What is The Scroll?
The Scroll is an online literary magazine created by the Lakmahal Community Library that aims to provide a Sri Lankan/local platform for creative English writers at all stages of their creative journey, to experience working with editors and priming them to engage with the wider publishing community. All finalized submissions will be published on ‘The Scroll’ page on the Lakmahal website.
What we are looking for
We accept narrative prose, short stories, and poetry in all genres.
We do not accept non-fiction, essays at this time. We have a preference for stories for readers of all ages so if your short story contains mature or explicit material (eg: gore, excessive violence, slurs, sexually explicit material, or erotica) please mention it as content warnings during submission.
We are only accepting stories from writers who are 17 years and above.
Submission process
Writers can submit their work via the Google forms linked below.
Submit one story per person/per entry. Please wait until you receive a response from your previous entry before making another submission.
Submissions will be reviewed, and the writer will receive a response within 2 weeks of submission. You may only reach out about the state of your submission if 3 weeks have elapsed since the date of your submission.
There is no charge for submissions.
If your work is rejected, we ask you to only resubmit after major revisions. Rejections may not be appealed.
Guidelines
Language: English
Formatting Requirements:
- Document format: .docx
- Font style: Times New Roman
- Font size: 12pt
- Spacing: double-spaced
- No zip files
- No images
For short stories;
- Word count: 1,000 – 5,000 words
- Your document should be titled in the following format: “Short Story_Name of Author_Story Title”
Short Story Submission Form: https://forms.gle/q1Mctd7HBDTaexAd8
For poetry;
- Page count: maximum of 3 pages
- Your document should be titled in the following format: “Poem_Name of Author_Name of Poem”
Poetry Submission Form: https://forms.gle/bEm2PWPXSR5t5HU97
Editorial Process
Once their submission is accepted the writer will be assigned to one of our editors. The writer can communicate with their editor via email or in-person to receive feedback and discuss how their work can be improved.
Writers will have two months to work with their assigned editor to revise the submission to make it ready for publishing. If further revisions are still required after this period it will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Once the revisions are complete the work will be scheduled to be published on the website and shared through Lakmahal’s social media platforms.
Our Team of Editors
Ameena Hussein
Rajiva Wijesinha
Michael Mendis
Ranmali Mirchandani
Vihanga Perera
Elizabeth Kunesh
Rights and Compensation
We claim first non-exclusive English rights to print and first electronic rights (text and audio) for digital publishing.
Works cannot be previously published in an official capacity such as a novel, ebook, journal, anthology, or online magazine.
We will only accept previously published stories if they were published on a personal website. If your story is to be published by us you will have to remove your story from your website It is essential you inform us where you have previously published the story, even a previous draft as we will be running a plagiarism check on your story and this will avoid false flagging as plagiarism.
We claim first print rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights for our annual anthology
We will not consider any submissions written, developed, or assisted by “AI” writing tools such as ChatGPT. Such submissions will be immediately rejected.
The Scroll is an accessible and free platform to support authors and poets, while nurturing a love of stories and storytelling, as such we currently do not compensate writers for their submissions.
For inquiries email us at info@lakmahal.lk