How to Submit a Puzzle

Apr 25, 2024

Thanks for your interest in contributing to Artisanal Sudoku. I’m excited to have the opportunity to showcase great puzzles by other creators, and I want to do so without straying too far from the style, difficulty, and quality subscribers have come to expect, so please keep the following guidelines in mind when making your submission.

I’m looking for puzzles that are…

New and Original

As in, created by the submitter and not previously published anywhere else. In most cases, I won’t consider a puzzle “published” if it has been posted in a semi-private Discord channel or other forum solely for the purpose of testing and feedback.

Approachable and Accessible

By approachable, I mean that the easiest AS puzzles should be solvable by someone who is just discovering variant sudoku for the first time. And that same person should be able to open the toughest AS puzzle and at least understand the rules and, perhaps with the help of a hint or two, develop some ideas about how to get started. (A puzzle that would get a difficulty rating of 3/5 or higher on Logic Masters Deutschland is probably too difficult to publish here.)

I’m especially looking for puzzles that are toward the very easy end of the spectrum, e.g. no tougher than 5/10 on the AS scale (which doesn’t translate well to the LMD scale, but would be firmly in 1/5 territory).

And by accessible, I mean that puzzles here obey normal 9x9 sudoku rules, and generally use variant rulesets that are familiar to experienced solvers and hopefully can be understood by new solvers without too much trouble. These include:

killer cages
little killer clues
arrows
thermometers
German whispers
renbans
palindromes
quadruple circles
even squares and odd circles
V’s and X’s
white and black dots

This list is not exhaustive and is constantly evolving as new rulesets emerge and become common—for example, as of April 2024 region sum lines, entropic lines, and nabner lines have all made multiple appearances in AS puzzles—but the point is that I am not looking for puzzles where understanding the rules is itself part of the puzzle. Oh, and I really, really, really don’t like slow thermometers.

Also, AS puzzles generally avoid global constraints (antiknight, etc.) and negative constraints, and can be solved without requiring the solver to know SET or other advanced tricks.

(All that said, beginning with Volume 127 I have been including a non-paywalled bonus puzzle with every prime numbered volume, specifically to highlight puzzles with unusual rules, and submissions that might be a good fit in that spot are also welcome. Prime bonus puzzles should still be fun and not monstrously difficult, but as for the ruleset, anything goes.)

Nice to Look At

I believe a visually-appealing puzzle has a better chance of capturing a solver’s attention and keeping them engaged, and for that reason a puzzle’s aesthetics are very important to me. Obviously, there’s a lot of subjectivity here, and I apologize in advance if my sense of what makes for a nice-looking puzzle differs from yours, but some of my preferences include:

I find given digits harsh and distracting, and have never used one in an AS puzzle. Include them in your submission if you want, but it may be an uphill battle.
Symmetry isn’t everything, but a nice-looking puzzle with a complete lack of symmetry is tough to pull off.
You don’t need to shy away from using multiple rulesets in the same puzzle (I certainly don’t), but be careful to avoid too much clutter or awkwardly overlapping clues.

Very, Very Good

I want to emphasize that even if I don’t get any submissions, I’ll still be publishing five puzzles per week for the foreseeable future. My goal in accepting submissions is to improve this product, and the best way I can think of to do that is to replace some of my less-inspired efforts with outstanding puzzles made by others. So please understand that my standards are high, and even if I think your puzzle is pretty good I may still decline to use it.

(Please also understand that while I will always do my best to be fair, the decision to accept or decline a puzzle ultimately comes down to my personal preference, which may be unpredictable or inconsistent.)

If your puzzle is accepted

When you submit a puzzle, I will assume you have read and agree to the terms in this section. If you do not agree to one or more of them, please say so clearly and prominently in your submission.

Payment

As of April 2024, contributors are paid $30 (US) per puzzle, with payment sent by PayPal or Venmo at the time of publishing.

Credit

Contributors are credited under their preferred name, which will appear in AS with a link to a personal site (LMD page, YouTube channel, etc.) if desired.

Alterations

I may accept a puzzle on the condition that certain changes are made, but will always discuss these changes with the contributor and obtain their consent before publishing. I also reserve the right to refuse to publish a name, link, or puzzle title if I feel it reflects poorly on AS, but, again, will not publish an altered version without the contributor’s consent.

Re-publishing

As noted above, the puzzle should be unpublished at the time it appears in AS. After that time, the contributor retains the right to re-publish it elsewhere under their own name (which includes the option to submit the puzzle to Cracking the Cryptic or similar platforms), as long as they clearly acknowledge that it first appeared in Artisanal Sudoku and include a link if possible.

Submitting your puzzle

Please send your puzzle, along with a link to it in F-Puzzles or SudokuMaker, to jwsinclair at gmail dot com or via direct message on Discord (@jwsinclair). For now, I am not imposing a limit on submissions (e.g. no more than one per month), but I don’t have unlimited time, so please send only the puzzle(s) that you feel best fit the criteria above.

Please also feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks!