Submission Guidelines

The Paris Vignette welcomes submissions in English from around the world provided that the writer is a member of the Paris Vignette Writers Collective or has been specifically invited to submit as a guest writer. Contests, however, will be open to all, whether members of the Collective or not. (See here for information about joining the Collective.)

Submissions are read between September 1 and May 29.

At this time, we will only consider works of up to 1200 words. (We may make exceptions for writers whom we have published in the past.)

As a member of the Paris Vignette Writers Collective, you have undoubtedly read enough vignettes on The Paris Vignette to be familiar with the type of work we publish. Only send your best work. Please do not submit more often than one vignette every three months, though you may additionally submit to any contest that we may be holding within that three-month period.

We do not accept previously published material, including web-published or self-published material, unless specifically requested from a guest writer. We do not publish academic essays or book reviews. DO NOT send us the story about how you feel about Paris.

We only accept work in English, though your text may contain the occasional foreign word if necessary for the vignette. Though member writers come from around the world, we typically publish with American spelling and punctuation and do not systematically use the Oxford comma, so we reserve the right to edit accepted work accordingly. You may, however, submit with non-American English spelling and punctuation if that is more natural to you.

Submissions must be the original work of the person submitting the story and must not infringe the copyright or intellectual property rights of any other party. The author is fully responsible for the submitted and eventually published work and agrees to indemnify The Paris Vignette against any claim by any third party arising from any infringement.

Send only one vignette at a time. Our current response time is typically within three weeks of submission. Since that’s relatively short for a literary journal, we ask that you do not send simultaneous submissions.

We only accept electronic submissions sent directly to editor@theparisvignette.com. The subject heading must be: Vignette submission by [your name].

Your vignette must have a title. Use standard fonts. Note word count near the top of the page.Submissions should be single-spaced with a space between paragraphs and without indenting the first line of a paragraph, unless a portion of the vignette requires a different formatting for all or part of it.

In submitting your work, please include a brief cover message indicating whether your submission is fiction or nonfiction so that we may consider it for the proper category. Also note your email address, phone number and postal address. If you also wish to include further information to introduce yourself and your writing background you may do so, but no need for a lengthy bio or a lengthy summary of your vignette.

Upload your submission and cover letter, if any, as a Word (.doc, .docx), rich-text format (.rtf) file or PDF document. Work sent as .Pages, .txt or OpenOffice documents will not be read.

Due to time constraints, we are unable to provide personalized feedback for all submissions, but please know that we appreciate the effort that you’ve made in creating your vignette and in sharing it with us.

Upon acceptance, we offer a brief contract for first publication rights, including the possibility of publishing your work in an anthology. Author retains copyright and agrees that should he or she republish the same or a substantially similar vignette elsewhere, even if part of a larger work, such publication will indicate that the vignette was “First published on The Paris Vignette, TheParisVignette.com” or, if applicable, “This is [or contains] a modified version of a vignette first published on The Paris Vignette, TheParisVignette.com.

When authors submit a story, they retain the copyright, while granting The Paris Vignette a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, publish, and otherwise use the entry on any platform, without time limitation.

Upon publication, we pay a 20€ honorarium per published vignette (text, audio or video) for first publication rights. Payment is made via Paypal. Authors are responsible for any Paypal or exchange fees incurred in that payment. In lieu of payment, you may, if you prefer, attend free of charge one Paris Vignettes Workshop (normal fee is 20€ per session). And you may also kindly refuse payment as a contribution to The Paris Vignette. You will be asked to choose between these options upon acceptance of your vignette.

We may occasionally, with the writer’s permission, republish a vignette that has been published elsewhere. In that case, no payment is made.

If you have one photo to illustrate your vignette (and it must be a photo for which you hold the copyright), please indicate that in your cover letter but do not send the photo until requested to do so. No additional payment is made for photos used to illustrate a vignette.