The Illusion Edition Writers
Plus submissions open for August edition...
Hi, thanks so much to everyone who sent in stories for the Illusion edition that is publishing in April. We’ve read some fantastic stories and can’t wait to bring you the six that we have chosen for this issue. My thanks to the readers
and who helped me to make the selection.The stories we’ll be bringing you in April are:
Bird-Love by JoAnneh Nagler
Broken by Lucy Stubbings
Dancing Into The Fire by Cole Beauchamp
The Dalí Paradox Delusion by Lorraine Collins
How Jane Lost Her Favourite Coat by Sharon Boyle
Memento Mori by Susan Wigmore
Congratulations to the writers!
New submission opportunity
Now that the April edition is confirmed we are open for submissions for the August 2025 edition.
THEME: GOLD
We charge a small submission fee (£5) in order to pay writers and cover our production, design and admin costs. We understand that this will be unaffordable for some people so we have 4 free submissions available in each period. Contact us to get one. No need to provide any explanation or evidence, just ask. They are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
WORD COUNTS
Short Stories: up to 3000 words
Flash Fictions: up to 1000 words
Micro Fictions: up to 350 words
Author Payment
For each edition, the writers we publish will share 50% of the submission fees received (after Submittable and PayPal fees are deducted). All stories selected for an edition will receive the same payment no matter the length of the story.
We will also nominate stories for prizes (Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfictions, etc.).
Submission Guidelines
All submissions must be sent through Submittable and we cannot accept email submissions. Anything sent via email will not be read.
Please submit no more than one story per category in each submission period. If you are submitting to more than one category then each submission must be made separately and the submission fee paid each time.
Please use a legible, easy-to-read font of at least 12pt or 14pt.
All submissions must be previously unpublished (never published in print or online, including a personal blog) and in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format ONLY.
Simultaneous submissions are fine but please withdraw your submission via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere.
Our submissions are open to all adult writers worldwide. All work must be written in English.
Please do not submit stories which glorify murder, racism, sexism, homophobia, religious hatred or any other kind of bigotry and hate. Any sex must be relevant to the story. We won’t publish graphic stories of rape, incest, child abuse, bestiality, or excessive violence and we do not want to read them.
This doesn’t mean we won’t publish stories that are about difficult subjects, but they must be written with nuance, empathy, compassion and love for our shared humanity at the heart of them. 💙
To find out what kind of stories we like, read our previous editions.
Authors will retain all rights and copyright to their works. WestWord requests one-time, non-exclusive first publication rights.
Plus submissions are always open for Short Story Spotlight, Story Sunday and Flash Focus!
Members short story workshop series
Starting next month, I am running a series of 6 workshops to slowly develop a short story that has real depth, nuance and characters that crackle with life. All stories created in these workshops can be submitted for consideration for a special edition of WestWord that’s publishing in November. These workshops are for members of WestWord only so if you want to join in, upgrade your subscription. The first workshop is on 15th March at 15.00 GMT.
Find out more:
Last chance for 2025 Hermit Crab Prize
There are just 3 more days left to send us your stories for the Hermit Crab Prize.
The 2025 WestWord Prize
There are just under 6 weeks remaining until the deadline of this year’s WestWord Prize for flash fiction stories up to 1000 words. Judge is Sara Hills and there is £800 in prizes available for the three winning stories.
Community membership
Join our story-loving community to get the workshops and submission to our competitions and editions included. Membership starts at just £6 a month, or less if you pay for the year in full.
To give you an idea of what you can expect from the workshops I have removed the paywall on a previous one: Writing Hermit Crab Flashes That Have Got Great Story. Watch it here.
Hope to read your work and write with you soon!
With love,
