Wow, two anthology posts in a row! I've never done that before. I've been kind of busy, doing some cool things.
Early in May I attended a workshop on how to do POD books -- covers, interiors, marketing and selling, with a lot of really shocking info on how the business has changed very recently. I spent the time between my April anthology post and the workshop itself fiddling with Photoshop Elements (which it turned out I didn't need for the class :P ) and InDesign, which is an awesome tool -- once you've learned even the basics of ID, it becomes clear why it's the industry standard. Once you have your art (for about fifteen dollars off a stock art site -- and yes, they have art art as well as photos) you can do the whole cover, beautifully, in InDesign.
Flowing the text in is easy. Front matter goes in first, then your story or novel text; ID will create as many pages as you need, and you use master pages to set the layout. The fiddly part here is making sure the formatting works at the line- and paragraph-level. Hunting for widows (the first line of a paragraph alone at the bottom of a page), orphans (the last line of a paragraph alone at the top of a page, and widowed orphans (the last line of a paragraph, totally alone at the top of a page, with no other text on the page) can make your interior look much better. Most of these can be fixed easily by using the tracking tool on a whole paragraph at once, tightening or loosening it enough to pull a lone word or two up onto the previous line (re-flowing everything up to close the space) or to push a word or two onto the next line (pushing everything down a line) while not changing the spacing so much that someone casually reading will even notice.
InDesign is an incredibly powerful tool, and there are usually multiple ways of doing just about anything, which means it can be overwhelming at first. Having personal classroom instruction, one-to-three instruction with Allyson in small groups, and people coming around to give us one-to-one help during lab periods, was worth the cost of the workshop, and then some. The workshop was taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira (Allyson is the publisher at WMG), with help during labs by a couple of local writers who are old hands at this and came to help out. Lee Allred was particularly awesome in giving assistance to all of us newbie book designers.
And really, that's what it comes down to: the design. You can achieve the same results with other tools, but what's important is the design. Look at other books in your genre -- professionally published books, not just indie books -- and see what they look like. What elements are on the cover? How are they laid out? What's large or small? What elements are associated together, and placed near one another? Notice those little tags -- "Bestselling author of Popular Book," or "Book 3 of Author's Cool Series" -- that are too small to read in thumbnail? You still need them on your e-books. Even if they're unreadable in an online bookseller's catalog, they're design elements and readers are used to seeing them, even as a little line of unreadable text, on professionally designed covers. The cover will look naked and unfinished without them.
What's included in the front matter, and how is it laid out? What do new chapter pages look like in a novel, or new story pages in a collection or anthology? What does the spacing look like, between the headers and the text, the footers and the text, the text and the margins? If your presentation is amateurish, potential readers (buyers) will notice, even if they can't articulate what bugs them about a particular cover or interior. New York has conditioned us to expect certain things about a professional book, and if an indie book doesn't have all those things, or they're not laid out the way we're used to seeing, that'll ping our "amateur" alarm, even if we can't put our finger on why. Learning how to design the book, and the cover, is more important than learning to use kerning tools or feathered gradients in a particular software package. (Although you really should learn those things in whatever software you're using.)
So before the workshop, I was playing with the software and watching instructional videos online. Then I was in Oregon for a week and a half, and a lot busier than I thought I'd be. The day I flew to Portland, I met a writer friend [waves to PD Singer] at the airport, along with a friend of hers who lives in Portland, and we went and had lunch with a few other writers in our genre who are local to Portland. I love meeting internet people in realspace, so that was very cool. After lunch, Pam and I drove out to the coast, and we roomed together for the workshop itself. We sat next to each other in class, swapping help and opinions and angst. :)
After the workshop, we drove back to Portland and Pam dropped me off at my hotel. When I'm at these workshops, I like staying an extra night in Portland; not having to scramble to catch a plane that day means that I can flex my schedule to match that of whoever's driving me. One of the writers we had lunch with on the way out came to my hotel that evening. [waves to Amelia Gormley.] We chatted, had dinner together, and chatted some more.
The biggest bomb dropped on the workshop, though, was during the evening sessions, which were all business discussions. Remember Ella Distribution? I mentioned them a couple of months ago -- they were set up to distribute indie books by small publishers to bookstores. Well, Ella is gone. It was well organized, with an awesome web site, and had great people working on it, but within less than half a year, the industry changed. Now, not only is Ella no longer necessary, but it can't compete with the big kids on the playground.
Dean and Sheldon McArthur (Shelly's one of the best known booksellers in the country) talked to us about what'd changed recently with the distributors. Basically, 1) Baker and Taylor no longer marks books as POD published, and Ingram and the others followed suit; 2) B&T (and the others) now offer POD books at a good discount to booksellers, about 45%, and more if they keep on top of their bills; and 3) B&T (and the others) now allow returns on POD books.
There are indie-pubbed books in bookstores right now. If you go through Createspace, and pay the extra $25 for extended distribution, your books are available to bookstores through their standard distributors, on terms that make stocking them attractive. The only barrier right now is your book's presentation -- mainly cover and summary blurb. (Again, does your cover look professional, or does it look amateur?)
The playing field between an indie-pubbed book and a midlist New York published book is now level when it comes to getting into bookstores.
Shelly talked about how he finds books to buy for his store, through the distributor, through publisher catalogs and promotional material, and through sites like Goodreads, where he'll go to see what books people might be talking about that he hadn't heard of. He's been buying indie books ever since the distributors changed their policies. He doesn't care where a book comes from so long as it's a good book, professionally presented, and neither do the readers.
Dean and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are talking about this all month on their blogs, in much more detail. As always, there's good stuff in the comments, too. I highly recommend you read their posts on the subject. (Actually, if you're a writer I highly recommend you read their blogs all the time. Lots of great stuff there.)
During all this, I had a deadline on the 15th to get a story turned in for an event running in June on Goodreads, and the story I was writing was getting longer and longer and longer.... [headdesk] When I wasn't futzing with InDesign during the workshop, I was writing, and after I came home I was still writing. I got it done, a 60K word novel that'll be available on Goodreads some time in June, and as an e-book on Goodreads and ARe some time after that, depending on where it is in the very long list of books the group's volunteers have to work on. I'll be doing a paperback version some time after that. (I did a cover for it at the workshop.)
And now I'm back to writing other things.
The business is changing while we sit here. If we stay on top of the changes, and take advantage of them, they'll work for us. This is a great time to be a writer, and a wonderful time to be indie publishing, or getting into it if you're not yet.
Angie
Monday, May 20, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month, so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
Renowned editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow will be editing an unthemed, all original anthology of terror and supernatural fiction for CZP, Fearful Symmetries, scheduled to be published in Spring 2014. (The project was funded through Kickstarter by your generous donations!)
Ellen says: "This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well-worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out."
Payment is 7 cents/word. Up to 10,000 words, BUT Ellen would prefer stories up to 7500 words. No reprints.
A large percentage of the stories have already been solicited, but we have a small window for open submissions, from May 1 - May 31, 2013. Please send your best work.
We are using the Moksha Submissions System. You can submit here:
http://submissions.chizinepub.com/fearful-symmetries/submit/
***
31 May 2013 -- Unidentified Funny Objects 2 -- ed. Alex Shvartzman; UFO Publishing
Unidentified Funny Objects 2 is a 2nd annual anthology of humorous SF/F. Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Ken Liu, Esther Friesner, Tim Pratt, and Jody Lynn Nye are contributing stories to this volume.
LENGTH: 500-6000 words.
PAYMENT: $0.05 per word + contributor copy. Payment will be made upon acceptance. Our preferred method of payment is via PayPal, but you may request a check.
FORMAT: RTF or DOC. Standard Manuscript Format or something close to it (We won’t take points off if you prefer Courier to Times New Roman or some such). Please remove your name from the manuscript as all submissions are read “blind”. Submit to: ufoeditors @ gmail dot com
WHAT WE WANT:
We’re looking for speculative stories with a strong humor element. Think Resnick and Sheckley, Fredric Brown and Douglas Adams. We welcome quality flash fiction and non-traditional narratives. Take chances, try something new, just make sure that your story is funny.
Puns and stories that are little more than vehicles for delivering a punch line at the end aren’t likely to win us over.
Most submissions we’ve received in the past are rejected because they aren’t particularly funny. For this anthology we’re looking for humor, not just lighthearted, optimistic stories. Ask yourself if your story might make the reader laugh out loud, and submit if the answer is yes.
The best way to learn what we like is to read the first volume. You can buy it here and also read the online stories for free.
LENGTH: 500-6000 words.
PAYMENT: $0.05 per word + contributor copy. Payment will be made upon acceptance. Our preferred method of payment is via PayPal, but you may request a check.
FORMAT: RTF or DOC. Standard Manuscript Format or something close to it (We won’t take points off if you prefer Courier to Times New Roman or some such). Please remove your name from the manuscript as all submissions are read “blind”.
SEND TO: E-mail submissions as an attachment to: ufoeditors @ gmail dot com
Format the subject line as follows: Submission: by (Approx. Length)
Example: Submission: You Bet by Alex Shvartsman (2000 words)
POLICIES & RESPONSE TIME: No reprints, multiple or simultaneous submissions please. Do not send us any story we already considered for UFO1. We will respond to all subs within 30 days. If you don’t hear by then please check your spam folder, then query at the same e-mail address with the word QUERY in the title of the e-mail.
If your story is rejected before May 31 you may send another, but we will only consider up to two submissions per author. (To clarify, send the second ONLY after the first one is rejected). If your second submission is rejected, we will ask you to wait until next year, when we’re reading for UFO3.
SUBMISSION WINDOW: May 1, 2013 through May 31, 2013.
RIGHTS SOUGHT: First Worldwide print and electronic English Language rights. Exclusivity for 3 months from date of release. Non-exclusive rights to keep the anthology in print across different publishing platforms afterward.
[Click through for more info on the selection process, and a FAQ.]
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
10 June 2013 -- Looking Landward -- NewCon Press
NewCon Press are proud to announce our first ever 'open submission' anthology: Looking Landwards.
The book is being produced in collaboration with the Institution of Agricultural Engineers, which celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year. To commemorate this event, we are looking for original science fiction stories that speculate on what the future might hold for agricultural engineering, farming and food production over the next century.
Ideally stories should be of 4,500 words or less, though this limit is flexible. Payment of 1p a word (or equivalent) up to a limit of £45.00 will be made for successful submissions.
The book will be published towards the end of 2013.
Stories should be presented in standard manuscript format, with italics used for italicised words (not underlining), and double inverted commas for speech. Please submit your story as an attachment (either doc or rtf) to the following email address: flashfic@newconpress.co.uk
Submissions close at midnight on June 10th 2013.
***
20 June 2013 -- Neverland's Library -- ed. Rebecca Lovatt and Roger Bellini
Neverland’s Library will be an anthology focusing on the rediscovery of the fantastic; magic, dragons, the supernatural, etc. We are looking for stories which highlight finding that which was once thought lost, incorporating fantastical and/or fictitious elements. We will not restrict how the story is told. All styles, settings, and tones are welcome.
We are looking for only unpublished stories. If the story has been made available for free or payment online then please do not submit it for consideration as it will be considered ineligible under our criteria. We ask that authors limit themselves to no more than 2 submissions, with no simultaneous submissions. That means when a story is submitted to us, it should not be submitted for publication consideration anywhere else.
If you have questions regarding the eligibility of your story, please send a query email before submitting the story in question and we will get back to you promptly in response to your concern.
Submission Period
(Subject to change) Submissions will be open from March 5th 2013, until June 20th, 2013. Exact dates may vary depending on volume of entries.
Payments and Rights
Upon successful completion of the Kickstarter funding campaign, authors will receive 3c/per word. If we fail to reach our goal, all submissions will remain the property of the author and Neverland’s Library will not own any rights to the stories submitted.
If the Kickstarter funding is a success and your story is selected for inclusion in the Neverland’s Library Anthology, we will email a digital copy of the contract for the authors examination. Upon agreement of terms the editor signed contract will be mailed to the story author to be signed. After the contract is returned to us and signed by all involved parties, payment will be promptly delivered via check or PayPal, at the submitters preference.
If your submission is accepted, we will be buying First Anthology Print and First Anthology eBook Rights. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in this anthology only. The author will retain all other print rights, allowing them to sell their story to magazines, websites, podcasts or as individual short stories, or in a collection of their own work, or even sell to another anthology, after six months have passed since the publication of Neverland’s Library.
By submitting a story, you acknowledge that you are in fact the writer and sole owner of the work in question.
DO NOT SUBMIT WORKS IF YOU DON’T OWN THEM.
Length
We are looking for stories within 2,000 – 8,000 words. We may choose to print some shorter or longer pieces, however please try to keep within this targeted range.
Formatting
Only email submissions will be accepted. Please attach all submissions using Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) or Open Office (ODT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of these formats.
