All-writer-voted. Who creates Sixfold? Everyone. All-writer-voted and open to all, Sixfold three-round manuscript voting is the most rigorous, thorough, fair, and transparent editorial selection process available. To create each issue, hundreds of writers vote to select the best fiction and poetry manuscripts with much more discernment than any other editorial.
Join the vote proven to work. Put in the better manuscript and it wins. Hundreds of writers in each vote create extremely dependable conditions for discovering the highest-quality manuscripts. 20 votes and thousands of writers participating show that in each vote:
• Writers consistently choose only the best manuscripts to win and publish, regardless of school or style. The up to 78 writers voting on each manuscript make it impossible not to find the best writing. No high-quality manuscripts are missed.
• Voting writers’ ranking of a manuscript equals the overall quality of the manuscript. Excellent feedback for everyone: final ranking and comments from so many voters accurately reflect how the manuscript would fare in any slush pile at any other editorial.
Win-win for the greater good. The better-written manuscript wins. Everyone participating benefits. Each writer's opinion directly selects all winning and published manuscripts. Each manuscript is part of a selection process better than any other. Each writer receives voting and comment feedback in 36 days. All issues are free to read.
How to enter and vote
1. Enter your own fiction or poetry PDF manuscript for $5 by April 23, 11:59 pm ET.
2. For each of 3 rounds, you read, comment, and vote on 6 randomly assigned manuscripts in your genre. Rank-vote your manuscripts as Best, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th. You must read and vote in each of 3 rounds (total of 18 manuscripts in 36 days) for your own manuscript to remain in each round. Round 1 runs from May 1 to voting deadline of May 12. Round 2 from May 13 to May 24. Round 3 from May 25 to June 5. The highest-voted manuscript in each genre wins $1000. The top 15 short stories and the top 30 sets of poems are published. All issues free to read online, and as e-book and PDF. Paperback at around $10. Sixfold is not-for-profit.
How the 3-round process works. Hundreds of writers vote together to choose manuscripts for publication with much better discernment than at any other editorial, and it all takes only 36 days. The 3-round process is extremely thorough and precise: In round 1, 6 writer-voters compare your manuscript (and everyone else’s) to 5 other manuscripts, rank-voting them as Best, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th. (Each manuscript is compared to 30 others by 6 different readers.) Each manuscript’s voting score average is averaged and compared to all others, and then the highest-voted one-third of manuscripts advances to the next round. Round 2 manuscripts go on to receive 18 readers and 90 comparisons, and the highest-voted one-third advances to round 3. Round 3 manuscripts receive 54 readers and 270 comparisons. Each manuscript completing round 3 is read and rank-voted by 78 different writer-voters, with a grand total of 390 comparisons to other manuscripts. So much reading and comparing is the most thorough consideration of your manuscript available.
Voters always discover the best manuscripts. With so much reading and comparison voting, no high-quality manuscripts are missed in a vote. Only the highest-quality manuscripts are selected for publication. Read and believe: browse the open, public results of over ten years of fiction and poetry votes completed so far, with thousands of writers participating. Read manuscripts from the top, middle, and bottom of any vote to see how voters’ ranked preference for any manuscript accurately reflects the manuscript’s overall quality.
COMPLETE HOW IT WORKS HOW-TO PICTURE TOUR HOW-TO TWO-MINUTE MOVIEPublish to a big literary audience • Sixfold's free e-books reach 9,000+ readers per issue and free online issues reach 40,000+ site visitors per year.
Writing Workshop. No rejection slip • Much more feedback on your manuscript than you would receive from any other editorial. You give and receive workshop feedback on your and your fellow writers’ work as part of voting. After the 3 rounds of voting end, you get up to 6, 24, or 78 votes and comments on your own manuscript from other writers, depending on how many rounds your manuscript advances. See how your manuscript compares to others on a post-voting results page that lists all participants’ manuscripts, ranked anonymously by final voting score. Opt in before, during, or after voting to display your name, profile, and/or link to your manuscript alongside the final public voting results.
Sixfold Testimonials • “Loved the format, results, comments, transparency!” • “for the first time, I was given some honest, arms-length feedback” • “fascinating to read others' work” • “fun not to just send in my story and wait, but to actually read and rank stories” • “invaluable to have all those unbiased comments on my work”
