SUBMISSIONS

To submit your work send an email to 433mag@gmail.com. Put ‘submission’ somewhere in the subject line or near the top of an email. Include your story in any common text or audio format. These include .doc, .txt., .rtf; and .mp3, .wav. If you do not have decent recording equipment please just send the text of the story - don’t worry, you won’t be at a disadvantage.

It’s also a good idea to download our brief guide to making an audio story

Here are some questions, and their answers.

What should I send as a cover letter?
The usual. A bit about the story, a bit about you, anything else you think we should know.

Attachment or paste in the body of an email?
Either. Doesn’t matter. Don’t fret too much, better to just send it.

Length?
1,000 words max. That's up to about 6 to 8 minutes read. We prefer a tad shorter (thus the name of the site). It's hard to listen to one single voice for more than about five minutes. Try it sometime.

Do you pay?
No, sorry.

Previously published submissions OK?
Sure thing, as long as you didn’t give the previous publication audio rights (it would be kind of strange if you did, but check anyway).

Simultaneous submissions OK? Multiple stories OK?
Yes and yes.

Fine. What happens when you say yes?
If you’ve recorded the story and the recording is perfect or nearly so, we’ll put it on the site at the earliest available opportunity. If you’ve recorded it and the recording isn’t that great we’ll ask you to try again, or we’ll record you ourselves. If you just sent us text we’ll do the same. We are in London but the magic of technology and specifically VoIP programs like Skype mean that we can try to record you anywhere in the world. But if you’re in the UK we might just come over to your house if that’s okay. We are neat and don't even expect cups of tea. Though if you want to make one for us, please go right ahead.

Why did you say no?
Most often we say no either because the story will not work when read aloud, or we did not like it. Thus it is always a good idea to read your story aloud - maybe to someone else, like your most abrasive friend - before you send it. As to whether we like it or not, let's just say we're fickle, and it's tough to second guess that one.

We will try to give a specific reason or two for not accepting a story but you’ll understand - because you are a writer and, like us, you are used to soul-destroying anonymous rejection - that we can’t always respond personally to everybody. However if we do take the time to say something like ‘keep us in mind’, we really do mean it, honestly, and there was something in your story we liked, and we are sure that you are a nice person, even if that particular story wasn’t exactly what we’re after. Keep trying.

But if you're not paying people and the internet has more or less unlimited storage space, why not just accept everything that's submitted?
Well we do want to keep some semblance of order and theme around here, even though we might sometimes fail on that count, and there is a time investment involved in recording and editing, and most of our time tends to be diverted into day jobs, or trying to meet up with friends we never see, or cooking dinner, or feeding the cat, which leaves precious few seconds for our hand-crafted site.

Come on, give it to me straight. What's going to guarantee you say yes?
Listen to what we've already put out. You're clever. You'll be able to figure it out.


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