Please have all submissions in size 12 Times New Roman font.
How to Submit (What to include)
Please send your story to neverlandslibrary@gmail.com, using the following subject line when submitting:
[NL] STORY TITLE – Your Name
In the body of your email, please include the following:
== Title
== Real name — This is the name that will go on the contract. No pseudonyms or nicknames.
== Pen name — How you want your name to appear in print. Don’t include if you would like to use your real name.
== Word count
== Email address
== Phone number
== Short Bio — This is your chance to tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing experience.
All aforementioned items are required, please do not omit any information. Biography lengths may vary, just let us know what you think we need to know.
We will not share any of your personal information with ANYONE. Contact information will only be used to tell you whether your story was accepted, and update with progress on the Kickstarter, and when (if) the book is finished. We will always attempt to contact you via email first. Phone number will only be used if we need to get in touch with you, and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we will ask you to confirm all information, and you will be given the chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Please send all submissions and questions to Roger and Rebecca at NeverlandsLibrary@gmail.com. We will be happy to answer all questions.
***
30 June 2013 -- Strange Critters: Unusual Creatures of Appalachia -- ed. Frank Larnerd, Woodland Press
Format: Trade Paperback, ebook
Payment: five cents per word (upon publication) plus contributor copy.
No reprints
Story length: Up to 2500 words
No multiple or simultaneous subs
Deadline: 12:00am Saturday, June 30th, 2013
E-mail submissions to: strangecritters@hotmail.com
RTF, DOC, or DOCX attachments only.
I am looking for horror stories featuring legendary, mythical, or imaginary creatures of Appalachia. Stories based on established local lore are preferred, but exceptions may be made for exceptionally crafted creatures. I am NOT looking for stories with zombies, vampires or other popular monsters. Submitted stories can be set in any time period, but must take place in the Appalachian region.
Although the anthology is mainly targeted for adults, we DO NOT want stories containing language or content unsuitable for children. Submissions should also avoid unflattering Appalachian stereotypes.
Accepted Manuscript Formatting:
Double-spaced.
Use Times New Roman (12).
Italicize what you want italicized.
Single space after sentence-ending punctuation.
Be sure to include your name, address, and email on your manuscript.
[Click through and check the comments for some discussion of what the editor means by "Appalachia," geographically.]
***
30 June 2013 -- Lost Worlds -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Give us dinosaurs, planets and pyramids, paranormal, space opera....
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
31 July 2013 -- Long Hidden -- ed. Rose Fox and Daniel José Older; Crossed Genres Publications
Below are guidelines for submitting stories to Long Hidden, and the submission form. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting.
Direct all queries to questions@longhidden.com.
Do not send story submissions via email, and do not send queries through the submission form.
Who can submit
We welcome stories by authors from all walks of life. We especially encourage submissions from members of marginalized groups within the speculative fiction community, including (but not limited to) people of color; people who are not from or living in the U.S.A.; QUILTBAG and GSM people; people with disabilities, chronic illness, or mental illness; and atheists, agnostics, and members of religious minorities. The protagonists of your story do not have to mirror your own heritage, identities, beliefs, or experiences.
We also especially encourage short story submissions from people who don’t usually write in this format, including poets, playwrights, essayists and authors of historical fiction and historical romance.
Submission deadline and publication schedule
All submissions are due July 31, 2013. If it’s still July 31 in your time zone, you’re good. Acceptance notices will be sent by October 1. The anthology is tentatively slated for a February 2014 release.
Pay and rights
We pay USD 5¢/word for global English first publication rights in print and digital format. The author retains copyright. Payment is upon publication.
Story criteria
== Length: 3000-7000 words (FIRM)
== Your story must be set between the years 1400 and 1920 C.E., and take place primarily in our world or an alternate historical version of our world. (Travel to other worlds, other dimensions, Fairyland, the afterlife, etc. is fine but should not be the focus.)
== Your protagonists must be people who were marginalized in their time and place. By “marginalized” we mean that they belong to one or more groups of people that were categorically, systematically deprived of rights and/or economic power. Examples in most times and places include enslaved people, indigenous people, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and people who do not share the local dominant religion, language, or ethnicity. Many people belong to multiple marginalized groups, and many are marginalized in some ways and privileged in others. Your story should acknowledge the complexity and intersectionality of marginalization.
== Your story must contain a significant element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the weird, without which the story would not work or would be a substantially different story.
== All submissions must be in English.
== No reprints. No Simultaneous submissions.
We will not accept any story containing the following:
== Gratuitous or titillating depictions of violence.
== Gratuitous descriptions of bodies or body parts, or people described only in objectifying ways.
== Horror that relies on shocking or grossing out the reader.
Stories that are all about how someone non-marginalized became an enlightened champion of marginalized people.
== A protagonist from a societally or technologically powerful group who happens to be temporarily or situationally powerless (e.g. a peasant who’s really a prince, a representative of the British East India Company shipwrecked on Ceylon).
== Depictions of marginalized people as being doomed to hopeless misery.
== Depiction of any group, no matter how powerful, as universally, inherently, or irredeemably evil.
Handle with care
If you decide to incorporate one or more of the following elements, please do so with caution and awareness of the ways that they can be problematic or difficult to write about.
== Violence, particularly sexual violence. We recognize that sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon against marginalized people, so we are not issuing a blanket prohibition against it, but please consider very carefully whether you need to include it in your story; and if you decide that you do, please consider very very carefully whether your story needs to show the violent act itself.
== Consensual sexual encounters. We’re not averse to sexual or erotic content, but it needs to further the story and incorporate awareness of the ways real-world power relationships affect sexual behavior and decision-making.
== Stereotypes and clichés.
== Alternate history that drops magic powers or anachronistic technology into a historical setting.
== A protagonist who is the only marginalized person in the story.
== Revenge fantasies.
== A setting that’s already very commonly used in speculative fiction, especially one that’s often associated with stories featuring members of privileged/dominant/colonizing groups, e.g. Victorian England, the American “Wild West”.
What we do want
Your story doesn’t need to have all these elements, but we’re especially interested in stories that have at least some of them.
== Intersectionality.
== Accurate depictions of life on the margins.
== Thoughtful, sensitive incorporation of religion, superstition, and folklore.
== Depictions of historically accurate societal attitudes in the context of an authorial voice that does not condone or espouse bigotry. (For example, your female characters will probably have to deal with societal sexism, but your descriptions of them should not rely on sexist stereotypes.)
== An understanding of how economic, technological, political, and religious influences shape a time and place, especially in alternate historical settings.
== Research bibliographies and suggestions for further reading.
== Integration of friendships, family relationships, and community into the story.
== Protagonists who make conscious choices and take conscious action.
== Side characters who are real people.
== Personal triumphs and successes.
== Making us laugh, think, cheer, and weep.
How to submit
To submit a story to Long Hidden, please fill out the form below. Be sure to:
== Address your email “Dear Long Hidden editors” or “Dear Mr. Older and Ms. Fox” or “Dear Rose and Daniel”. All submissions should be addressed to both editors. See this post for why we feel the need to emphasize this.
== Include your story’s year and location at the beginning of your submission.
== Attach your story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file, with your name, the story title, and the wordcount on the first page.
[Click through for submission form.]
[Also, see here for a more detailed discussion of what they're doing with the book, what they want, and what writers they've invited already.]
***
1 August 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
In the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the edition you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
1 August 2013 -- I Delight in What the Book Forbids: Stories of Gay Muslim Fantasy -- ed. Steve Berman; Lethe Press
The title refers to a line from th acclaimed Arab poet Diwan Abu Nawas and, it is our hope, to inspire both prose poems and short fiction that is both positive in its treatment of Muslim men and expands upon the rich mythology of the Arab world: jinn, the garin, rocs, and ghuls among others. Whether these gay men seek adventure, treasure, or love, the stories should be rich in their surroundings and culture (whether ancient, medieval, or contemporary). Stories should deal with gay or bisexual men and between 2,500 and 10,000 words. Pament for original fiction is 5 cents a word; reprints receive 1 cent a word. All authors receive a free copy of the book. Consider some of the stories by Alex Jeffers when looking at what I want. Submissions should be sent to sberman8@yahoo.com no later than August 1st.
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Membrane -- Dreadful Cafe -- First Listed May 2013
Unreal. Imaginative. Intense.
An escape from the safe.
These stories will propel the reader—by wormhole or peephole—through the fantastic, the criminal, and the insane.
Sometimes strange, always original, the stories we publish are of the highest production standards, from thrilling premise all the way to professional editing.
We are now soliciting query letters for Membrane, our first anthology. All genres are eligible, but preference is given to stories that cross more than one and which reflect the flavor and theme described above.
Manuscripts must be between 2,000 and 30,000 words and not previously published by anyone but the author. Self-published works are accepted and encouraged!
Please refer to our Submission Guidelines.
Upon acceptance of your completed manuscript, Dreadful Cafe pays for non-exclusive, unlimited, 5-year publishing rights on the following schedule:
Short Stories (2,000-7,000 words) — $125
Novelettes (7,001-15,000 words) — $250
Novellas (15,001-30,000 words) — $500/Negotiable
It's your work.
We are simply paying for the rights to publish, market, and sell your completed manuscript as part of this or any other Dreadful Cafe anthology. You are encouraged to continue marketing on your own.
However, you will be unable to enter into any exclusive arrangement with other parties once you have sold rights to us. Also, note that we may give your story away for free as part of our marketing efforts, and that we may use edited excerpts from your story for the same.
This applies to both electronic and print versions, both in the US and abroad.
We may, at our discretion, hire an editor (at our expense) to work with you on your manuscript. Payment follows final completion and acceptance of the edited manuscript.
Dreadful Cafe reserves the right to reject your manuscript at any time and for any reason, including elimination from future editions of the published anthology.
No royalties or warranties are given or implied.
Estimated Publication: Pre-holiday 2013
Query Submissions Open: April 1, 2013
Query Submissions Closed: TBD
The Dreadful Cafe is committed to socially responsible publishing. All after-cost proceeds from this anthology will go to support St. Jude's Children's Hospital, because life is too short not to have fun and too precious not to do good.
We encourage you to support the many local charities in your community.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
Renowned editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow will be editing an unthemed, all original anthology of terror and supernatural fiction for CZP, Fearful Symmetries, scheduled to be published in Spring 2014. (The project was funded through Kickstarter by your generous donations!)
Ellen says: "This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well-worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out."
Payment is 7 cents/word. Up to 10,000 words, BUT Ellen would prefer stories up to 7500 words. No reprints.
A large percentage of the stories have already been solicited, but we have a small window for open submissions, from May 1 - May 31, 2013. Please send your best work.
We are using the Moksha Submissions System. You can submit here:
http://submissions.chizinepub.com/fearful-symmetries/submit/
***
31 May 2013 -- Unidentified Funny Objects 2 -- ed. Alex Shvartzman; UFO Publishing
Unidentified Funny Objects 2 is a 2nd annual anthology of humorous SF/F. Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Ken Liu, Esther Friesner, Tim Pratt, and Jody Lynn Nye are contributing stories to this volume.
LENGTH: 500-6000 words.
PAYMENT: $0.05 per word + contributor copy. Payment will be made upon acceptance. Our preferred method of payment is via PayPal, but you may request a check.
FORMAT: RTF or DOC. Standard Manuscript Format or something close to it (We won’t take points off if you prefer Courier to Times New Roman or some such). Please remove your name from the manuscript as all submissions are read “blind”. Submit to: ufoeditors @ gmail dot com
WHAT WE WANT:
We’re looking for speculative stories with a strong humor element. Think Resnick and Sheckley, Fredric Brown and Douglas Adams. We welcome quality flash fiction and non-traditional narratives. Take chances, try something new, just make sure that your story is funny.
Puns and stories that are little more than vehicles for delivering a punch line at the end aren’t likely to win us over.
Most submissions we’ve received in the past are rejected because they aren’t particularly funny. For this anthology we’re looking for humor, not just lighthearted, optimistic stories. Ask yourself if your story might make the reader laugh out loud, and submit if the answer is yes.
The best way to learn what we like is to read the first volume. You can buy it here and also read the online stories for free.
LENGTH: 500-6000 words.
PAYMENT: $0.05 per word + contributor copy. Payment will be made upon acceptance. Our preferred method of payment is via PayPal, but you may request a check.
FORMAT: RTF or DOC. Standard Manuscript Format or something close to it (We won’t take points off if you prefer Courier to Times New Roman or some such). Please remove your name from the manuscript as all submissions are read “blind”.
SEND TO: E-mail submissions as an attachment to: ufoeditors @ gmail dot com
Format the subject line as follows: Submission:
Example: Submission: You Bet by Alex Shvartsman (2000 words)
POLICIES & RESPONSE TIME: No reprints, multiple or simultaneous submissions please. Do not send us any story we already considered for UFO1. We will respond to all subs within 30 days. If you don’t hear by then please check your spam folder, then query at the same e-mail address with the word QUERY in the title of the e-mail.
