Looking to submit your poem or story? Here's our guidelines!
In the Collective we feature writing from a vast community of storytellers and poets. And everyone of these talented creators bring unique and fascinating spins and turns to their work.
So are you looking to be a part of that pool of talent? If so, then great! The Collective loves to feature new works, so we’re very excited to have you here!
That being said, you’re probably wondering how to submit your work, and what guidelines you need to follow. Well, don’t you worry. We got you covered!
Jump to: Themes & Genre, Poetry & Short Stories, Prohibited Content or the Submission Form.
Themes & Genre
The Collective prides itself on being inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe(tato). Therefore we prefer to adhere to the core themes of his writing. Below is a list of what we look for:
Death, Loss, Grief, Suffering, Hate, Melancholy
Love, The Human Condition, Madness, Despair
Impermanence, uncertainty, the subconscious self
Gothic atmosphere, potatoes, superstition
Those in no particular order, but we hope they give you an idea of the stories and poems we look to feature.
Featured works should have a darker tone to them, but we sometimes accept lighter ones if they adhere to the themes listed.
However, we may reject some stories based on their genre, if it doesn’t fit the aesthetic of Poe. Below is a list of genres we DO accept:
Gothic, Horror, Paranormal
Detective Fiction, Science Fiction*
Poetry, Adventure, Dark Romanticism
* While Sci-fi is allowed, it should be inspired by how Edgar Allan Poe utilized it in his work. Poe tends to use it in more of a satirical, yet still dark sense.
If any story or poem submitted falls outside the guidelines submitted here, we may encourage you to submit to a different publication instead.
Poetry & Short Stories
It’s already been mentioned before, but we accept two different writing mediums here in the Collective: Poetry and Short Stories.
Poetry: There are no rules on structure, format, or style. It just as to fit within our aforementioned guidelines. However, it shouldn’t be longer than five pages long when you look at it in google docs with 16x font size.
Short Stories: Same deal with the short stories— no rules on structure, format, or style. Just needs to be within our aforementioned guidelines, and should be no longer than 2000 words.
Below is our posting schedule:
As long as we have submissions, we’ll be able to maintain and stick to this schedule. All posts go up at 10:30am PT (12:30pm CT, 1:30pm ET).
Prohibited Content
Before submitting your work to be featured, it’s important to know what we do not allow. The list below is not a conclusive list, and we reserve the right to make changes, or decide as a team whether a submission should be accepted or not.
No Generative-AI: We have a no tolerance policy towards AI, whether it be generated text or image. If we find AI to be in your work, we will not move forward with it.
No Discriminatory Works: Creative pieces featured to the Collective should not be written with the sole purpose to discriminate against others. We have a no tolerance policy towards bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc…
We understand that these can sometimes be used as a storytelling element, and not for the purpose of being discriminatory. As such, we’ll only say no if the piece itself seems to be written with the intent to be discriminatory.No gratuitously sexual and or violent content: While we understand that stories submitted can and should get dark. There is a fine line of what we’re willing to accept. A good rule of thumb is if it doesn’t actually add to the story, don’t put it in.
If the story contains either an excessive amount of the following, or aims to glorify it it, we may not move forward with your story: necrophilia, rape, assault, fetishizing and objectifying, etc…
For any content which discusses potentially triggering subject matter, we may include content warning tags in the post. We’re here to be as accommodating and respectful as possible to others.
The Submission Form
Thanks for hopefully making it all the way through our submission guidelines. All you have to do now is hit the button below and fill out the form. It may take some time for us to get back to you, but we’ll let know if we approved your feature when we can.
We look forward to receiving your submission, and possibly featuring you in our vast Collective!