What we want:
We’re looking for thought-provoking and entertaining stories, though ones which might be a tad different from what you normally read in a woman’s magazine. They should be the sort of length that would make easy reading whilst you drink a cup of coffee, even if you linger a while, but without you needing to rent-a-table.
So, no more than 3000 words. Shorter stories and flash fiction are naturally very welcome.
How to submit
Please submit via Duosuma. Note, it is free to submit. But there is a Tip Jar if you would like to shout us a coffee! Duosoma saves us time but does cost us a few pence for each submission.
What happens next
We’ll read your story. If we like it and plan to publish it we’ll let you know and if we don't like it we'll let you know. If your story fits our imprint and is of publishable quality we will keep it in an archive for one month, after which we wil reject it. If you manage to place your story elsewhere, please let us know the title and the day you submitted and we'll remove it from the archive. Stories are sheduled for publication or rejected within a month but sometimes we have a surge or a dearth in submissions.
Each day we publish the best of the day's submissions . If we have no submissions on particular day we'll look in the archive and pick a particular story we like.
We usually schedule stories a few days in advance. This helps us to guarantee a daily story.
If your story is very seasonal, we'll schedule if for a a particular date or time of year.
Author compensation
Each year we’ll publish a volume of “The Best of” which will be sold as a trade book If you are in the volume you will have a share of the profits.
You may advertise yourself in a 50 word bio, including your web site details, if your story is over 1,000 words. If it is shorter, you still may include a link to your website. Both will be displayed at the end of your story. Our editing process will include some work on your bio to maximise its effect.
Copyright issues
By submitting and accepting our editing process you are indicating that you are willing to let CaféLit publish your work.
Copyright remains with you and you are free to publish your story elsewhere. Do check with any other publisher, however, that they are happy that we are also publishing your work. We like to keep your work on our pages for at least 365 days. After that, it will still stay there unless you ask us to remove it. We do ask, however, that you let us display your work for a year.
Something Quirky
Each story will be assigned the name of a drink. Something light and frothy might be a hot chocolate. A dark piece of flash fiction could be an espresso. Something good for the soul would be a mint tea.
You may assign your story a drink. We reserve the right to alter the assignment.
Please see further information for contributors.