Explaining Chicken Soup for the Soul Story Guidelines

Is a Chicken Soup for the Soul Publication in Your Future?

Yesterday, I posted a Call for Submissions for a new anthology from Chicken Soup on Divine Intervention. I also promised to expand on their Guidelines page, so today we'll go through that page, section by section. 

In a Communique they send to repeat authors in their books, the editors mentioned recently that one of the reasons stories are not accepted is that they do not follow the Guidelines. It seems so simple, but I've noted editors of other publications point out the same problem. When I send a submission, one of the things I do is to go through the Guidelines and check them off one by one. Did I do this or this or that? If I hadn't, I've still got time to correct my error. Chicken Soup publishers offer some of the lengthiest and detailed Guidelines of any publication I know. That's to your benefit but only if you do more than scan or even (Gasp!) skip reading them. 

Let's walk through the Guidelines page.  There are two paragraphs at the top. Read them! They tell you what kind of stories the editors are looking for. They include things like inspirational, true, ordinary people doing extraordinary things and more. Read the two paragraphs, then move on to the individually numbered guidelines. 

You might want to print the page, then underline the most significant parts. I'm not going to copy each one word for word, but summarize or try to illuminate them a bit. I want you to actually 'read' each one, then check my post for explanation. (I just noted that they used #5 twice, so I changed the 6 to a full 7. Surprised me!)

1.  They want a story that is exciting, heartwarming, or funny story that happened to you or someone you know. It should be written in first person. 

2.  This one tells you they want stories that have emotional response from the readers. It needs some ooomph!

3.  This one is telling you that they want you to begin with a hook. No introduction to the story, start with the story itself. Hook the reader! Nor do they want you to summarize the story at the end. End with a bang, something the reader can take away with them.

4.  Tell your story from your heart. It's going to be far more appealing that way.

5.  This one is about the tense you use to write the story. They recommend past tense, so take their advice and use it!

6.  1200 words maximum, And they mean it!

7.  This one is easy. The story must be true, no creative stuff to make it better.

The next section tells you what a Chicken Soup story is NOT. I won't give you a numbered list, you have it on that paper I hope you printed. But the story they are looking for is NOT a sermon, an essay, a journalistic piece, a term paper, as told to me by another, a letter,about politics or a testimonial. It must be a 'story' with a beginning, a middle and an ending. And a true story!

The next section gives guidance for submitting a poem for any of the books. An aside here:  I have seen relatively few poems in any of the books, so my guess is that if you send one that follows the guidelines, your odds are pretty good. Again, the poem must tell a full story (narrative poem), They say they don't want poems that are overly focused on rhyming (maybe those sing-song kind) or 'read like a greeting card.' I would focus on free verse, but if you can do rhyming well, give it a try.

The next section is about the submitting process. You must go through their website submission form. There is a webmaster who will answer general questions. A very important part of this section is that they want stories that have NOT been published previously UNLESS in a very small circulation publication, and then you can state that in the comments section on the submission form. Send them no book manuscripts or title ideas for new books. They will be immediatley discarded.

The final section is about what happens after you submit your work. There are several paragraphs with information that you should learn. If you choose to skip reading this section, or just scan it, you are going to miss answers to questions you are sure to have. Things about response time, rejection letters, email address changes, what you will receive if your story is selected for a book. 

My purpose today is to make you aware of the many points made in the lengthy Guidelines so that the stories you submit have a fighting chance. The rest is up to you! One more thing--recheck the Guidelines each time you submit a story to Chicken Soup. The more stories you send, the better you'll know those Guidelines, but it will be worthwhile to doublecheck each time.