Category Archives: Paying Market

Open Call Ends August 31, 2020

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Sunspot Literary Journal is dedicated to amplifying diverse multinational voices. We offer an Editor’s Prize of $50 for the annual edition. Artwork selected for a cover will be paid $20. Visit SunspotLit.com to download digital editions for free.

All types of prose from flash fiction and poetry to stories and essays, including scripts and screenplays, are welcome. We also accept long-form, novelette, and novella length works up to 49,000 words. Translations welcome, especially with access to the piece in the author’s original language.

One piece per prose submission; two works of visual art per submission.

Use the correct form according to the length of your prose and poetry. Works longer than allowed by the form used will be declined unread.

The Fast Flux options offer a two-week turnaround, with most responses going out within one week.

All submissions must be unpublished (except on a personal blog). Simultaneous submissions welcome. Submit as many times as you like.

Submissions must be sent through Sunspot’s Submittable page.

Inception Contest Offers $250 to Authors and Artists Plus Lower Fee

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Beginnings have the power to spark passion or curiosity. They might immediately connect a specific place and time with an emotional tone. The best offer a feeling, atmosphere, action, or image that is gripping.

Too often in commercially driven industries, this results in sensationalism. But meaning, thoughtfulness, emotions, or shadings of tone…that is, connection…are the impulses that draw audiences into the moment. A poem handles this differently than a flash piece, which handles an opening differently than a novel. The first photo, painting or frame presented in a gallery, series, or collection strives for the same intent. Openings contain a spark that promises to continue to burn.

For Sunspot Lit’s 2020 Inception contest, send your best opening. There are no restrictions on theme, category, or the length of the piece or collection from which the beginning comes. Word limit is 250 for prose, 25 words for poetry. Graphic novel entries should be the first page (unlimited number of panels on that page) with a maximum of 250 words…so, cut the number of panels in order to meet the word count, if needed. Visual art entries should be the first in a series, the first in a gallery lineup, the first photo in a themed collection, etc. Entries are limited to one image with up to 250 words to describe the series, lineup or collection.

For 2020, the entry fee has been reduced due to COVID’s economic impact.

Open: July 1, 2020 (submit here)

Close: September 30, 2020

Entry fee: $5

Prize: $250 cash, publication for the winner, publication offered to runners-up and finalists.

Single Word Contest Accepts Art

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Sunspot Literary Journal’s Single Word contest is open to artists, photographers, and collage artists as well as authors. Link here for full details.

Submit one image and up to 250 words describing the artwork’s relationship to the single word.

Open Call Closing Feb 29

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Sunspot Literary Journal is dedicated to amplifying diverse multinational voices. We offer an Editor’s Prize of $50 for the annual edition. Artwork selected for a cover will be paid $20. Visit SunspotLit.com to download digital editions for free.

All types of prose from flash fiction and poetry to stories and essays, including scripts and screenplays, are welcome. We also accept long-form, novelette, and novella length works. Translations welcome, especially with access to the piece in the author’s original language.

One piece per prose submission, including poetry; two works of visual art per submission.

Use the General form for prose from 501 to 3,500 words. Flash fiction and works longer than 3,500 words must be submitted through one of the other forms. If they are submitted through the General form, they will be declined unread.

Using the Fast Flux (two-week turnaround or less)? Select the correct fee option to avoid delays.

All submissions must be unpublished (except on a personal blog). Simultaneous submissions welcome. Submit as many times as you like.

Closes February 29, 2020 at midnight.

Keep Art Alive

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Fall 2019 Front Cover-page-0Sunspot Literary Journal publishes five times per year. Four of those editions are free digital version that are available on the website. One is their annual print edition, which is distributed to booksellers around the world.

Sunspot speaks truth to power by using the power of every voice. In their first year, they’ve produced essays by a woman writing about life in the Jim Crow South, an interview with a Ugandan forced to become a child soldier, stories about breaking free from abuse, Daliesque fiction, and art from emerging and established creators.

You can help change the world through words and art. Consider running an ad in the newsletter or magazine, purchasing a copy of the 2019 annual edition (currently available only for preorder), sending a contribution through Paypal, or filling the tip jar on Submittable.

Sunspot Issue 3 Free Download

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Once Sunspot Lit opened up to even longer works than before, writers sent in spectacular stories ranging from flash up to novella length. So, just in time for fall, the digital edition has doubled in size over the first two quarters. Thanks to all our creative contributors for making that happen!

Our dedication to opening up the journal to worldwide audiences continues with two special dual-language presentations.

First up is a story called “Other People’s Land.” Originally produced by a Tahitian publisher, here it’s presented in Fench and as an English translation. Both the author Claudine Jacques and translator Patricia Worth were instrumental in pulling together both versions as well as arranging permission from Au vent des îles.

Second is our first nonfiction piece in the form of an interview. Opwonya Innocent was born in a time of great civil unrest in Uganda. Abducted at the age of ten, he was forced to become a child soldier in a rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. Coauthor Kevin McLaughlin facilitated a conversation between Sunspot and Opwonya. The interview is presented in English and the Luo language of Opwonya’s people.

Visit Sunspot’s website to download the free edition. You can also leave a tip to help keep art alive through the Paypal link of the primary funding source, or through the Submittable tip jar.

Paying Market for Artists, Photographers

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art-1867899_1920Sunspot Literary Journal has begun paying for artwork or photos used on its cover.

The cover is selected from the pool of submissions accepted for publication every quarter.

Once a year, the magazine produces a print version. One of the pieces of art published in that year’s editions is selected as that cover. It might be one already used as a digital cover, or it might be a different one.

So, your accepted artwork has two opportunities to be selected for a cover. And yes, if the same piece is selected twice, two payments will be made.

The payment is currently $20. Sunspot will add payments for all contributors, and increase the amount of those payments, as funding grows.

Check out their website, or head over to Submittable to send in a piece of art or a photograph.

Sunspot Lit Inaugural Edition Free Download

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V1 I1 March 2019 Cover ImageThe inaugural edition of Sunspot Literary Journal is now available. Featuring art, flash fiction, poetry, photos, short stories, and essays from around the world.

Download the PDF free on SunspotLit.com under the Editions tab. Newsletter subscribers get early access, direct delivery of the quarterly editions to their inbox, and a carefully curated selection of news about creativity in the world.

Check back on the website as the journal selects specific artists and authors from the inaugural edition for a Spotlight feature.

Sunspot’s current open call closes May 31, 2019. Don’t miss the $100 for 100 Words contest. This is a paying market.

100 Bucks for 100 Words Writing Contest

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greeting-1936817_1280Sunspot Literary Journal currently has three contests open to authors and artists. The newest pays $100 for 100 words. Continue reading →