If your story is rejected before May 31 you may send another, but we will only consider up to two submissions per author. (To clarify, send the second ONLY after the first one is rejected). If your second submission is rejected, we will ask you to wait until next year, when we’re reading for UFO3.
SUBMISSION WINDOW: May 1, 2013 through May 31, 2013.
RIGHTS SOUGHT: First Worldwide print and electronic English Language rights. Exclusivity for 3 months from date of release. Non-exclusive rights to keep the anthology in print across different publishing platforms afterward.
[Click through for more info on the selection process, and a FAQ.]
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
10 June 2013 -- Looking Landward -- NewCon Press
NewCon Press are proud to announce our first ever 'open submission' anthology: Looking Landwards.
The book is being produced in collaboration with the Institution of Agricultural Engineers, which celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year. To commemorate this event, we are looking for original science fiction stories that speculate on what the future might hold for agricultural engineering, farming and food production over the next century.
Ideally stories should be of 4,500 words or less, though this limit is flexible. Payment of 1p a word (or equivalent) up to a limit of £45.00 will be made for successful submissions.
The book will be published towards the end of 2013.
Stories should be presented in standard manuscript format, with italics used for italicised words (not underlining), and double inverted commas for speech. Please submit your story as an attachment (either doc or rtf) to the following email address: flashfic@newconpress.co.uk
Submissions close at midnight on June 10th 2013.
***
20 June 2013 -- Neverland's Library -- ed. Rebecca Lovatt and Roger Bellini
Neverland’s Library will be an anthology focusing on the rediscovery of the fantastic; magic, dragons, the supernatural, etc. We are looking for stories which highlight finding that which was once thought lost, incorporating fantastical and/or fictitious elements. We will not restrict how the story is told. All styles, settings, and tones are welcome.
We are looking for only unpublished stories. If the story has been made available for free or payment online then please do not submit it for consideration as it will be considered ineligible under our criteria. We ask that authors limit themselves to no more than 2 submissions, with no simultaneous submissions. That means when a story is submitted to us, it should not be submitted for publication consideration anywhere else.
If you have questions regarding the eligibility of your story, please send a query email before submitting the story in question and we will get back to you promptly in response to your concern.
Submission Period
(Subject to change) Submissions will be open from March 5th 2013, until June 20th, 2013. Exact dates may vary depending on volume of entries.
Payments and Rights
Upon successful completion of the Kickstarter funding campaign, authors will receive 3c/per word. If we fail to reach our goal, all submissions will remain the property of the author and Neverland’s Library will not own any rights to the stories submitted.
If the Kickstarter funding is a success and your story is selected for inclusion in the Neverland’s Library Anthology, we will email a digital copy of the contract for the authors examination. Upon agreement of terms the editor signed contract will be mailed to the story author to be signed. After the contract is returned to us and signed by all involved parties, payment will be promptly delivered via check or PayPal, at the submitters preference.
If your submission is accepted, we will be buying First Anthology Print and First Anthology eBook Rights. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in this anthology only. The author will retain all other print rights, allowing them to sell their story to magazines, websites, podcasts or as individual short stories, or in a collection of their own work, or even sell to another anthology, after six months have passed since the publication of Neverland’s Library.
By submitting a story, you acknowledge that you are in fact the writer and sole owner of the work in question.
DO NOT SUBMIT WORKS IF YOU DON’T OWN THEM.
Length
We are looking for stories within 2,000 – 8,000 words. We may choose to print some shorter or longer pieces, however please try to keep within this targeted range.
Formatting
Only email submissions will be accepted. Please attach all submissions using Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) or Open Office (ODT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of these formats.
Please have all submissions in size 12 Times New Roman font.
How to Submit (What to include)
Please send your story to neverlandslibrary@gmail.com, using the following subject line when submitting:
[NL] STORY TITLE – Your Name
In the body of your email, please include the following:
== Title
== Real name — This is the name that will go on the contract. No pseudonyms or nicknames.
== Pen name — How you want your name to appear in print. Don’t include if you would like to use your real name.
== Word count
== Email address
== Phone number
== Short Bio — This is your chance to tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing experience.
All aforementioned items are required, please do not omit any information. Biography lengths may vary, just let us know what you think we need to know.
We will not share any of your personal information with ANYONE. Contact information will only be used to tell you whether your story was accepted, and update with progress on the Kickstarter, and when (if) the book is finished. We will always attempt to contact you via email first. Phone number will only be used if we need to get in touch with you, and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we will ask you to confirm all information, and you will be given the chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Please send all submissions and questions to Roger and Rebecca at NeverlandsLibrary@gmail.com. We will be happy to answer all questions.
***
30 June 2013 -- Strange Critters: Unusual Creatures of Appalachia -- ed. Frank Larnerd, Woodland Press
Format: Trade Paperback, ebook
Payment: five cents per word (upon publication) plus contributor copy.
No reprints
Story length: Up to 2500 words
No multiple or simultaneous subs
Deadline: 12:00am Saturday, June 30th, 2013
E-mail submissions to: strangecritters@hotmail.com
RTF, DOC, or DOCX attachments only.
I am looking for horror stories featuring legendary, mythical, or imaginary creatures of Appalachia. Stories based on established local lore are preferred, but exceptions may be made for exceptionally crafted creatures. I am NOT looking for stories with zombies, vampires or other popular monsters. Submitted stories can be set in any time period, but must take place in the Appalachian region.
Although the anthology is mainly targeted for adults, we DO NOT want stories containing language or content unsuitable for children. Submissions should also avoid unflattering Appalachian stereotypes.
Accepted Manuscript Formatting:
Double-spaced.
Use Times New Roman (12).
Italicize what you want italicized.
Single space after sentence-ending punctuation.
Be sure to include your name, address, and email on your manuscript.
[Click through and check the comments for some discussion of what the editor means by "Appalachia," geographically.]
***
30 June 2013 -- Lost Worlds -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Give us dinosaurs, planets and pyramids, paranormal, space opera....
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
31 July 2013 -- Long Hidden -- ed. Rose Fox and Daniel José Older; Crossed Genres Publications
Below are guidelines for submitting stories to Long Hidden, and the submission form. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting.
Direct all queries to questions@longhidden.com.
Do not send story submissions via email, and do not send queries through the submission form.
Who can submit
We welcome stories by authors from all walks of life. We especially encourage submissions from members of marginalized groups within the speculative fiction community, including (but not limited to) people of color; people who are not from or living in the U.S.A.; QUILTBAG and GSM people; people with disabilities, chronic illness, or mental illness; and atheists, agnostics, and members of religious minorities. The protagonists of your story do not have to mirror your own heritage, identities, beliefs, or experiences.
We also especially encourage short story submissions from people who don’t usually write in this format, including poets, playwrights, essayists and authors of historical fiction and historical romance.
Submission deadline and publication schedule
All submissions are due July 31, 2013. If it’s still July 31 in your time zone, you’re good. Acceptance notices will be sent by October 1. The anthology is tentatively slated for a February 2014 release.
Pay and rights
We pay USD 5¢/word for global English first publication rights in print and digital format. The author retains copyright. Payment is upon publication.
Story criteria
== Length: 3000-7000 words (FIRM)
== Your story must be set between the years 1400 and 1920 C.E., and take place primarily in our world or an alternate historical version of our world. (Travel to other worlds, other dimensions, Fairyland, the afterlife, etc. is fine but should not be the focus.)
== Your protagonists must be people who were marginalized in their time and place. By “marginalized” we mean that they belong to one or more groups of people that were categorically, systematically deprived of rights and/or economic power. Examples in most times and places include enslaved people, indigenous people, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and people who do not share the local dominant religion, language, or ethnicity. Many people belong to multiple marginalized groups, and many are marginalized in some ways and privileged in others. Your story should acknowledge the complexity and intersectionality of marginalization.
== Your story must contain a significant element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the weird, without which the story would not work or would be a substantially different story.
== All submissions must be in English.
== No reprints. No Simultaneous submissions.
We will not accept any story containing the following:
== Gratuitous or titillating depictions of violence.
== Gratuitous descriptions of bodies or body parts, or people described only in objectifying ways.
== Horror that relies on shocking or grossing out the reader.
Stories that are all about how someone non-marginalized became an enlightened champion of marginalized people.
== A protagonist from a societally or technologically powerful group who happens to be temporarily or situationally powerless (e.g. a peasant who’s really a prince, a representative of the British East India Company shipwrecked on Ceylon).
== Depictions of marginalized people as being doomed to hopeless misery.
== Depiction of any group, no matter how powerful, as universally, inherently, or irredeemably evil.
Handle with care
If you decide to incorporate one or more of the following elements, please do so with caution and awareness of the ways that they can be problematic or difficult to write about.
== Violence, particularly sexual violence. We recognize that sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon against marginalized people, so we are not issuing a blanket prohibition against it, but please consider very carefully whether you need to include it in your story; and if you decide that you do, please consider very very carefully whether your story needs to show the violent act itself.
== Consensual sexual encounters. We’re not averse to sexual or erotic content, but it needs to further the story and incorporate awareness of the ways real-world power relationships affect sexual behavior and decision-making.
== Stereotypes and clichés.
== Alternate history that drops magic powers or anachronistic technology into a historical setting.
== A protagonist who is the only marginalized person in the story.
== Revenge fantasies.
== A setting that’s already very commonly used in speculative fiction, especially one that’s often associated with stories featuring members of privileged/dominant/colonizing groups, e.g. Victorian England, the American “Wild West”.
What we do want
Your story doesn’t need to have all these elements, but we’re especially interested in stories that have at least some of them.
== Intersectionality.
== Accurate depictions of life on the margins.
== Thoughtful, sensitive incorporation of religion, superstition, and folklore.
== Depictions of historically accurate societal attitudes in the context of an authorial voice that does not condone or espouse bigotry. (For example, your female characters will probably have to deal with societal sexism, but your descriptions of them should not rely on sexist stereotypes.)
== An understanding of how economic, technological, political, and religious influences shape a time and place, especially in alternate historical settings.
== Research bibliographies and suggestions for further reading.
== Integration of friendships, family relationships, and community into the story.
== Protagonists who make conscious choices and take conscious action.
== Side characters who are real people.
== Personal triumphs and successes.
== Making us laugh, think, cheer, and weep.
How to submit
To submit a story to Long Hidden, please fill out the form below. Be sure to:
== Address your email “Dear Long Hidden editors” or “Dear Mr. Older and Ms. Fox” or “Dear Rose and Daniel”. All submissions should be addressed to both editors. See this post for why we feel the need to emphasize this.
== Include your story’s year and location at the beginning of your submission.
== Attach your story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file, with your name, the story title, and the wordcount on the first page.
[Click through for submission form.]
[Also, see here for a more detailed discussion of what they're doing with the book, what they want, and what writers they've invited already.]
***
1 August 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
In the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the edition you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
1 August 2013 -- I Delight in What the Book Forbids: Stories of Gay Muslim Fantasy -- ed. Steve Berman; Lethe Press
The title refers to a line from th acclaimed Arab poet Diwan Abu Nawas and, it is our hope, to inspire both prose poems and short fiction that is both positive in its treatment of Muslim men and expands upon the rich mythology of the Arab world: jinn, the garin, rocs, and ghuls among others. Whether these gay men seek adventure, treasure, or love, the stories should be rich in their surroundings and culture (whether ancient, medieval, or contemporary). Stories should deal with gay or bisexual men and between 2,500 and 10,000 words. Pament for original fiction is 5 cents a word; reprints receive 1 cent a word. All authors receive a free copy of the book. Consider some of the stories by Alex Jeffers when looking at what I want. Submissions should be sent to sberman8@yahoo.com no later than August 1st.
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Membrane -- Dreadful Cafe -- First Listed May 2013
Unreal. Imaginative. Intense.
An escape from the safe.
These stories will propel the reader—by wormhole or peephole—through the fantastic, the criminal, and the insane.
Sometimes strange, always original, the stories we publish are of the highest production standards, from thrilling premise all the way to professional editing.
We are now soliciting query letters for Membrane, our first anthology. All genres are eligible, but preference is given to stories that cross more than one and which reflect the flavor and theme described above.
Manuscripts must be between 2,000 and 30,000 words and not previously published by anyone but the author. Self-published works are accepted and encouraged!
Please refer to our Submission Guidelines.
Upon acceptance of your completed manuscript, Dreadful Cafe pays for non-exclusive, unlimited, 5-year publishing rights on the following schedule:
Short Stories (2,000-7,000 words) — $125
Novelettes (7,001-15,000 words) — $250
Novellas (15,001-30,000 words) — $500/Negotiable
It's your work.
