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.

Non-erotica/romance writers: check out Triangulation: Last Contact, Sword and Sorceress 26, Night Terrors 2, Mortis Operandi and the Horror Library.

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30 March 2011 -- Melt in Your Mouth: Chocolate, Boys and Bed -- ed. CB Potts, Lethe Press

Payment: 2 cents/word and a copy of the book on publication

Sweet, sticky, decadent…is anything better than chocolate? Yes, there is – especially when the tempting mouthful is presented by a candy artistan who looks good enough to eat…

Lethe Press is seeking well-written, inventive gay male erotic stories that feature chocolatiers, confectioners, bakers, and candy men of every persuasion – including the one that got caught with his hand in the bon-bon box! Particularly attention paid to stories that are fun, upbeat, and a step or two off the beaten path…give us your best gourmet treats!

How to submit: Send double spaced Times or Times New Roman 12 point black font Word document with pages numbered (.doc, not .docx) OR RTF of 1,500-9,000 word story. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) required. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to cbanthology@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you'd like to be credited as. Payment for these stories will be 2 cents per word.

Absolute, total, final deadline is 3/30/11. I will reply to all submissions by 4/15/11.

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31 March 2011 -- Triangulation: Last Contact -- eds. Jamie Lackey & Steve Ramey, Parsec Ink

[Heavily edited down to the essentials -- click through for (lots) more detail.]

Triangulation is an annual 125-150+ page short fiction anthology that publishes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and any other speculative fiction that caught the editors' fancy. Every year we have a theme: 2011's theme is "Last Contact". We pay semi-pro rates and are available online at places like Amazon.

We define "short fiction" as "up to about 5,000 words or so." If you have an awesome story that exceeds 5K then by all means send it; but be warned that we have yet to accept anything for publication much longer than 5000 words. We dig flash; there is no minimum word count.

We have no interest in getting more specific about the term "speculative fiction." Science fiction, horror, fantasy, magic realism, alternate history, whatever -- if there's a speculative element vital to your story, we'll gladly give it a read.

We love creative interpretations of our theme, "Last Contact". Don't ask us what it means -- tell us what it means with a story that convinces us you're right.

We will run mature content if we like the story. So make sure there's an actual story in that mature content.

We will consider reprints, but we are much more picky with them. If the story ran someplace obscure, then it's probably new to our readers; if it ran someplace high-profile, it's going to have to be the best thing we've read since the alphabet to get in.

The submission period is December 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. All electronic submits must be sent within that period, all snail mail submits must be postmarked by the deadline.

Compensation: We pay two cents per word (USA funds, rounded to the nearest 100 words, US$10 minimum payment) on publication and one contributor's copy. The anthology will be published in late July of 2011. We purchase North American Serial Rights, and Electronic Rights for the downloadable version(s). All subsidiary rights released upon publication. Contributors will also have the option of purchasing additional copies of the anthology at reduced price.

How To Submit: Electronic submissions make our lives easier. Please upload your story via Submishmash. [See SUBMIT link on the publisher's page.] If this is your first time submitting to a publication that utilizes Submishmash, you will have to create an account with them. It’s free.

We'll consider stories in the following formats: .odt, .rtf, .doc or .docx.

Please use industry standard manuscript format. There's disagreement on some of the exact details of the "standard". We're not testing you to see if you can follow each and every niggling detail, we just want a manuscript that is easy for us to read.

If you absolutely positively cannot submit electronically, please send the manuscript (with either a SASE or a return email address) to:

Triangulation 2011
312 N Beaver St.
New Castle PA 16101

No multiple submissions; only send us one story at a time. No simultaneous submissions, don't send it to us if someone else is already considering it.

Response: Expect to hear back from us within a month. Feel free to start sending us nagging emails if you haven't heard from us after two months.

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15 April 2011 -- Frat Boys -- ed. Mickey Erlach, STAR Books

Remember those college days? The fun you had, partying every night, playing grab ass with your frat brothers. Yeah, those were the days. There you were stripped down to your BVDs, standing at attention, awaiting your punishment. And for what? To live in a house full of hot guys, always running around half naked, teasing each other.

But, what happens when that teasing gets a little hot? What happens when you are dared? What if you turn the tables on that frat brother? Will you get your butt kicked … or licked?

And hey, it wasn’t just in the dorms. There were plenty of us who went to community college, and the boys there were just as hot. Better yet, we could go off campus to get off. So, here is your chance to live out those college day fantasies. Show us what you got. As always, your characters must be over 18 years of age -- after all, they are in college.

We are seeking well-written stories that are erotic, not just pornographic. There are no limits to the possibilities or scenarios. All we ask is that writers be creative, have fun, and offer our readers something fresh and new. And, humor is always greatly appreciated! We want well-developed characters and plots, believable and accurate situations (even if it is fantasy or science fiction, it must make sense), and settings, along with internal consistency. All characters must be at least 18 years of age.

Feel free to query me about the thinking you may have about a story for this anthology at mickey@starbookspress.com.

