Submissions Guidelines

[OPEN] Anthology Call For Submissions

Burning Branch is currently focusing on publishing romantic comedy that creates humor, hope, and is focusing to spread light in the darkness. We want stories that hit the feels and stay forever at the top of readers’ minds even after the last page is turned––stories that spread hope and life.

Follow our submission guidelines so you don’t miss something important. Pieces that don’t follow this information have a higher chance of being cut, so read through the following information and be sure to follow it. 😊

CURRENT THEME: Long-distance relationships (written in a romcom, contemporary fiction, or sweet romance style.)

Ideas to get you started:

• Meets someone while traveling in the airport?

• Pen pals turn into lovers?

• Working abroad and meets the love of their life?

• Guy in the army meets his dream woman abroad?

• Goes to college in a different town but they road trip to see each other.

Your Story:

• Your well-edited story must be between 3,000-5,000 words long.
• Must fit our current theme.
• Include a powerful hook in your opening!
• Make sure we care about your characters.
• Steam level: Sweet + closed-door romance

We don't publish:

• Short fiction that's been previously published elsewhere.
• Poetry.
• Fan fiction. Stories must be unique to you.
• You must be the sole author of your story.
• Scenes/excerpts/synopses from novels (however, you can use existing characters from your own novels).
• Excessive violence, profanity, or erotica in any form.
• We like to keep our collections clean and appropriate with steam levels being sweet and closed door.
• We also don’t want our stories to preach from a soapbox (whether political, religious, or otherwise.) There may be a hint of these elements throughout your story, just as long as it doesn’t come off pushy.

Submission Process:

If a story is submitted, that doesn’t fit our current theme, the story will be rejected, so please follow our guidelines. We want to publish your work. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable; just let us know if you want to withdraw your story in case your story is accepted elsewhere.

Manuscript & Email Formatting Guidelines:

ATTENTION: Submissions will not be considered if our Submission committee notices that you’ve missed any details from the guidelines below. Check every item to ensure your submission has the best chance for success. You can submit your story as a Word Doc or Pages document.

• Proper paragraph formatting
• In the document's header, left-aligned and single-spaced, include:

• Your name (as you would like it to appear in print)
• Your real name (if different)
• Your contact information (phone number, email address, mailing address)
• The title of your story
• The word count (for the story only, excluding the title, your name, and your contact information)

• Name your story file: your last name-story title-theme

• The body of your story should be:
• Double-spaced (no space between paragraphs)
• Size 12 black Times New Roman font
• 1” page margins
• Indented to 0.5″ using the ruler / paragraph settings (not a tab or five spaces)

Multiple Submissions:

Wanna submit more than one story to us? Totally fine! Submit them separately in their own documents. You can include more than one submission in email attachments, but just make sure each story is saved in its own document.

IMPORTANT: Add submissions.burningbranch@gmail.com to your allowed senders list, or our reply may go to your junk/spam email folder.

Open for Submissions: Now till the end of July 2023.
Story Length: 3,000-5,000 words
Fiction: $25 + a discount on print copies -

If picked, your story will be exclusive to the anthology for a year from the publish date. After the exclusivity period has ended, you are free to publish your work elsewhere.

Response Time:

We will regularly send acceptance and rejection letters every week, from now until the end of July 2023.

Thank you for your interest in our Long-Distance Relationship Collection at Burning Branch Publishing. If you have additional questions, you may email submissions.burningbranch@gmail.com.

Devin Joubert

Editor-in-Chief
Burning Branch Publishing