The Cross and The Cosmos--

Submission Guidelines:

The Cross and the Cosmos has a two fold goal: to provide quality speculative fiction to our readers and to glorify our creator. Therefore, any works of fiction submitted need to meet those two conditions a few others. They must:

be speculative in nature, ie be in the sci-fi, fantasy, or related genres

contain little to no profanity.

be free of gratuitous sexual content

There is no word length limit nor requirement. Each work will be considered on the merits of the story itself. We may ask to serialize longer works to make up to excess length, but will not turn down a story due to excessive length.

Also, TC2 is looking for artwork for the cover that must also meet the above guidelines.

While we encourage authors to write stories within the TTU, it is not necessary that stories submitted to TC2 be within either of those worlds.

The Rights:

You must own the rights to anything you submit, and you are attesting to that fact by submitting to TC2. In addition, if we like your work and wish to use it, then we gain the rights to it for a full year after we accept it and you reply to the e-mailed contract. Those rights include, but are not limited to, publishing on the internet and physical books, ie anthologies, etc. after a year, the rights return to you, the author, unless a prior agreement was made to retain them.

Previously Published Works:

If your work has alredy been published, this includes being posted on searchable forums and websites, then your work will most likely be rejected. We prefer first time publishes; however, if your work is either: very difficult to find, the venue it was published in before has almost no readership, or the venue no longer exists or holds the rights to your work, we will consider your work on a case by case basis. Please specify if your work has been published before.

The Format:

We accept any format other than docx and Microsoft works. If you use either of those, simply “Save As” either xHTML or RTF. XHTML would be the easiest for us but is not required. Also, do not use tab to indent your paragraphs. Either don't indent them at all or use the formatting options of your document software.

The Quality:

Here at TC2, quality is everything. We ask that all submitted works be edited to the best of the ability of the author. Any works that do not meet our high standards will be rejected.

For help with improving the quality of your work, check out Jeff Gerke's The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction and his Fiction Writing Tip of the Week. Both of these great resources will improve any writer's quality and ability.

The Method:

We accept submissions via e-mail. The e-mail needs to contain a one line description of your work, your contact details, and the work itself either as an attachment or within the text of the e-mail. Again, by sending a submission, you're agreeing that you own the rights to the submitted content.

For artwork, a digital copy of the artwork along with contact details for the artist is all we require. All formats accepted.

Multiple Submissions:

Multiple Submissions to TC2 are allowed, even encouraged, but understand that we will not place more than one work per author on each issue. If you send more than one, we will make the determination as to which we like where and which issue to include it in.

Simultaneous Submissions:

We do not accept simultaneous submissions with other publications.

Publication Process:

If we contract with you to publish your materiel, we may not use your work right away, but must use it within the first year unless we make an agreement otherwise at a later date. We will let you know as soon as we know which issue it will be in.

Payment:

Here at TC2, we consider ourselves to be a premium e-zine and therefore will gift all of our authors with a free copy of our e-zine, findable on the main site, and $0.00. Please refrain from spending all of it at one place. Also, you, the author, will receive the honor and privilege of being “published”, and may strut around with that knowledge.

Additional Information:

Any additional information that we need from you we will get at the time of the agreement.

 When you're ready, send your story to submissions[at]crossandcosmos.com