About Geelong Cereal
Geelong Cereal is a free, independent, online magazine that provides a platform for writers at all levels of their creative journey to publish and share their work both digitally, and often on air, on Geelong's local community radio station, 94.7 the Pulse.
Geelong Cereal strives to provide exciting and accessible ways for new and developing writers to contribute to our literary village of both new and established writers alike. Our primary mission is to help you share your stories.
We take particular interest in serialised stories, from long form serials, radio plays, poetic serials, and even micro-serials that are as short as just two sentences per episode!
Geelong Cereal is not affiliated with, owned or sponsored by any organisation or group and does not receive funding, grants or compulsory membership fees. This means that Geelong Cereal relies entirely on voluntary contributions from its members to meet annual running costs.
Geelong Cereal is free to read, free to subscribe to, free to contribute to, and does not pay for stories nor receive money for them in any way. Think of Geelong Cereal as an always-on digital open-mic night with a large audience of subscribers ready to cheer you on! It's really pretty cool.
Currently, the following forms and topics are being published:
Serial Fiction
We publish several different formats of serial fiction and aim to support writers to explore and develop the art of serial fiction in a helpful and supportive environment.
Poetry
We welcome poets to join the court of our very own Poets' Palace!
Writers Writing About Writing
Are you an experienced and / or published writer? Tell us about your journey and help illuminate the path for others! One-off pieces and ongoing columns are welcomed.
Microfiction
Microfiction of up to 300 words will be published each Monday. Check out the submission guidelines for more.
Short Stories
Short fiction is welcomed. Please read the submission guidelines before sending short fiction to Geelong Cereal.
Teasers
Are you a local indie writer who wants to publish a teaser from your published or upcoming work? You know what to do :-)
Interest Columns
Got a special interest you'd like to write about? We want to hear about it!
If you want to submit your work or have any suggestions or enquires, email us at thegeelongcereal@gmail.com
And remember to subscribe! It's free! You'll get new posts sent directly to your email, and you must be a subscriber to share work, vote in competitions, comment on people's work and to access a lot of the available content.
FAQ
Do you make any money out of publishing my work and if so, can I have some of that money?
Good question. No, we won't give you any money. This is a free publication and no-one is being paid here. No-one should ask you for money here either, so if you are contacted by anyone claiming to be from Ceelong Cereal, offering any kind of paid service, please let us know immediately.
Does Geelong Cereal publish AI generated art?
Since May 2026, Geelong Cereal does not knowingly publish any AI generated art. This isn't political, it is about celebrating and supporting local artists and creating a welcoming space for them to share their work with us. Continually trying to sneak AI generated art past the keeper will result in your work being unpublished.
Are there any age restrictions at Geelong Cereal?
Geelong Cereal publishes work primarily by and for adults and mature teens 16+. We also understand that some younger people may write at a high level and wish to submit work. We suggest this is done with the consultation and guidance of an adult. Not everything published on the site is suitable for children.
If I submit my work to you, what happens to the intellectual property?
Your work is your work. When you publish something on Geelong Cereal, you keep all the rights to that work. We don't pay you for it, we don't licence it from you, we are only sharing it for you with your permission. You can share it on other sites and with other magazines, there is no exclusivity with Geelong Cereal. Plus, you can remove your work any time you want. Just let us know. And, make sure what you ask us to publish is your work and not someone else's. Original works only, and absolutely no AI generated writing, please.
Will you provide feedback on my work?
Feedback might be offered to emerging writers depending on how much time we have, but it is not guaranteed.
Will you edit my work?
No. Whatever you submit must be of a readable and publishable standard. This does not mean it must be the world's best writing, we are committed to publishing work by writers at all stages of their creative journey, but it must be coherent, and more or less free from spelling or major grammatical errors. Please check out the posting guidelines page for more information.
Can I include a link to my socials, my website, or how to purchase my books?
Yes. Absolutely. We don't pay for content, so the least we can do is allow space for you to promote your work!
Why do I have to subscribe to see some stuff?
Some writers choose to make their work only available to subscribers as unfortunately sites like this are regularly scraped by automated systems that love to turn our lovingly crafted stories into horrific slop and redistribute it.
