Age of Ruin

Have you written a great story and want to submit it for review and publication? Well, you’re in the right place. Listed below, you’ll find the guidelines for writing and submitting stories to us, and what you can expect.

Guidelines

• Length: Stories should be short, ideally read within a single sitting. Though slightly longer reads are perfectly fine as well. We’re looking forward to growing to the point where we can publish novellas or even novel-length stories.
• Genre: Age of Ruin is a science fiction setting, though authors are free to use genre conventions and tropes like noir, military, drama, comedy, etc. as they see fit.
• Tone: The Galaxy is a big place with lots of things going on. The tone of a story can be anything the author likes, though we urge writers to keep the tone of their works consistent throughout.
• Themes: Authors are urged to remember that this is escapist fiction; something to take our minds off the wretched state of politics in the Western world. Our goal is to be creative, not to pen screeds. In-universe explorations of politics is fine, but try to keep any allusions to real-life politics obfuscated. With that in mind, authors are free to include any themes they prefer. We’ve found that being modest with theming keeps the story focused and readable.
• File Format: We ask that you send files to us in formats usable by OpenOffice Writer. .doc and .odt files are preferred. Please don’t send PDFs!
• Where to Send Your Story: Stories should be emailed to AgeOfRuinInfo@Proton.me. Be sure to put “Story submission” in the subject line of your email.

Need Some Inspiration?

If you’d like to write for us, but aren’t sure what to write about, check out the BOUNTIES page. There are plenty of people with great ideas, but don’t have the ability to write a compelling story. The Bounty page is our way to link up people with ideas and want to support the creation of excellent science fiction with people who have a passion for writing. Many Bounties also have rewards!

What to Expect

Usually within a week of sending us your story, you’ll get an email back letting you know that we’ve received your submission and the file works, or if there’s a problem with the file you sent.

Reading, reviewing, and editing stories takes a good chunk of time, so please be patient awaiting feedback. We tend to approach story submissions with a triage approach, categorizing them as good as-is, needs work, or not acceptable.

Stories that are good as-is require only minor edits that we take care of on our end. Generally these edits are minor corrections or small changes to fit within the world.

Needs work stories will require more substantial edits from the author. If the tone is inconsistent, or if the subject matter is too on-the-nose, but the story is otherwise good, we’ll get in touch with you with the edits we’d like to see before acceptance.

Works that are not acceptable are considered unsalvageable and are rejected outright. Generally these are extremely amateurish, have inconsistent tone, very unclear action, irrational character motivation, switch awkwardly between perspectives, or are outright bad. We will try to provide some form of feedback if we reject your story outright to help you improve as an author, but the best way to write better is to write more. Naturally, we welcome any subsequent story submissions.

Rewards

In most cases, we pay writers whose works are accepted a one-time flat reward for each story. During the previous contest for the Age of Ruin: From the Ashes story collection, the reward was $100, and the reward will be the same for the ongoing contest for the upcoming story collection.

We also feature Story Bounties, where patrons of the arts will offer a reward for writing a story based on their prompt or outline. Bounty rewards are in addition to rewards for contests.

Currently, we are only accepting submissions during contest periods. For more information on the ongoing story contest, head to the STORY CONTEST page.

We can make payments via cryptocurrency (Bitcoin or Monero), and via CashApp. If you feel comfortable with it, we can also mail a postal money order to the address you provide.