Tor.com Novella Program

Submission Guidelines for Tor.com Novella Program

Tor.com Novella Submissions

Tor.com Novella Submissions are currently closed.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen will be reading and evaluating original novellas between July 30 at 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00) and August 13 at 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00)

Until the end of this open period, Tor.com Publishing will be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words in both the science fiction and fantasy genres. If it’s speculative and fits the bill, we want to take a look at it.

Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen all actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that.

In addition to reviewing the guidelines, we also encourage you to take a look at our existing list to get a sense of the work our current authors are producing and Tor.com Publishing’s vision and tastes. Good luck—we look forward to reading your work.

WHAT WE’RE NOT LOOKING FOR:

Tor.com does not accept works that have been previously published elsewhere, in any venue. This includes all forms of digital self-publishing.

We do not accept works that are not identifiable as fantasy or science fiction, or do not fit the genre we are currently soliciting. This includes, but is not limited to, non-science-fictional thrillers, and all kinds of non-fiction and memoirs.

We are not currently interested in tie-in fiction. This includes fiction that exists within worlds established in previously published novels, or that relies upon a knowledge of previously published novels.

We do not accept multiple submissions. If you have more than one novella, you may only submit one at a time. You may submit another once we have responded to your first submission.

We prefer that you not simultaneously submit your story to Tor.com and other venues. If you do, however, and your novella is accepted by a different venue, please immediately withdraw your submission from Tor.com

What we pay: We offer an advance against royalties, the size of which will depend on a number of factors, including you, the length of your story and how commercial we think it is. We also offer a royalty-only option, but if we decide to make you an offer, you will be free to choose between the two.

What rights does that give you? Our contract covers the right to publish the story in print, audio and ebook formats, worldwide, in English. Most of our print books will be published as p.o.d., though we may choose to publish other print editions.