Submission Guidelines

If you are reading this, then you must be wondering how you might contribute to MindFlights and, if you do, what you might expect for your effort. Please read these guidelines carefully and completely to avoid inappropriate submissions. Please adhere to our submission process and formatting instructions.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS BY POSTAL MAIL. We only accept submissions as described in the submission process.

Show Complete Guidelines on Single Page

Vision

All flights have a destination. Mindflights' journeys are speculative, and our ultimate destination is truth.

We believe some truths are universal. Some truths are there for all persons to find through observation and pondering, with inquiry or with introspection, with stillness or with debate. Other truths must be sought, hunted, and they are more difficult to capture. Both can inspire stories and poems.

Here at MindFlights, many of us believe the ultimate truth resides in the person of Jesus Christ, who as Savior embraces us with eternal life, and as Lord asks that we give ourselves over to service, to love, to purity, and to a greater purpose. Our faith is a thing that asks us to fly beyond earth and take others with us as we journey upwards. As such, we will actively seek and happily offer stories and poems that display this world view, whether overtly or subtly or someplace in between.

But we are not isolationists. We don't bar the door to the skeptic, or the seeker who hasn't found, or the one who has an allegiance to a different set of doctrines. Our faith says the door should be open for all who want to befriend us. Hospitality is an early and enduring virtue in Christendom. Therefore, we want to offer broader visions of truth. While contributors need not be Christian, familiarity with compatible values will increase the likelihood that your submission will fit.

We do not shy away from obviously Christian or moral themes, ideas, or language. We do not, however, want to be preached at. We don't seek to publish works that appear to function mainly as a Sunday School lesson or modified sermon. We are not averse to Bible verses and gospel imagery in stories, but by no means do we expect every story to include such. We are put off by the beating drum of a moral point that drowns out the beauty and artistry of a work. Telling a great story well and effectively developing a strong theme that is congruent with Christian principles and traditional values is the best assurance of earning the editors' approval.

Our stargazing, soulskimming vessels here at MindFlights have room for those who do not hold to Christian doctrines. As long as what is submitted to us doesn't offend or mock or contradict Christian principles, we will happily consider your artistic visions. You don't have to mention God or Christ or the Bible. We believe all truth speaks of God silently, and that suffices to light a candle in the dark.

What we want to offer is a space where both those who call themselves Christians and those who do not can journey to new worlds grounded in shared ideals. We believe there is a better way for humans to interact, to care, to nurture, to live, to build communities, to resist foes, and to create great things. We don't ask you to share our religion; we merely ask that you respect it.

We are ecumenical in nature, and though grounded in Christian principles and traditional values, we do not set out to promote the practices or beliefs of any particular denomination. Within our pages, readers will find, besides works with specific Christian content, works that honor the values and tenets of a wide variety of faith traditions.

Whether you are of the faith or not, we invite you to share our excitement at exploring new speculative worlds while holding up common truths.

What common truths?

It is better to hope than despair.
It is better to build than destroy.
It is better to love than to hate.
It is better to care than to be indifferent.
It is better to share than to hoard.
It is better to illuminate than to darken.
It is better to honor life than to exploit it.
It is better to raise someone's head than knock it down.
It is better to dream and grow than to lie vacant and enervated.
It is better to strive than to wallow.
It is better to heal than harm.
It is better to try to understand than to hold onto prejudices.
It is better to add joy to the cosmos than to add lamentations.
It is better to be faithful and honest than to be disloyal and false.
It is better to look up and search our hearts and souls and the universe for answers and for meaning and for what endures, than to be satisfied with what is fleeting and pointless, because we are more than molecules. We are dreamers of astounding dreams.

If you yearn for something finer and higher and deeper and full of awe, then we hope your minds can come and soar with ours.

We aim to be a light in the darkness, a speculative city of faith on an internet hill, offering stories and poems that speak to your spirit and thrill your mind and dance into your heart. We want God to be pleased with everything we do and all that we publish. And we yearn for your prayers and support, spiritual and material. Come, engage in discussion with us. Create wonder with us.