Submit your query to mickey@starbookspress.com in the body of an email. Include a short bio, your name, postal and email addresses, the title and a five-paragraph excerpt of your story. Indicate whether or not your submission has been previously published and, if so, where and when. You don't need to sell your story in the letter; your work will speak for itself. If your query is accepted, We will be in contact with you about submitting the complete work. The end product should be no more than eight pages of single spaced 12 pt. type. Occasionally, novellas are accepted, but they must be exceptional. Be sure to edit and proof your query.

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15 April 2011 -- Best Erotic Romance 2012 -- ed. Kristina Wright, Cleis Press

I am thrilled to announce I am editing the first annual Best Erotic Romance anthology to be published by Cleis Press. This inaugural collection of erotic romance will feature the very best of the erotic romance genre.

In erotic romance, the sexual component is critical to the development of the romantic relationship. According to Romance Writers of America, a romance must include two key elements: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying, optimistic ending. So be sure to give me a romantic story with scorching hot sex and a happily-ever-after or happy-for-now ending. Consider the work of authors Portia Da Costa, Lauren Dane, Sylvia Day, Delilah Devlin, Megan Hart, Joey W. Hill, Susan Johnson, Lora Leigh, Shannon McKenna, Kate Pearce, Robin Schone, Bertrice Small, Shiloh Walker and Sasha White to get an idea of what I am looking for.

Any time period is welcome, but I have a preference for contemporary settings. This collection will be primarily heterosexual and stories should be written with a female audience in mind. Stories may include lesbian and bisexual elements, triads, polyandrous relationships or group encounters. No incest, bestiality or underage characters, please.

Submission Guidelines: Unpublished stories only, no simultaneous submissions. The desired story length is 2,000-4,500 words. Double-space and indent the first line of each paragraph. Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs. Include your full contact information (legal name/pseudonym, mailing address and phone number) and a bio of 50 words or less written in the third person. Please paste your story into the body of your e-mail and attach it as a Microsoft Word .doc file.

Payment will be $100 per story and 2 copies of the book upon publication. Contributors retain the rights to their stories. I will notify contributors of their acceptance in August, but please note that Cleis Press has final approval over the manuscript. [Note: they're not kidding here. I know a writer who had a story accepted for a Cleis antho and went through edits and everything, only to have Cleis veto her story. This is not a pro forma approval, so be aware that you might well go through a lot of work here only to end up out.]

Send your submission to besteroticromance2012@gmail.com with Submission: Story Title in the subject line. Please direct any questions to the same address.

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13 May 2011 -- Sword and Sorceress 26 -- 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, and Sword & Sorceress 25 (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 16 to Friday, May 13, 2011. 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.

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 "SS26, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS26, 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.

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15 May 2011 -- Steampunk Holiday Anthology -- ed. Angela James, Carina Press

Carina is looking for steampunk novellas with a winter or winter holiday theme, to be published digitally both individually and as a collection in December 2011. The novellas should be from 18,000 to 35,000 words and feature steampunk elements as integral to the novella. The stories do not need to be romance, or even have romance elements, but can be straight steampunk, or steampunk with romantic elements, and can also feature elements of mystery, thriller, horror or other sub-genres. Additionally, there is no set heat level for these stories, so they can have no sex, or be ultra-sexy, or anything in between.

Essentially, we’re looking for interesting, creative, well-written stories within the steampunk niche that will appeal to readers’ imaginations and add to our growing catalog of steampunk stories.

The steampunk holiday collection will be supported by a marketing and promotion campaign both online and in print. In addition, though the collection won’t currently be offered for sale in print format, each author chosen to contribute to the anthology will receive a set number of limited edition print copies for their own use.

To submit, please send your completed manuscript and synopsis, along with query letter to submissions@carinapress.com by May 15th, 2011. In the subject line, please put Steampunk Holiday: Manuscript Title and Author

All submissions will be reviewed and final decision made by June 15th, 2011.

For questions about this call for submissions, please email Angela James at submissions@carinapress.com

For more information about Carina Press, and to read the submission guidelines, please visit www.carinapress.com

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31 May 2011 -- Night Terrors 2 -- ed. Marc Ciccarone & Joseph Spagnola, Blood Bound Books

NOTE: Do not submit before 1 March.

Like volume I, this second volume will be an open themed anthology of horror. Meaning we want stories from all topics and subcategories of horror. Including, but not limited to: psychological, creatures, paranormal, and gore. Remember, evil has no boundaries and neither do we! Nothing is off limits, so take advantage of the freedom. Science fiction and dark fantasy* will be considered as long as it has a strong element of horror. Try to avoid classic horror conventions/monsters (vampires, werewolves, and zombies), unless you incorporate a unique twist.

Third person stories are preferred but we’ll read first person stories as long as they are well done or integral to the plot.

Stories can range from 750 - 4500 words firm and must be rooted in the realms of horror/dark fiction.

