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.

NOTE: Torn Pages has had its deadline moved back to 31 July.

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31 May 2014 -- Aphrodite Terra -- ed. Ian Sales; Wippleshield Books

[Note that this is an extension -- see here for the note about that -- and the actual extension note says "the end of May." I'm assuming that means 31 May, but if you're going down to the wire, you might want to write Mr. Sales and confirm.]

My plan is to publish a series of mini-anthologies, each themed around a planetary body and containing around 20,000 to 25,000 words. But I’m not really interested in science fiction per se. I want fiction which lives at the point where the borders of science fiction and space fiction meet literary fiction.

To put it bluntly, if you think your story is a good match for a science fiction magazine, it may not be for me. I’m looking for stories that are realistic, but that doesn’t mean they have to be science/space fiction. However, the planet Venus has to feature in there somewhere. Your story could be about the first attempt to land on Venus, or life in a habitat on the surface. It might describe a present-day group of engineers and scientists controlling a probe on the surface of Venus; or perhaps a journalist discovering evidence of a past secret mission to the planet. There are plenty of tales that can be told about Venus. Surprise me. I’m big on realism, so I’ll be looking for that. And good literary prose too.

Send your stories to editor@whippleshieldbooks.com. Put APHRODITE TERRA SUBMISSION in the email subject. You don’t have to include a cover letter – I’m interested in the story, not in what you’ve had published elsewhere. Attach your story as a .rtf or .doc. Submissions should be no more than 6,000 words. I’m not bothered about standard manuscript format, single-spaced Times New Roman works fine for me. I’m okay with simultaneous submissions, but let me know if someone else takes the story. I’m not keen on multiple submissions. Payment is 3p per word. The submission period closes on 31 May 2014, [see note above]. Since I’m only looking for four or five stories, I plan to be very picky. This may require me to hang onto stories until the end of the submission period, but I’ll let you know if that’s the case. I’m buying First English Language Serial Rights, and copyright will remain with the authors. Payment will be on story acceptance.

I’ll be posting submission stats to this blog, much as I did with Rocket Science. If I see too many of a particular type of story, I’ll mention that too. Keep an eye on this blog as it could give you an idea of what I’m after, and what might stand you a better chance of acceptance.

Aphrodite Terra will be published as a paperback and ebook.

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1 June 2014 -- Diabolic Tales IV: The Psychology of Death -- Diabolic Publications

Submissions will open for Diabolic Tales IV -- The Psychology of Death starting on November 1, 2013 and will close on June 1, 2014. We want the most deranged scary stories you have ever written about death. We are looking for original stories only in which some facet of death derived by the mind of the killer is the main focus, it needs to be physical, sociological, psychological. All stories must be strong and realistic, with believable characters. No brutality or overt blood and gore. We want to be afraid, really afraid.

== All stories must be in doc., docx., or .rtf format.
== All stories must be a minimum of 2500 words but not more than 5000 words.
== Please use 12 point font, Times New Roman and double space your text. 1 inch margins on all sides.

In the body of your submission in the left hand top corner, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting and contact information, please include a cover letter with a brief biography and any publishing history you feel we might want to know about. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to at all times as correspondences from us come through email only!

You will receive an email if your story has been accepted or rejected as soon as a decision has been made.

NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS! WE ONLY ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS THROUGH SUBMITTABLE.

When you are ready, please submit your material here: http://diabolicpublications.submittable.com/submit

PAY: Is made through 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$.05/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears.

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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1 June 2014 -- Tales from the Night of the Dead -- Diabolic Publications

Open call for submissions for the anthology Tales from the Night of the Dead starting on November 1, 2013 and will close on June 1, 2014. We want scary stories based on and set on Halloween night. No requirements for type of story, i.e. ghost, vampire and so forth. All stories must be strong and realistic, with believable characters. When people read your story we want them to get chills, be afraid to turn the lights off, terrified to answer the door on Halloween night! Give trick-or-treat a new definition.

All stories must be in doc., docx., or .rtf format.

All stories must be a minimum of 1500 words but not more than 4500 words.

Please use 12 point font, Times New Roman and double space your text. 1 inch margins on all sides. Do not add spaces between paragraphs.

In the body of your submission in the left hand top corner, include your contact information (Real Name or official pen name, not your online name), the word count of the work you are submitting, please include a cover letter with a brief biography and any publishing history or organization memberships you feel we might want to know about. Make certain to use an email address that you have access to at all times, correspondences from us come through email only!

You will receive an email if your story has been accepted or rejected as soon as a decision has been made.

NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS, NO REPRINTS!

PAY: Is made through 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 offer email.