Mindflights is ready to take off to magical lands, far galaxies, and the vast interior spaces where men and women find out what they are made of--and perhaps why they were thusly made. Where we learn what it is to be human and, now and then, more than human.

Destinations: beauty and wonder and truth.

Genres

MindFlights is a magazine for fans of fantasy and science fiction. What you submit to us must be speculative. It can't just be flavored with the speculative. There must be a real speculative element at its core, the big "What if?" that takes us out of the real world and into the astonishing one of imagination. Any speculative subgenre is welcome--space opera, steampunk, urban fantasy, high fantasy, fable, fairy tale, historical fantasy, sword and sorcery, hard science fiction, magical realism, etc-- as long as it offers us something vivid, fresh, and well-crafted, and as long as it is compatible with Christian principles and traditional values.

Reprints and Posts to Internet Blogs and Boards

We do consider reprints.

For the many student and new authors, it is important to keep in mind that stories and poems posted on blogs and discussion boards have been published. If it is available on the Internet to the general audience, it is published and must be submitted as a reprint.

POSTS TO CRITIQUE GROUPS ARE NOT CONSIDERED PUBLISHED if a password and special group membership are required to read the item. Likewise, inclusion in symposium or workshop collections with limited distribution is not considered published. However, if the item is easily available to the world at large, it is published.

Multiple Submissions

While we do accept multiple submissions (more than one submission from the same author at the same time), we ask you to keep in mind that multiple submissions forces your articles, stories, illustrations, or poems to compete against each other. This is often a disservice to the weaker of the works (especially fiction and poetry)--we will pick the better and decline your invitation to use the other in many cases. However, please submit each work separately.  Please do not put multiple poems or stories in one submission.

If you have doubts about which of your two best works will meet our needs or fit our taste, send them both. If neither fit, try your best work that is compatible with the feedback you received from the first round.

There is no reason to ever send more than three works of the same type (fiction, poem, illustration, nonfiction) at the same time. If you are unsure about our taste, post a question on our forums.

Simultaneous Submissions

No simultaneous submissions. If we accept your submission, we expect to be able to publish it. If you have submitted to more than one publication and are accepted in more than one place, then what? If you have submitted elsewhere, wait for a response before submitting here.

Message to New and Student Contributors

MindFlights welcomes quality submissions from authors, regardless of publication history. However, we are not the place to try to launch your first draft just to get some feedback. Don't expect tired old tropes of fantasy or science fiction to get our approval. Rubbish doesn't make lift off. Polish your work. Give us something beautiful and powerful that will leave a glorious trail in the sky.

Publication Format and Rights Acquired

MindFlights, is an online and print publication, so upon acceptance of a work we will ask for rights for either print, the web, or both. We obtain:

• Non-exclusive Electronic Publication Rights, for publication in the English language (Internet format)
• Non-exclusive Print Publication Rights, for publication in the English language (Print format)

We ask that accepted works be available exclusively to MindFlights until we have published it. This means that once accepted, we expect authors to refrain from allowing publication anywhere else until it has appeared in MindFlights.

Not all works accepted for online version will appear in the quarterly print edition. Only about a third of the works accepted for MindFlights will appear in our print edition. Most will appear online only.

Word Lengths Considered

We have no word length requirements. However, we prefer that submissions be appropriate for both of our formats—web and print. Therefore, the tendencies of Internet readers to prefer short works must be considered. Brief is best. Make every word count without being boring.

For fiction we are looking for short stories. Submissions over 5000 words are considered long. Submissions over 7000 words are considered VERY long. Longer stories must be of exceptional quality.

Payment

MindFlights pays 1/2 cent (US) per word with a minimum of $5.00 and a maximum of $25.00. Authors and artists whose works appear in the print version will also receive one contributor copy. Illustrations are compensated with a $10.00 gratuity payment.

Show Complete Guidelines on Single Page

Submit to MindFlights Now - Click Here