Submission Guidelines

400 Words is open for submissions year round

Thank you for your interest in 400 Words! We are an experiment of sorts – collaboratively creating a record of life stories, and stories lived, condensed into a maximum of 400 words.

Our Mission Statement:

400 Words strives to present unique, anonymous snapshots of significant moments in people’s lives – these can wholly-contained stories or meaningful moments. The only rules we have are that they must be true stories, with the acknowledgement that over a lifetime truth can sometimes develop a bit of subjectivity – which is to say that memories can be imperfect, and sometimes the better for it.

The following submission guidelines apply:

• All works must be titled.
• No real persons may be identified in a submission, with the exception of already known public figures.
• Profanity is OK, explicit content is OK, however both are subject to limitations at our editorial board’s discretion.
• We do not accept essays, opinion pieces, works of fiction, art, photography, etc.
• All work submitted is subject to editorial review and revision.

Copyright

You retain the rights to your copyrighted content or information that you submit to 400 Words ("user content") except as described below.

By submitting user content to 400 Words, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform, or publicly display your user content in any medium and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.

That’s it; we appreciate your interest in 400 Words and can’t wait to read about you!

Many thanks,
The 400 Words Editorial Staff