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02/01/07: I know, this is what you're really interested in. Well, enjoy.

02/28/07: Changes below that should make it easier for you to submit.

To be a successful writer, you need talent, persistence, and luck. 10X10X10 is looking for work from writers who have plenty of the first two but none of the latter. Specifically, you must have written at least 10 stories, novels, or works of creative nonfiction, and you must have had 10 rejections or more. The requirement of 10 stories rejected 10 times each is a thing of the past. 10 stories, 10 rejections, that's it. The story you send me is not required to be a rejected story.  

Submission periods are rolling; until I am buried and can’t read any more, there will be no closed dates. The mag won’t be released on a regular basis--when I have 10 stories that I think are worth publishing I’ll release an issue. Hence acceptance will be on something of a first-come-first-serve basis. I will try to keep to a two-week response time and I will make comments.

I am looking for anything quality: literary fiction, genre fiction, creative nonfiction, poetic prose, absurdism, erotica, humor, pretty much anything. I want 10X10X10 to be eclectic. DO NOT SEND the following: vampire fiction (sorry), stories with excessive machismo, westerns, splatter gore for its own sake, silly romance, poetry of any kind (doubly sorry), pornographic erotica (i.e. if it could appear in Penthouse I don’t want it), stories with poor grammar or spelling. Send me good work. I want to show the world that authors who are constantly rejected are nevertheless good authors. The minimum quality I’ll accept should be better than Dean Koontz.

Email submissions only, to 10x10x10submissions [at] gmail.com. Attach your story in .rtf format, or send me an explanation of why it’s impossible for .doc files to have viruses. I am looking for stories under 10K, but stories under 5K are preferred—we all know the challenges of reading a long story on the internet. Please be clever and friendly in your cover letter, not stiff, formal or boastful; make me like you and want to read your story. Include a shortish list of the publications that have rejected you (obviously you should have at least 10, but I don't need that long a list). If there’s no text in the body of your email, I will presume that you haven’t read these guidelines and will delete your email with all speed. I don’t care how your work is formatted, as long as it is tidy and makes sense.

DO NOT SEEK OUT MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS AND SEND SUBMISSIONS THERE OR YOU WILL RECEIVE A STRONGLY WORDED LETTER AND MANY ILL THOUGHTS IN YOUR DIRECTION. IT IS NOT INNOVATIVE, IT IS INTRUSIVE.

No money will be available to contributors unless I try doing a contest, which I seriously doubt will happen, or a print mag, which is the smokiest of pipe dreams. The point of 10X10X10 is exposure for writers who have talent but few credits, not monetary gain. All rights will revert to the author after publishing (only nonexclusive electronic rights offered). The work will remain available in the 10X10X10 archive unless the author submits a request for removal.

If you have electronic artwork, I’d like to see it, for the sake of spicing up the site. This won’t be a competitive part of the mag, and I’m not interested in specifically showcasing art, but if you have stuff that you’d like to see as part of 10X10X10, do send it along.

Best of luck to you all.