Fiction: US$.05/word, payable upon publication. Plus, one copy of the edition in which the work appears.

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.

[NOTE: this call is up on Diabolic's Submittable page, but doesn't appear on their web site. If you're interested in writing for this book, you might want to query first to make sure it's still an active project.]

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15 June 2014 -- Fifty Shades of Green -- ed. Elisabeth Kinsey; Greenwoman Publishing

Fifty Shades of Green will be a collection of sexy gardening-themed stories, to be published by Greenwoman Publishing this summer.

The idea came about when talking with friends about the success of that . . . other book. I thought it would be hilarious to turn the story around--make the woman the billionaire, the man the virgin college student who is required to be the "submissive." Since we are gardeners, those thoughts morphed into ideas about making the billionaire a gardener. We began coming up with ideas for humorous scenarios in the garden: salacious acts of bondage with the garden hose, whippings conducted with switches from favorite flowering shrubs,requiring the "submissive" to perform nude weeding, for hours, on hands and knees. The possibilities were endless! Those scenarios morphed into ideas for not just one story, but a variety of stories that were not all BDSM oriented--just some funny, or strange, or amazing gardening-themed stories with one connecting theme--sex.

Fifty Shades of Green is what we came up with. It's going to be our feminist/gardener/literary answer to that . . . other book. And it is going to be hotter than the hottest pepper on the Scoville index of heat. And smart, not smutty. Well, maybe a little smutty.

GUIDELINES & PAYMENT

We are looking for high quality, original stories for our latest project, Fifty Shades of Green. Please see our FIfty Shades of Green Page for information on the book and a few examples of stories that we have in the works. We are looking for stories that are fully-developed, with well-fashioned plots and highly memorable characters. The stories will all include sexuality, but this is secondary to an entertaining, engaging story. All stories must have some element of gardening.

This anthology will be published in the summer of 2014 in both print and digital formats. Some stories will also be published singly and digitally as well as in the collection.

Payment will be $100 per story, paid upon acceptance. We buy first North American rights, in both digital and print, for a publishing duration of 5 years.

We are currently accepting stories from 1,000-5,000 words in the following genres, all of which MUST have a gardening twist: Romantic comedy, paranormal, gay, historical, futuristic/si-fi, fantasy, BDSM, action/adventure, ménage, time travel, thriller/suspense, urban fantasy, steampunk.

A complete manuscript is required at submission from all authors.

We do not accept any work that includes sexual taboos (incest, bestiality, necrophilia, etc.), sex between/with minors, rape or other violent or forced acts, or acts involving urine/feces. If you have questions on whether a subject is acceptable, ask first. We will try to answer emails within 72 hours.

FORMATTING GUIDELINES

== Use 12 pt. font in either Times New Roman or Courier New.
== Please use one inch margins, indent paragraphs, and use double spacing
== Attach the manuscript to your email. We accept Word files only. (No other format will be opened.)
== Include in the body of your email a brief bio including any past publications and a few lines describing your story.
== Include your name and the story name on each manuscript page. Include your name in file name.
== Include full name, pen name (if applicable), mailing address, and phone number in email.

Please submit full story as a Word attachment to: editor@gardenshorts.com

Failure to properly format your manuscript will result in an automatic rejection.

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15 June 2014 -- Pillow Talk: Erotic Romance for Women -- ed. Kristina Wright; Cleis Press

Payment: $50 per story and 2 copies of the book, on publication
E-mail: pillowtalkanthology@gmail.com

Between-the-sheets love and lust, from morning romps before work to stolen afternoon delights and midnight fantasies fulfilled. Stories of lovers in bed and all the delicious things that happen behind closed doors. Think sexy, playful, edgy and erotic and you will know what Pillow Talk is all about.

According to Romance Writers of America, a romance must include two key elements: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying, optimistic ending. In erotic romance, the sexual component is critical to the development of the romantic relationship. To get an idea of what I’m looking for, I strongly recommend reading my previous erotic romance anthologies.

The collection will be primarily heterosexual with a female audience in mind. However, stories may include bisexual or lesbian encounters as well as polyandrous relationships or group encounters. I have a preference for realistic stories with contemporary settings for this series, but any time period will be considered. No incest, nonconsensual sex, bestiality or underage characters, please.

Please be sure to follow all of the submission guidelines: I will consider up to two stories per author. Unpublished stories only, no simultaneous submissions. Please do not send me a story that is being considered elsewhere. The desired story length is 2,500-5,000 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. Send your submission to pillowtalkanthology@gmail.com with Submission: Story Title in the subject line. Please direct any questions to the same address. The deadline is June 15, but earlier submissions are very much appreciated.