We are simply paying for the rights to publish, market, and sell your completed manuscript as part of this or any other Dreadful Cafe anthology. You are encouraged to continue marketing on your own.
However, you will be unable to enter into any exclusive arrangement with other parties once you have sold rights to us. Also, note that we may give your story away for free as part of our marketing efforts, and that we may use edited excerpts from your story for the same.
This applies to both electronic and print versions, both in the US and abroad.
We may, at our discretion, hire an editor (at our expense) to work with you on your manuscript. Payment follows final completion and acceptance of the edited manuscript.
Dreadful Cafe reserves the right to reject your manuscript at any time and for any reason, including elimination from future editions of the published anthology.
No royalties or warranties are given or implied.
Estimated Publication: Pre-holiday 2013
Query Submissions Open: April 1, 2013
Query Submissions Closed: TBD
The Dreadful Cafe is committed to socially responsible publishing. All after-cost proceeds from this anthology will go to support St. Jude's Children's Hospital, because life is too short not to have fun and too precious not to do good.
We encourage you to support the many local charities in your community.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month (except last month, but anyway), so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
5 May 2013 -- Ominous Realities -- ed. Jacob Sanders; Grey Matter Press
We are looking for your Speculative Horror Fiction. As long as it is dark and dreadful.
For our upcoming anthology Ominous Realities, we’re looking for the darkest voices working in the areas of Science Fiction, Science Fantasy and Speculative Horror Fiction. Whether your vision includes alien intervention, biblical apocalypse, dystopian existences or simply fantastical and frightening concepts of life current or past, we want to see what you’ve got up your sleeve.
We do not want to limit the creativity or our authors, preferring instead to let each writer’s words speak to them from the place that is most comfortable. We’re looking to include the best and brightest new voices writing in Speculative Fiction today, and Ominous Realities is intended to celebrate that creativity, without limitations.
Please review our Submissions Guidelines below, and feel free to contact us here on the site with any questions. or send a message to submissions@greymatterpress.com.
But, keep in mind we have a VERY short deadline!
Ominous Realities is a working title. Grey Matter Press reserves the right to change the title as necessary.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS
Word Count: 3,000 – 10,000 words
Deadline: May 5, 2013
Payment: $100 flat rate per each manuscript accepted into the collection
Formats: *.doc, *.docx, *.txt, *.rtf
Contact Address: submissions@greymatterpress.com
Acceptable File Formats: Grey Matter Press wants to make your submission process easy and painless. We accept manuscripts that are *.doc, *.docx, .txt or .rtf file formats. If you have any questions about the formatting of your manuscript, feel free to contact us directly at submissions@greymatterpress.com
Digital Submissions: Unfortunately, we cannot accept manuscripts of previously published pieces. Only previously unpublished work will be accepted. We will accept your submission via email at submissions@greymatterpress.com. Subject lines should contain name of Anthology and the title of the story being submitted. (ex: OMINOUS REALITIES – ‘Title of Story.’
Font Usage and General Formatting: We request that all files be submitted double-spaced, using either Arial or Times New Roman 12 point font. Page margins should be no less than .5 inch on all borders.
Distribution: Upon acceptance into our anthologies, Grey Matter Press will hold all exclusive publishing rights for the period defined within author contract (generally 12-24 months). At the end of that term, intellectual property rights will revert to the original author, with Grey Matter Press retaining distribution rights for the format(s) originally contracted.
Contributor Copies: All contributors whose work is accepted and published in the anthology will, in the case of digital publishing, receive a digital copy of the complete anthology, and in the case of paperback publishing, will receive up to two copies of the anthology.
[Click through for some clarifications in the comments.]
***
11 May 2013 -- Sword and Sorceress -- ed. Elizabeth Waters
Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, and Sword & Sorceress 27 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.
No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second sumbmission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).
If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us.
Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.
Reading period: Saturday, April 13 to Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.
Deadline: May 11, 2013.
Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.
Formatting and Submission:
Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.
Your name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.
The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.
Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.
Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to mzbworks at yahoo dot com. The subject line should be "SS28, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS28, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.
Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.
Payment: 5 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.
***
15 May 2013 -- Sword and Laser Anthology -- ed. Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt
SUBMISSION PERIOD
Submissions will be accepted from March 1 – May 15, 2013. We expect to make our final selections by August 15, 2013.
PAYMENT
We pay $200 (US) upon acceptance.
LENGTH
We recommend a length of 1,500 – 7,500 words. We may choose to print shorter or longer stories in some cases, but this should be your target word count.
RIGHTS
If your submission is accepted we will buy the following rights:
= World anthology rights in English and translation
= Audio and ebook anthology rights
World anthology rights and audio/ebook anthology rights are specific to anthologies. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in an anthology only. Specifying “in translation” allows us to request that your work be included in any potential foreign editions as well.
You retain all other print rights. So you’re free to also sell your story to magazines, or websites, or podcasts, or as an individual short story (say, on Kindle), or in a collection of your own work, or even sell it to another anthology after our book has been out for a while. It’s your story, and you keep it, we just ask that we get to be first to print it.
Additionally, we expect to release a Creative Commons edition of the book. It’s not required but if you have strong feeling about it, please let us know upfront.
FORMATTING
We only accept email submissions. You can either paste your story into the body of your email message or send an attachment. For attachments, please use Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), or Plain Text (TXT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of those formats.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Send your story to anthology at swordandlaser dot com. Please use the following subject line when submitting…
[SLANTH] STORY TITLE – Your Name
So if your name is Nick Scalzi and if your story is called “YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT” then the subject line of your email should read…
[SLANTH] YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT – Nick Scalzi
Please follow this format, so your submission does not get overlooked!
Next, in the body of your email, please include the following:
= Title: The title of your story
= Pen name: How you want your name to appear in print
= Word count: The count of the words.
= Real name: This is the name that will go on the contract. So no pseudonyms or nicknames
= Email address
= Phone number
= Short biography: This is your chance to tell us A LITTLE about yourself and your writing experience.
All of this information is REQUIRED. You cannot omit any part of this information. You can keep the bio very short of course, that’s up for interpretation but every other piece of information has to be there or your submission will be rejected.
In return we promise not to share any of your personal information with ANYBODY, and we will only use your contact information to tell you whether your story was accepted, and then once to tell you when the book is finished. We will always try to contact you via email first. We will only use the phone number if we need to get in touch with you and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we’ll ask you to confirm all your information, and we’ll also give you a chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Finally, we ask that each writer limit themselves to 3 submissions. We also require only previously unpublished work, and no simultaneous submissions. That means when you submit to us, you haven’t submitted the story to anyone else.
[Click through for lengthy explanations of what they are and aren't looking for.]
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
[Note that these are minimal guidelines, just enough to get you started writing something. I checked for the "Submission instructions" before posting this, and there's nothing further up yet. Submissions don't open until 1 May, so I assume something more specific (like where to send subs) will be posted before that. Definitely check Ms. Datlow's journal for more specific instructions before trying to send her anything.
[ETA April Post: -- still nothing. She might be holding back details until 1 May when the book opens to subs. Definitely check yourself around then, since my May post will probably be within two weeks or so of the deadline.]
This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out.
The pay rate is 7 cents a word up to 10,000 words, but as the anthology is only 125,000 words long, I would prefer stories up to 7500 words.
The open reading period will run from May 1-May 31 2013. Submissions instructions coming soon.
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
10 June 2013 -- Looking Landward -- http://newconpress.co.uk/anthology/looking-landwards-submissions-open/
NewCon Press are proud to announce our first ever 'open submission' anthology: Looking Landwards.
The book is being produced in collaboration with the Institution of Agricultural Engineers, which celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year. To commemorate this event, we are looking for original science fiction stories that speculate on what the future might hold for agricultural engineering, farming and food production over the next century.
Ideally stories should be of 4,500 words or less, though this limit is flexible. Payment of 1p a word (or equivalent) up to a limit of £45.00 will be made for successful submissions.
The book will be published towards the end of 2013.
Stories should be presented in standard manuscript format, with italics used for italicised words (not underlining), and double inverted commas for speech. Please submit your story as an attachment (either doc or rtf) to the following email address: flashfic@newconpress.co.uk
Submissions close at midnight on June 10th 2013.
***
20 June 2013 -- Neverland's Library -- ed. Rebecca Lovatt and Roger Bellini
Neverland’s Library will be an anthology focusing on the rediscovery of the fantastic; magic, dragons, the supernatural, etc. We are looking for stories which highlight finding that which was once thought lost, incorporating fantastical and/or fictitious elements. We will not restrict how the story is told. All styles, settings, and tones are welcome.
We are looking for only unpublished stories. If the story has been made available for free or payment online then please do not submit it for consideration as it will be considered ineligible under our criteria. We ask that authors limit themselves to no more than 2 submissions, with no simultaneous submissions. That means when a story is submitted to us, it should not be submitted for publication consideration anywhere else.
If you have questions regarding the eligibility of your story, please send a query email before submitting the story in question and we will get back to you promptly in response to your concern.
Submission Period
(Subject to change) Submissions will be open from March 5th 2013, until June 20th, 2013. Exact dates may vary depending on volume of entries.
Payments and Rights
Upon successful completion of the Kickstarter funding campaign, authors will receive 3c/per word. If we fail to reach our goal, all submissions will remain the property of the author and Neverland’s Library will not own any rights to the stories submitted.
If the Kickstarter funding is a success and your story is selected for inclusion in the Neverland’s Library Anthology, we will email a digital copy of the contract for the authors examination. Upon agreement of terms the editor signed contract will be mailed to the story author to be signed. After the contract is returned to us and signed by all involved parties, payment will be promptly delivered via check or PayPal, at the submitters preference.
If your submission is accepted, we will be buying First Anthology Print and First Anthology eBook Rights. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in this anthology only. The author will retain all other print rights, allowing them to sell their story to magazines, websites, podcasts or as individual short stories, or in a collection of their own work, or even sell to another anthology, after six months have passed since the publication of Neverland’s Library.
By submitting a story, you acknowledge that you are in fact the writer and sole owner of the work in question.
DO NOT SUBMIT WORKS IF YOU DON’T OWN THEM.
Length
We are looking for stories within 2,000 – 8,000 words. We may choose to print some shorter or longer pieces, however please try to keep within this targeted range.
Formatting
Only email submissions will be accepted. Please attach all submissions using Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) or Open Office (ODT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of these formats.
Please have all submissions in size 12 Times New Roman font.
How to Submit (What to include)
Please send your story to neverlandslibrary@gmail.com, using the following subject line when submitting:
[NL] STORY TITLE – Your Name
In the body of your email, please include the following:
== Title
== Real name — This is the name that will go on the contract. No pseudonyms or nicknames.
== Pen name — How you want your name to appear in print. Don’t include if you would like to use your real name.
== Word count
== Email address
== Phone number
== Short Bio — This is your chance to tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing experience.
All aforementioned items are required, please do not omit any information. Biography lengths may vary, just let us know what you think we need to know.
We will not share any of your personal information with ANYONE. Contact information will only be used to tell you whether your story was accepted, and update with progress on the Kickstarter, and when (if) the book is finished. We will always attempt to contact you via email first. Phone number will only be used if we need to get in touch with you, and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we will ask you to confirm all information, and you will be given the chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Please send all submissions and questions to Roger and Rebecca at NeverlandsLibrary@gmail.com. We will be happy to answer all questions.
***
30 June 2013 -- Strange Critters: Unusual Creatures of Appalachia -- ed. Frank Larnerd, Woodland Press
Format: Trade Paperback, ebook
Payment: five cents per word (upon publication) plus contributor copy.
No reprints
Story length: Up to 2500 words
No multiple or simultaneous subs
Deadline: 12:00am Saturday, June 30th, 2013
E-mail submissions to: strangecritters@hotmail.com
RTF, DOC, or DOCX attachments only.
I am looking for horror stories featuring legendary, mythical, or imaginary creatures of Appalachia. Stories based on established local lore are preferred, but exceptions may be made for exceptionally crafted creatures. I am NOT looking for stories with zombies, vampires or other popular monsters. Submitted stories can be set in any time period, but must take place in the Appalachian region.
Although the anthology is mainly targeted for adults, we DO NOT want stories containing language or content unsuitable for children. Submissions should also avoid unflattering Appalachian stereotypes.
Accepted Manuscript Formatting:
Double-spaced.
Use Times New Roman (12).
Italicize what you want italicized.
Single space after sentence-ending punctuation.
Be sure to include your name, address, and email on your manuscript.
[Click through and check the comments for some discussion of what the editor means by "Appalachia," geographically.]
***
30 June 2013 -- Lost Worlds -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Give us dinosaurs, planets and pyramids, paranormal, space opera....
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
5 May 2013 -- Ominous Realities -- ed. Jacob Sanders; Grey Matter Press
We are looking for your Speculative Horror Fiction. As long as it is dark and dreadful.
