Submission Terms
Last updated: 2 September 2026
These terms apply when you submit work to larvae (“we”, “us”, “our”), a literary and photographic magazine operated by Rachel Hulme trading as Larvae. By submitting your work and paying the submission fee, you agree to these terms. Please read them before you submit.
The submission fee
There is a £3 fee to submit a piece of work to an issue of larvae.
The fee covers the editorial time to consider your submission for the issue, and a digital copy of the published issue, which we supply by download link to every person who submits — whether or not your piece is selected.
You may submit more than one piece. Each separate submission requires its own £3 fee.
Consideration, not a guarantee of publication
The fee is for consideration only. It does not guarantee that your work will be accepted or published. larvae is selective, and most submissions are not chosen for an issue. Paying the fee does not entitle you to publication, feedback, or any particular outcome.
Refunds and cancellation
When you submit, you ask us to begin considering your work straight away, and you confirm this in a tick-box on the submission form.
Because of this:
- You acknowledge that, by asking us to begin immediately, you lose the 14-day right to cancel that would otherwise apply to online purchases once consideration has begun.
- The fee is non-refundable once your submission has been considered, because it covers the editorial time spent reviewing it.
- You also consent to receiving the digital issue by download link, and acknowledge that you lose the right to cancel in respect of that digital content once it is supplied.
This does not affect your legal rights where we are at fault — for example, if a technical error meant your submission was never received or considered, or you were charged in error, contact us at hello@larvae.ink and we will put it right.
Editorial and design decisions
Selection, editing, typesetting, layout, order, page design and production of each issue are entirely at the editor’s discretion. Submitting work, or having work accepted, does not give you editorial control over the issue or over how your work appears in it.
We set every piece to the magazine’s typographic design. Your work may appear in a different typeface, size, measure or arrangement from the file you submitted. Where the layout of a piece is part of its meaning, tell us when you submit and we will do what we reasonably can within the design of the magazine, but we cannot guarantee any particular appearance.
Acceptance
If we accept your work, you grant us the right to publish it in the issue on these terms. Acceptance is not a contract to publish any particular version of the work, in any particular form, or on any particular date, and we may withdraw a piece before publication at our discretion.
We cannot accept conditions attached to acceptance after the fact, and we are not able to meet requests for changes to layout, design or production once an issue has been sent for publication.
Corrections and small edits
We may make small corrections to spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and obvious typographical errors, and minor adjustments needed to fit the magazine’s design.
Where a change goes beyond that, we will ask you first, using the email address you submitted with. If we do not hear from you within three days, we may publish the piece with the change or, if we prefer, without it. If you tell us the text is as intended, we will set it as you wrote it wherever the design allows.
Please keep an eye on that address around publication. We cannot hold an issue open indefinitely waiting for a reply.
Your work and your rights
- You keep the copyright in your work. Submitting to larvae does not transfer ownership of your work to us.
- By submitting, you confirm the work is your own, that you have the right to submit it, and (for photography) that you have any necessary consents from people identifiable in the images.
- You confirm the work has not been previously published and that you are offering first publication rights for the relevant issue, in line with the declarations you make on the submission form.
- If your work is selected, you grant larvae the right to publish it in the issue, in digital and print form, and in any associated formats in which the issue is distributed. This is a licence to publish, not a transfer of ownership.
- Publishing your work in larvae does not give us any right to use your work on merchandise or anything beyond the issue. Any such use would require your separate, explicit permission.
Crediting larvae in future use
If your work is published in larvae, we ask that, in any future publication or use of that work, you state that it was first published in larvae. For example: “First published in larvae” (with the issue, if you wish). This is a courtesy we ask of all our contributors; it costs you nothing and helps support the magazine that first gave your work a home.
How we supply the issue
We supply the published issue as a download link, sent by email. We do not attach the issue to emails; the files are too large to send that way.
The link may occasionally be unavailable — for example while we correct an issue and republish it. If a link is not working, contact us at hello@larvae.ink and we will send a working one.
Buying the printed edition
Printed copies of larvae are sold and supplied by Lulu, a print-on-demand company. When you buy a printed copy, your purchase is with Lulu and is governed by Lulu’s own terms and conditions.
Lulu takes payment, prints the book and arranges delivery. Questions about payment, postage, delivery times, damaged or faulty copies, returns and refunds should be directed to Lulu.
larvae prepares the files for printing and receives a share of the sale price. We are not the seller and cannot process orders, returns or refunds.
Printed and digital editions may differ in pagination, trim, colour and finish, and printing is subject to Lulu’s own processes and tolerances. The digital issue is the reference edition.
Acceptable submissions
You agree not to submit work that is unlawful, infringes anyone else’s rights, or that you do not have the right to submit. We may decline or remove any submission at our discretion.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your submission is the one published on this page at the time you submit.
Contact
Questions about these terms or your submission: hello@larvae.ink