Writers can be
1. Anyone from anywhere. Liars’ League encourages diversity and wants to see authors and voices from all over the place – it’s more interesting that way.
2. Willing to have your name and the text of your story up on the site if you win.
3. Talented and interesting. Show us what you’ve got!
4. Willing to be paid for your work in kind. This means that if your story is chosen, you will receive our admiration and gratitude, an MP3 and video recording of the reading, and drinks on the night (if you are able to attend). Unfortunately, Liars' League does not currently pay contributors in $ or £.
IMPORTANT: Submitting your work to Liars' League implies permission to upload the text and an audio and video recording of your story onto our website so that everyone can enjoy it. If this is an issue just email and we're happy to discuss.
ADDED BONUS: Winning stories are now being read by top literary agency Janklow & Nesbit!
Stories need to be
1. Unpublished (in print or online), unbroadcast, and not a prizewinner in any previous competition.
2. Between 800-2000 words long (we used to accept above 2,000 words - no longer do we do this).
3. Submitted to liars@liarsleague.com by midnight of the deadline for the theme in question. Deadlines and monthly themes can be found here.
4. Attached as an MS Word (.doc) or .rtf document, page-numbered, with the title on each page. NO PDFs and NO .DOCX PLEASE.
5. Submitted in an email with the story title, the month of the event and the theme in the subject header: e.g. Love Story, February, He & She. Please put your name at the bottom of your email but NOT on your story, as we prefer to judge anonymously.
6. A prose short story. This means no poetry, no scripts, no non-fiction. We’ll look at novel extracts, but only if they work as stand-alone pieces.
And finally
1. Please submit no more than ONE story per theme. This is for reading-time reasons.
2. Please don’t resubmit any story we have previously rejected unless we ask you to, however much it has changed.
3. Please don’t be discouraged. We really want to see your work – so send it in!
For some further thoughts on 'what works for the league' see this article by Liars' League regular Niall Boyce