For our upcoming anthology Ominous Realities, we’re looking for the darkest voices working in the areas of Science Fiction, Science Fantasy and Speculative Horror Fiction. Whether your vision includes alien intervention, biblical apocalypse, dystopian existences or simply fantastical and frightening concepts of life current or past, we want to see what you’ve got up your sleeve.
We do not want to limit the creativity or our authors, preferring instead to let each writer’s words speak to them from the place that is most comfortable. We’re looking to include the best and brightest new voices writing in Speculative Fiction today, and Ominous Realities is intended to celebrate that creativity, without limitations.
Please review our Submissions Guidelines below, and feel free to contact us here on the site with any questions. or send a message to submissions@greymatterpress.com.
But, keep in mind we have a VERY short deadline!
Ominous Realities is a working title. Grey Matter Press reserves the right to change the title as necessary.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS
Word Count: 3,000 – 10,000 words
Deadline: May 5, 2013
Payment: $100 flat rate per each manuscript accepted into the collection
Formats: *.doc, *.docx, *.txt, *.rtf
Contact Address: submissions@greymatterpress.com
Acceptable File Formats: Grey Matter Press wants to make your submission process easy and painless. We accept manuscripts that are *.doc, *.docx, .txt or .rtf file formats. If you have any questions about the formatting of your manuscript, feel free to contact us directly at submissions@greymatterpress.com
Digital Submissions: Unfortunately, we cannot accept manuscripts of previously published pieces. Only previously unpublished work will be accepted. We will accept your submission via email at submissions@greymatterpress.com. Subject lines should contain name of Anthology and the title of the story being submitted. (ex: OMINOUS REALITIES – ‘Title of Story.’
Font Usage and General Formatting: We request that all files be submitted double-spaced, using either Arial or Times New Roman 12 point font. Page margins should be no less than .5 inch on all borders.
Distribution: Upon acceptance into our anthologies, Grey Matter Press will hold all exclusive publishing rights for the period defined within author contract (generally 12-24 months). At the end of that term, intellectual property rights will revert to the original author, with Grey Matter Press retaining distribution rights for the format(s) originally contracted.
Contributor Copies: All contributors whose work is accepted and published in the anthology will, in the case of digital publishing, receive a digital copy of the complete anthology, and in the case of paperback publishing, will receive up to two copies of the anthology.
[Click through for some clarifications in the comments.]
***
11 May 2013 -- Sword and Sorceress -- ed. Elizabeth Waters
Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, and Sword & Sorceress 27 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.
No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second sumbmission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).
If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us.
Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.
Reading period: Saturday, April 13 to Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.
Deadline: May 11, 2013.
Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.
Formatting and Submission:
Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.
Your name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.
The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.
Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.
Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to mzbworks at yahoo dot com. The subject line should be "SS28, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS28, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.
Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.
Payment: 5 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.
***
15 May 2013 -- Sword and Laser Anthology -- ed. Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt
SUBMISSION PERIOD
Submissions will be accepted from March 1 – May 15, 2013. We expect to make our final selections by August 15, 2013.
PAYMENT
We pay $200 (US) upon acceptance.
LENGTH
We recommend a length of 1,500 – 7,500 words. We may choose to print shorter or longer stories in some cases, but this should be your target word count.
RIGHTS
If your submission is accepted we will buy the following rights:
= World anthology rights in English and translation
= Audio and ebook anthology rights
World anthology rights and audio/ebook anthology rights are specific to anthologies. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in an anthology only. Specifying “in translation” allows us to request that your work be included in any potential foreign editions as well.
You retain all other print rights. So you’re free to also sell your story to magazines, or websites, or podcasts, or as an individual short story (say, on Kindle), or in a collection of your own work, or even sell it to another anthology after our book has been out for a while. It’s your story, and you keep it, we just ask that we get to be first to print it.
Additionally, we expect to release a Creative Commons edition of the book. It’s not required but if you have strong feeling about it, please let us know upfront.
FORMATTING
We only accept email submissions. You can either paste your story into the body of your email message or send an attachment. For attachments, please use Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), or Plain Text (TXT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of those formats.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Send your story to anthology at swordandlaser dot com. Please use the following subject line when submitting…
[SLANTH] STORY TITLE – Your Name
So if your name is Nick Scalzi and if your story is called “YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT” then the subject line of your email should read…
[SLANTH] YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT – Nick Scalzi
Please follow this format, so your submission does not get overlooked!
Next, in the body of your email, please include the following:
= Title: The title of your story
= Pen name: How you want your name to appear in print
= Word count: The count of the words.
= Real name: This is the name that will go on the contract. So no pseudonyms or nicknames
= Email address
= Phone number
= Short biography: This is your chance to tell us A LITTLE about yourself and your writing experience.
All of this information is REQUIRED. You cannot omit any part of this information. You can keep the bio very short of course, that’s up for interpretation but every other piece of information has to be there or your submission will be rejected.
In return we promise not to share any of your personal information with ANYBODY, and we will only use your contact information to tell you whether your story was accepted, and then once to tell you when the book is finished. We will always try to contact you via email first. We will only use the phone number if we need to get in touch with you and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we’ll ask you to confirm all your information, and we’ll also give you a chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Finally, we ask that each writer limit themselves to 3 submissions. We also require only previously unpublished work, and no simultaneous submissions. That means when you submit to us, you haven’t submitted the story to anyone else.
[Click through for lengthy explanations of what they are and aren't looking for.]
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
[Note that these are minimal guidelines, just enough to get you started writing something. I checked for the "Submission instructions" before posting this, and there's nothing further up yet. Submissions don't open until 1 May, so I assume something more specific (like where to send subs) will be posted before that. Definitely check Ms. Datlow's journal for more specific instructions before trying to send her anything.
[ETA April Post: -- still nothing. She might be holding back details until 1 May when the book opens to subs. Definitely check yourself around then, since my May post will probably be within two weeks or so of the deadline.]
This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out.
The pay rate is 7 cents a word up to 10,000 words, but as the anthology is only 125,000 words long, I would prefer stories up to 7500 words.
The open reading period will run from May 1-May 31 2013. Submissions instructions coming soon.
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
***
10 June 2013 -- Looking Landward -- http://newconpress.co.uk/anthology/looking-landwards-submissions-open/
NewCon Press are proud to announce our first ever 'open submission' anthology: Looking Landwards.
The book is being produced in collaboration with the Institution of Agricultural Engineers, which celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year. To commemorate this event, we are looking for original science fiction stories that speculate on what the future might hold for agricultural engineering, farming and food production over the next century.
Ideally stories should be of 4,500 words or less, though this limit is flexible. Payment of 1p a word (or equivalent) up to a limit of £45.00 will be made for successful submissions.
The book will be published towards the end of 2013.
Stories should be presented in standard manuscript format, with italics used for italicised words (not underlining), and double inverted commas for speech. Please submit your story as an attachment (either doc or rtf) to the following email address: flashfic@newconpress.co.uk
Submissions close at midnight on June 10th 2013.
***
20 June 2013 -- Neverland's Library -- ed. Rebecca Lovatt and Roger Bellini
Neverland’s Library will be an anthology focusing on the rediscovery of the fantastic; magic, dragons, the supernatural, etc. We are looking for stories which highlight finding that which was once thought lost, incorporating fantastical and/or fictitious elements. We will not restrict how the story is told. All styles, settings, and tones are welcome.
We are looking for only unpublished stories. If the story has been made available for free or payment online then please do not submit it for consideration as it will be considered ineligible under our criteria. We ask that authors limit themselves to no more than 2 submissions, with no simultaneous submissions. That means when a story is submitted to us, it should not be submitted for publication consideration anywhere else.
If you have questions regarding the eligibility of your story, please send a query email before submitting the story in question and we will get back to you promptly in response to your concern.
Submission Period
(Subject to change) Submissions will be open from March 5th 2013, until June 20th, 2013. Exact dates may vary depending on volume of entries.
Payments and Rights
Upon successful completion of the Kickstarter funding campaign, authors will receive 3c/per word. If we fail to reach our goal, all submissions will remain the property of the author and Neverland’s Library will not own any rights to the stories submitted.
If the Kickstarter funding is a success and your story is selected for inclusion in the Neverland’s Library Anthology, we will email a digital copy of the contract for the authors examination. Upon agreement of terms the editor signed contract will be mailed to the story author to be signed. After the contract is returned to us and signed by all involved parties, payment will be promptly delivered via check or PayPal, at the submitters preference.
If your submission is accepted, we will be buying First Anthology Print and First Anthology eBook Rights. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in this anthology only. The author will retain all other print rights, allowing them to sell their story to magazines, websites, podcasts or as individual short stories, or in a collection of their own work, or even sell to another anthology, after six months have passed since the publication of Neverland’s Library.
By submitting a story, you acknowledge that you are in fact the writer and sole owner of the work in question.
DO NOT SUBMIT WORKS IF YOU DON’T OWN THEM.
Length
We are looking for stories within 2,000 – 8,000 words. We may choose to print some shorter or longer pieces, however please try to keep within this targeted range.
Formatting
Only email submissions will be accepted. Please attach all submissions using Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) or Open Office (ODT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of these formats.
Please have all submissions in size 12 Times New Roman font.
How to Submit (What to include)
Please send your story to neverlandslibrary@gmail.com, using the following subject line when submitting:
[NL] STORY TITLE – Your Name
In the body of your email, please include the following:
== Title
== Real name — This is the name that will go on the contract. No pseudonyms or nicknames.
== Pen name — How you want your name to appear in print. Don’t include if you would like to use your real name.
== Word count
== Email address
== Phone number
== Short Bio — This is your chance to tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing experience.
All aforementioned items are required, please do not omit any information. Biography lengths may vary, just let us know what you think we need to know.
We will not share any of your personal information with ANYONE. Contact information will only be used to tell you whether your story was accepted, and update with progress on the Kickstarter, and when (if) the book is finished. We will always attempt to contact you via email first. Phone number will only be used if we need to get in touch with you, and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we will ask you to confirm all information, and you will be given the chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Please send all submissions and questions to Roger and Rebecca at NeverlandsLibrary@gmail.com. We will be happy to answer all questions.
***
30 June 2013 -- Strange Critters: Unusual Creatures of Appalachia -- ed. Frank Larnerd, Woodland Press
Format: Trade Paperback, ebook
Payment: five cents per word (upon publication) plus contributor copy.
No reprints
Story length: Up to 2500 words
No multiple or simultaneous subs
Deadline: 12:00am Saturday, June 30th, 2013
E-mail submissions to: strangecritters@hotmail.com
RTF, DOC, or DOCX attachments only.
I am looking for horror stories featuring legendary, mythical, or imaginary creatures of Appalachia. Stories based on established local lore are preferred, but exceptions may be made for exceptionally crafted creatures. I am NOT looking for stories with zombies, vampires or other popular monsters. Submitted stories can be set in any time period, but must take place in the Appalachian region.
Although the anthology is mainly targeted for adults, we DO NOT want stories containing language or content unsuitable for children. Submissions should also avoid unflattering Appalachian stereotypes.
Accepted Manuscript Formatting:
Double-spaced.
Use Times New Roman (12).
Italicize what you want italicized.
Single space after sentence-ending punctuation.
Be sure to include your name, address, and email on your manuscript.
[Click through and check the comments for some discussion of what the editor means by "Appalachia," geographically.]
***
30 June 2013 -- Lost Worlds -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Give us dinosaurs, planets and pyramids, paranormal, space opera....
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Make Your Own Keyboard
Okay, this is seriously cool. :) A guy named Jay Silver invented a computer interface called MaKey MaKey that you can hook up to just about anything with alligator clamps, and the thing(s) will act like a mouse or a keyboard. Bananas, playdoh, buckets of water -- it's wild. :) Some people are just fooling around with it for fun, but others are using it to create custom interfaces to work for someone with a disability. Check it out:
MaKey MaKey Video
Angie
MaKey MaKey Video
Angie
Friday, April 5, 2013
Nightshade Books Unloading Contracts
Via a writers' mailing list I'm on, plus a bunch of blog posts, Nightshade books, a small SF/Fantasy press, has been having financial difficulties for a couple of years now. They've come up with a way to make enough money to pay their writers all the back royalties and late advance money they're due, which sounds like a good thing. Unfortunately, they're doing it by selling their fiction contracts to another small press called Skyhorse, and Skyhorse will require any writer who agrees to have their contract sold (the rights transferred) to sign a new contract, which gives them only 10% of net on paper book sales. Mike Stackpole explains why this is bad:
Or as Phil Foglio, whose Girl Genius books are with Nighshade, says, "If I was a monkey, I’d be throwing this."
Skyhorse is also reducing e-book royalties from 50% to 25%. Someone in the comments to Mike's post pointed out that 25% of net is industry standard. My response is that 25% of net is a sucktastic standard that the big publishers have all colluded to offer their writers. 50% of net is on the high end of average for a small press. Nightshade's writers were getting a high-average royalty, and are now told they should be satisfied with half that, because after all, it's what the big New York publishers offer.
