Aw, jeepers-rats, it's always something...
In March, our AHOY website briefly crashed. Poof. Kablooey.
Only weeks later did we realize the full extent of the loss:
We believe a month's worth of short story/humor submissions disappeared into the ether.
If you submitted a story and have failed to hear from us - first, our apologies. But we have no way of accessing your story or even knowing how many of them vanished in the crash.
In the meantime, please consider our Official Ahoy Short Fiction Submission Guidelines
At Ahoy, we believe our sacred duty is to find new voices and let them scream at the world. Thus, each Ahoy Comics magazine will include at least one piece of short fiction or social commentary. We seek smart, weird, funny articles or stories, which run between 500 and 1,500 words.
Mostly, we want short fiction for mature readers, pieces that uphold the story-telling legacy of comics. It could be a delirious rant, a personal anecdote, a tale of horror or even poetry. It can be about anything, but we have a soft spot for submissions with a dash of humor.
These stories can be political, but they must not be based on events that might be outdated by the time we publish. Whatever the subject, it must still be relevant a year from now. Also, the 1,500-word maximum is pretty much carved into stone. We don’t plan to go above that limit. Our ideal length is about 654.53 words, give or take.
We will pay $200 per story. Writers will retain full rights to their works. We will maintain the right to publish on this site and to reprint the story in a trade compilation or anthology. If we decide to reprint it, we will pay another 25 percent of the original fee.
We believe this is an opportunity for serious writers to reach the most voracious readers of fiction on this planet: the clear-eyed souls who buy comics. We will do our best to promote our writers and their works.
For short stoy submissions, we don’t suggest pitches. Good grief, these are short stories. We ask writers to upload their work through the porthole below. It will take probably six weeks for us to reply - at times, we've been buried by submissions - but we will get back to you.
We want to build a reputation for quality writing, and for treating our contributors respectfully, the way we’d want to be treated. If you don’t hear from us in, say, seven weeks, something may have slipped between the cracks. Please feel free to send us a reminder. We won't secretly hold it against you (as other publishers do.)
