Call for YA Submissions: Cast of Wonders

Cast of Wonders is a young adult short fiction market, open to stories up to 6,000 words in length. We’re dedicated to publishing fiction that reflects the entire spectrum of the human experience. We acknowledge the realities of unconscious bias and make our best effort to account for it during our review process. Read our full statement in support of lowering publishing’s barriers to entry for authors from historically underrepresented backgrounds in our full submission guidelines.

All submissions must be anonymous. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be rejected unread, and no permission granted to resubmit. Further detail is provided below.

One of our goals is to further the education of new writers of any age. These submission guidelines are lengthy and extensive. They aim to explain what we’re looking for, what we’ll do with your story, and where you can find further information. If they don’t answer your specific question, please query before submitting a manuscript.  

What We’re Looking For:

Stories that evoke a sense of wonder, have deep emotional resonance, and have something unreal about them. We aim for a 12-17 age range: that means sophisticated, non-condescending stories with wide appeal, and without gratuitous or explicit sex, violence or pervasive obscene language. Think Harry Potter or The Hunger Games.

• Stories are presented in audio format, which means our audience rarely skim past boring bits. We’re looking for fiction with strong pacing, well-defined characters, engaging dialogue, and clear action. We like a proper narrative structure and a prose style not laden with clichés and over-worn idioms. We like fiction that makes us think, but the main elements should be thrilling entertainment, adventure and emotional connection.

• We like all forms of fantasy — high, modern, urban, alternative history, etc. We’re less fond of the complex, intricate or cerebral forms of fantasy more common in novel markets; short stories rarely offer enough room to sufficiently develop.

• We like all forms of science fiction — far-future, near future, space opera, “hard” sci-fi — but it must be accessible to our target audience, meaning a minimum of technical jargon.

• Our horror offerings tend to be psychological, comedic, or situational — not visceral.

• We’re happy to read comedy, steampunk, age-appropriate paranormal romance, superheroes and many other genres. All that matters is adherence to our core concept and that critical spark of wonder.

Payment and Rights

Short version: we pay $.08/word for original fiction of any length (yes, including flash!). For reprints, we offer a $100 flat rate for Short Fiction, and a $20 flat rate for Flash Fiction. Cast of Wonders is a qualified market for the SFWA and the SCBWI. 

Read our full guidelines and submit your work here. 

Deadline: December 21, 2021