Submission Guidelines

Looking for TC's Contest Guidelines or information about Absolute Blank articles?

Questions about submitting can be emailed to the editors or posted at Chasms & Crags. Spamming the editors with manifestos, advertisements, and the like will result in you being added to our ignore list.

Where to send your submission:

Send submissions to submitattoasted-cheesedotcom TC does not accept "snail mail" submissions.

Submissions will be shortlisted at the end of each month. If you have not heard from us by the 15th of the month following when you submitted (e.g. if you submit in January, you should hear from us by February 15), re-send your submission and include a note saying that you did not receive a shortlist notification the first time you submitted. Note: You will no longer receive an autoresponse when you submit. In an effort to reduce spam, our service provider has eliminated the autoresponse option.

We strongly suggest that you follow our tips for email submissions to ensure that you receive responses to your submissions. Also, please note: acceptances that are bounced back to us become rejections; if your primary email account has a spam filter that requires correspondents to register before their mail goes through, we advise you to get a webmail account (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail) from which to send your submissions. You should also know that AOL (a) truncates long paragraphs and (b) frequently bounces mail sent from toasted-cheese.com addresses.

How to format your submission/e-mail:

  1. Your subject line must be one of the following:

    • Submission: Flash
    • Submission: Fiction
    • Submission: CNF
    • Submission: Poetry

    The filter we use on our incoming e-mail recognizes the word "submission." Titling your submission other than the above is a good way to get it lumped in with our hundreds of daily spam messages and subsequently deleted.

  2. Begin your submission with a cover letter that includes your name, e-mail address, and a short biography (100 words maximum).

  3. Paste your submission in the body of the e-mail message (i.e. NO ATTACHMENTS). Paragraphs should be separated by a single blank line. In other words: When you reach the end of a paragraph, hit "enter" twice, then begin the next paragraph. There is no need to indent.

    If this is your first time submitting, send a test e-mail to yourself first to check that your e-mail program isn't inserting extra returns, cutting off paragraphs, or otherwise making your submission difficult to read. Submissions that arrive as one long paragraph will be not be read.

What we accept:

TC accepts previously unpublished flash fiction, fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Our maximum word count for fiction and creative nonfiction is 5000 words; for flash fiction our maximum is 500 words. When submitting flash, fiction and CNF, include the word count in your cover letter.

We accept one submission per author per submission period. A submission may be one (1) work of flash fiction, fiction, or creative non-fiction or one - three (1-3) poems during each submission period.

Toasted Cheese accepts submissions on a rotating basis. Our reading periods are:

We do not accept simultaneous submissions. Withdrawing a submission because it has been published elsewhere will disqualify you from future submissions.

Rights:

By submitting your work to Toasted Cheese, you grant Toasted Cheese exclusive electronic rights to your work for a period of 90 days, should your work be accepted, as well as a non-exclusive right to maintain a copy of published work in the literary journal archives indefinitely. Effective January 2008, you also grant Toasted Cheese the right to post an audio version (podcast) of your work on the site (authors of work published 2001–2007 will be contacted to obtain permission for this use). You retain all other rights, including the right to publish the work in non-electronic form at any time. Any subsequent publication should include the credit "originally published in Toasted Cheese."

"Exclusive electronic rights" means that you agree not to re-publish your work elsewhere online while the issue featuring your work is current. "Publish" means any public display of your work, and includes your personal website and posting to message boards. You are welcome to link to the page featuring your work instead. Once the issue has been archived, you are free to re-publish your work online.

What happens to your submission:

We send out preliminary notifications at the end of each month. Regardless of the status of your submission, please wait until the next submission period to submit again.

As a collective, the editors choose the submissions they think are most appropriate for Toasted Cheese. Each editor may also choose an "editor's pick." Acceptance and rejection letters are sent out in early February, May, August and November, i.e. one month prior to publication.

Each issue's authors are also announced in the newsletter (subscribe) and on TC's main page (subscribe to the feed).

If you decide to submit to Toasted Cheese after an acceptance or rejection, create a fresh submission e-mail. If you reply directly to the notification that you received, only the editor who sent out the notification letters will receive it and we will be unable to consider it as a collective.

What we're looking for:

Our focus is on quality of work, therefore the number of pieces published in each issue will vary. We accept approximately 5% of the submissions we receive.

Help improve TC's listing at Duotrope's Digest. Please report rejections as well as acceptances. (Reports can be submitted anonymously.) Thanks!

Flash Fiction: Flash fiction must be complete and compelling in addition to being concise.

Fiction: We encourage submissions from innovative writers in all genres. No "excerpts" or "chapters" unless they read like finished stories in and of themselves. No fan fiction.

Creative Nonfiction: Creative nonfiction is a non-fiction (true) story told in a creative way, i.e. using fiction techniques. TC does not publish essays, journalistic or academic nonfiction.

Poetry: We welcome submissions of avant-garde, free verse, haiku and traditional poetry. Restrict the use of end-line rhyme to established forms such as sonnets. No sentimental, hackneyed, rhyme-for-the-sake-of-rhyme poetry, e.g. greeting card type verse.

TC does not restrict publication based on subject matter, however, due to the nature of our audience and our service provider's Terms of Service, we do not publish work that includes excessively graphic sex or violence.

We encourage unpublished writers to submit to Toasted Cheese. We are impressed by quality writing, not by a list of credentials.

Letters to the editor(s) regarding submissions may be published in whole or in part. Names and other identifying information will be withheld unless the author's express permission is obtained.

Currently, there is no remuneration other than recognition. Your support can help change this.