Just because my neighbor got ripped off by his car dealer doesn't mean I'd volunteer to double the payment I'm making to my own honest dealer.
Skyhorse also wants audio and second serial rights, which Nightshade didn't have, and they're not willing to pay anything in advance for them. That's right, they want two new sets of rights -- and audio in particular is picking up and has the potential to be very lucrative -- and they're not willing to advance a dime to the authors for these rights. Authors will have to wait for a 50/50 split on the back end.
Mike Stackpole again:
[The Harlequin thing is a whole other issue, but yes, a court just ruled that subbing the rights to a related company for a pittance and then paying the author their percentage on that pittance, rather than on the cover price or what the actual vendor of the book pays, is perfectly legal, even if said subbing to a related company isn't mentioned in your contract anywhere. Check out whose contract you're signing, and be suspicious. As SF writer Charlie Stross said, "Contract law is essentially a defensive scorched-earth battleground where the constant question is, 'If my business partner was possessed by a brain-eating monster from beyond spacetime tomorrow, what is the worst thing they could do to me?'" Personally, I wouldn't touch Harlequin with a ten foot pole clutched in someone else's severed hand, for this and other attempts to mess over their writers going back decades.]
Read the rest of Stackpole's post. I don't always agree with him, but he explains in great detail why this deal is horrible, and I agree with him completely in this case.
And I see Stackpole just posted a follow-up, where he talks about the lack of numbers in what Nightshade has shared with their authors.
Contract lawyer Passive Guy comments on Mike Stackpole's posts:
Again, the fact that a contract clause is common, or even industry standard, doesn't mean it's good, or even tolerable.
On io9, Jeremy Lassen, Nightshade's Editor in Chief made a statement about the situation:
Note that if enough authors don't sign off on the deal, Skyhorse will back off and the company -- and all its book contracts -- will most likely end up in bankruptcy court. That's not good for anyone; best case scenario is that the rights are tied up for months while the mess is sorted out. It could be years. It could be forever. And even if someone buys the contracts (or some subset of the contracts) there's no guarantee that the new publisher will be any good at the business, or will have any interest in treating the writers well.
I'm willing to give Lassen the benefit of the doubt and assume that he honestly believes this is best for everyone. His goal is to make sure that all the writers are paid the money they're currently owed, which also gets him and his company out of debt and lets him walk away knowing he did right by everyone. Okay, it's clear why he'd want that.
But for the writers, it's not that simple. All right, it's good that they'll get paid money they're currently owed. Even SFWA thinks this is a good thing -- they've recommended that their members who are caught up in this sign off on the deal. But as Stackpole points out, getting a stack of cash (of whatever size) right now is only part of the situation, and not necessarily the largest part. Is it worth it to get money you're owed now, if it means getting (best case) a fraction of what you expected to make on future sales of these books? Forever, because this new deal is a life-of-copyright contract with easily weaseled reversion language. (See Stackpole's analysis for a discussion of that.)
I suppose if a writer is owed a lot of money on a completed series or a bunch of stand-alone books, and is in dire financial trouble and needs that cash now, this looks like a good deal. And it might even be a good deal, for that writer. But if you're a writer like Stackpole or Foglio, who each has an in-progress series published through Nightshade, this deal could slash your income, or if things go really wrong, prevent you from continuing your series.
Foglio says, "So what’s going to happen? Don’t know. unlike many authors, I actually have an entertainment lawyer look over our contracts before we sign them, so I’m hoping we’re covered, but this is by no means a given."
For anyone who didn't have an entertainment lawyer look over their contract, or for anyone whose contract still has gotchas in it, no matter who went over it before signing, this is a coin toss. If enough writers balk at signing on and the deal falls through, everyone's contracts end up in bankruptcy court and that could be very bad for everyone. But there are writers whose best interests are definitely not served by signing. Unfortunately this means that the writers who shouldn't sign are going to be feeling some pressure not only from Lassen, but also from the other writers whose situations require that the deal go through. No one's told the writers how many of them have to sign on to satisfy Skyhorse, so everyone's guessing and no one knows how many might be enough.
Unless Darkhorse gets a White Knight offer like Triskelion did in 2007, this is pretty much guaranteed to be bad for at least some people, maybe a lot, and quite possibly everyone. And at this point, I doubt anyone's going to step in and make Darkhorse an offer anywhere near the one Triskelion got, since it hasn't happened yet in the years that they've been in trouble.
Whatever happens, I hope as many writers as possible come out of it in decent shape and with their book rights and their on-going income intact. For the rest of us, we can be damn careful whom we sign with, do our due diligence before we sign, and keep in mind Stross's comment about contract law.
Angie
The agreement requires authors to accept a royalty rate of 10% of Net income. Net is defined as the amount of money the booksellers and distributors pay Skyhorse—usually 50% of cover price. For me this net amount is a 50% reduction in my royalty rate.
More importantly, net income is illusory. Let’s say that Skyhorse, in order to get more of my books into a store, offers a distributor or chain an extra 30% off, on the condition that they buy an extra dozen books. So, 36 copies of a $15 book pays Skyhorse $189, of which I make $18.90 as opposed to the $27 I’d make if all 36 had been sold at a normal price, or the $54 I’d make under the NSB contract. (Extra discounts for promotion happen all the time, and might even rope in my books to promote another author’s work.) Moreover, the accounting to make sure that all the right amounts were paid will be all but impossible without an audit.
Or as Phil Foglio, whose Girl Genius books are with Nighshade, says, "If I was a monkey, I’d be throwing this."
Skyhorse is also reducing e-book royalties from 50% to 25%. Someone in the comments to Mike's post pointed out that 25% of net is industry standard. My response is that 25% of net is a sucktastic standard that the big publishers have all colluded to offer their writers. 50% of net is on the high end of average for a small press. Nightshade's writers were getting a high-average royalty, and are now told they should be satisfied with half that, because after all, it's what the big New York publishers offer.
Just because my neighbor got ripped off by his car dealer doesn't mean I'd volunteer to double the payment I'm making to my own honest dealer.
Skyhorse also wants audio and second serial rights, which Nightshade didn't have, and they're not willing to pay anything in advance for them. That's right, they want two new sets of rights -- and audio in particular is picking up and has the potential to be very lucrative -- and they're not willing to advance a dime to the authors for these rights. Authors will have to wait for a 50/50 split on the back end.
Mike Stackpole again:
This can lead us to an interesting situation for which there is ample precedent in the publishing world. The publisher forms a sister corporation to handle audio book production and sales. They sell a property to the sister corporation for a tiny advance and pitiful royalty. The sister company makes the money actually selling the product, and yet the publisher can say that they’re following the letter of the contract because they’re splitting all income half and half. (Harlequin just had a lawsuit dismissed against them for doing a similar thing with ebooks.)
I’m not saying Skyhorse will do this, but someone who buys them out just might. And, it should be noted, that all digital publishing rights are already assigned, in the agreement, to a sister corporation called Start Publishing, LLC. (Start Publishing LLC is a subsidiary of Start Media, a privately held media company with interests in, among other things, feature film production.) Skyhorse and Smart are not buying books here, they’re buying Intellectual Properties, and at a bargain price.
[The Harlequin thing is a whole other issue, but yes, a court just ruled that subbing the rights to a related company for a pittance and then paying the author their percentage on that pittance, rather than on the cover price or what the actual vendor of the book pays, is perfectly legal, even if said subbing to a related company isn't mentioned in your contract anywhere. Check out whose contract you're signing, and be suspicious. As SF writer Charlie Stross said, "Contract law is essentially a defensive scorched-earth battleground where the constant question is, 'If my business partner was possessed by a brain-eating monster from beyond spacetime tomorrow, what is the worst thing they could do to me?'" Personally, I wouldn't touch Harlequin with a ten foot pole clutched in someone else's severed hand, for this and other attempts to mess over their writers going back decades.]
Read the rest of Stackpole's post. I don't always agree with him, but he explains in great detail why this deal is horrible, and I agree with him completely in this case.
And I see Stackpole just posted a follow-up, where he talks about the lack of numbers in what Nightshade has shared with their authors.
Contract lawyer Passive Guy comments on Mike Stackpole's posts:
Speaking generally, Michael’s essay describes a horror show of terrible contract provisions in publishing contracts.
What is worse, Skyhorse, the would-be new publisher, didn’t make up a lot of new contract clauses, it just used provisions that are common in the publishing contracts of many publishers, including most large ones.
Again, the fact that a contract clause is common, or even industry standard, doesn't mean it's good, or even tolerable.
On io9, Jeremy Lassen, Nightshade's Editor in Chief made a statement about the situation:
In looking for a buyer, our first priority was to find someone who would make sure all of our authors got paid in full. That was my first priority. I have always promised that while we might be late, authors would eventually get all the money that was due to them. Our second priority was to find buyers who could do justice to the diverse and talented stable of writers that we have at Night Shade. And we wanted someone who would ensure that books under contract would come out and be sold and promoted well, and that books already out would continue to be sold and promoted.
...
Let me be clear. Under the terms of this deal, all current and back royalties will be paid at the originally contracted rate. All outstanding advances and sub-rights monies owed will be paid at the originally contracted rate.
Let me also be clear… the buyers need a certain amount of the authors to sign off on the deal, or the deal doesn’t happen. I can’t say exactly what will happen if the deal doesn’t go through, but if it doesn’t, there will long period of uncertainty, for Night Shade, and for our authors.
...
This deal is the last chance I have to keep my promise. This is the last chance I have to make sure that ALL OF MY AUTHORS GET PAID ALL OF THE MONEY THEY ARE OWED. Right now the deal is in the hands of the individual authors, and their agents. I am asking you. Please. Sign off on this deal. Help me make sure all my authors get paid.
Note that if enough authors don't sign off on the deal, Skyhorse will back off and the company -- and all its book contracts -- will most likely end up in bankruptcy court. That's not good for anyone; best case scenario is that the rights are tied up for months while the mess is sorted out. It could be years. It could be forever. And even if someone buys the contracts (or some subset of the contracts) there's no guarantee that the new publisher will be any good at the business, or will have any interest in treating the writers well.
I'm willing to give Lassen the benefit of the doubt and assume that he honestly believes this is best for everyone. His goal is to make sure that all the writers are paid the money they're currently owed, which also gets him and his company out of debt and lets him walk away knowing he did right by everyone. Okay, it's clear why he'd want that.
But for the writers, it's not that simple. All right, it's good that they'll get paid money they're currently owed. Even SFWA thinks this is a good thing -- they've recommended that their members who are caught up in this sign off on the deal. But as Stackpole points out, getting a stack of cash (of whatever size) right now is only part of the situation, and not necessarily the largest part. Is it worth it to get money you're owed now, if it means getting (best case) a fraction of what you expected to make on future sales of these books? Forever, because this new deal is a life-of-copyright contract with easily weaseled reversion language. (See Stackpole's analysis for a discussion of that.)
I suppose if a writer is owed a lot of money on a completed series or a bunch of stand-alone books, and is in dire financial trouble and needs that cash now, this looks like a good deal. And it might even be a good deal, for that writer. But if you're a writer like Stackpole or Foglio, who each has an in-progress series published through Nightshade, this deal could slash your income, or if things go really wrong, prevent you from continuing your series.
Foglio says, "So what’s going to happen? Don’t know. unlike many authors, I actually have an entertainment lawyer look over our contracts before we sign them, so I’m hoping we’re covered, but this is by no means a given."
For anyone who didn't have an entertainment lawyer look over their contract, or for anyone whose contract still has gotchas in it, no matter who went over it before signing, this is a coin toss. If enough writers balk at signing on and the deal falls through, everyone's contracts end up in bankruptcy court and that could be very bad for everyone. But there are writers whose best interests are definitely not served by signing. Unfortunately this means that the writers who shouldn't sign are going to be feeling some pressure not only from Lassen, but also from the other writers whose situations require that the deal go through. No one's told the writers how many of them have to sign on to satisfy Skyhorse, so everyone's guessing and no one knows how many might be enough.
Unless Darkhorse gets a White Knight offer like Triskelion did in 2007, this is pretty much guaranteed to be bad for at least some people, maybe a lot, and quite possibly everyone. And at this point, I doubt anyone's going to step in and make Darkhorse an offer anywhere near the one Triskelion got, since it hasn't happened yet in the years that they've been in trouble.
Whatever happens, I hope as many writers as possible come out of it in decent shape and with their book rights and their on-going income intact. For the rest of us, we can be damn careful whom we sign with, do our due diligence before we sign, and keep in mind Stross's comment about contract law.
