Laughter is the best medicine. And we love to publish your funny stories in all our books. Our books filled with nothing but funny stories are always bestsellers, so we are doing it again. This edition will be for publication in 2025 but we’re already looking for those funny stories you tell again and again. The ones that make everyone laugh.
We are looking for stories about something that happened to you in your life – in your relationship with a partner or spouse, a parent or child, a family member or friend, at work or at home that made you and the people around you laugh out loud. Did you mean for it to be funny? Did the other person mean to make you laugh? Did a situation just get out of control? Did a misunderstanding turn into a comedy of errors? We can’t wait to hear your true stories. We want them to be silly, outrageous and hilarious, and they absolutely must make us laugh!
Here are some suggested topics but we know you can think of many more:
– A slip of the tongue – Oh no, I didn’t mean to say that!
– Mistaken identity
– Obsessions and Compulsions
– Work whoops
– Pranks that worked – Gotcha!
– Pranks that backfired – Yikes!
– Annoying habits – if you don’t stop doing that I’m going to scream!
– Doggone funny
– Getting catty
– That was embarrassing
– Happily ever laughter
– Innocently inappropriate
– What? I thought you said but you really said!
– Senior moments
– Wedding woes
– Funeral foul-ups
– Holiday hiccups and meltdowns
– Kitchen/dinner party accidents
– Sports catastrophes
– Domestic turmoil
– Dating disasters
– Making fun of yourself
– Crazy family fun and foibles: it’s all relative
– Moving-day mayhem
– Laughing at inappropriate times
– I can’t believe I did that!
– Travel turmoil
– Zany vacations
Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul story
- Tell an exciting, heartwarming or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Your story should be written in the first person and should be about yourself or someone close to you.
- Tell your story in a way that will make the reader cry, laugh, get goose bumps or say “Wow!”
- The story should start “in the action” and draw in the reader. Do not start your story with an introduction about what you are going to say, or end with a concluding paragraph about what you just said.
- Don’t be afraid to speak from the heart. Many people tell personal stories for the first time in our books, and they find it to be a cathartic and productive experience. We do let you use a pen name for your story if you do not want to use your real name.
- Don’t try fancy moves with tenses. Writing in the present tense about something that happened in the past rarely works.
- Keep your story to 1200 words or less. Tighten, tighten, tighten!
- Your story must be true. No fiction, no creative writing.
What a Chicken Soup for the Soul story IS NOT:
- A sermon, an essay or eulogy.
- An “as told to” story written by you for someone else. If you ghost-write a story for someone, we thank you for helping that person share his or her story. That person’s name will be listed as the author and he or she can acknowledge your help in the bio section.
- A term paper, thesis, letter or journal entry.
- About politics or controversial issues.
- A biography or testimonial.
- A journalistic article about a third party that reads like a newspaper article.
Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul poem
- We love poems that tell a story. A Chicken Soup for the Soul poem does the same job as a story. The reader goes away having learned your story, just through poetry instead of prose.
- We do not publish poems that do not tell a story.
- We also do not publish poems that seem overly focused on rhyming and read more like greeting cards.
A few more tips about submitting
- The only way to submit your stories or poems to us is via our website. If you have any problems when trying to fill out the form and submit your work, please contact our webmaster at: webmaster@chickensoupforthesoul.com. Responses from the webmaster usually take several days, so be patient.
- Our webmaster cannot help you with your personal computer problems. If you have questions, such as, “How do I paste my story into the submission form?” please ask a friend or relative, not our webmaster.
- Please submit only stories or poems that have not been previously published. The only exception to this is if your work has only been published in a small local publication with limited circulation or on your own blog.
- Please do not send us any book manuscripts, unless through a literary agent, as these will be automatically discarded. Also, we do not accept title ideas from the public. If we receive any, they will be discarded and will not be shown to an editor.
NOTE: WE DO NOT PAY FOR SUBMISSIONS. WE ONLY PAY FOR STORIES IF WE PUBLISH THEM IN ONE OF OUR BOOKS, TYPICALLY 6 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS AFTER SUBMISSION. WE RECEIVE THOUSANDS OF SUBMISSIONS FOR EACH BOOK BUT CAN ONLY SELECT 101 STORIES FOR INCLUSION.