Submission Guidelines

Aberrant Dreams is a serial publication bearing the electronic International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) number 1554-0081, and is published electronically to the World Wide Web. Aberrant Dreams accepts submissions of short fiction and poetry by the guidelines below.

Publication Schedule
Aberrant Dreams has restructured its publication schedule in order to streamline operations. Beginning in March 2010, we will be publishing one story and one poem per month to regain a structured release schedule. This will naturally produce a low acceptance rate, but we consider all submissions (beginning author or not) equally. Good luck to all those submitting!

Short Fiction Submissions
Aberrant Dreams accepts short fiction submissions of the fantasy, science fiction and supernatural horror genres.  We look for stories with a solid plot and good character development.  Stories should grab the reader’s attention quickly.  Stories should be original and not a rehash of tired old themes.  If you do draw from an old theme, add a twist to make it unique. Detail for submission can be found at the bottom of the page.

Due to the number of submissions, we cannot guarantee that any comments will be made on submissions made to us. Please be aware.

Format 
Please submit a cover letter with your story. A space is provided for this on the submission form (See "How to Submit" below).  Simply tell us what other stories you’ve had published, if any, and your contact information (in case of any problems with the website notifications).  Also, please include your name as you would like it credited to your story if it is accepted.  Stories should be composed in Courier New size 10 or 12 font and saved as .doc or .rtf.   Stories should be less than 10,000 words in length.  Also, your manuscript should follow standardized format.  For an example of a standard manuscript format, visit www.sfwa.org.  We do accept multiple submissions (more than one submission sent to us), but please try to keep this within reason (no more than two at any one time, each of which should be submitted individually). We do not accept simultaneous submissions (same submission sent to multiple markets at the same time).

Rights Purchased 
We at Aberrant Dreams purchase non-exclusive Electronic Rights for publication in the English language on the World Wide Web.  For previously published Work, we purchase non-exclusive Electronic Rights for publication in the English language on the World Wide Web.

What this means in laymen’s terms is upon story acceptance, we purchase the rights to place the story on our website, and to retain it in our archives until such a time that you, the author asks us to remove it.

Payment 
Aberrant Dreams pays 3 cents per word up to a maximum of $100.00 per accepted story submission. 

Poetry Submissions
At last, Aberrant Dreams is re-openning to poetry submissions.  At current, poetry will be a web-only feature of the magazine. Aberrant Dreams is looking for well crafted speculative poetry--all kinds (sci-fi, fantasy, and horror). While we like free verse poetry, if your poem has a strong rhyme and meter pattern, it will have a much better chance of acceptance. Detail for submission can be found at the bottom of the page.

Due to the number of submissions, we cannot guarantee that any comments will be made on submissions made to us. Please be aware.

Format 
Please submit a cover letter with your story. A space is provided for this on the submission form (See "How to Submit" below).  Simply tell us what other poems you’ve had published, if any, and your contact information.  Also, please include your name as you would like it credited to your poem if it is accepted.  Also, your manuscript should follow standardized format--poems should be composed in single spaced Courier New size 10 or 12 font and saved as .doc or .rtf.   Poems should be no more than 50 lines in length. Also, make sure to include your contact information. We do accept multiple submissions (more than one submission sent to us), but please try to keep this within reason (no more than two at any one time). We do not accept simultaneous submissions (same submission sent to multiple markets at the same time).

Rights Purchased 
We at Aberrant Dreams purchase non-exclusive Electronic Rights for publication in the English language on the World Wide Web.  For previously published Work, we purchase non-exclusive Electronic Rights for publication in the English language on the World Wide Web.

What this means in laymen’s terms is upon poem acceptance, we purchase the rights to place the poem on our website, and to retain it in our archives until such a time that you, the author asks us to remove it.

Payment 
Aberrant Dreams pays $1 dollar per line up to a maximum of $50.00 per accepted poem submission. 

How to Submit
In an effort to streamline the submission process, we've revamped the submission process. To submit a story or poem to Aberrant Dreams please do the following

Step 1: Register an account by clicking "Create new account" (for new users) or "Log in" (for current users) at the top left of the web page.

Step 2: After logging in, in the menu that appears on the left under the "Create content" link, select the "Submission" link to open a form for submitting stories or poems.

Step 3: Fill out the submission form as directed and attach the story or poem in either .doc or .rtf format.

Step 4: At the bottom of the page, click the "Preview" button to preview the submission (if you wish) and finally click the "Save" button to submit the story or poem for review.

Status Updates
At any time after submission you can review the status of said submission by going to "My account" in the left hand menu and selecting "Submission Status"

This will show the current status of the submission under the "Submission Status" Column.

Of course, if there are any questions, feel free to use the Contact Us page.

In the past, due to the number of submissions and the inefficient form of author notification, Aberrant Dreams has struggled to maintain the stated response times. The procedure above has been developed to help remedy the poor response time. Once a story or poem is submitted, you, the author, can check on the status at any time, and notification problems should then be a relatively moot point.

Note: Currently, email notification of story status updates is not functional. Please be aware that as it stands, this information can only be obtained by reviewing the status under the "My Account" section as indicated above. Of course, if your story is accepted, an independent email will be sent to inform you of the acceptance and will include a contract and various other data.