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Vol. IV · Issue 38 · This Week From the Editors

Fiction that hits different. Stories worth your midnight.

A curated publishing house for serialized short fiction — hand-selected by twelve former Big-5 editors, released in addictive weekly chapters, read by 380,000 night-owls a month.

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  • 1,840+original serials
  • 14genre categories
  • 142countries reading

The Curated Shelf · Week of March 18

This week's handpicked reads.

Three serials the editors couldn't stop arguing about. The lead selection drops you straight into Chapter 1 — no signup wall, no algorithm, just the first sentence.

Cover of The Salt of the Marigold. Romance

Picked by Editor-in-Chief J. Mendelsohn

The Salt of the Marigold

by Imogen Reyes

"A chef returns to her grandmother's Yucatán kitchen and inherits a recipe that remembers everyone who has ever tasted it."

  • Chapter1 of 14
  • Length22 min read
  • UpdatedWeekly · Wed 9pm ET
Start Chapter 1 Save for later
Cover of The Cartographer of Small Annihilations. Sci-Fi

Picked by Editor Mira Solano

The Cartographer of Small Annihilations

by Hana Ostrów

An archivist maps the tiny, unrecorded deaths of parallel Earths — until one of them maps her back.

Read Chapter 1 →

From the Masthead

We started Jackfic in a Brooklyn walk-up in 2021 because we were tired of opening a fiction app and being handed the same recycled tropes by an algorithm. Four years later, twelve former Big-5 editors still read every submission that crosses the desk — and we still turn away 94% of them. Below: the receipts.

  • 380,000 monthly readers across web, iOS & Android
  • 28min average reading session — 3.4× the industry benchmark
  • 71% story completion rate vs. a 22% industry average
  • 2024 Shorty Awards · Best in Online Publishing
  • As seen in
  • The Verge
  • Wired
  • LitHub
  • The Millions
  • The Paris Review Daily

The Imprint · For Writers

Write for Jackfic. Get edited by people who edited for a living.

No slush pile black hole. No "we'll get back to you in six months." Twelve former Big-5 editors read every accepted submission line-by-line, and 100% of subscription revenue passes to writers after platform costs.

  • 01

    A 6% acceptance rate

    Fewer than six out of every hundred submissions clear the editorial panel each month. Yours might be one of them — our open window closes April 30.

  • 02

    12 former Big-5 editors

    Hands-on developmental editing from editors who shaped titles at Penguin Random House, Knopf, Faber, and Hogarth. Not ghostwriters — mentors.

  • 03

    47 Hugo & Nebula nominations

    Our roster includes 2024 Nebula finalist Mira Solano, three Hugo nominees, and eleven Locus-stamped authors — and rising.

  • 04

    94% land a paid deal

    Within 18 months of joining, 94% of our published authors land a paid book deal or screen adaptation through our Audible, ReelShort & studio partners.

Submit a Manuscript Read the Author Handbook →

The Next Chapter Is Waiting

Your next midnight is queued up.

No algorithm. No ads. No "recommended for you" carousel. Just the editor-picked next chapter — free to start, free to stay up too late reading.

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  • Chapter 1 of The Salt of the Marigold opens in one tap
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