SPIDER® Submission Guidelines

General Information

SPIDER®, a literary magazine for children, features fresh and engaging literature, poems, articles, and activities for newly independent readers. Editors seek energetic, beautifully crafted submissions with strong “kid appeal” (an elusive yet recognizable quality, often tied to high-interest elements such as humor, adventure, and suspense).

Cricket Media, Inc. is committed to a diverse literary culture, and we welcome works by writers from underrepresented groups (people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQAI+ folks, and other marginalized peoples).

Guidelines

Before submitting, be sure to familiarize yourself with our magazines. (Sample copies are available for viewing at the Cricket Store, where you can also purchase a current issue.)  Issues are also available at many local libraries.

Fiction
Whether a fictional setting is long-ago or here-and-now, or the protagonist is the class clown or a talking tiger, characters and the worlds they inhabit should be complex and believable.

Length: 300–1000 words

Poetry
Poems should be succinct, imaginative, and accessible; we tend to avoid long narrative poems.

Length: Up to 20 lines

Nonfiction
For nonfiction, SPIDER readers enjoy well-researched articles about animals, kids their own age doing amazing things, and cool science discoveries (such as wetsuits for penguins and real-life invisibility cloaks). Nonfiction articles should rise above a simple list of facts; we look for kid-friendly nonfiction shaped into an engaging narrative.

Length: 300–800 words

Crafts and Activities
We also appreciate clever crafts, recipes, games, and puzzles; however, please submit only activities that a reader would be able to perform on his/her own, with minimal parental assistance.

Length: 1–4 pages

Procedure

We only accept online submissions, and the only place we accept them is at Submittable. We do not accept hard-copy submissions or email submissions. Register with Submittable and use the form for SPIDER. Submittable accepts international submissions.

Please do not email submissions to editors or Customer Service, and please do not attach manuscripts to forms on this site or our children’s websites.

Cricket Media’s literary magazines (BABYBUG, LADYBUG, SPIDER, and CRICKET) will consider all manuscripts that are sent on speculation. We do not accept queries. Please submit a complete manuscript. (Manuscript should be submitted as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.) Fiction and nonfiction manuscripts should include an exact word count; poetry manuscripts should include an exact line count. Include full contact information: phone, email, and mailing address.

Please allow up to 3–6 months response time.

What Happens Next?

The Manuscript Review Process

• After manuscripts are received, they are reviewed by first readers. First readers consider each submission’s literary potential and whether it might be a good fit for one of our magazines.
• Promising submissions are then carefully reviewed by several editors, including the magazine’s editor.
• The magazine editor makes a final decision on whether to reject or accept the manuscript. For manuscripts that show some promise but need further development, the editor may write the author to request revisions on speculation.

After Acceptance

• If we accept your manuscript, we will send you an acceptance letter detailing payment and rights information and any revisions we would like you to make (which acceptance shall only be binding upon your signing a final agreement that embodies agreed-upon rights and terms).
• Once we’ve received your revisions, we carefully line edit the manuscript. The manuscript is then returned for your review. We work closely with our writers to bring out the best in each story, essay, and poem.
• Once the manuscript is edited, it will be kept on file until it is assigned to an issue. Because we work 6–8 months ahead of each issue, it can be a year or more before a manuscript is placed.

Rights

• Stories and poems previously unpublished: Rights vary.
• Stories and poems previously published: SPIDER purchases second publication rights. Fees vary, but are generally less than fees for first publication rights.

Rates

• Stories and articles: up to 25¢ per word
• Poems: up to $3.00 per line; $25.00 minimum
• Activities and recipes: $75.00 flat rate

Art Submissions

See our submission guidelines for artists.