5 Literary Journals Looking for Speculative Novelettes

If you’ve written a science fiction or fantasy story that turned out to be longer than you intended, don’t worry! There’s definitely a market for those. Well-respected speculative literary journals look for long short stories, or novelettes, and even novellas. I’ve created a list of several of them below.

Of course, each journal has different guidelines, and they might have different rules regarding word count. To clarify, word count for novelettes is between 7,500 and 20,000 words. Anything longer because novella and novel territory. Just be sure to adhere to the guidelines before submitting!

Clarkesworld Magazine

Clarksworld is probably one of the most well-known lit journals on this list. They usually look for short fiction, audio fiction, interviews, and articles, but they also look for art and nonfiction. For fiction, they look for science fiction and fantasy, including dark fantasy, but no horror. They look for works between 1,000 and 22,000 words, so you can send in anything from flash to a novelette. They pay $0.22 per word as well, making them pro-rate, though one of the hardest journals to get published in.

You can find more information here.

Asimov’s Science Fiction

This literary magazine, named after sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, almost exclusively looks for stories between 7,500 and 20,000 words, making it perfect for novelettes. According to their website, “Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine is an established market for science fiction stories. Asimov’s pays 8-10 cents per word for short stories up to 7,500 words, and 8 cents for each word over 7,500. We seldom buy stories shorter than 1,000 words or longer than 20,000 words, and we don’t serialize novels.”

Find their full guidelines through this link.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

They look for “literary adventure fantasy” with a secondary world. Don’t worry, they have a ton of information in their guidelines that detail what exactly they’re looking for when they say this. They also go into detail about what other genres they might take. This journal accepts work of up to 15,000 words, making it the perfect novelette length, and they pay the pro rate of eight cents a word. They don’t want excerpts of novels, serials, or reprints.

You can find more info about how to submit and what to expect here.

Strange Horizons

This magazine looks for speculative fiction, which could mean sci-fi, fantasy, and other genres. They look for stories up to 10000 words, meaning anything around 10,000 words is novelette length. On their site, they have lists of what they look for in a submission, what they dislike, and what they’re OK with.

Note: their site says they’re closed for submissions right now, but this should open again sometime this year.

Find their full guidelines on how to use their submission system here.

Uncanny Magazine

Lastly, Uncanny Magazine looks for novellas between 17,500 and 30,000 words. This gets into novella territory, but this means novelettes are welcome! They welcome any queries or questions about what they look for. On top of that, they have a new submission system through Moksha, which you will need to use when sending your work. They provide plenty of guidance on how the system works.

Find their full guidelines and also how to submit your work here.

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