Guidelines

Updated 2/27/2017 — please note, no longer accepting flash fiction

Religion is personal and societal; it changes single souls and entire worlds. The ways of God are not always easy or explainable. The way faith tells us to go is not always the way we expected. At Third Order Magazine, we’re interested in exploring those dynamics. We’re less DaVinci Code and more Flannery O’Connor — with, of course, the occasional extraterrestrial.

We plan to publish, on a sometimes regular and sometimes sporadic basis, science fiction and fantasy short fiction that deals with faith and religion. We aim to post every month, but may post more or less than that depending on the kind of stories that are submitted. We are looking for stories that are well-written and literary, and that take these ideas seriously. Any religion is fair game, from those who worship down your street, to those who worship on the other side of the globe, and to those alien faiths that you’ve just dreamed up. We ask that you do your research, that you look below the surface, that you grapple with these issues and treat them with respect. Be adventurous. Be a seeker. Inspire, question, think. Remember: at the heart of every faith is the person, and the person’s dreams and hopes and questions about the world. 

We are not here for fiction that is anti-religion or for purely inspirational literature like sermons and homilies. Aim your keyboard for that grey area, where all of us live.

Payment and Rights

Third Order pays $25 per story and publishes one story whenever we find something to publish. Published authors are interviewed on Sacred Earthlings and the themes from their story are revisited on that blog. Stories must be between 1500-7000 words. No flash fiction. If you think you have something that is perfect but it’s flash, query first.

Currently: We purchase first rights for electronic & digital media. No reprints.

(IMPORTANT: Because we take first electronic & digital rights, please keep in mind that after your work is published here it will be a reprint elsewhere, and generally reprints go for less than first rights on the market. Third Order is awesome, but we’re not yet a pro-paying market, even though we hope to be someday. It is up to you, the author, to decide that Third Order is the right place for your story and your first print rights. We certainly hope it is.)

Submitting signs you up to the Third Order mailing list, so you can find out about all the cool stories we’re publishing. We certainly hope you stay, but you may also unsubscribe.

How to Submit

Send a .doc or .rtf file in standard manuscript format. Use this link if you are unfamiliar with how to do this. If I cannot open your file, your story will be rejected outright.

Multiple submissions are allowed up to 5 (please use a different subject line and e-mail for every submission). Simultaneous submissions are allowed. If I don’t read your story before you sell it to another market, that’s my problem, not yours.

No reprints yet.

Send an e-mail to submissions at thirdorder dot org with your submission in the attachment. Title the e-mail SUB: “Your Title” by Your Name. This is very important; I am BURIED in spam, my spam filter doesn’t catch it all, and if you do not title your e-mail “SUB:” I may never see it.

Response Time

(2/27/2017: within the month). Response time is ASAP, and has ranged between one hour and nine months. Response time depends completely on how big the slush pile is, as there are no slush or first readers at Third Order and I read everything myself. I often post how long I’m taking at the twitter @karenthology.

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photo credit: Gutenberg moveable type via photopin (license)