Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity seeks hard science fiction stories with a slant toward the future human condition, or stories with future science as a main theme. We often look for stories that combine these ideas. Another possibility would be a theme in sci-fi that has not been done previously.

We also like time travel stories if they are original, and straight adventure stories of space exploration, discovery, or invention.

Our DVD collection includes films such as
'Red Planet', '2010', 'Gattaca', 'Brave New World', '1984', and the like. This should tell you something about us. Our heroes are classic writers such as
Ray Bradbury, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison,
H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and
Philip K. Dick, among others.

Please Read the Following Before Using Our Submissions Link

                                         What we DON'T like:

Stories that read like bad pulp fiction or cowboys-in-space. If you send us a story where characters refer to each other as 'Cap'n' or 'Boss', we're usually going to reject it.

Stories full of the seven-words-you-can't-say-on-television. Our eyes are drawn to the words, instead of your story, which usually results in rejection. We also reject stories with unnecessarily overt sexual themes.

Aliens with tentacles, especially ones with personal issues.

Contrived-universe stories, unless they are very original. (a contrived-universe story is when the writer creates whole new worlds and societies that have no present base in reality in any form. 'Dune' is a good example.)
Of course, if you write like Frank Herbert, we'd probably make an exception.
 
Anything that even RESEMBLES fantasy. We don't have anything against fantasy.
We just don't publish it.

                                              What we DO like:

Showing readers possible futures, given the course of present events, and presented intelligently.

Realistic space exploration tales, if they have a unique slant or an adventurous theme.

Stories containing almost any idea in the hard science fiction genre that has not been done previously.

Time travel tales with a new slant.

Your vision of the future, perhaps.

                                                       Rights

We believe that the more exposure a story receives, the better it is for the author.

Escape Velocity asks only for one-time print rights, one-time rights for the eBook version, and the right to possibly include your story or article in a future
'best-of-Escape-Velocity' issue.

You are free to submit the story elsewhere anytime, even if we've accepted it already.

We reserve the right to edit your story (within reason) for content and length. However, if your story needs major changes, we would likely either reject it or send it back and let YOU make the changes. We're busy enough...

                                                      Payments 

EV pays 10usd and a free copy of the magazine to contributors in the Short Story category.  

Letters to the Editor are not paid, but we encourage you to send one. Almost all are printed. The July issue will be the first issue with this column.

Film and Book Reviews: No payment. We do run a short bio that accompanies your review, and a link to your website if you wish. In the eBook version of EV, this is an active hyperlink.

Non-Fiction Articles: See below for details.

                                        Non-Fiction Articles

All writers must submit a detailed proposal in advance for articles, firm or book reviews. You do not have to write the article first. Send a proposal, and we will take a look.
If your proposal is accepted, we will ask to see the article when it is ready.
Chances are good that if we like your proposal, the actual article may be published. Payment is the same as for short stories.

Hint: We receive many proposals for articles. The majority of them are dry recitations that read like your last college paper. EV seeks to entertain readers, not just inform them.

Article categories: Future Science, Film Reviews, Book Reviews, Historical or Current Space, and Future Space. Some biographical articles are considered, especially if the subject is news-current. (No articles on the life of H.G. Wells, for example)

Book and Film Reviews must be accompanied with one image of either the book cover or a movie poster. Make sure you use an image that is in Creative Commons, Public Domain, or you have permission to use. Please give verifiable credit when necessary.
Book and Film Reviews are not paid.

Articles should be slanted toward sci-fi readers, not writers.

Images for your article should be resoluted to at least 150dpi and saved in Windows bitmap, PNG, or another loss-less format. No JPEG or GIF images are accepted unless file size and resolution are of sufficient quality for book print use.

We reserve the right to insert additional images to help illustrate your article.

             Short Story/Article Submissions to Escape Velocity

Email submissions only.

Stories must be between 1,500 and 7,500 words and attached as a Word document or RTF to your email. 

Query first on articles.

Submission Hint: shorter, more intense stories have a better chance of acceptance, because we are quite stingy with space in the magazine. Basically, the closer your story approaches our maximum word count, the more we are going to screen it for originality and quality. Not that we don't do this with shorter stories...we do. If you want more space, your story must be top-flight. So send the best you can offer.  

EV (and Adventure Books in general) are known for prompt responses to authors.
We usually answer queries or make decisions on submissions within fourteen days, unless we are up in the mountains camping or something.

In the subject box of your email type 'Escape Velocity Submission' or 'EV Submission'. Failure to type one of these into the subject box could result in deletion by our ruthless spam filters. DO NOT paste your story into the email. The characters come through very badly when you do this from Word.

Please tell us a bit about your story and yourself in the email message. Include the address of your website, if you have one. This must be your personal webpage or blog, not a link to one of your books at a printer, for example.

All submissions MUST contain the mailing address and full name of the author on the first page of the manuscript. If you use a pen name, please let us know which name you wish to appear in the magazine, and which name is your legal name for payment. You can add this information to the title page if you wish. 

One space after a period in your manuscript, please. Not two.

To submit a story click HERE. Or use the big link at the top of this page.

You may want to print up a copy of this page for reference.

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