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FAQS
What is Worldsmyths Publishing?
Worldsmyths Publishing is a non-profit organization with the charitable goal of helping new writers improve their craft and start on the path towards published authorhood. We are run by a team of four volunteers, who put many hours a week into keeping this community running.
Are you a vanity publisher?
Nope! Vanity publishers require YOU to pay THEM. Worldsmyths does NOT charge you a fee of any kind. Instead, we pay you!
How do you pay for publishing the anthologies?
Through crowdfunding and from the volunteer’s own pockets. We use Indiegogo to raise funds for each anthology, but any shortfalls are covered by our volunteers. This is why at this time we are only able to offer token pay. It is our goal to increase the amount we pay authors by the end of 2024.
How does serialization work?
Serialization is the publishing approach of delivering short chunks of story, similar to how stories used to be serialized in magazines. The stories are posted for free on sites such as Royal Road, Inkitt, and Medium, which funnel readers towards our Patreon and Ream pages, where they can get bonus content and advanced access to stories and anthologies. Once an anthology has run through serialization, we bundle the stories into anthologies for publication on Amazon.
How do we submit a story to an anthology?
You can submit to our anthologies through a Google form we’ll have created for that anthology. The link will be provided on our submissions page. If you have a hard time with the Google form, please e-mail us at publishing@worldsmyths.com for further instruction on how else to submit your story.
What kind of formatting do you require for submissions?
We follow standard MLA Chicago formatting — double spaced, Times New Roman/Verdana/Arial font, size 12. For further details of what we want, you can use the Shunn Guidelines linked here.
How does the submission process work?
Typically our submission periods are 3-4 months. As we receive submissions, we go through the stories behind the scenes and read the stories, creating a slush pile. By the end of the submission period, we send out our first round of rejection emails. If you did not receive a rejection email, it means we are either still reading through stories or your story has made it to our long list.
Once we’ve finished going through the stories, our team and our editor go through the stories and leave developmental comments. Once we’ve left these comments, we give authors a deadline to make their edits. This process repeats with each round of editing — developmental, line edits, and proofreading. Proofreading is mainly done by the editors, so authors are mainly responsible for making developmental and line edits.
My story has been accepted. Now what?
First, congratulations! The next steps are edits, as laid out in the above question. Once final edits (proofreading) are made,
Should you need to pull your story from the anthology due to life constraints (not being able to make edits), you are welcome to do so. You can DM us on Discord or send us an email at publishing@worldsmyths.com.
Do you have a sample contract for me to read?
Yes, you can view it here. This is a SAMPLE, meaning that it is not the most recent version of our contract.
Do you offer personalized feedback?
Yes, we do this on a case-by-case basis. If your story was rejected and you would like personalized feedback, you can e-mail us at publishing@worldsmyths.com. You are also welcome to join the Discord server and submit to our feedback central channel.
How dark/light can the stories be?
At Worldsmyths, we thrive on a wide variety of stories and content, but like to keep things balanced. We do not want children’s stories, nor do we want excessive violence or dark themes. Stories will be judged on a case by case basis.
Do you require cover letters?
Nope!
What can cause my story to be rejected?
While there are a number of reasons we will reject a submission (including, but not limited to: poor editing, incomplete story, the story contains content we don’t want to publish etc), we will reject a story, unread, if:
- The story is significantly under/over word count requirement
- The story does not fit the theme in any capacity
- The story is not in the speculative fiction genre
Is there a limit on how many stories can be submitted?
You are welcome to submit up to three stories for a single anthology.
If I use a pen name, do I still need to provide my real name?
Yes. This is for legal/contractual purposes. We will never share an author’s legal name without their express permission.
When do I receive payment?
Authors receive payment after their contracts have been filled out and signed.
Is fan fiction allowed?
No. All submissions need to be completely original works.
What are your hard sells?
Stories with sexual violence, excessive gore, needless angst.