Stories must be formatted in the following manner:
-- 12 point font
-- Times New Roman or Courier New
-- Double-Spaced
-- Contact information in the upper left(name, address, phone number, email)
-- Word Count Upper Right
-- 1 Space after a punctuation
-- Underline everything you would like to italicize at publication
-- Attach as a .doc file

Submission: Starts March 1st and closes May 31st (2011). Selections will not be made until after the submission period.

We'll accept stories in any setting or time period, as long as it's well written, powerful and original. Most importantly, scare us. We want to be haunted by your story long after we put it down. Gore and sex are acceptable, as long as it serves a purpose.

Payment: 1st place- 5¢/word; 2nd place 3¢/word; 3rd place 2.5¢/word. All other stories will receive 2¢/word.

Send submissions to submissions@bloodboundbooks.net. Subject should read:
Night Terrors II: story title/author last name

* Fantasy is always a gray area. Dark fantasy to us is more H.P. Lovecraft than J.R.R. Tolkien. We’d like to see a creepy world you created or a flipside image of humanity rather than Middle Earth type realms featuring wizards and dwarfs.

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UNTIL FILLED -- Horror Library, Vol. 5 -- Cutting Block Press

Cutting Block Press is pleased to announce an open submissions period for the 4th Volume of its Horror Anthology Series, +Horror Library+, to be published in trade paperback during 2011.

We're looking for the highest quality examples of all forms of Dark Fiction, running the gamut from traditional horror, supernatural, speculative, psychological thriller, dark satire, including every point between and especially beyond. No Fantasy or Sci-fi unless the horror elements are dominant. Read +Horror Library+ Volumes 1-3 to see what's already pleased us. Special consideration will be given those pieces that we find profoundly disturbing, though blood and violence on their own won't cut it. While we will consider tales of vampires, ghosts and zombies, we tend to roll our eyes at ordinary ones. They're just too plentiful. Your best bet is to surprise us with something that is different, while well conceived and tightly executed.

Guidelines: Stories will range between 1,000 and 6,000 words, though we'll look at longer works of exceptional merit. In that case, query before submission. Buying 1st worldwide anthology rights. No reprints. Paying 1.5 cents per word, plus one contributors copy. For established authors, rates may be negotiable. Response time: six months or sooner. Deadline: We will accept submissions until filled. All Queries to horrorlibrarysubs@yahoo.com.

Manuscript format: 12 point courier font, standard margins, left side of header: name, contact info, right side of header: word count, top of first page: title, author

Variances from traditional manuscript format: single space, NO INDENTS, ONE EXTRA space between paragraphs, use bold, italics and underline as they are to appear in story

Subject box: Short Story submission - title of story

Attach story in MS Word Document or RTF (only). Please paste your cover letter in the body of the e-mail. Send submissions to horrorlibrarysubs@yahoo.com.

[See the web page for a special offer on copies of Horror Library Vol. 1 for writers doing market research.]

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UNTIL FILLED -- Mortis Operandi -- ed. Kfir Luzzatto and Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow Press

MORTIS OPERANDI is looking for stories that revolve around the investigation of a crime and in which the supernatural plays a central role. While we’re expecting a fair share of murders, we strongly encourage stories that revolve around OTHER kinds of crime — for example, arson, assault, blackmail, bullying, burglary, dowry death, embezzlement, fraud, kidnapping, larceny, libel, piracy, product liability, slavery, smuggling, terrorism, treason, and toxic pollution are all fair game.

By "supernatural" we mean magic, monsters, and/or miracles, but we don’t consider psychic abilities (although the inclusion of a minor character possessing them will not in itself disqualify a story), extraterrestrial life, or UFOs to be supernatural.

Types of stories may include whodunits, police procedurals, hardboiled fiction, and courtroom dramas. All genres and treatments are welcome, including ecclesiastic, fantasy, humor, horror, historical, military, romance, and parody. Settings outside the U.S. and U.K. are welcome. Settings on other worlds aren’t.

We want well-written stories that demonstrate originality of concept and plot. Zombies, vampires, and werewolves will be a hard sell, and romantically inclined vampires will be staked on sight. Think outside of the coffin.

Stories will be judged exclusively on the basis of their literary merit; a history of prior publication is not necessary.

Get more information about our thoughts on this antho at Market Scoop.
Submissions & Queries: anthology [[ at ]] theharrowpress.com
==No simultaneous submissions. One submission at a time.
==Please attach your stories to your email in Microsoft Word, RTF, or text-only format. Stories pasted in the body of an email will not be read.
==Please include the words “Submission: Mortis Operandi” in the Subject line of your e-mail.
Length: 3,000-6,000 words. Please include an approximate word count in your e-mail submission.
Reprints: No
Language: English
Payment: US $50/story, upon publication, and a free copy of the book
Rights: Exclusive English anthology print and electronic (e-book) rights. Please read our Sample Contract (pdf) for full details.
Submission period: Opens 1.1.11 -- Closes when filled.
Publication Date: 2012