Contributions from
Young Writers Worldwide Welcomed:
Stone Soup Magazine
(honorarium:
$40 per story, poetry, review
| international)
Stone Soup is made up of stories, poems, book reviews, and art by young people through age 13. Although all the writing we publish is in English, we accept work from all over the world. To get an idea of the kind of work we like, please look through our Archive of Children’s Writing.
Who May Submit Work? Stone Soup welcomes submissions by children ages 13 and younger. If you are 14 or older, we suggest you try a Google search to find resources for older writers.
Length Limit: Stories may be any length up to 2500 words.
What to Include: Include your name, age, birthdate, home address, phone number, and e-mail address. Please do not include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Manuscripts are not returned. Send copies of your work, not originals. If we need the original, we will request it. You do not need to include a photo of yourself. If we decide to publish your work, we will ask for a photo at that time.
A Word about E-mail Submissions: We do not accept e-mail submissions from the US or Canada. Stone Soup is a small company. We’re concerned that, if we allowed e-mail submissions, we’d be flooded with material and wouldn’t be able to handle it all. We hope serious young writers will be happy to polish their work, print it out in a nice format, and mail it to us.
What Happens Next: We only respond to those submissions we are considering for possible publication. If we are considering your work, you will hear from us in 4 to 6 weeks; if you do not hear from us, it means we were not able to use your work. Don’t be discouraged! Try again!
Writers of Stories and Poems: Send us stories and poems about the things you feel most strongly about. Whether your work is about imaginary situations or real ones, use your own experiences and observations to give your work depth and a sense of reality. Writing need not be typed, as long as it is legible. If you type your work, please type it double-spaced in a plain, medium-sized font. We can consider writing in languages other than English; include a translation if possible. For stories, the maximum length we can publish is 2500 words; we have no minimum length. For poems, send us your free-verse poems; we do not publish rhyming poems. It’s OK to send more than one piece of writing in the same envelope. Please don’t send us work you are also sending to other magazines. Send your work to one magazine at a time.
Illustrators: If you would like to illustrate for Stone Soup, send editor Gerry Mandel three samples of your artwork, along with a letter saying what you like to draw most. Although we sometimes use simple line drawings in Stone Soup, we are especially interested in artists who can draw or paint complete scenes in color. At least one of your samples should include people, since most of the stories we publish, even the animal stories, have people in them. Send us samples that fill the entire page with detail, including the background. Please include your name, age, birthdate, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for our response to you.
Writers Who Illustrate Their Own Stories: Would you like to illustrate your own story? It’s OK to send us a story illustrated by yourself or a friend. If we like the story and the illustrations, we will publish them both. If we like the story but not the illustrations, we will find our own illustrator for your story. If we like the illustrations but not the story, we will contact you to see if you’d like to become a Stone Soup illustrator. Remember to send copies of your artwork, not originals.
Book Reviewers: If you are interested in reviewing books for Stone Soup, write Ms. Mandel for more information. Tell her a little about yourself, why you want to be a book reviewer, and what kinds of books you like to read. Be sure to include your name, age, birthdate, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for our response to you. You can read reviews from past issues in our Archive of Children’s Writing.
Payment: All contributors whose work is accepted for publication receive a certificate, two complimentary copies, and discounts on other purchases. In addition, contributors of stories, poems and book reviews are paid $40 each; illustrators are paid $25 per illustration.
Note: We’re always looking for new writers and artists, and we really want to encourage all our young readers to send us their work. However, please keep in mind that we receive an average of 200 submissions a week; we are only able to publish a small percentage of the work we receive. Send us your work with a spirit of adventure, and try not to be too disappointed if we can’t use it.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries: editor@stonesoup.com
For submissions: Stone Soup Submissions Dept., P.O. Box 83, Santa Cruz, CA 95063, USA (regular mail); and editor@stonesoup.com for contributors living outside of the US or CanadaWebsite: http://www.stonesoup.com/