FAQ

WHO RUNS A COUP OF OWLS?

A Coup of Owls is run by a small team committed to publishing works from diverse creators.

Publisher: Max Turner is a fiction writer with over a decade experience in copy writing, project management, and social media and web management.
He is MaxTurnerWrites on twitter.
Editor in Chief: Rhiannon Wood is a writer with MA’s in Creative Writing and Myth as well as a BA in Classical Studies. She is an ex-stage manager and is currently solely working on her novel.
She is Rhi_Wood81 on twitter.
Editor: Dr. Sarah Boyd is a freelance editor with a PhD in Publishing Studies. She also has a Diploma in Creative Writing, MA in English Lit, MLitt in Shakespeare Studies and MLitt in Publishing Studies.
She is seviebee on twitter.
Publishing Assistant: Leonie Natascha is a Berlin-born fiction writer who works in local government. She will be using her admin expertise to support the team.
She is Obfuscatedheart on twitter.

HOW DO I PROVE I'M FROM A MARGINALISED BACKGROUND AND/OR UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUNITY?

We don't ask for any proof, we absolutely take this on trust with the expectation that anyone not from a marginalised background or underrepresented community wouldn't take up the space of someone who is. We ask you to consider this before submitting.

We do have an optional section on diversity and location in our submission form which is simply so we can monitor our reach and see where we need to put in more effort.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE THE RATES OF PAY?

We want to be a paying market as we understand and appreciate the effort that goes into creating art of any kind. However, we are not currently in a position to pay by word rates and so have opted for a nominal rate/honorarium in line with similar publications.

WHY IS THE ARTIST RATE SO LOW?

We are aware that the going rate for artists is much higher than what we offer. However, as with all rates of pay it is what we can currently afford.

We also didn't feel it fair to pay substantially more for art than for the stories. This is not a judgement on the works themselves, simply a reflection that art is often valued higher than writing and we don't feel that to be appropriate.

DIDN'T YOU USED TO BE BI-MONTHLY?

Yes we did!

Our first eight issues (00 - 7) ran bi-monthly from June 2021 to August 2022. We became a quarterly publication in order to free up time to commit to also producing print anthologies.

ARE THE RATES OF PAY DIFFERENT FOR PRINT ANTHOLOGIES?

Yes they are. The rate of pay for print anthologies will be advertised for each specific anthology and are unrelated to the rates specified for our online quarterly publication.

CAN I SUBMIT FANWORKS

Absolutely! We accept fanfics on the proviso that they work as standalone pieces and are *scrubbed* and unrecognisable from their original source. This is for legal and copyright reasons.

Fanart can be submitted as long as it is not identifiable and meets our submission brief.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "SCRUBBED".

Scrubbing a fanfic is where you change the names, locations and/or other details that make the story your own. It works especially well with AU fanfics. Though even with those you may find that varying amounts of rewrites are required. If you submit your story and we can instantly recognise the pairing/fandom even with names changed, then it requires a little more work.