Stories where the only non-standard element is an epistolary form, the inclusion of footnotes et c. Epistolary works have been around for more than five centuries and aren’t particularly experimental anymore. Epistolary stories than include other experimental elements may be of interest.
ergot. is primarily a venue for fiction. While we have published a handful of verse/poetry pieces in the past it is going to be a hard sell. Rhyming poetry is so far outside of our area of interest that it is probably best to send this sort of work to another venue.
Any story that relies on a jargon-filled statement to describe what it is (or is supposed to be) is better sent to your dissertation comittee. We want work that stands on its own, that you cannot describe and that the academy will hate.
ergot. does not publish fan fiction. This also applies to stories that build off of or take place in worlds developed by other writers. Characters, settings, objects or ideas from the Cthulu, Carcosa mythoses or expand on Poe, Clark Ashton Smith, Steven King et c. are just not what we are looking for.
Science Fiction is a fantastic genre, but it's not really what ergot. does. We almost never publish stories where Science Fiction is the main or primary element.
Please no.
Stories narrated by children who are one-dimensional paragons of wonder and innocence are not of interest to us.
Your thinly veiled rape fantasies or other explicit sexual content for its own sake will not be published on the site.
Not sure what a 'multiple submission' or 'simultaneous submission' is?
Unclear on what to put in your author bio?
Then please read this helpful article written by our editor which should help answer some common questions.
Most venues (including ergot.) ask for 'first publication rights'. This means we want work that has not been available to the public before.
There has been some confusion about this in the past, so in order to avoid any ambiguity, here are some specific cases:
- Has the work been published in English on a website, magazine or personal site at any time in the past?
- We consider this work to have been previously published, and we will not consider it for publication.
- But the site/magazine et c. where the story defunct and you can't read it anymore.
- Sorry, the piece was still published. Luckily, there is a good chance the story can still be reached via the Wayback Machine.
- The story is currently unpublished, but I'm going to self-publish a collection in a few days.
- We ask for 30 days of exclusivity, so if the story will be published anywhere else in the next 30 days we will not consider it.
- The story was up on a site where people signed up to provide editing feedback (like Scribophile). Is that okay?
- As long as readership was limited to those provided editing feedback this is totally fine.
- The story was published in another language. Is that okay?
- Yes, ergot. does consider (and has published) translated work. As long as you own the rights, or have permission to publish the story, and the story has not been previously published in English, we will consider it.
- This is mean/rude/unfair/I don't like it.
- Exclusive rights are the norm at nearly all semi-pro and pro writing venues. In order to pay money for a story we expect some guarantee that the public is going to come to ergot., and not elsewhere, to read that story.
In most cases work will be published two and a half weeks after acceptance.
First we will confirm with you that the work is available to be published (i.e. ‘not previously published’ and ‘not accepted at another venue’). We will also want to make sure that you are around and available on the week of publication. If you plan on summiting K2 or getting your dog's appendix removed that week please just let us know and we can reschedule.
Then, we will send over the terms of publication (‘the contract’) for the author to approve.
At the beginning of the week of publication the editor will proofread the work and may offer some suggestions on the text. The author always has final say on the piece and may accept or reject these suggestions.
A sample layout will be delivered for the author to approve a few days before publication. Work will go live on Friday around 0900PST and will be promoted on Twitter, RSS and possibly other venues. Payment will be sent out shortly before publication.
Most of our authors would love for you to produce, republish, remix or otherwise promote their work, but - outside of short quotations and other instances of fair use - you must secure written permission from the author before using their work in any way.
After publication on ergot. the rights for each story reverts to the author, so you must contact the author directly in order to secure permission. In most cases an author‘s email address can be found in their author bio, social media accounts or author site.
If you have trouble contacting an author we would be happy to ask them if you can use their work, and/or put you in contact with them, just email us at ergot.press+rights@gmail.com with the title of the story in question in the subject line.
Please understand that this doesn’t mean we don’t want you to re/use work from ergot., only that the author must be contacted beforehand, and approve of, any reuse.
Using a story without the author’s permission may preclude the author from publishing their work in other venues, prevent them from payment from that publication and can make you liable for copyright violation - plus it is generally an uncool thing to do - so we take this very seriously.