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Driftwood Press Novella Series

Submission Page

This category is now closed; please check back to this page regularly for updates on when it will reopen.

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What We're Looking For...

  • We strongly recommend reading a few of our issues to get a sense of the fiction we publish; the same senior editors who read the short fiction will read for the novellas.

  • Our published fiction share little in common outside of a love of language; well-crafted sentences and a honed rhythm are a must for Driftwood contributors. We stray away from young adult, fantasy, romance, and mainstream mystery fiction. While we're interested  in experimentalism and stream of consciousness (not auto-writing), we do expect a story to have narrative momentum. Oftentimes, we're most drawn to stories with a hint of surrealism, magical realism, or some other sort of -ism, but we publish a little bit of every genre.

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Timeline​

  • Novella submissions are currently open but may close at any time to allow our editors to catch up. 

  • Novella submissions typically take four to nine months; our target is six. Feel free to reach out to us if you've been in consideration for longer.

  • If your work is selected, our editors will work with you to polish the work as much as possible for publication.

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Guidelines​​​

  • Fiction only.

  • 15,000-30,000 words recommended. We’ll consider works slightly outside of these parameters, but don’t push them too much. 40,000 words, for instance, is a novel, not a novella.

  • A standard, 12-point font and single-spacing is preferred. 

  • Excerpts of the novella may have been published individually, but 50% of the novella may not have appeared in a single prior publication.

  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know immediately if the work has been accepted elsewhere.

  • Submit works written in English only, no translations.

  • Please submit your manuscript in a .doc, .docx, or PDF format.

  • Base submission cost is $20. Additionally, we are offering a $30 dollar submission option that will include a print copy of our next novella. We will ship to the address provided on your submittable account.

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Awards​

  • Selected novellas will receive 10 copies of their printed novella and a cash reward based on word count (see below). If you are close to the upper limit within your tier, we'll bump you to the higher payment tier if accepted; please don't add filler to up your word count, as this will likely weaken the story and lessen your likelihood of acceptance. If accepted, any novella submitted before 5/3/2023 will not receive less than $400. 

    • 10,000 - 17,500 Words: Awarded $300​

    • 17,500 - 22,500 Words: Awarded $400

    • 22,500 - 30,000 Word: Awarded $500

  • A print run of the novella will be sold on our website, through affiliate bookstores, and will be nationally and internationally distributed by Ingram. 

  • The winner will also have the opportunity to be interviewed about their work; the interview will be published in the novella following the story.

  • After the first 100 copies are sold, the writer gets 20% royalties. Copies bought by or awarded to the writer do not count toward the number of copies sold.

Reading Period Results

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We are beyond excited to announce the upcoming publication of Kevin Lichty's The Circle That Fits. The novella explores the fraught relationships between two parents and their son as they live in a traveling carnival; from taxidermied humans to a shape-shifting lion tamer, the emotional, intense surrealism on display in this compressed novel knows no bounds. The Circle That Fits will release in 2022.

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As we've considered the novellas, we've privately notified those who were close to publication, and we consider those our list of finalists for this reading period. Lastly, we want to extend our warmest gratitude to everyone who submitted. If you have not been notified about your work, do note that it is still in consideration for our subsequent reading period. 

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Due to a generous $600 donation from Sarah "Hollis Queen" Evans, the $400 award for Kevin Lichty's novella was increased to $1,000. This donation was made in memory of Douglas "Dougie" Terre of Christchurch, UK. "He never put pen to paper, but he had a writer's soul that ran between Vice and Virtue and preached 'Everything in Moderation' between ciggies and bottles of red." Driftwood would like to thank both Sarah and Douglas for this kind donation.

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