History Through Fiction Short Stories History Through Fiction Press Gold Star Program Gold Star

History Through Fiction accepts submissions of historical fiction short stories and novel excerpts for publication in the Historical Readers Club, our member-only reading community.

Stories and excerpts must be previously unpublished and between 1,000 and 7,000 words. Authors whose work is accepted for publication will receive a $30 honorarium.

We are open to all subgenres and forms of historical fiction. While we especially enjoy stories inspired by real historical people and events, we welcome any compelling work with a historical setting. This includes, but is not limited to, traditional historical fiction, historical fantasy, alternative history, speculative historical fiction, and other imaginative approaches to the past.

We are also interested in unique and compelling stories set during World War II. However, we are not interested in stories that primarily highlight or dwell on Nazi cruelty or that rely on a simplistic or overt good-versus-evil portrayal of the war. We encourage writers to explore the period with complexity, nuance, originality, and fresh perspectives.

Stories selected for publication will receive light editing before being scheduled for publication in the Historical Readers Club. We publish one new story on the first day of each month.

Rights

History Through Fiction reserves first publication rights. Once a story has been accepted and a contract has been signed, the author may not publish the story elsewhere until it has been published by History Through Fiction and for thirty days thereafter. After that period, all rights revert to the author, subject to the terms of the publication agreement.

How to Submit

To submit, please complete all required information and upload your synopsis and short story or novel excerpt as a single document through our Duosuma Submission Platform.

Please allow up to twelves weeks for a response. Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to provide individualized feedback on rejected submissions.

Submission Fee

There is a $10 submission fee for all short story and novel excerpt submissions. If your work is accepted for publication, your submission fee will be reimbursed.

This fee helps us:

Support the editorial review process. Each submission is read and carefully considered, and the fee helps compensate the editor for the time and expertise involved in evaluating submissions.

Encourage thoughtful submissions. The fee helps ensure that writers are submitting work they believe is ready for serious consideration.

Compensate published authors. Submission fees also help support the honoraria paid to authors whose work is selected for publication.

We appreciate your understanding and support. These fees help us maintain a thoughtful editorial process while continuing to compensate both the professionals who evaluate submissions and the authors whose work we publish.

Our Stance on Artificial Intelligence

We understand that artificial intelligence is increasingly incorporated into many of the online tools and platforms writers use every day.

However, our expectation is straightforward: writers should not use generative AI to write or generate text for their short story or novel excerpt. Work submitted to History Through Fiction should represent the author's own creative writing.

At the same time, we will never use artificial intelligence to evaluate your submission. We will not submit your story or excerpt to AI detection software, nor will we make accusations or assumptions about AI use.

Instead, we evaluate submissions based on their own merit. We trust that writers submitting to History Through Fiction will respect our policies and submit work that reflects their own creative effort.

If your work is selected for publication, we will not use AI software to edit or proofread it. Your story will be read, evaluated, edited, and prepared for publication by human editors.

Additional Information

• We accept unsolicited submissions.
• We encourage submissions from both emerging and experienced writers.
• Writers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, neurodivergent, or as members of other marginalized and traditionally underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to submit.
• By submitting to History Through Fiction, you acknowledge and agree to our submission policies, including our expectation that generative AI has not been used to write or generate text for the submitted work.

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