Wyngraf

Wyngraf is closed to short story submissions. Thank you to everyone who submitted to our last open call! Any stories submitted at this time will be deleted unread.

Wyngraf is closed to flash fiction submissions. Unfortunately, our Flash Friday series is on indefinite hiatus.

Wyngraf buys First Global Serial Rights to short stories of cozy fantasy from 3,000 to 8,000 words long. We currently pay $0.015 (one and a half cents) per word. We know that’s not much, and we hope to increase our rate as soon as possible.

Wyngraf Is Fantasy

• Often fantasy means the presence of magic, but not always—for example, Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint. Low-magic and no-magic stories are welcome at Wyngraf.
• Stories should have a pre-modern technology level.
  • Wyngraf isn’t interested in science fiction or urban fantasy. (Well, we are, but not for this magazine.)
  • Our cutoff is roundabout the early 19th century. Think Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. This is probably flexible, but cars and cell phones never fit here.
• We want secondary worlds.
  • Wyngraf doesn’t publish stories set on our Earth, either now or in the past (historical fantasy).
  • We want our readers to be transported to the worlds of your imagination!
• We prefer high fantasy to fairy tales.
  • This isn’t a hard rule, but we’d rather see creatures from high fantasy (elves, dwarves, halflings, etc.) than folk tales (werewolves, vampires, leprechauns, etc.).
  • Things we’ve never seen before are also great.
  • Human-only settings are welcome.

Wyngraf Is Cozy

• We define cozy as a sense of comfort, hominess, welcoming, and friendship. Community. Relationships. You know: cozy.
• Setting is an essential part of coziness.
  • We love all sorts of fantastical settings: bustling city, decrepit castle, sailing ship, welcoming inn, busy caravanserai, witch’s cottage, wizard’s tower, farming village, school for bards, adventurer’s guild hall…
  • The setting should be somewhere the reader would like to be transported. Think of your first time discovering the Shire, or dreaming of your own magic school acceptance letter. Tales set in miserable places are a tough sell.
  • We invite you to spend a few extra words realizing your setting. We want readers to feel they could live in the world of your story.
• Characters are even more important.
  • No matter how beautifully it’s written, nothing in a story matters if we don’t care about the characters.
  • Characters drive your plot. They’re also our guides to your world—we see your setting through their eyes.
• Slice-of-life tales are welcome, though our stories usually have some conflict.
  • The conflict probably won’t be world-shattering.
  • Feel free to draw from other genres, like adventure, mystery, comedy, and romance. No erotica, please.
• Action is welcome.
  • Cozy doesn’t mean wimpy! The Hobbit is packed with close shaves, daring escapes, even a whole battle, but it’s still cozy.
  • Violence should be at roughly a PG level—adventurous rather than horrifying. No splattered brains or spilled guts, please. We can recommend some terrific sword & sorcery mags if that’s your thing.
  • Violence should be in service of a cause, such as defending one’s home or family, not be a purpose unto itself.
  • Absolutely no sexual violence or violence to children.
• Don’t forget your backpack! We’re eager for backpack fantasy submissions.

Your Story Is…

• 3,000 to 8,000 words
  • So far we’ve mostly bought stories in the shorter and middle parts of this range, but that’s not a rule.
  • We understand that every story is different. Write it the length it needs to be. We don’t mind if a story falls a little outside our range.
• True to you.
  • Wyngraf welcomes and encourages characters and authors representing the full spectrum of human experience.
  • This includes, but isn’t limited to, people (and elves, and halflings, and orcs, and…) of all colors, shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities, and the full LGBTQ+ family.
  • Absolutely no stories written by so-called generative AI/chatbots/predictive text models. Editors can tell. This is a great way to get blacklisted.
• Polished!
  • Your story should have gone through multiple revisions, maybe with an editor, maybe with a beta reader or three.
  • It should be free of spelling errors, grammar errors, and typos. Take pride in your work and show us your best.
• Paid.
  • Wyngraf currently pays $0.015 (one and a half cents) per word. That means a 6,000-word story is paid $90. We started at one cent per word, and hope to continue increasing our rate as time goes by.
    • We pay by either PayPal or Venmo.
  • We buy First Global Serial Rights.
    • All copyright to the story, characters, setting, etc. stays with you.
    • Wyngraf is buying the right to be the first publisher of your story worldwide. You can resell, reprint, or do whatever you want with the story 90 days after it’s been published in Wyngraf.
    • Be aware that most publishers want First Serial Rights, so it may be hard to sell your story to, for example, another magazine after it’s appeared in Wyngraf.

Got something for us?

• Send story submissions to wyngraf at gmail dot com.
• Please send stories in standard manuscript format, as a Word document attached to the email.
  • We understand not everyone has the time and technological access to prepare a manuscript to these standards. While we appreciate you making an effort to meet our request, please know that we judge every submission solely on its fit for Wyngraf. We will never reject your story based on formatting.
• The subject of the submission email should read “SUBMISSION: {Your Last Name} – {Name of Story}”, for example, “SUBMISSION: Tolkien – A Shortcut to Mushrooms.”
• Feel free to include a short bio, including any other published works, in the body of the email. Don’t worry if you don’t have any publication credits yet.
• Please submit only one story per submission window (i.e. no multiple submissions).
• Simultaneous submissions (that is, submitting your story to Wyngraf and other markets at the same time) are fine, but please let us know ASAP if your story is accepted elsewhere.
• No reprints, please.
• Please allow about one month for a response. If you haven’t heard from us by then, you’re welcome to send a followup email.
• Please do not submit stories outside the submission window. Early and late submissions will be deleted unread!