Shutterstock / Gorodenkoff©Welcome to the Fiction Ed’s Blog.
This week’s post is for authors who’d like to submit fiction for consideration in ‘The People’s Friend’.
We Need More Stories!
Here at the ‘Friend’, we now publish more short stories than ever.
We publish around 800 short stories every year across our weekly issues, specials, annual and bookazines.
It goes without saying that we don’t buy every story we read. So that’s a LOT of reading!
Sending in the stories we need means your story will be read more quickly, and have a better chance of success.
What We’re Looking For Now
We’re currently planning fiction for weekly issues for May and June.
For our Specials, we’re planning well into July and August.
Stories suitable for the above months are welcome now.
Bookazine Stories
Thanks for the response to the call-out for summer bookazine stories.
We’re well underway with reading and planning.
2000-word cosy crime stories, romance and general summer-themed stories are still needed.
Annual Stories
We read for our Annual all year round; planning for our 2026 ‘People’s Friend’ Annual is well underway.
Stories with a summer setting would be especially welcome, as would stories which would fit in ‘any time’.
Our annual stories tend to be the most traditional of all our fiction.
Like all our publications, the Annual is set to a template – click here for details of the story lengths we look for.
‘The Magic Of Christmas’
We’ve had such a fantastic response to our call-out for ‘Magic Of Christmas’ stories that we’ll pause MOC submissions for now.
‘Magic Of Christmas’ submissions will be kept and considered for our Christmas Specials and Bumper Issues.
General Christmas stories can be submitted from April onwards.
Your File Name
If you’re submitting with a particular publication in mind, please include it in your file name.
Anything that helps speed things up is welcome!
Updated guidelines are available here.
What makes a good ‘People’s Friend’ story? Find out here.
Lucy Crichton Better known as “Fiction Editor Lucy”, I am always on the look-out for the very best short stories, poems and pocket novels. As well as sourcing enjoyable content, I enjoy working with our established contributors, encouraging new talent, and celebrating 155 years of “Friend” fiction!
