General Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions

Your work must be family-friendly and contain positive / uplifting / inspirational elements. The pieces you send us should answer three basic questions:

“How does it help others?”
“How does it open their minds?”
“Does it bring a better understanding of the situations or stories I am describing?”

If you can’t answer those questions, your submission is unlikely to be accepted. So, please don’t send it to us. We will not respond.

Be professional. Treat your work and submission the way you would like to be treated as an artist and human being.

Make it simple

As artists, we know that if a piece is trying to be too smart or requires a long spiel for understanding, it is likely to confuse visitors. We will reject work that does not speak for itself.

Special note about COVID-19

We understand the pain, stress and trauma caused by the current epidemic. However, Auroras & Blossoms is committed to spreading positivity, no matter the topic. As such, coronavirus- related pieces that do not contain strongly positive / uplifting / inspirational elements will be automatically rejected.

We are family-friendly

We accept submissions from teenagers for our anthologies, so take that age group into consideration. Absolutely no dirty words or erotica! Only clean pieces will be accepted.

We are inclusive

As human beings, we greatly value empathy and respect. We believe that diversity makes the world beautiful. No matter who you are and where you come from, we welcome your submission.

What we accept + Maximum length:

Essays / Stories / Testimonies / Articles: up to 4,000 words per story
Drawings / Paintings / Photography / Digital art
Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words per story

Written works must be included in our submission form, not sent separately.

Images must be sent as JPEGs. Other requirements include: 1,500px on the longer side, 300 ppi (resolution), and 5 MB maximum.

We invite you to purchase a copy of one of our publications and check out our blog to better understand the type of artwork we enjoy.

Number of entries per submission

This number depends on the anthology.

Fee

There is no fee to submit to us.

Payment to selected contributors: ongoing royalties + PDF copy of the anthology.

NB: Contributors interested in receiving a PDF copy and royalties are required to make a small donation. The amount is up to you.

What does your donation cover?

Your donation helps cover the costs of publishing the project. This means proofreading, editing, formatting, and uploading the anthology to Draft2Digital, our distributor; as well as cover design and book trailer creation.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What are some of the reasons why you reject submissions?

You didn’t follow or read our guidelines.
You did not send us the right file formats: We can only accept PDF or Word documents for written works, and JPEG files for images.
Your work has been republished more than twice.
You sent us an image that does not meet our requirements (300 ppi, 1,500 pixels on the longer side, and 5MB max).
You are submitting to other publications simultaneously.
Lack of positivity.
Stream of consciousness that looks like a diary entry rather than poetry.
Your work is not suitable for younger readers. We are a family-friendly platform and cannot accept dirty words and erotica.
Your work is too complex for the average reader. As poets and artists, we like flowery writing. But we also know that if a piece is trying to be too smart, it is likely to confuse the reader.
Your writing / poetry is unusually formatted (extreme example here), which makes it/them difficult to include in a digital publication.
Your submission is longer than 4,000 words (essays, short stories), 1,000 words (flash fiction), and 1,500 words (poetry).
Your work has too many typographical and grammatical errors.
You send us the same message repeatedly or spam our inbox / social media accounts to get our attention.
You are rude to us.

Auroras & Blossoms & Blossoms thrives on positivity and inspiration. We are inclusive and patient, and be as helpful and encouraging as possible to the people who submit to us, no matter who they are. However, our policy is that we cannot promote/publish artists whose behavior runs counter to the way they portray themselves through their work.

Any unprofessional behaviors, threats and false accusations will be addressed in the following manner: automatic rejection of your submission, no fee refund, and indefinite ban from submitting to us.

While we understand that mistakes happen, it is your responsibility to read and follow our guidelines. We will no longer contact artists who have incorrectly submitted to us to give them a second chance.

2. Do you accept simultaneous submissions / content published elsewhere?

No, we don’t. We only accept original content.

3. Can I donate and submit my work later?

Yes, as long as you send us your submission within a week of sending your donation.

4. Will a donation ensure my immediate acceptance / publication?

No. If your work is not selected for a current anthology, we might choose to use it in a future one.

5. If my work is accepted, do I have to respond to your acceptance email?

If you have not emailed us back within 14 days, we will consider that as an agreement with our publication decisions. Please check your spam folder, as our message may have landed there.

