THIRTEEN PODCAST SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

DO YOU WANT TO TELL US A STORY?

Our audience comes to us for slow burn, atmospheric, character driven audio horror. They want to know the characters and see them grow and change just as much as they want a good scare. Stories that aren't character driven probably won't be a good fit. Stories with a first person central narrator and supporting characters work best for our format.

We recommend listening to the show to get a better idea of what kinds of stories we tell.

WHAT IS THIRTEEN?

Once monthly audio fiction horror anthology. (It's a podcast)
We produce feature length stories with professional voice acting, sound design, and an original score.
Thirteen spans multiple genres, but remains grounded in horror.

LENGTH

Our ideal submission falls somewhere between 2500 and 7000 words. We occasionaly accept stories over 7000 words and may consider them on a case by case basis. Stories under 2500 words will not be considered.
Stories 5000 words or above are more likely to be selected for our main monthly release.
Stories under 5000 words are more likely to be selected to be part of a double feature, or to be released exclusively as bonus content for our patrons or any other financial backers.
All accepted submissions will be paid based on word count, regardless of the intended release platform.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Email your story to "submissions@thirteenpodcast.com" with the subject line "Story Submission" followed by the title of your story. Attach your story to the email as a document. Preferrably .docx.
You'll receive an auto-reply email with more information about the submission process.
If your story is accepted, we will contact you about payment. Authors are paid at time of acceptance. We pay $50 for stories that are 5000 words or less, and $75 for stories over 5000 words.
Stories will likely need to be altered and/or adapted to fit the audio format. These changes can include but are not limited to: folding characters into narration, converting lines of dialogue to narration, changing verbiage to better suit the actor reading the story, etc. None of these changes are intended to modify the intent or substance of the story - any larger changes may be discussed on a case by case basis.
Writing credit will be attributed to the author in any credits and in the show notes.

WE WILL NOT CONSIDER

Stories which include derogatory language or slurs against any group of persons—regardless of context.
Stories that include depictions of rape or sexual assault will not be selected. While these topics may be acceptable as plot elements we will not perform or narrate depictions of them.
Stories should not be plagiarized in part or in full. Any story found to contain plagiarized material will be removed from our platform and the author will be asked to return their payment for that story.
No AI or LLM tools may be used wholly or in part in the creation of your work. Likewise, we do not use any AI or LLM tools in the editing or publication process. Our definitionof AI/LLM tools does not include spelling/grammer checkers, we are primarily concerned with tools that rewrite or fully generate text. We're people making art, we'd like to work with other people making art.

FAQ

Multiple Submissions
‍If you would like to submit another story before recieving a response about the first, that is fine. We ask that you submit any additional stories via their own separate submission email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Please feel free to submit your story to more than one publication at a time. However, we ask that you let us know if you are accepted elsewhere, so we can remove your story from the queue. This only applies to other audio productions, we are fine with producing stories that have been or will be published in print. However you may need to check the guidelines of the other publication if this situation occurs.
Previous Publication
We produce in an audio medium, if your story has been previously published in print, you are welcome to submit it here. If your story has been produced in audio, we are not interested in producing it again.
Future Publication
You retain all rights to your story, we only ask that you refrain from submitting/producing it in another audio format until we have released it. We will notify you once your story is produced/released.