Submit | Indie Bites

Submit to Indie Bites

Eds: Adie Hart and Josie Jaffrey

Indie Bites is a quarterly fantasy magazine that promotes the work of indie authors. We publish fantasy stories with clever hooks, strong characters, and interesting takes on our issue’s themes.

We accept submissions of unpublished, original short fiction. Submissions must be in the fantasy genre, in English, no longer than 7,500 words, and must fit within at least one of the themes of the relevant issue (for example, the themes for Issue 25 are Assassins & Alchemy). Payment is £5 per piece, plus a share of the donations we have received in the previous quarter.

We are always looking for:

Stories from queer and BIPOC voices.
Hot wizard boyfriends.
Thought-provoking dark fantasy.

While we consider stories with elements of other genres, fantasy MUST be the core genre. The best way to get a sense of what we like is to check out our previous issues.

The following are HARD SELLS that you would be better off placing with an alternate market:

We will consider stories with sexual content, but both our editors are female so we are in particular the wrong audience for fantasy that objectifies women, whether human or fantasy humanoid.
Military or religious themes.
Stories set on spaceships or space-stations. These inevitably skew too far towards sci-fi and away from fantasy.
Poetry.
We are cat lovers, so violence towards cats will be a very hard sell! If you decide to submit regardless, then please include heavy content warnings.

We do not accept submissions authored by or with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

We do not accept erotica or excessive gore.

We do not accept pieces with footnotes, coloured text, bespoke layout, images or varied fonts.

We do not accept submissions from or on behalf of minors.

OPEN SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are currently open for:

Issue 22 (May 2026) - RUINS & RITUALS

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 28 February 2026

Issue 23 (August 2026) - QUESTS & QUARRELS

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 31 May 2026

Future Issues (submissions not yet open)

Issue 24 (November 2026) - SORCERY & SECRETS

Issue 25 (February 2027) - ASSASSINS & ALCHEMY

Fiction Guidelines

Please read ALL of these guidelines carefully. We will reject submissions that do not follow them.

Please email your submission in Modern Manuscript Format as a .DOC or .DOCX file to indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com with a short covering email. Your email MUST state the issue you are submitting for, and MUST include a short description of why your work is appropriate for the themes of that issue.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Please add any appropriate content warnings in your cover email. Some subjects that warnings would be appropriate for include sexual violence, violence towards children or animals, issues with pregnancy/childbirth, and abusive relationships, but this is not an exhaustive list; please use your judgement and err on the side of caution. We are happy to read and accept submissions with dark content, but content warnings are important to allow us to protect both our team and our readers. We reserve the right to reject pieces that have inadequate content warnings.

NO AI: Please copy and paste the following statement into your covering email.

'I confirm that I did not use AI or machine-learning tools to create any part of this submission, and this submission is my own human creation.'

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know ASAP if your work is accepted elsewhere so that we can remove your piece from our reading pile. Please only submit one story at a time. We do not accept resubmissions of the same piece unless we have specifically asked for a revise-and-resubmit. We do not publish reprints.

If we would like to publish your submission, we will ask you to agree to the Terms of Publication for Authors below.

If you have any questions about submitting, please email us at indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com.

Cover Guidelines

We accept one cover design per issue that encapsulates the themes of the relevant issue (for example, the themes for Issue 25 are Assassins & Alchemy). Payment is £5 per piece, plus a share of the donations we have received in the previous quarter.

We do not accept submissions authored by or with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

We do not accept submissions from or on behalf of minors.

Please email your submission attached as a .JPG or .PNG to indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com with a short covering email. Your email MUST state the issue you are submitting for, and MUST include a short description of why your work is appropriate for the themes of that issue.

NO AI: Please copy and paste the following statement into your covering email.

'I confirm that I did not use AI or machine-learning tools to create any part of this submission, and this submission is my own human creation.'

If we would like to publish your submission, we will ask you to agree to the Terms of Publication for Illustrators below.

If you have any questions about submitting, please email us at indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com.

Terms of Publication with Indie Bites

Terms of Publication for Authors

The following terms will apply if we publish your submission in Indie Bites.

You give Indie Bites permission to publish your submission in digital and print format in our anthology, and to use snippets of your submission in our marketing material, until that permission is withdrawn as described below.

Your submission will be EXCLUSIVE to Indie Bites (i.e. you will not make it available elsewhere, free or otherwise) for three months from the date of publication in Indie Bites. After that, you may publish it elsewhere, but please note that back issues of Indie Bites will be available until permissions are withdrawn as described below, so you will not be able to publish your submission with a publishing service that requires exclusivity, like Amazon's KDP Select, until those permissions are withdrawn. If you have previously published your submission (whether through a self-publishing platform or on your own blog) then you must ensure it is not in publication during the period in which it is exclusive to Indie Bites.

After two years have passed since the publication of your submission in an issue of Indie Bites, you can withdraw the permissions you have given us. You might wish to do this in order to publish your submission via KDP Select or another publisher that requires exclusivity. To withdraw those permissions, please give three months' notice by email to the anthology editor at indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com stating your name, the name of your submission and the issue in which it was published. Assuming that the relevant issue has already been in publication for at least two years, we will then do all or some of the following (in each case at your option):
- arrange for the print edition to be taken out of print; and
- amend the digital copy of the issue to remove your submission from it (you will still be listed as a former contributor to that issue).

You confirm that your submission is your own original work, that its publication by Indie Bites will not contravene any third party’s rights (including intellectual property rights, right of privacy or confidentiality, or rights in contract), and that it will not contain any content which is defamatory or otherwise unlawful in any way. If Indie Bites is threatened with or subject to any third party claim arising from the submission or publication of your work, you will indemnify Indie Bites against all costs or damages arising from that claim.

You will receive an honorarium of £5 for each piece of yours that we publish, but you acknowledge that you are not entitled to any royalties from sales of Indie Bites. While we hope that the inclusion of your work in Indie Bites will increase your sales, we cannot guarantee any particular sales increase resulting from its inclusion.

These terms, and any claim in connection with their subject matter, will be governed by the laws of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Terms of Publication for Illustrators

The following terms will apply if we publish your submission in Indie Bites.

You give Indie Bites permission to publish your submission in digital and print format in our anthology in perpetuity, and to use images of it in our marketing material. You cannot revoke this permission without the written consent of our anthology editor.

Your submission will, if accepted, be EXCLUSIVE to Indie Bites (i.e. you will not make it available elsewhere, free or otherwise) for three months from the date of publication. After that, you may publish it elsewhere. If you have previously published your submission (e.g. on your own blog) then you must ensure it is not in publication during the period in which it is exclusive to Indie Bites.

You warrant that your submission is not published elsewhere.

You warrant that your submission is your own original work, that its submission to or publication by Indie Bites will not contravene any third party’s rights (including intellectual property rights, right of privacy or confidentiality, or rights in contract), and that it will not contain any content which is defamatory or otherwise unlawful in any way. If Indie Bites is threatened with or subject to any third party claim arising from the submission or publication of your work, you will indemnify Indie Bites against all costs or damages arising from that claim.

You will receive an honorarium of £5 for each piece of yours that we publish, but you acknowledge that you are not entitled to any royalties from sales of Indie Bites.

These terms, and any claim in connection with their subject matter, will be governed by the laws of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.