Submissions

Submissions are the core of The Yard: Crime Blog . Send us your poetry, fiction and non-fiction. We will read your submission and get back to you as soon as possible. Please look through the Submission Guidelines below. We look forward to hearing from you.

We publish Crime Fiction, True Crime and Horror. If crime is involved, we probably will look at it, no matter what genre. Detective, Noir, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Westerns, Spies, Superheroes, Romance, whatever. If someone is committing a crime, it’s in our wheelhouse. Don’t forget True Crime.

Submission Guidelines

These are the guidelines for submitting to The Yard. It is our intent to try and give every writer a fair treatment.

Please use Times New Roman in 12 pt font. Double Spaced. Send a Word document, or other standard attachment. If you use certain programs for writing or submitting, it could cause problems with posting, opening and/or formatting. We will try to fix it, but it could lead to rejection.

We don’t accept AI.

Unless you want to pay a $15 AI fee through PayPal, and we will label it as AI.

We will try to get to you in a timely manner. Simultaneous submissions are fine. But, please let us know if it is accepted elsewhere.

Submissions are free

If you want your submission read faster and receive editorial feedback if rejected it is a $10 read and feedback fee. We only give feedback if your story is rejected. The fee is non-refundable. Send it to Paypal: The.Yard@mail.com when you submit. Let us know you want the fast read and editorial feed back in your cover email. This avoids confusion.

Do not submit things published elsewhere unless it’s your own blog, or if it has been removed or legally able to be published again. We will give you an acceptance agreement if you are accepted.

Give us a 3rd person bio with your submission, and make sure we have email contact info. We will advertise The Yard and promote your writing here. We will also promote your books and blogs. We want you to succeed, and we will succeed with you.

We are putting a picture with each submission. Pics tend to get more hits. If you have a copyright free picture, or an idea for one, please let us know. We are talking about a pic that speaks of the piece. Not a picture of you, unless you want to add one to your bio.

We here at The Yard, want to grow. We do not pay writers at this time, but we hope to eventually do that. As we grow, we hope to generate an income that allows us the ability to pay everyone, including ourselves. But, we do not currently pay. We work to promote you, and help your writing get noticed; while at the same time growing The Yard.

When submitting through email, send a Word doc. Or copy and paste into the body of the email, for small things like poems or flash fiction. If you have questions or difficulty, contact us and we will help you.

Poems 1-3
Flash Fiction 100 to 1500 Words
Fiction and Non-Fiction up to 30 pages. (We will consider more pages but it will cost a reading fee of $10 to Paypal. Yes, $10 for 31 pages. That doesn’t include editorial feed back. Over 50 pages is a very hard sell. Just email us any questions you have.)

Send email to:

The.Yard@mail.com

In the subject line write “Submission” with type of submission and word count if applicable.

Like this, “Submission-flash fiction-1000 words”

Put 3rd person bio in the body of the email. with an introduction. Add any links to books or blogs or websites in the body also. Also, if you have paid for speedy reads and editorial feedback, mention this in the email.

Such as:

My name is Bob. I like writing. Please read my stuff. I am paying $10 for you to be quick, and let me know how bad I am, if rejected.

Bio: Bob is nice. He reads and writes. He lives in a place no one cares about. He has written many wonderful things that he feels you will enjoy. His dog is named Gonzo.

See?

We strongly suggest that you read over your story one more time before submitting, in order to make any edits that need made.

To continue, we would like to say that The Yard is a real magazine. We are not as big as some others, but we are just as legit. We often encounter writers who feel that The Yard: Crime Blog is not an “Official” publisher or magazine. We are not sure why.

If the word “Blog” or the fact that we publish mostly online, or don’t pay, makes you feel that we are beneath you as a writer, then please do not submit to us. We don’t need you.

Thanks.

(updated October 3, 2025)

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