NB: We receive many submissions. Our number of slots being limited, the publication date we highlight in our email may change. We strongly recommend subscribing to our blog to receive news in your inbox, as we do not have time to contact each artist individually beyond our initial acceptance email.

Requests for submission withdrawals sent after the 14-day window will be subject to a fee to compensate us for our time.

6. Can I withdraw my submission anytime? Will I get a refund?

Yes, you can withdraw your submission anytime. However, we do not refund donations.

7. Can I expect to be paid for publication?

Yes! We are now offering royalties to selected contributors to our anthology, via our distributor Draft2Digital. All you have to do is open your own Draft2Digital account and complete your payment settings and tax interview directly on that site.

The next step will be to send us the email address you used to sign up for the account so we can let D2D know that they can finalize the royalty payment process with you.

Please note the following:

We cannot set up your D2D account for you.
We cannot help with the issues you may encounter with the site. Please contact the support team instead.
D2D will handle royalty payments, not us. D2D will also handle sales reports for your publication, which you can access via your D2D account. Questions about the royalty process should be sent to them, not us.

8. How much can I make for being published in one of your anthologies?

We cannot answer this question directly, as royalty payments depend entirely on sales. However, we offer a very competitive rate — 1% per accepted piece.

9. Do you produce print copies of your anthologies?

No, Auroras & Blossoms is a digital platform. We only release digital copies of our publications, which can be purchased from all major online bookstores. (We do not distribute our books to Amazon, due to issues caused by former contributors.)

Print copies will only be considered if at least 100 copies of an anthology are requested.

10. Do submitters receive a complimentary copy in which they are featured?

Only people who have donated to us will receive a PDF copy of the anthology.

11. Do you offer contributors copies of your publications at reduced prices?

Yes, every time an anthology is released, you will be able to purchase a copy at a reduced price for two weeks.

12. Can I read extracts from the work you publish on your blog?

No. We use our blog to share art-related content, and our news / announcements. We also feature inspirational artists there.

13. Will I lose copyright of my work if it is accepted in one of your anthologies?

A work is automatically protected by copyright when it is created. So, you have nothing to worry about!

You retain all of the publishing rights to your work, so feel free to submit what we feature from you in our anthologies elsewhere. We just ask for first international publication rights, which then revert back to you after three months.

14. Why do you require images that are 300 ppi (resolution), 1,500 pixels on the longer side and less than 5MB in size?

Most smartphones, tablets and point-and-shoot cameras offer a maximum resolution of 72 dpi. Our digital anthologies will be available for purchase from many online stores and platforms like Kobo require 300 ppi for optimal display. Also, some distributors have file size limits, which means that ebook files exceeding a certain size will not be accepted. Further, heavier files incur extra costs, which would force us to increase prices.

15. How do I achieve the 300 ppi resolution you ask for?

Option 1: Use a camera that allows you to take photos in the RAW format. Then, open your image with Lightroom or Photoshop and export / save it as a JPG or JPEG file, selecting 300 ppi (resolution), sRGB (color space) and 1,500 px (long edge).

Option 2: Scan your work at a high resolution (e.g. 600 pixels per inch). Save it as a TIFF file. Then, open your image with Lightroom or Photoshop and export / save it as a JPG or JPEG file, selecting 300 ppi (resolution), sRGB (color space) and 1,500 px (long edge).

15. Will I receive a confirmation email when my submissions have been sent?

Yes. If you do not see anything, just check your spam folder. Our message may have landed there.

No message after 12 hours? You can assume that your submission did not go through. Please contact us.

16. Can I mention Auroras & Blossoms as publishing credits?

Absolutely! If you choose to self-publish a collection that contains a piece of yours that we have published, we ask that you mention the title of the anthology in which you were published. This is to ensure you get the opportunity to have a publishing credit listed in your book.

17. Final note to writers whose work is published in our anthologies

We may minimally edit your published piece, if we feel that it will obviously improve the grammar/flow of your work. This will be at our own discretion and we will only do this to ensure your piece looks professional when published in our digital publications. We will of course respect any style choices you have decided to use within the context/format of your piece of writing.