Send us your dead doves, your blorbos, your plinkos, your wretched meow meows yearning to be free; that thing you wrote that made you think, “I don’t know where this belongs”; the stuff you’d never show anyone you know IRL. Give us your shameless, self-indulgent smut; the manuscript to the video essay you dictated to your YouTube subscribers in your head; your thoughtful explorations of trauma and identity; your Pepe Silvia wall; your sci-fi, your fantasy, your romance, your realism. We want anything and everything. As long as you identify as a fan, we want to read your work.

We are currently looking for

• Short fiction (only 1 piece at a time, max 15k words; if flash [under 1k], you may submit up to 5 pieces in one document)
• Nonfiction (personal essays, articles, or meta, max 15k words)

Guidelines

• Your work cannot be published or posted anywhere else. If you’ve posted a work on any social platform, even if you take it down, for legal reasons, we cannot accept it. This means you can’t delete a work from AO3 and file off the serial numbers to send to us.
• Your work must stand on its own as an original piece, although we of course welcome common fanfiction tropes (or the subversion thereof), and works that feel fanfiction-y but contain original characters and worlds. Again, legal reasons.
• You must include some information about your relationship to fandom in your cover letter. This is a magazine for publishing the original work of fans. If you don't identify as a fan, we can't accept your work.
• We don't need content warnings, but if you'd prefer to offer them, you can do so in the cover letter.
• Unfortunately, we won’t be able to accept all work or reply personally to all submissions.
• Submit only once per issue. If your work has been accepted in a previous issue, please wait at least a year before submitting again.
• We welcome simultaneous submissions. This means you’re free to submit to other magazines, but please withdraw your piece as soon as possible if your work gets accepted elsewhere.
• We take first North American serial rights. This means we can’t accept work that has been previously published in any way.
• You must be 18 or older to submit.
• We are able to offer our contributors a small honorarium in USD and a free copy of the issue.

If you have questions or would like clarification on any of the above, email oficmagazine@gmail.com or send us an ask.

Fee waiver

We publish original fiction written by people who participate in transformative fandom. Unfortunately we receive many submissions from people who don't know what that means, and we spend a not insignificant amount of time reading submissions of writers who don't understand OFIC's mission. That said, we would like our submissions to remain free for fanpeople. For a fee waiver, please email us (oficmagazine@gmail.com) a fanfic rec or link us to fanart or a fanvid you enjoy. All funds go to OFIC's operational costs.

You know those 20k one-shots that give you a reading hangover for days? Those are the vibes we're looking for in our 2024 novella issue.  

What we value most is an earnest portrayal of character, interesting relationship dynamics, and well-crafted prose that prioritizes clarity and voice. And if you want to add a truly tasteless amount of smut, that's fine too. 

Issue #12 will be published July 1, 2025.

Guidelines

• Novellas must be between 15,000 and 35,000 words.
• If you've submitted to us previously, you can submit again if your piece has undergone significant revision.
• Your work cannot be published or posted anywhere else. If you’ve posted a work on any social platform, even if you take it down, for legal reasons, we cannot accept it. This means you can’t delete a work from AO3 and file off the serial numbers to send to us.
• Your work must stand on its own as an original piece, although we of course welcome common fanfiction tropes (or the subversion thereof), and works that feel fanfiction-y but contain original characters and worlds. Again, legal reasons.
• Unfortunately, we won’t be able to accept all work or reply personally to all submissions.
• We welcome simultaneous submissions. This means you’re free to submit to other magazines/presses, but please withdraw your piece as soon as possible if your work gets accepted elsewhere.
• We take first North American serial rights. This means we can’t accept work that has been previously published in any way. It also means you can publish your novella elsewhere after we've published it.
• We are able to offer our contributors a small honorarium of a half cent per word (USD) and a free copy of the issue.

Manuscript formatting

Please provide the following as front matter of your manuscript:

1. A title page with your contact info. Your AO3 handle/social media can go here if you're comfortable sharing that, as well as if you'd like to publish under a pseud or pen name. Please also include the word count.
2. A synopsis of the story. This doesn't have to be fancy or professional-sounding. In fact the closer it sounds to a tumblr shitpost, the better. Pretend your best friend has just asked, "So what's your book about?" The synopsis would be the long answer/tea spill that follows. It should include all major plot beats (even if that involves spoilers). No page limit, but it shouldn't be super long, up to 3ish pages, preferably 1-2. 

You can format it however you like as long as the font is readable. Double-spaced preferred. Please do not use two spaces after a period.

If you have any questions, please contact us at oficmagazine@gmail.com. 

To apply, please provide an informal cover letter (instructions in form) and a brief (500-1000 words) sample of your writing. 

For your writing sample, you may provide:

• An original short story or an excerpt of something longer, or
• Fanfiction of any kind, a one-shot or excerpt of something longer

No trigger warnings needed. Your work may be published/posted elsewhere. 

The form asks for your name, but you can provide a pen name or pseudonym if you prefer.