One Teen Story is a literary magazine for teens and adults who read young adult fiction. They publish 12 issues a year digitally and in print. Each issue contains only one story.
They pay their authors $500 dollars and 25 contributor copies for first North American serial rights. The rights revert back to the author after publication.
They have previously published a number of famous and bestselling authors including Gayle Foreman, Gregory Maguire, and Aimee Bender.
The stories they publish deal with the teen experience and common themes include issues of identity, friendship, and family. They should be geared towards teen readers. Because of that gratuitous profanity, sex, and drug use should generally be avoided.
On the website they have two sections that contain contradictory information. In the submission section they state that 8 of the 12 stories they publish are written by established or emerging authors who are adults. 4 of the 12 are written by teenagers. On the front page they state that 11 of the 12 stories are written by adult authors and that once a year they publish a story by the teen contest winner. Given their list of past publication, I would lean towards the information on the front page being correct.
They publish stories between 2,000 and 4,500 words in length. The stories must have a self contained plot and not just be an excerpt from a larger novel or work in progress.
Each story is given its own cover and a story trailer. You can watch the trailer for “Night of the Living Poet” here.
They are open to works translated into English. They allow simultaneous submissions but are not interested in reprints. They accept all submissions through their submission manager. They do not accept postal submissions.
To learn more or to submit, visit their website here.
