As of 8/1/10, we are open for submissions. We are currently looking for flash fiction (100-1000 words) and short stories (~3000-8000 words).

We are now using submishmash for our submissions: Submit to Air in the Paragraph Line

The current plan is to initially release stories here on the web site, and then release the best of the best in the regular print journal.  I may also elect to hold a really good story as an exclusive for the print version and release it there first.

First, before submitting anything, you should know what the journal is and what we’re doing here.

• Each issue is a 200-page(ish) print-on-demand 6×9″ color cover/perfect bound book. It has a cover price under $15. It has a barcode or ISBN/ISSN, and distribution on major online booksellers (Amazon, B&N, etc).
• I edit the book and have the byline and copyright. The ISBN belongs to Paragraph Line Books. Any royalties come back to me to cover expenses, but the price is kept low to make it affordable, and I aim to break even (but still haven’t.)
• There are about a dozen writing contributors per issue that will chip in stories. The total wordcount is about 80,000.
• Contributors agree to give me one-time rights to publish the  story and then it reverts back. You don’t need to sign a contract or find a notary; we can agree by email. I also need your bio, plus URLs, email, whatever.

What kind of stuff do I want?

My goal has always been to have something that was very readable. Not overly high-brow, not all just crap skimmed from web pages and photocopied, but something that people find immersive, and which has a lot of variety.

A lot of this depends on my tastes, and there are things I really like to read, and things that totally shut me down. Here’s an attempt at a list of those. I like (in no order):

• Absurdist fiction (Mark Leyner, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut)
• Outsider fiction (Bukowski)
• Good rants
• Long, immersive travel journals
• Modernist stuff that really talks about life
• Fiction about real life
• Interviews of interesting people who aren’t just trying to sell junk – I only like long-format interviews though, not q/a/q/a/q/a stuff.
• Obscurely funny stuff
• Heavy, emotionally draining short stories
• Hard science fiction that’s not corny
• Dream journals
• Stories like how your car broke down in Kansas and you met Iggy Pop at a Denny’s, or other weird but true or just bad-luck-many-times stories
• Good parody
• Outsider culture
• Anything that’s so weird that I could not even think of it to put it on this list

I don’t like:

• Poetry. No poetry at all. I don’t care if it’s good.
• Most political stuff, especially generic “fuck bush” stuff that’s going to be dated in a few years anyway.
• Really genre-specific stuff (detective, horror, fantasy).
• Record reviews, zine reviews, and the other generic crap that every
  other zine has.
• Fan fiction.
• Products of the academic-industrial complex that are overly
  politically correct.
• Anything obvious. (“I’m so depressed and nobody likes me”,
  “everyone’s so stupid and I’m a genius”, “Look I just got a thesaurus.”)
• Anything that is so grammatically incorrect that I can’t read it
  without wincing.

Note:, even though I put the “anything obvious” thing in the list, at least 50% of the submissions I get are obvious. The simple rule is this: if your submission looks like a blog entry, and says more than it shows, it’s probably obvious.

How to submit

We are now using submishmash for our submissions:
Submit to Air in the Paragraph Line

Please do not send submissions via email.

Technical considerations:

• Microsoft Word is great. I use both a PC and a Mac, so I’m pretty agnostic about versions. RTF, HTML, or a text file are also good.
• Your document will be reformatted to match the rest of the book. If your story looks like you started with the default Word template and typed everything in with no formatting, I will love you. If you have heavy and extensive formatting and styles, and insist on having all of your paragraphs right-justified and in 20-point bold and with graphics of the Smurfs on the start of each line because you are the center of the universe and that is your vision, there’s a good chance your story might not make it.
• I generally can’t use photos in stories. If it’s really needed, drop me a line first.
• I don’t edit the text of submissions unless it’s a really horrific error, so please make sure to proof your work before you send it.
• Sorry, no snail mail or paper submissions.
• If you are an artist and are interested in doing a cover, send a query and links to your work online, if possible.