Critique & Feedback Service

About this Service

Here’s how it works. You send us your story. If you’d like, you can also include any specific questions or concerns you have about the piece. Within two weeks, an editor from Conium Press will review your work and respond with a personalized editorial letter (typically about one single-spaced page of feedback). The letter will explain what the editor liked and disliked, offering suggestions for improvement. Furthermore, the editor will often recommend books for additional reading and/or other literary journals that might fit your style.

When you fill out the submission form, there’s also an option to have your story considered for publication in The Conium Review‘s next print edition or on our website.

Submission Guidelines

All manuscripts must be submitted through our Submittable page through May 31st, 2016. All submissions must include a nonrefundable $30 fee (payable via credit card or PayPal).

We only offer feedback on fiction; no poems or nonfiction, please. You may submit up to 3,000 words for critique. If you write flash fiction, you can send several pieces in a single file, just make sure the file’s total word count isn’t over 3,000. If you’d like us to provide feedback on something longer than 3,000 words, please contact us to discuss pricing.

If you want your piece to be considered for publication, it must be unpublished. If your piece has been already published, we’ll still gladly critique your writing, but you must click the appropriate check-box in Submittable to let us know that it’s previously published.

In the “Biography Statement” field, please include a brief third-person bio.  If your work is accepted for publication, your bio appears alongside your story.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but you must let us know if the story is accepted elsewhere (we’ll still offer feedback, but we will not longer consider it for publication once it is accepted elsewhere).

Response time is typically two weeks or sooner. There are no refunds if you decide to withdraw your story from the feedback queue.

Thank you for submitting! We look forward to reviewing your work.