Submission Guidelines
- Merganser Magazine publishes short fiction, non-fiction, and poetry pieces up to 2,000 words in length.
- Standard formats (e.g. standard manuscript format) are preferred, but not strictly required.
- Up to 5 poems can be submitted in a single file. Please do not submit more than 5 poems per submission.
- We allow multiple submissions, but please do not submit more than 2-3 submission files at once. This ensures your work gets a fair reading. If you submit an excessive number of submissions at once (e.g. 10 submissions), it becomes difficult for us to give fair attention to both your work and the work of others.
- No hard editorial guidelines. We're eager to find strong, well-written pieces across a wide range of material. That said, our business model prioritizes shorter works, as well as those which are suitable for online reading (avoid long paragraphs). We have a hard word limit of 2,000 words per submission. This applies to fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
- We allow simultaneous submissions. Email editor@mergansermagazine as soon as possible if your submission is accepted elsewhere.
- No reprints.
- For prose, we pay the SFWA pro rate of $0.08 USD per word. For poetry, we pay $1 USD per line.
- We aim to respond to all submissions within 1-2 months of submission. If you have not heard from us after 1 month, please feel free to reach out to editor@mergansermagazine for an update.
- Works translated, written, or developed by AI tools are strictly not allowed.
- If your submission has been accepted, please wait 6 months before submitting again. This will ensure your next submission receives full consideration.
- To increase chances of acceptance, read the magazine! You will see what has been accepted before. Typically, we publish what we feel were the most well-written and most creative pieces we received.
- If you made a submission previously over email, using our old submission process, that is still valid. Going forward, however, please submit using this form.
- For support, reach out to editor@mergansermagazine.com.