informal conversation. We cannot offer payment for artwork we use on the site; we accept this work as a donation only. Please use the contact form to send us your initial query.

Non-fiction:

We are always seeking works of non-fiction for inclusion on Cabinet des Fées, including articles, essays and reviews concerning fairy and folk tales, folklore and myth. We cannot offer payment for non-fiction; we accept this work as a donation only. Please use the contact form to send us your initial query.

Demeter’s Spicebox:

Demeter’s Spicebox is edited by Nin Harris, with Erzebet YellowBoy advising.

Demeter’s Spicebox has its own guidelines. They can be found here.

Scheherezade’s Bequest:

Scheherezade’s Bequest is edited by Erzebet YellowBoy, Donna Quattrone, and Virginia M. Mohlere.

We welcome stories and poems from all genres: fantasy, science fiction, horror, dark fantasy, mystery, steampunk, romance, westerns and even literary. The only thing we ask is no gore and no gratuitous violence. We also request that you do not send us more than one version of your story or poem. You, the author, decide which version is the final, polished story/poem. If we feel your story/poem requires revision, we will request it.

Scheherezade’s Bequest is currently closed to submissions.

Scheherezade’s Bequest accepts submissions only through our online system:

http://www.cabinetdesfees.com/esubs

We accept .doc and .rtf formats. Please be sure to include your name, address, a brief biography and your PayPal address in your cover letter. If you would prefer payment by check drawn on a US bank, please let us know.

READING PERIOD: We are currently closed to submissions. We will reopen on 1 March, 2012.

SUBMISSIONS: We do not accept multiple submissions, simultaneous submissions or reprints. This means one poem per submission. Send us your best. If we want to see more, we will request it.

FORMATTING: For fiction submissions, we strongly suggest you use proper manuscript formatting, with the exception that in our case, the point to a word count is that we immediately have an idea of how or short your story is. For poetry submissions, please use single spaced lines with an asterisk or hash symbol to indicate breaks. Improper formatting will make us less likely to consider your work.

MAX LINE/ WORD COUNT: There is no maximum line count for poetry. The maximum word count for prose is 4K. This is firm.

PAYMENT: $5.00 (USD) per poem, $.01 (USD) per word for prose. We use PayPal to pay authors, but will send a check drawn on a US bank if necessary. Payment is sent during the month prior to or of publication.

RIGHTS: First World Rights, for exclusive publication in the English language, for a period limited to three months from first publication. We also ask for the right to permanently archive your work on the site.

Our response time is usually two to four weeks. If you have not heard from us after four weeks, please do send us a query (see below).

Should you need to contact us for any reason, please use the contact form on this website. Put “SB” in your subject line to prioritise your query if it concerns your submission.

Image by Kuniyoshi Utagawa, The Dragon Princess, 1845.