Guest post by editor Rosemary J Kind

Today's guest is writer and editor, Rosemary J Kind

At the heart of setting up Alfie Dog Fiction was a recognition that so many good womag stories aren’t published, or are published once and then find no more readers. Alfie Dog Fiction set out to provide an additional or alternative home for short stories. We wanted somewhere that would carry the best of all fiction, regardless of whether it had been published before and which generated royalties for the authors.

Over the five years since we began we’ve grown to become one of the biggest paid short story download sites in the world and been delighted to have stories we’ve nominated accepted for the Write Well Awards on both of the last two years.

We now have two submission windows a year and the next one opens for four weeks from the 5^th March. We are looking for good quality stories. Stories that will leave the reader satisfied at the end. Whether it is romance or horror, general fiction or crime we do want a good story line. Our full submission criteria are on the site.

What aren’t we looking for is often more useful. Avoid clichéd storylines or characters. If I can guess your twist ending while still on page one then it isn’t that much of a twist. If you can surprise me with a twist ending that is consistent with the story then you will certainly have me hooked. If you can move me to tears or make me laugh out loud then you’re in with a pretty good chance too. Although I have read quite literally thousands of short stories in recent years, I’m still a reader at heart. I love a good story.

If you haven’t sent off short stories before then there is lots of good advice in the book that Patsy and I wrote together. From Story Idea to Reader was born out of the experiences we have between us of writing and publishing.

Depending on the volumes of submissions I will try to give some feedback if I can, particularly if a writer shows promise. If you want more detailed feedback we do offer a paid critique service for work you want to place elsewhere. The other thing worth doing before you submit is to download some of the stories we have on the site to get a feel for them. We do offer a few for free and many hundreds on a paid download basis, including many of Patsy’s.