HOW WE ROLL: We’re purely digital. We loved paper books and magazines as kids, but it’s time to grow up. In the future, there won’t be any paper except in antique stores.

WHAT WE DON’T WANT: Near-fiction future, dystopias, and far-right propaganda. If your story’s theme is critical of human reason, agency and dignity and is cynical about humanity’s future, then you’re looking at the wrong magazine. Stories written by, in part or in whole, by AI also will be rejected. Slipstream stories and flash fiction will be difficult sells.

WHAT WE PREFER: Stories set in humanity’s spacefaring future. Stories hardly need to be set aboard a spaceship, but those solely set in humanity’s past or the very near future probably won’t fit the magazine’s theme – tales told by patrons at a café in a star system several light years from here. Of course, there are clever ways to get your spaceman/spacewoman/alien to our past or our very near future, so if you can pull that off, send it.

Beyond that, we are open to virtually any subgenre of science fiction. However, we do have a preference for well-plotted stories with a novum, that develop a character, and that comment on the human condition without being preachy. We won’t necessarily reject a story because it’s missing one of these elements, but you do increase the chances of it being accepted if you deftly include each of these aspects in your story. Bonus points if your story embraces humanist values and envisions a hopeful future … though again, this isn’t necessary.

For nonfiction, we are interested in reviews of classic and new SF releases (not fantasy or horror, though), writing tips, tips on writing science fiction specifically, tips on worldbuilding, and SF prompts.

WORD COUNTS: For short stories, minimum of 1,500 words is preferred to maximum of 8000 words. We’re willing to consider novellas and serialized novels, but the latter must be fully written at the time of submission – and we do prefer short stories over novellas and novels. For nonfiction, articles should be between 800 to 2000 words.

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: Turnaround times here may be horrendous, so we have no qualms with you shopping your story or article around while waiting for us. However, once your story is sold to another market, please withdraw it from our consideration – and should you be accepted for publication here, we ask that you withdraw your story from other magazines’ consideration.

MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: Send one story at a time, please.

REPRINTS: We are not interested in reprints from other magazines that are still in print but will consider excerpts from self-published novellas, novels and anthologies. These excerpts must be self-contained short stories, however.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT: Times Roman or an equivalent font, 12 pt., with 1.15 spacing. Leave off the page numbers and leave the footer and header blank. Use block form and leave the right margin ragged (i.e. “align left”) instead of justified. Rather than the traditional # to indicate a scene break, use three centered asterisks. If mean for a word to be italicized, just italicize it. Get rid of your ALL CAPS in the text. We like smart rather than straight quotes. Place your name, email and word count at the top of the first page like you would in a traditional manuscript, and be sure to include the story’s title with your name above the story’s opening line. See example here (Sample is coming!).

EDITING: We expect that you’ve taken care of the spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar. We will correct typos when we notice them, but if doing so begins cutting into our time to produce the magazine, we’ll probably pass over your manuscript for another. A side note that while we’re produced in the United States, we’re okay running a mix of English language styles, meaning if you’re British, Australian, or a non-native English speaker who grew up learning Oxford English, you don’t need to convert your story to the Chicago Manual of Style. Let us know why you didn’t use American English, however!

RIGHTS: We do first serial rights. First serial rights grant us the exclusive right to publish a piece of writing (story or article) for the first time in a specific region — in our case, North America (FNASR)— before it appears elsewhere. After the initial publication, all rights revert to the author.

ARTWORK: We’re looking for artwork that can be placed alongside the stories we publish. Your art should be a jpeg in 300 dpi, at least 200 KB but no more than 500 KB in size. Color is preferred, but we’ll take a look at quality grayscale art. No AI art accepted.

COVER LETTERS: Keep it simple because we read your story or look at your artwork first, and then if we like it will check out your cover letter. Tell us your name, the title of your story/artwork, and give us a brief (no more than 50 words) bio that tells us what you do for a living and listing any previously published stories/artwork or awards for your stories/artwork.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR STORY OR ARTWORK: Email your story as an Microsoft Word document (doc or docx) or your artwork as a jpeg to: starfarerscafe@gmail.com

PAYMENT: At this time, we are not able to pay writers or artists. Consider us a good place to introduce yourself to the galaxy (er, world) and to build your audience.