Submit a Story

Mission

In the twenty-first century, short fiction has become a devalued commodity. We intend to change that.

Through shrewd selection, editing, and packaging, Vigilante Magazine is seeking to earn readers' loyalty and get eyes on writers' work by cutting through PC noise and academic pretension.

Although Vigilante is styled as a latter-day pulp magazine, we do not want to merely recycle themes from the past. In addition to good old-fashioned entertainment, we would like to create space for writers to innovate and address modern issues.

Our editorial staff consists of renegade novelist and publisher Matthew Louis, NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author Vincent Zandri, and writer and raconteur Philip M. Smith, who is the managing editor. Being that we are writers as well as fans of the short-story form, don’t be surprised to see our work appear alongside yours in the pages of Vigilante.

Guidelines

We are seeking stories that evince the author-enthusiasm and focus on craft that marked short fiction in the “golden era,” when writers actually paid their bills by working in this medium.

Although any approach or device that the author can make work is acceptable, you could do worse than bearing Kurt Vonnegut’s eight rules for storytelling in mind. (Vonnegut began his writing career selling stories to pulp magazines in the 1950s.)

Beyond the requirement that the reader is engaged throughout, we place only two restrictions on your art: it must not “break the fourth wall” by overtly or implausibly advancing a political agenda—especially of the “woke” variety; and it must not devolve into pornography or other gratuitous appeals to the baser instincts. Your story may, if necessary according to its internal logic, get an R rating, but never an X rating.

We want flash fiction of 1,000 words or less, or short fiction up to 5,000 words.

Send all manuscripts to:

vigilantesubmissions@gmail.com

Please use the following subject line format: Submission - [title] by [author]

Note: Flash fiction is a great way to break the ice, and has a lower barrier to entry, as we intend to regularly publish flash fiction here.

Publishing Terms

All accepted work will be published as follows: all flash fiction and some short fiction, determined according to editor discretion, will appear on this Substack. We will publish all accepted stories in a tri-annual journal, to be released in print and e-book editions on April 1, August 1, and December 1.

We pay $5 per 1,000 words, with the payment tier rounded to the nearest 1,000. We pay via PayPal or Venmo.

Publication in Vigilante will also make authors eligible to appear with Philip M. Smith on the Vigilante podcast, to promote their work or to simply have a fun discussion.

Simultaneous submissions are permitted. By submitting you attest that you have full rights to and ownership of the work in question, and grant us publishing rights only as described above. Please do not submit work that is already in circulation elsewhere—especially online—and upon acceptance we ask that you don’t publish the same story elsewhere for one year.

Final Note on Short Fiction

Writers should be aware that there is a limited market for short fiction, and the market is flooded. Our goal is to present short fiction in such a way that it actually gets read. We are paying our nominal amount to show our appreciation to those who love to read and write as much as we do, but our real offer to the writer is increased exposure, a chance to learn and hone their craft, and partnership in building a viable short-fiction platform.