Stone Soup Contributor Guidelines
How to send creative writing to Stone Soup
How old must I be?
Stone Soup welcomes submissions by children through age 13. If you are over 13 we suggest you search Google for a teen magazine where you can send your work.
What to include:
Include your name, age, home address, phone number, and e-mail address if you have one. Please do not include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Manuscripts are not returned. Send copies of your work, not originals. If we need the original, we will request it. You do not need to include a photo of yourself.
Where to send your work:
Stone Soup Submissions Dept.P.O. Box 83
Santa Cruz, CA 95063, USA
(Please send your work by regular mail; do not send it by Certified Mail or Registered Mail. Thank you.)
E-mail address (Only for contributors living outside of the US or Canada):
A word about e-mail submissions:
We do not accept e-mail submissions from the US or Canada. Because we are a very small company, we’re concerned that if we allowed e-mail submissions, we’d be flooded with material and wouldn’t be able to handle it all. We like to think that serious young authors would be more than willing to polish their work, print it out in a nice format, and mail it to us. We hope you’ll understand.
What happens next:
We only respond to those submissions we are considering for possible publication. If we are considering your work, you will hear from us in four to six weeks; if you do not hear from us, it means we were not able to use your work. Don’t be discouraged! Try again!
General information:
Stone Soup is made up of stories, poems, book reviews, and art by young people through age 13. Although all the writing we publish is in English, we accept work from all over the world. To get an idea of the kind of work we like, please look through our Archive of Children’s Writing.
Writers
Send us stories and poems about the things you feel most strongly about! Whether your work is about imaginary situations or real ones, use your own experiences and observations to give your work depth and a sense of reality. Writing need not be typed, as long as it is legible. If you type your work, please type it double-spaced in a plain, medium-sized font. We can consider writing in languages other than English; include a translation if possible. The maximum length we can publish is about 2500 words; we have no minimum length. It’s OK to send more than one piece of writing in the same envelope. Please don’t send us work you are also sending to other magazines. Send your work to one magazine at a time.
Illustrators
If you would like to illustrate for Stone Soup, send editor Gerry Mandel three samples of your artwork, along with a letter saying what kinds of stories you would like to illustrate. Although we sometimes use simple line drawings in Stone Soup, we are especially interested in artists who can draw or paint complete scenes in color. At least one of your samples should include people, since most of the stories we publish, even the animal stories, have people in them. Send us samples that fill the entire page with detail, including the background. Please include your name, age, birthdate, address, telephone number, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for our response to you.
Writers who illustrate their own stories
Would you like to illustrate your own story? It’s OK to send us a story illustrated by yourself or a friend. If we like the story and the illustrations, we will publish them both. If we like the story but not the illustrations, we will find our own illustrator for your story. If we like the illustrations but not the story, we will contact you to see if you’d like to become a Stone Soup illustrator. Remember to send copies of your artwork, not originals.
Book reviewers
If you are interested in reviewing books for Stone Soup, write Ms. Mandel for more information. Tell her a little about yourself, why you want to be a book reviewer, and what kinds of books you like to read. Be sure to include your name, age, birthdate, address, telephone number, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for our response to you. You can read reviews from past issues in our Archive of Children’s Writing.
Payment
All contributors whose work is accepted for publication receive a certificate, two complimentary copies, and discounts on other purchases. In addition, contributors of stories, poems and book reviews are paid $40 each; illustrators are paid $25 per illustration.
Note: We’re always looking for new writers and artists, and we really want to encourage all our young readers to send us their work. However, please keep in mind that we receive an average of 250 submissions a week; we are only able to publish a small percentage of the work we receive. Send us your work with a spirit of adventure, and try not to be too disappointed if we can’t use it.