Fiction Ed’s Blog: Once Your Story Is Accepted

So – you’ve had a short story accepted. Congratulations!

What happens now?

We Pay On Acceptance

The first thing to say is that we pay on acceptance – not on publication.

If this is your first short story acceptance, you’ll be sent two copies of our Standard Contributor’s Contract.

Please sign both copies, returning one to us in the SAE provided, and retaining one for your own reference.

Our Finance Team will be in touch, usually by email, to help set up payments.

And for established Authors – your assigned editor will arrange payment as quickly as possible, following approval.

Your Story Is Illustrated

The next stage of the process is illustration.

We illustrate our short stories in one of three ways, depending on what’s the best fit for the story.

Illustrations Editor, Manon, may commission a brand-new illustration from one of our team of freelance illustrators.

We search for a suitable image from our extensive archive.

Or we use an image from a picture library.

Your Story Goes Over To Production

Once your story is illustrated, it goes over to our Production Team.

Their job is to get your story in its best possible shape pre-publication.

They read through your story, checking spelling and grammar, making sure it’s in “Friend” house style.

Text is trimmed to fit, if necessary.

They may give your story a new title, if it clashes with a story already in the issue.

And character names may be changed for the same reason – if there’s already someone with that name in another story, or serial instalment.

Our Design Team

The next stage in the process is our Design Team.

They’ll lay your story and illustration out on a page, ready for the team to proofread and for final checks to be made.

It’s then sent to Press, ready for our readers to enjoy.