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.

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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.]

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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.

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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.]

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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.

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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.

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1 September 2013 -- Ether World -- Diabolic Publications LLC

== All stories must be in doc., docx., or .rtf format.
== All stories must be up to 4000 words or less.
== Please use 12 point font, Times New Roman and double space your text.
== We are looking for original science fiction in which some facet of future science or technology is integral to the plot. The science needs to be physical, sociological or psychological. The technology can be any form such as electronic engineering, biogenetic engineering and so forth. All stories must be strong and realistic, with believable characters that may or may not be human.
== You will receive an email if your story has been accepted or rejected as soon as a decision has been made.
== 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 , in this case the "Ether World".

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.

We require a written and signed agreement which will be sent with an acceptance email.

Fiction: US$.03/word, payable upon electronic 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 print 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 publication. Rights are then no longer exclusive and revert back to the author after the two year period.

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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.