Submission Guidelines

• Ensure the correctness of your submission before you press the SUBMIT button. Submissions having incorrect entries are more prone to rejection.

• Original work authored by you is highly encouraged.

• When you upload images, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the work but without the spaces in file name.

• If the Work is in english, ensure the title of the work is NOT all CAPITALS. Sentence case should be used. 

• You can submit on behalf of your friend or family, but be sure to give proper acknowledgements. You can use the comments field in the submission form to convey a message to the editor. Do not categorize this as Original work.

• A Billion Stories will not publish a submission that is identified to be non-original without proper acknowledgments. The original author's name should be mentioned. If original author's name is not known, then "-By Unknown" should be written. In the latter case it is assumed that the submitter has done a best effort search to trace the original author of the work submitted.

• One can submit original work which is already published elsewhere. The category in this case should be selected as "Already Published Work". The submitter guarantees that there are no copyright violations in case of already published work and indemnifies A Billion Stories of any liability.

• Publishing on personal blogs or self-published books are not considered to be "Already Published Work", since it is not peer reviewed. 

• All works submitted to A Billion Stories are reviewed and approved before publication. No talk on sex, violence are allowed. Such submissions will be rejected and the author can be banned from further submissions.

• Do not submit Blog URLs. It is the content that you must submit.

• "Ancient Wisdom" are those works that are existing in Indian Literature since time immemorial, such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, Puranas, Smritis, the Jatakas, Panchatantra, the Hitopadesha and any other such work. A translation and an analysis of such texts can be categorized as Original work.

• "Folklore" are those works which exist as legends in societal memory. For example, there a lot of folklore around the Rani of Jhansi, Chatrapati Shivaji, Prithviraj Chauhan and such historical figures.

• Ensure the correctness of category based on the above definitions. This helps us in doing a quicker review.

• Images can be submitted as URLs (links) if you have hosted it over Flickr, Google Drive, DropBox or any other service. Ensure that the image links you submit are reachable over the internet. 

• Ensure that due acknowledgement to the Photographer who took the image is given in the "Photo By:" field. After your best attempts, if you do not know the photographer - mention UNKNOWN in the "Photo By:" field. It is recommended to use the photographs of your own or known persons to avoid any copyright violation. By submitting to A Billion Stories you guarantee that you have all the rights to the submitted content and or have taken due permission from others if you are using others content like photographs or cartoons or any other such published or unpublished material.

• You can submit Cartoons, Paintings or Artwork created by Children. You can submit it as Original work and provide reasonable commentary to help us review.

• Questions? Read the FAQs.

Quotes should be preferably ONE sentence that convey a deep meaning on aspects of life. But not more than THREE. Any quote above 3 sentences should be submitted as a poem. For example, "दोहे" would fall in the quotes category.

Some Examples of Quotes in Indian languages:

• Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

• ಚಿಂತೆ ಬೇಡ, ಚಿಂತನೆ ಮಾಡು. -ಹರೇಕೃಷ್ಣ ಆಚಾರ್ಯ

• काल करय सो आज कर, आज करय सो अब, पल मे परलय होएगी, बहुरि करेगा कब| -कबीरदास

• काक: कृष्णः पिक: कृष्णः, को भेद: पिक काक यो:, वसन्त समये प्राप्ते, काक: काक:, पिक: पिक:|| -सुभाषितानी

There are a lot of quotes that have been submitted to us and published - both original and pre-existing. You can go through the relevant section in the language of your choice to know more.

We encourage you to submit original quotes written by you in your language of choice. We also accept quotes from ancient works of great sanskrit scholars or of scholars of other Indian languages.

Please type your quote in the right script for the language. Do not type it in English. So, if you are submitting a Hindi language work, ensure to type it in the Hindi script. We do not accept it if it is typed up using English. Example: "Hamaare Nanhe Kadam" would get rejected, whereas, "हमारे नन्हे कदम" would get accepted. Same with other languages.

When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

We do not accept vulgar and violent submissions. We reserve the right to provide no reason for the rejection.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

Short stories may fall between 30 and 3000 words, though less than 30 words is also permissible provided that it conveys the story but does not fall under the category of quotes. Quotes convey a message and not the story.

Please type your story in the right script for the language. Do not type it in English. So, if you are submitting a Hindi language work, ensure to type it in the Hindi script. We do not accept it if it is typed up using English. Example: "Hamaare Nanhe Kadam" would get rejected, whereas, "हमारे नन्हे कदम" would get accepted. Same with other languages.

When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

We do not accept vulgar and violent submissions. We reserve the right to provide no reason for the rejection.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

Poem is an art where language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to its apparent meaning.

Usually poems are rhythmic but rhythm is not a necessary quality of a poem. A good poem normally evokes very strong emotions or conveys very deep and possibly multiple meanings - in a compressed form.

A poem could be one line or run into thousands of stanzas (called "Mahakaavya" in Sanskrit), but the large majority of them are between 4 lines to 200 lines.

It is recommended to keep your poems short. But if you are still interested to submit very long poems you are welcome. 

Please type your poem in the right script for the language. Do not type it in English. So, if you are submitting a Hindi language work, ensure to type it in the Hindi script. We do not accept it if it is typed up using English. Example: "Hamaare Nanhe Kadam" would get rejected, whereas, "हमारे नन्हे कदम" would get accepted. Same with other languages.

When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

We do not accept vulgar and violent submissions. We reserve the right to provide no reason for the rejection.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

Children are children. They express themselves in a variety of ways. It is always a pleasure to view the work of children. The work may not look perfect to opinionated eyes, but deep meanings are hidden in the jungle of thoughts. And more than anything, it is the sheer joy that the work brings to their eye. 

We welcome work by children of any age. Be sure to mention the name and age of the child, when submitting the work. We understand that you will be acting on their behalf.

Please ensure to upload good quality photos of the child's drawing/painting.

When you upload images, make sure to name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

Photo Quotes are Quotes accompanied with images/photos. The quoted text should be preferably ONE sentence but not more than 3 sentences. Example of an Photo Quote is HERE. A Photo Quote is also called an Image Quote or an iQuote. It is essential that the photo is an integral part of the Quote.

Please ensure to upload good quality photos.

When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

Cartoons or cartoon strips can be submitted as Photo Quotes (iQuotes). Ensure to summarize it in text when submitting. You can send a private message to the editor in the comments field of the submission form.

Please ensure to upload good quality photos.

When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

Questions? Read the FAQs.

1. Select the Category "Annular Art" for artwork such as Paintings on Recycled CDs. 

2. Please ensure to upload good quality photos of the art work. We advise you use a scanner to get clear images without blurs and shadows.

3. You can send a private message to the editor in the comments field of the submission form.

4. When you upload images with the Work, make sure you name the image file to identify it with the Work. You can give the same name to the file as the title of the Work but without the spaces in file name.

5. A good title and a caption that enhance the meaning of the artwork are great to have before you submit. Especially so, if you are submitting for an announced competition. 

Still have questions? Read the FAQs.