Submissions Guidelines
(Submission form below)
Here are some useful guidelines for submitting stories to us.
- Above all, we strongly recommend that you read some of our stories first. Download the app here (for Android). You get three free stories per month on the free plan, so you can see how readers will read and listen to your story.
- Stories should be between 400 and 1200 words. If your story is longer, you can break it down to several shorter “chapters” and submit them as a series (imagine a TV mini-series).
- Stories should be written using simple, direct prose suitable for language learners. This means that florid, long sentences should be avoided. Make generous use of the top 500 words in the language you are submitting in (click here for a list of English words). Check out our blog post on Writing for Language Learners for more information.
- Stories should avoid uses of cliché sentences because they do not translate well into other languages.
- Stories must be previously unpublished and not submitted to, or under consideration with, any other publisher once submitted.
- Submitting stories to Alsina is taken as agreement that they will not be submitted elsewhere until accepted or rejected by Alsina.
- With Alsina, you retain the copyright to your work. We need exclusive rights to publish it in all formats, territories, and languages for the length of the copyright.
- If it goes “out of print”, then the rights revert back to you, the author.
- Your story will be translated into other languages. If you write in multiple languages, then submit to us in multiple languages! This ensures your story is captured as you want it to be across languages. We currently prefer English, Spanish, and French, but would be open to others as well.
- We get a lot of submissions, so please be patient with us. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible (expect about a month).
- We pay royalties on your stories: every time someone finishes one of your stories, you get 0.01. Royalties are paid annually.
- What types of stories do we like? We like stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
- General Fiction
- Romance
- Crime and Thriller
- Epic Fantasy
- Historical Fiction
- Travel or Study Abroad Stories
- What types of stories should you avoid?
- Submissions that are simply thought pieces
- Coming of age stories
- Anecdotes, ‘hilarious comedies’, stories about crazy characters
- Stories about ordinary, mundane days/existences in which suddenly something happens to change everything
- Stories that solely aim to shock or surprise, without having anything else to say
- Explicit stories or those about taking drugs
- Stories which give the story away too cheaply, i.e. stories that derive their only ‘interest value’ from ‘what happens.’ A good story intrigues the reader, engages them, holds their attention and draws them through the text with a skillful and timely release of information. It isn’t the information itself that lures the reader through the story, it’s the way it’s revealed
- Stories with a weak ending: If the ending lacks impact, we feel there’s maybe something else going wrong earlier in the story as well, because the beginning, middle and end all need to be part of the same thing
Submit your Story
If that all sounds good to you, then please submit your story below.