Writer's Guidelines (How to Send Work)

Writer's Guidelines

What to Write

We are interested in short stories, articles, poetry, and book reviews written by Christian students (ages 12-18).

To be considered as a book reviewer, please send us a sample of a book review that you have already written. Then if we are interested in your work, we will contact you with the title of a book that we would like you to read and review for our magazine. Also, see our Book Reviews page for important tips.

Your work should be guided by Christian themes such as: truth, honesty, humility, love, kindness, faithfulness, purity, courage, service, obedience, honoring parents, Creation, sanctity of human life, and the sovereignty of God.

See our FAQ's and 10 Tips for Writers for more about being a Christian writer.

Format

The maximum length we publish is about 3000 words for short stories and articles, and about 300 words for poems.

Submit original work only (or give proper credit for information you have quoted, using standard foot-notes or end-notes).

Do not submit the same work to another publisher and also to us at the same time. Only send the same work to one publisher at a time.

Please email your work to:

We prefer that you paste your written work into the body of your email message. If you send your work as an attached file, we may not be able to open it (due to differences in file types and software versions).

If you do not have access to email, you may mail your work to:

Young Christian Writers

P.O. Box 34116

Knoxville, Tennessee 37930

When sending hard copies (paper), please type your work with a 10-12 point size regular font, or hand-write with careful printing. Use only one side of the paper and double space your lines on each page.

Include your personal information

- first and last name

- age

- grade

- home address

- phone number

- email address

- name or title of your work

- type of work you are sending (story, article, poem, book review, etc.)

We will respect your privacy and not share your personal information with any other organizations.

For your convenience, you may use our Personal Information Form to record your information.

Replies

Due to the large amount of submissions we receive, we cannot reply to everyone who sends us their work. But if we are interested in publishing your work, we will respond within six weeks of the date we receive your submission. We truly appreciate the young authors who send us their work, and we apologize that we cannot reply to each one of you.

Publishing

If we choose to publish your work, we will send you a Publishing Agreement Form (usually within four to six weeks after we receive your work). We use much of the work that is sent to us, but we cannot guarantee that we will find a place for every submission that we receive. If we do not send you a Publishing Agreement Form, it probably means that we could not use your work. If that happens, please feel free to try again with another story (or article, book review, poem, etc.). You have gifts and talents that God wants to use for His glory, so don't give up!

Payment & Terms

If we accept your work for publication, we will send you a free copy of our magazine. In addition, we pay $10-20 for short stories, articles and book reviews; $10-15 for poetry. Payment amounts vary based on length and quality of work.

We normally purchase exclusive rights to publish work in our magazine, website and other publications. By “exclusive” rights we mean that Young Christian Writers is the only publisher that has the right to publish that work. But we are happy to discuss an agreement for other publishing rights when we are asked.

These writer's guidelines and payment terms may change without notice.

Updated: May 2, 2010