Angie
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
There's Always One Joker
In with all the other April Fool's posts that went up a couple of days ago, one of the web site staffers over at the Locus website decided to write an incredibly unfunny joke stirring a stack of feces that'd long since gone cold and crusted over -- the incident from 2010 when WisCon, an SF convention founded specifically on principles of social justice, dis-invited one of its guests of honor for publicly posting an anti-Moslem screed on her LiveJournal. The basic message of the post was diametrically opposed to the foundations principles of WisCon, and continuing to honor this person would've been a travesty, so she was dis-invited. There was some kerfuffling, but then it died down. The person who wrote the non-funny April Fool's post for the Locus site decided it needed to be stirred up again, and saw nothing wrong with saying nasty things about Moslems, women, feminists and fat people in order to get his "point" across. Or maybe he saw that as a bonus?
The Locus magazine staff, being decent people, pulled the post as soon as they saw it that morning, and posted an apology. We know they're decent people because it's a real apology, not the usual "We're sorry you're so overly sensitive, and we had no idea you'd be so unreasonable as to be offended" kind of non-apology these incidents usually produce, so kudos to the Locus folks.
The guy who wrote the offensive post decided a little more stirring was necessary, so he posted to his personal blog, making it clear that yes, he had intended to be offensive, and yes he had meant to be taking a shot at WisCon over this 2.5-year-old incident, and that he was outraged -- outraged, I say! -- at the craven censorship to which his superiors were forced by the politically correct harpies of WisCon. Because clearly it's impossible that anyone not associated with WisCon could have been at all upset by what he'd said.
[If anyone cares, I don't work on WisCon, and have never even attended.]
I'm not linking to Mr. Shit Stirrer because I don't want to reward him for his behavior by giving him any traffic, or his blog any incoming links. I'm not naming him for similar reasons. If you click through to the page with Locus's apology, though, there's a link in the comments to his post, if you really want to read it. It's the usual self-righteous garbage bigots spew when they're called on their shit.
Jim Hines posted a commentary on his own blog, and as usual made some excellent points and worded them beautifully. One of my favorite parts:
The whole thing's worth reading.
And he's absolutely right -- it's not just about this incident, or some older incident, or another one that'll happen next week. It's about all the incidents taken together. If every day, someone pokes you -- never the same person twice, but someone new every day -- it might seem ridiculous to charge any of them with assault. But let it go on for weeks and months, let alone years or decades, and your body would be one huge bruise, and each new poke would be agonizing on top of the damage left by all the others. And if you complained, people would say, "Why are you making such a fuss? He just poked you! Sure, it's kind of rude, but you don't have to make a federal case out of it! Mellow out!" Those same people would glare with indignation while the person who "overreacted" dragged their purple, crippled body away.
A constant stream of offenses which are individually minor is just as harmful as one huge offense. This slam against Moslems, women, feminists and fat people was just one more in a long, long stream of offenses that members of every one of those groups has to put up with regularly, often daily. It's not minor, it's not funny, and the Locus staff acted appropriately, as any decent people would.
Angie
The Locus magazine staff, being decent people, pulled the post as soon as they saw it that morning, and posted an apology. We know they're decent people because it's a real apology, not the usual "We're sorry you're so overly sensitive, and we had no idea you'd be so unreasonable as to be offended" kind of non-apology these incidents usually produce, so kudos to the Locus folks.
The guy who wrote the offensive post decided a little more stirring was necessary, so he posted to his personal blog, making it clear that yes, he had intended to be offensive, and yes he had meant to be taking a shot at WisCon over this 2.5-year-old incident, and that he was outraged -- outraged, I say! -- at the craven censorship to which his superiors were forced by the politically correct harpies of WisCon. Because clearly it's impossible that anyone not associated with WisCon could have been at all upset by what he'd said.
[If anyone cares, I don't work on WisCon, and have never even attended.]
I'm not linking to Mr. Shit Stirrer because I don't want to reward him for his behavior by giving him any traffic, or his blog any incoming links. I'm not naming him for similar reasons. If you click through to the page with Locus's apology, though, there's a link in the comments to his post, if you really want to read it. It's the usual self-righteous garbage bigots spew when they're called on their shit.
Jim Hines posted a commentary on his own blog, and as usual made some excellent points and worded them beautifully. One of my favorite parts:
I was a skinny, overly bright, socially inept, fashion challenged kid with glasses and a speech defect. My teenage years were utter hell. Looking back at any of those incidents of name-calling, having my books knocked out of my hands, being shoved in the hallway, tripped on the steps outside the school, having my belongings destroyed, and so on, very few of them in isolation were such a big deal. Real physical injury was relatively rare. But when those small jabs continue day after day, they add up. They whittle away at your strength and your hope, and it never, ever lets up, never stops, until you’re sitting alone in the bathroom with a syringe full of your father’s insulin, searching for a single good reason not to jab the plunger down and hopefully put an end to it all.
The backlash against the Locus article isn’t about someone taking cheap shots at Muslims and women. It’s about yet another person taking those shots, lining up to bully those who are already a popular target for abuse. And it’s about everyone else who stands around, encouraging and enabling that bullying.
The whole thing's worth reading.
And he's absolutely right -- it's not just about this incident, or some older incident, or another one that'll happen next week. It's about all the incidents taken together. If every day, someone pokes you -- never the same person twice, but someone new every day -- it might seem ridiculous to charge any of them with assault. But let it go on for weeks and months, let alone years or decades, and your body would be one huge bruise, and each new poke would be agonizing on top of the damage left by all the others. And if you complained, people would say, "Why are you making such a fuss? He just poked you! Sure, it's kind of rude, but you don't have to make a federal case out of it! Mellow out!" Those same people would glare with indignation while the person who "overreacted" dragged their purple, crippled body away.
A constant stream of offenses which are individually minor is just as harmful as one huge offense. This slam against Moslems, women, feminists and fat people was just one more in a long, long stream of offenses that members of every one of those groups has to put up with regularly, often daily. It's not minor, it's not funny, and the Locus staff acted appropriately, as any decent people would.
Angie
Thursday, March 28, 2013
On the Gay Marriage Case
Writer Courtney Milan, who's a lawyer in her day job IIRC, wrote this seriously awesome summary of Tuesday's Supreme Court arguments in the Gay Marriage case, in transcript form. They're nowhere near done, but this is interesting and humorous and well worth reading. Probably a lot moreso, for most of us, than the actual transcript (which is 82 pages long) although she links to that if you want to tackle it.
Click through to read the rest.
She also summarized the next chunk, which is shorter but still has some good ??? stuff in it. She says she's not going to do any more, which is a shame, seriously.
Angie
Oral argument starts with Charles Cooper speaking on behalf of the petitioners, who are not in favor of same-sex marriage in California.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. Today, we—
ROBERTS: In keeping with the practices of this Court, we don’t allow anyone to complete a full sentence before interrupting them. Tell us why the people who hired you should even be allowed to bring a case.
COOPER: Because California said so.
GINSBURG: So? We’ve said before that in order to be able to bring a federal case, you have to have an injury in fact, something that is specific to you.
COOPER: But these people were injured. They didn’t want gay people to marry, and now look! Gays. Lesbians. Able to marry at will. It’s very injurious. They’re injured just thinking about it.
Click through to read the rest.
She also summarized the next chunk, which is shorter but still has some good ??? stuff in it. She says she's not going to do any more, which is a shame, seriously.
Angie
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Chuck Wendig on Being a Happy Writer
Thanks to Tobias Buckell for linking to Chuck Wendig's post, 25 Ways to Be a Happy Writer, or at Least Happier. One of my favorite bits:
Totally correct. About anything, really, but in particular anything having to do with the creative arts. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of experimentation, a lot of try-fail-try-fail-try-fail, and did I mention a lot of practice? to make it up the Creative Arts Mountain. If you can't learn from your mistakes, you'll never make it to the top of that mountain, and if you're afraid of making mistakes, you'll be so paralyzed you'll never make it past the foothills.
Read them all, noting that most of them are delightfully profane. :)
Angie
20. See Failure as an Instruction Manual
Failure is illuminating. It reveals every broken board beneath our feet, every crack in the wall, every pothole in the road. Do not shun failure. High-five it. Hug it. Engage in lusty pawing with it. Failure means you’re doing. Everybody fails before they succeed. Failure is how we learn. Failure is part of the grand tradition of figuring out how to be awesome.
Totally correct. About anything, really, but in particular anything having to do with the creative arts. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of experimentation, a lot of try-fail-try-fail-try-fail, and did I mention a lot of practice? to make it up the Creative Arts Mountain. If you can't learn from your mistakes, you'll never make it to the top of that mountain, and if you're afraid of making mistakes, you'll be so paralyzed you'll never make it past the foothills.
Read them all, noting that most of them are delightfully profane. :)
Angie
Friday, March 15, 2013
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month (except last month, but anyway), so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
31 March 2013 -- Playing with Fire -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Fires and backfires from inventions (Greek fire?), culture clashes, climate change, comets and meteors, Hephaestus, and so forth.
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
15 April 2013 -- The Future Embodied -- ed. Jason Andrew and Mae Empson
The Future Embodied – An anthology of speculative stories exploring how science and technology might change our bodies and what it means to be human.
The editors are looking for character-driven, near-future stories of how the trajectory of current science and technology could impact our daily lives and choices. Social sciences and as-yet-untested or anecdotal discoveries are fair game. If an idea or discovery has the potential to impact human behavior and bodies, it could make a great story.
What Type of Stories We’re Looking For:
We are looking for stories of medical and aesthetic body modification. Consider topics like genetic engineering, prosthetics, implants, body ornamentation, surgical augmentation, and age retardation or reversal.
Surprise us. Don’t give us stories that we’ve read before.
We want this anthology to embody the wide range of human experience, voices, and bodies, and, in particular, to credibly consider our present and future demographics. You are encouraged to populate your stories of the future with the kinds of bodies that have been under-represented in speculative fiction but which should be ever more present in visions of our near future — aging bodies, obese bodies, chronically ill bodies, diverse racial and multi-racial bodies, bodies from diverse geographies…
Good Fiction Examples:
== "Faces in Revolving Souls" by Caitlin R Kiernan. This is a story that deftly balances the idea of how a science might progress AND the human feelings behind such changes and how it might change their experience of the world.
What do we want to avoid:
== This anthology specifically is concentrating on the evolution of the human body through technology. We are not looking for disembodied avatar stories.
== We enjoy historical science fiction, but this is not the anthology for it.
== We are not looking for poetry for this anthology.
Details:
Word-count: 2,000 to 5,500
Worldwide print and e-book rights (exclusive for 6 months, non-exclusive for an additional 30 months). Exceptions will be made for stories accepted for “Best Of” anthologies.
The Future Embodied will be available in both print and e-book formats.
Submissions open March 1, 2013, and will close at 11:59 PST on April 15, 2013.
You may submit at: future.embodied.anthology@gmail.com (Do not submit before March 1st 2013 or your submission will be deleted)
Queries and questions may be sent to future.embodied.anthology@gmail.com. (You may send queries and questions anytime.)
All responses will be accepted or rejected by July 15th, 2013. Please do not query about submitted stories before then.
No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Our word count limits are hard for open submissions.
Please use standard format guidelines. If it is difficult to read, we will reject your story. Your story must include your name, address, telephone number, email address, and approximate word count on the first page.
Your cover letter should include your complete contact information, story title, approximate word count, and a short bio.
Payment:
3 cents per word, paid within 90 days after publication. Plus contributor copy of print and e-book.
***
11 May 2013 -- Sword and Sorceress -- ed. Elizabeth Waters
Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, and Sword & Sorceress 27 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.
No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second sumbmission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).
If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us.
Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.
Reading period: Saturday, April 13 to Saturday, May 11, 2013. Stories received before or after this period will be deleted unread.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.
Deadline: May 11, 2013.
Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.
Formatting and Submission:
Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.
Your name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.
The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.
Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.
Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to mzbworks at yahoo dot com. The subject line should be "SS28, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS28, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.
Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.
Payment: 5 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.
***
15 May 2013 -- Sword and Laser Anthology -- ed. Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt
SUBMISSION PERIOD
Submissions will be accepted from March 1 – May 15, 2013. We expect to make our final selections by August 15, 2013.
PAYMENT
We pay $200 (US) upon acceptance.
LENGTH
We recommend a length of 1,500 – 7,500 words. We may choose to print shorter or longer stories in some cases, but this should be your target word count.
RIGHTS
If your submission is accepted we will buy the following rights:
= World anthology rights in English and translation
= Audio and ebook anthology rights
World anthology rights and audio/ebook anthology rights are specific to anthologies. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in an anthology only. Specifying “in translation” allows us to request that your work be included in any potential foreign editions as well.
You retain all other print rights. So you’re free to also sell your story to magazines, or websites, or podcasts, or as an individual short story (say, on Kindle), or in a collection of your own work, or even sell it to another anthology after our book has been out for a while. It’s your story, and you keep it, we just ask that we get to be first to print it.
