If you do not abide by our submissions guidelines ALL your submissions will be deleted unread:

• Stories must be in English.
• Send only one story per issue. Take note of which issue you are submitting for and do not submit another story until we start accepting submissions for the next issue. If you do, all your submissions will be deleted.
• Do not send stories already entered in our International Short Story Contest – they are already automatically considered for inclusion in the magazine.
• To submit your story simply copy and paste your story into the box provided. Don't be worried that the box is only a few lines deep – it can take however much text you want – but please remember our 3,000 words limit.
• Once your text is in the box don't attempt to format it by hand by adding returns, spaces, or breaking up the text in any other way. This makes it very difficult and time-consuming to handle. Use two returns at the end of each paragraph only.
• Don't try and imitate the effect of indented paragraphs – we won't display them like that anyway. New paragraphs should be on a new line with a blank line between, even if only short lines of speech. Breaks in the story sometimes indicated by a blank line between paragraphs must be denoted by three stars ***. Do not put spaces between these three stars.
• To denote italics type [italics start] at the start of the italicised text and [italics end] at the end. 
• To denote bold text type [bold start] at the start of the bold text and [bold end] at the end.
• If you choose to use bold and italic formatting please do so carefully. If this is not done correctly part or all of your story may end up in bold or italics. Submissions which arrive entirely or largely in italics or bold will be rejected.
• Please don't use multiple spaces (including putting two spaces after full stops) – it's very time-consuming to remove them all.
• Do not send submissions written entirely in capitals. They will not be read.
• Do not include any HTML code in your submissions. That means no angle brackets ("<" or ">")!
• By submitting your work you grant firstwriter.com the right to edit your work and publish it online for an unlimited period of time. You retain the right to publish it elsewhere, but you cannot ask for it to be removed from publication or consideration at firstwriter.magazine.
• We will not remove, amend, or discuss the status of any submissions after submission.

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