Any other questions? Feel free to email us at thegeelongcereal@gmail.com
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Important things to consider before submitting your work to Geelong Cereal:
Geelong Cereal is a free digital publication staffed by volunteers. We do not pay for stories; the purpose of this publication is to publish work by writers and artists at any stage of their creative journey.
You retain copyright of your work and if you ask for it to be removed, it will be, no questions asked.
Please note that by sumbitting work to Geelong Cereal, you confirm that you hold the copyright and publishing rights to that work and it is not subject to any contracts.
Content guidelines.
Work deemed highly offensive will be refused. The purpose of Geelong Cereal is to provide a warm, encouraging and fun place for writers and artists to publish their work.
Geelong Cereal publishes work suitable for adults and mature teenagers 16+. Stories may contain adult themes, strong language, drug use etc, just please don't send in extreme graphic and or sexual violence, hate speech etc. We also won't publish tedious inflamatory political rants or anything defamatory. Content warnings will be provided where necessary.
Your editor will cheerfully stick a pin in a voodoo doll version of you every time you submit the word "woke" to Geelong Cereal unless it references someone who has recently ceased to be asleep.
Be considerate, help us create a welcoming and creative space, and most of all, have fun!
Technical stuff.
This platform only accepts block paragraphing, and it melts down whenever a tab key is pressed anywhere in the universe. Please don't indent paragraphs, dialogue or anything else. Please use a single line space to separate paragraphs, different speakers etc just as you see here on this page.
'Like this?' you ask.
'Yes. Exactly like that,' Geelong Cereal replies. 'If I receive work with indents, I have to reformat it. You might not like the result, and that makes me a sad panda'.
Please submit your work using only .docx or PDF formats.
Sumbissions should be emailed to thegeelongcereal@gmail.com
Please submit your work in a 12pt serif font such as Times New Roman or Garamond.
Please be sure to include your name or handle and always give your work a title.
In your email, please state your name, the title of the piece, and let me know what you have written. (You don't need to summarise it, just say something like: 'this is a short fantasy story', or 'this is a comedic piece of microfiction' etc). Bonus points for including a word count, and a bio with a picture of you (or your cat etc) if you plan to be a regular contributor.
A note about pictures.
Geelong Cereal will not publish any AI generated or significantly AI-manipulated images.
You are welcome to include some definitely not AI pictures with your work, however it will not always be possible to publish them. If you include pictures they must be your own original artwork, used with permission by the artist, CC lisenced or public domain images, or photographs taken by you, which do not depict anything that breaches privacy or copyright laws. Images of children that could be used to generate abuse material won't be published.
Having said this, photography and art-work is highly valued here, and if you'd like to have a running photo or art journal or blog about your travels or your art or anything cool that features your pictures, please send me an outline of what you propose and we'll see if we can make it happen :-)
Specific guidelines for serial fiction.
If you are submitting a long piece to be published in sections, please clearly divide the work into roughly equal parts and number them. State in your email the number of sections and the approximate word count of each.
If you are planning to write an "on the run" serial, please send the first 2 episodes (each between 500-2500 words), an overview of how the story is likely to progress, and indicate how many episodes you forsee writing. A commitment to a minimum of six episodes and to writing an ending is required.
Short stories and creative non-fiction
Important things to consider before sending individual short stories, poetry and creative non-fiction to be published by Geelong Cereal.
Many writing competitions and publications only accept work that has not been published. If there is a chance you may want to enter your work into a competition or submit it to a literary journal, we recommend you do that first.
Most notably for Geelong residents, Geelong Writers Inc run several fiction competitions each year, including The Geelong Writers Prize (up to 3,000 words), the Funniest 500 (up to 500 words), and the Finest 500 (believe it or not, also up to 500 words). They also publish a poetry journal and a yearly anthology. For your work to be included in any of these great competitions or publications, it must be as-yet-unpublished so if that's your goal for your piece please submit it there first. You can check out Geelong Writers various competitions and publication opportunities here:
Geelong Writers Inc
Geelong Cereal, on the other hand, will publish any great stories that come our way, even if they've been published elsewhere (for example, people frequently publish their own independently published work here).
We will aim to respond to all submissions as soon as we can but sometimes there may be delays. Please wait 14 days before reaching out.
Please email your submission to:
thegeelongcereal@gmail.com