Guidelines

Kaleidotrope is currently closed to all submissions.

Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. (Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all.) It does not publish nonfiction.

We’d suggest looking through the archives to familiarize yourself with the zine, and/or checking out other work by our past contributors, to get a sense of what we’re looking for and what we like.

We are also interested in publishing diverse writers. Kaleidotrope welcome writers of color and other groups, as well as work that represents the diversity of characters we want to see more of.
Reading Periods Kaleidotrope will be re-open to fiction and poetry submissions in 2026..

The zine will re-open to artwork submissions later in 2025.
Word Count We have no minimum or maximum word count for fiction but strongly prefer stories over 250 words and under 10,000.

We consider all forms of poetry, but individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell.
Payment For fiction, we pay $0.01/word (1 cent a word) USD. For poetry, we offer a flat rate of $5 USD per accepted piece. For artwork, we offer a flat rate of $60 for cover art.
Rights For fiction and poetry, we buy First Serial Rights. This means that the work will not have appeared anywhere else, in print or online, prior to publication. For artwork, we buy Digital Reprint Rights.

Work published with Kaleidotrope will remain in our archives as part of the issue in which it first appeared, but all rights will revert to the author upon publication. With the exception of artwork, we ask only that you wait three months from publication to reprint the work elsewhere.
Submission Format Kaleidotrope only accepts electronic submissions, sent by e-mail attachment to kaleidotrope@gmail.com. (.doc/.docx or .rtf file format strongly preferred. Please do not send submissions by Google Docs, Apple Pages, or other cloud-based shared drives.) You may, if you prefer, paste the text of your submission into the body of the e-mail itself — although this is less advisable for longer pieces. In your e-mail subject heading, please indicate if the work you’re sending is Fiction, Poetry, or Artwork.

It is strongly recommended that you generally follow standard manuscript format for all manuscripts. Kaleidotrope prefers Courier 12pt font and double-spacing, but Times New Roman or other similar fonts are fine. Your submission won’t be disqualified for using different fonts, but this does make our job easier. Please include your name (and byline if different), email contact, story title, and word count. You do not need to include a mailing address or phone number on your submission. However, a brief cover letter in your email, including the country you’re writing from, is also welcomed.
Simultaneous Submissions
& Response Times		 We understand why writers hate to hear this, but Kaleidotrope currently does not accept simultaneous submissions—by which we mean work that is being considered at the same time by other markets. In exchange for agreeing not to submit the same work to other venues simultaneously, we promise to respond to submissions as quickly as humanly possible. This usually means a couple of days, rarely more than that. Please query if you have not heard anything a week after the end of an individual one-month reading period.
Multiple Submissions
& Waiting Periods		 Kaleidotrope is only open to submissions for a very short window at a time, so we do accept multiple submissions. If you submit multiple works of fiction, please send each one by individual email. Poetry and artwork submissions can be combined in a single email or sent individually.

If you submit something within the reading period and receive a response (either acceptance or rejection), you do not need to wait to submit, as long as the reading period is still open.
Artwork We are looking for primarily full-color illustrations to serve as cover art. We currently do not commission new cover artwork or pieces to appear with individual stories and poems. The best way to submit artwork is to email a link to your online portfolio or gallery, though you may also send individual pieces for consideration.
Reprints Kaleidotrope does not consider fiction or poetry reprints. This includes work that has appeared on your personal website, on a public video channel or podcast, or in public online forums. (We may consider work that has appeared in private, password-protected forums.) This includes work that has previously appeared in other formats, such as audio or video. This also includes work already scheduled to appear elsewhere and extracts of larger forthcoming works. This is regardless of whether or not you have been paid for the work, and regardless of whether you have contracted with a publisher, self-published, or made copies of the work available online.

We do, however, consider artwork that has appeared in online galleries or elsewhere, provided you own the copyright to the piece and any characters depicted therein. (Sorry, no fan-art.)
Fan Fiction Kaleidotrope does not accept fan fiction.
Copyediting If your story or poem is accepted by Kaleidotrope, you will receive recommended copyedits prior to publication. These are typically minor edits for clarity and spelling correction, though for consistency, Kaleidotrope does impose US spellings on most words, as well as some other small house-style quirks. No changes will be made to your manuscript except in consultation with you.
AI Kaleidotrope will not consider any work created, developed, or assisted with the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or DALL·E. Attempting to submit these works may result in being banned from submitting works in the future.

Please always feel free to query if anything in these guidelines is unclear.