Additionally, we expect to release a Creative Commons edition of the book. It’s not required but if you have strong feeling about it, please let us know upfront.
FORMATTING
We only accept email submissions. You can either paste your story into the body of your email message or send an attachment. For attachments, please use Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), or Plain Text (TXT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of those formats.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Send your story to anthology at swordandlaser dot com. Please use the following subject line when submitting…
[SLANTH] STORY TITLE – Your Name
So if your name is Nick Scalzi and if your story is called “YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT” then the subject line of your email should read…
[SLANTH] YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT – Nick Scalzi
Please follow this format, so your submission does not get overlooked!
Next, in the body of your email, please include the following:
= Title: The title of your story
= Pen name: How you want your name to appear in print
= Word count: The count of the words.
= Real name: This is the name that will go on the contract. So no pseudonyms or nicknames
= Email address
= Phone number
= Short biography: This is your chance to tell us A LITTLE about yourself and your writing experience.
All of this information is REQUIRED. You cannot omit any part of this information. You can keep the bio very short of course, that’s up for interpretation but every other piece of information has to be there or your submission will be rejected.
In return we promise not to share any of your personal information with ANYBODY, and we will only use your contact information to tell you whether your story was accepted, and then once to tell you when the book is finished. We will always try to contact you via email first. We will only use the phone number if we need to get in touch with you and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we’ll ask you to confirm all your information, and we’ll also give you a chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Finally, we ask that each writer limit themselves to 3 submissions. We also require only previously unpublished work, and no simultaneous submissions. That means when you submit to us, you haven’t submitted the story to anyone else.
[Click through for lengthy explanations of what they are and aren't looking for.]
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
[Note that these are minimal guidelines, just enough to get you started writing something. I checked for the "Submission instructions" before posting this, and there's nothing further up yet. Submissions don't open until 1 May, so I assume something more specific (like where to send subs) will be posted before that. Definitely check Ms. Datlow's journal for more specific instructions before trying to send her anything.]
This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out.
The pay rate is 7 cents a word up to 10,000 words, but as the anthology is only 125,000 words long, I would prefer stories up to 7500 words.
The open reading period will run from May 1-May 31 2013. Submissions instructions coming soon.
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
31 March 2013 -- Playing with Fire -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Fires and backfires from inventions (Greek fire?), culture clashes, climate change, comets and meteors, Hephaestus, and so forth.
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
15 April 2013 -- The Future Embodied -- ed. Jason Andrew and Mae Empson
The Future Embodied – An anthology of speculative stories exploring how science and technology might change our bodies and what it means to be human.
The editors are looking for character-driven, near-future stories of how the trajectory of current science and technology could impact our daily lives and choices. Social sciences and as-yet-untested or anecdotal discoveries are fair game. If an idea or discovery has the potential to impact human behavior and bodies, it could make a great story.
What Type of Stories We’re Looking For:
We are looking for stories of medical and aesthetic body modification. Consider topics like genetic engineering, prosthetics, implants, body ornamentation, surgical augmentation, and age retardation or reversal.
Surprise us. Don’t give us stories that we’ve read before.
We want this anthology to embody the wide range of human experience, voices, and bodies, and, in particular, to credibly consider our present and future demographics. You are encouraged to populate your stories of the future with the kinds of bodies that have been under-represented in speculative fiction but which should be ever more present in visions of our near future — aging bodies, obese bodies, chronically ill bodies, diverse racial and multi-racial bodies, bodies from diverse geographies…
Good Fiction Examples:
== "Faces in Revolving Souls" by Caitlin R Kiernan. This is a story that deftly balances the idea of how a science might progress AND the human feelings behind such changes and how it might change their experience of the world.
What do we want to avoid:
== This anthology specifically is concentrating on the evolution of the human body through technology. We are not looking for disembodied avatar stories.
== We enjoy historical science fiction, but this is not the anthology for it.
== We are not looking for poetry for this anthology.
Details:
Word-count: 2,000 to 5,500
Worldwide print and e-book rights (exclusive for 6 months, non-exclusive for an additional 30 months). Exceptions will be made for stories accepted for “Best Of” anthologies.
The Future Embodied will be available in both print and e-book formats.
Submissions open March 1, 2013, and will close at 11:59 PST on April 15, 2013.
You may submit at: future.embodied.anthology@gmail.com (Do not submit before March 1st 2013 or your submission will be deleted)
Queries and questions may be sent to future.embodied.anthology@gmail.com. (You may send queries and questions anytime.)
All responses will be accepted or rejected by July 15th, 2013. Please do not query about submitted stories before then.
No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Our word count limits are hard for open submissions.
Please use standard format guidelines. If it is difficult to read, we will reject your story. Your story must include your name, address, telephone number, email address, and approximate word count on the first page.
Your cover letter should include your complete contact information, story title, approximate word count, and a short bio.
Payment:
3 cents per word, paid within 90 days after publication. Plus contributor copy of print and e-book.
***
11 May 2013 -- Sword and Sorceress -- ed. Elizabeth Waters
Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, and Sword & Sorceress 27 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.
No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second sumbmission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).
If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us.
Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.
Reading period: Saturday, April 13 to Saturday, May 11, 2013. Stories received before or after this period will be deleted unread.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.
Deadline: May 11, 2013.
Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.
Formatting and Submission:
Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.
Your name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.
The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.
Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.
Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to mzbworks at yahoo dot com. The subject line should be "SS28, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS28, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.
Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.
Payment: 5 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.
***
15 May 2013 -- Sword and Laser Anthology -- ed. Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt
SUBMISSION PERIOD
Submissions will be accepted from March 1 – May 15, 2013. We expect to make our final selections by August 15, 2013.
PAYMENT
We pay $200 (US) upon acceptance.
LENGTH
We recommend a length of 1,500 – 7,500 words. We may choose to print shorter or longer stories in some cases, but this should be your target word count.
RIGHTS
If your submission is accepted we will buy the following rights:
= World anthology rights in English and translation
= Audio and ebook anthology rights
World anthology rights and audio/ebook anthology rights are specific to anthologies. These are non-exclusive licenses allowing us to use your story in an anthology only. Specifying “in translation” allows us to request that your work be included in any potential foreign editions as well.
You retain all other print rights. So you’re free to also sell your story to magazines, or websites, or podcasts, or as an individual short story (say, on Kindle), or in a collection of your own work, or even sell it to another anthology after our book has been out for a while. It’s your story, and you keep it, we just ask that we get to be first to print it.
Additionally, we expect to release a Creative Commons edition of the book. It’s not required but if you have strong feeling about it, please let us know upfront.
FORMATTING
We only accept email submissions. You can either paste your story into the body of your email message or send an attachment. For attachments, please use Microsoft Word (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), or Plain Text (TXT) formats only. Any word processor should be able to save a file as at least one of those formats.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Send your story to anthology at swordandlaser dot com. Please use the following subject line when submitting…
[SLANTH] STORY TITLE – Your Name
So if your name is Nick Scalzi and if your story is called “YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT” then the subject line of your email should read…
[SLANTH] YOUNG MAN’S FIGHT – Nick Scalzi
Please follow this format, so your submission does not get overlooked!
Next, in the body of your email, please include the following:
= Title: The title of your story
= Pen name: How you want your name to appear in print
= Word count: The count of the words.
= Real name: This is the name that will go on the contract. So no pseudonyms or nicknames
= Email address
= Phone number
= Short biography: This is your chance to tell us A LITTLE about yourself and your writing experience.
All of this information is REQUIRED. You cannot omit any part of this information. You can keep the bio very short of course, that’s up for interpretation but every other piece of information has to be there or your submission will be rejected.
In return we promise not to share any of your personal information with ANYBODY, and we will only use your contact information to tell you whether your story was accepted, and then once to tell you when the book is finished. We will always try to contact you via email first. We will only use the phone number if we need to get in touch with you and email doesn’t work.
If your story is accepted we’ll ask you to confirm all your information, and we’ll also give you a chance to write a new short biography for publication in the book.
Finally, we ask that each writer limit themselves to 3 submissions. We also require only previously unpublished work, and no simultaneous submissions. That means when you submit to us, you haven’t submitted the story to anyone else.
[Click through for lengthy explanations of what they are and aren't looking for.]
***
30 May 2013 -- Glam Rock -- Storm Moon Press
Expected Release: September 27, 2013
Genres: Contemporary [Romance]
Pairings: Bisexual
HEA or HFN Ending Required? Yes
Glam rock was arguably the most visually outrageous and flamboyant embodiment of rock and pop fusion in history. From the latter half of the sixties to the early seventies, individuals were unafraid to paint bright designs on their faces, strive for sexual androgyny, and enhance their performances with unapologetic theatrics.
In our Glam Rock anthology, we’re looking for short stories that depict at least one character who is a glam rock star, be it the lead singer or part of the band. They can be male or female, but we’re looking for the gender ambiguity, androgyny, and bisexuality aspects that were so indicative of this period in rock and pop. Bring on the costumes, the bright colors, and the droves of glitter-bedecked fans! We want to see your main characters lighting up the stage and weaving a tangled web in their personal lives.
If set in the historical period, we won’t dissuade writers from capitalizing on the unprotected sex, drugs, and glamor that defined the times. We are not looking for RPF (real person fiction), so no pulling real rock stars from history. Feel free to take inspiration from the real thing, but this is your chance to get original and knock our platforms off! Make your rock stars the epitome of the glam rock era: Beautiful, tragic, and all things in excess.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
***
30 May 2013 -- Horror Without Victims -- ed. DF Lewis, Megazanthus Press
==Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction.
==Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology.
==Stories between 2000 and 10,000 words.
==One-off payment upon publication: 1p (£0.01) per word
==Start Date for Submissions: 1 November 2012
==End Date for Submissions: 30 May 2013
Submissions (not simultaneous or multiple) as a Word attachment to dflewis48@hotmail.com. As with some earlier Megazanthus Press publications, you may submit by anonymous email and your story will be rejected or accepted before knowing who you are. Also, you may submit non-anonymously. The accepted stories will all be published with their correct by-line. [Please expect a simple acknowledgement within a few days of your submission. Otherwise please send it again.]
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form.
As with the ‘The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ and ‘The First Book of Classical Horror Stories’, DF Lewis will edit, publish, design, typeset and print (via Lulu) this book. It will be distributed under an ISBN system. Please at least read the reviews of previous Megazanthus Press publications to gauge the type of fiction favoured by the editor.
I may need to keep your story for the whole reading-period but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted to me over the period.
***
31 May 2013 -- Fearful Symmetries -- ed. Ellen Datlow
[Note that these are minimal guidelines, just enough to get you started writing something. I checked for the "Submission instructions" before posting this, and there's nothing further up yet. Submissions don't open until 1 May, so I assume something more specific (like where to send subs) will be posted before that. Definitely check Ms. Datlow's journal for more specific instructions before trying to send her anything.]
This is a non-theme, all original anthology of about 125,000 words of terror and supernatural horror. I’m looking for all kinds of horror, but if you’re going to use a well worn trope, try to do something fresh with it. If you’ve read any volumes of The Best Horror of the Year, you’ll know that my taste is pretty eclectic, that I like variety, and that while I don’t mind violence, I don’t think it should be the point of a story. I don’t want vignettes but fully formed stories that are about something. I want to be creeped out.
The pay rate is 7 cents a word up to 10,000 words, but as the anthology is only 125,000 words long, I would prefer stories up to 7500 words.
The open reading period will run from May 1-May 31 2013. Submissions instructions coming soon.
***
1 June 2013 -- Dying to Live -- Diabolic Publications LLC
We will be publishing an anthology of vampire fiction Dying to Live in October 2013. Submissions are being accepted until June 1, 2013, which is a change from our original date of August. We are looking for dark vampire stories; please do not send any stories about vampires that sparkle!
== All stories must be in doc. or docx, .rtf format.
== All stories must be anywhere from 2000 to 8000 words long.
== Please use 12 point font and double space your text.
== We are looking for dark Vampires, of the old fashioned kind! Erotica is acceptable as long as the vampires drink human blood, bite, kill and so forth. We are not looking for love story type vampires. Stories that will not be accepted are stories with child rape, molestation, or pedophilia.
== Allow at least 6 weeks before inquiring if your story will be included if you have not heard from us. You will receive an email if your story has been accepted.
== NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!
Submissions should be sent electronically as an attachment to: submissions@diabolicpublications.com
On the subject line of the email, include your name, the title of the work you are submitting, and the anthology you are submitting for "Dying to Live".
In the body of the email, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, and a brief biography. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to all the time as correspondences from us come through email only!
We only accept electronic submissions at this time.
PAY: Made by Paypal only, if you don't have a paypal account please get one.
Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
Reprints: US$.01/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears when edition is published as a paper copy.
RIGHTS: Exclusive First World English Rights for print and First Electronic Rights for two years from date of print publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