Payment will be $50 per story and 2 copies of the book upon publication. Contributors retain the rights to their work and Cleis Press has final approval over the stories selected for the book. Authors will be notified upon approval of the manuscript from the publisher. If you have not received a response by November 1, please feel free to query me.

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30 June 2014 -- The Sea Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia -- Rosarium Publishing

THE SEA IS OURS is an anthology of Southeast Asian steampunk. We are looking for steampunk stories that are set in Southeast Asia (SEA), or secondary worlds that evoke Southeast Asia, with Southeast Asian protagonists, in any of the countries that make up the region: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. We are seeking historically and technologically-innovative stories.

Steampunk, for the purposes of this anthology, is defined as an aesthetic that combines technofantasy, anachronism, retro-futurism, an alternate history/world, and the evocation of an incipient industrial revolution. How does the steampunk aesthetic look, feel, sound, smell, or taste like in these regions? What kind of technologies would grow in resource-rich SEAsia? What do our historical figures, our Parameswaras, Trung sisters, Lapu-Lapus, do in such a world?

Submissions are encouraged to explore various levels and kinds of technologies, not just steam technology. Locals myths can also find their way into these stories; what does the mix of technology and fantasy look like in such worlds? We welcome exploration of all kinds of stories: from the extraordinary to the everyday. What changes does accelerated technology create for the local landscape and societies? If historical events are given a steampunk twist, how do their outcomes change, or stay the same?

FORMATTING GUIDELINES:
== Send all submissions and queries to sea.steampunk@gmail.com
in RTF, DOC, or DOCX.
== Submissions should have SEA-STEAM: [story title] in the subject line.
== Please do not attach a cover letter; cover letters are the text of your email.
== Word count: between 2,500 and 9,000 words long.
== Fonts: size 12; Courier or Times New Roman.
== No cover page; name, email address, and word count on the first page; name/story title/page in headers.

We will contact all submitters within four weeks of submissions closing.

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

== Stories should be in English, but we take a broad view of English, which includes dialect, accents, local slang, and non-English words that express nuances that standard English can't.
== Characters should be embedded in their settings. We should not be able to transplant the specifics of their story easily, even if they are based on common science fiction/fantasy archetypes.
== Local takes on actual historical events are highly encouraged, although not necessary in alternate world settings. Mention in your submission email the specific event you are referencing.
== Stories featuring queer characters, characters with disabilities, non-normative relationships, and other such non-mainstream narratives are welcome.

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15 July 2014 -- Strange Little Girls -- ed. Camilla Bruce and Liv Lingborn; Belladonna Publishing

The strange little girl is not like the other little girls. She might look like the other girls and act like the other girls, but be very strange at heart – or she might be just plain weird altogether. Sometimes she is a scary little girl, other times a dreamer, always treading the fine line between reality and imagination – or even madness… We want to meet new strange little girls, and read strong and original stories about them. Why is she strange? How is she strange? Who is she when she grows up? Does she end up like the madwoman in the attic, hidden away from the world – or is she an office clerk? A lawyer? A baker of poisoned goods?

Think Wednesday Adams, Merricat Blackwood, Alice, Drusilla, Carrie and Amy Pond, to name a few. Of course, your strange little girl might be nothing like them at all – she might not even be the protagonist of your story, but she has to be there, at the center, in all her strange little glory.

What we want: Originality is treasured, so is strong storytelling, clever plot and a polished and proof read manuscript.
Don’t be afraid to experiment – we do like the strange.

What we do not want: Pointless gore or splatter horror, plotless porn (sex is ok – but all in good taste) or poetry.

Submissions: We will accept submissions between May 15th and July 15th, e-mail submissions only.

Submissions should have a standard manuscript formatting and be attached as .doc, .rtf or .pdf.

A few words about you and your writerly career in the body of the e-mail would be nice.

We will respond to all submissions within 12 weeks.

Length: 2 000 – 8 000 words
Language: We will read submissions in English, Norwegian and Swedish
Rights: We buy First Worldwide English language rights, First Worldwide Swedish language rights and First Worldwide Norwegian language rights
Publishing details: Print and e-book
Publishing date: 2015

Payment: $120 flat fee. All payments are made through PayPal.
Copies: The author will receive two print copies and one e-book.

Multiple submissions: No
Simultaneous submissions: Yes.
Reprints: No

Send your submission to: submissions@belladonnapublishing.com
Subject line: Submission, Strange Little Girls: name of your story.
Please name your file author’s last name and story title. Example: meyer twilight.doc/rtf/pdf.

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31 July 2014 -- Torn Pages -- Weird Bard Press

== Word Count: 1000-5000.
== Multiple submissions: wait to hear back on your first submission before sending another.
== Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know and update us if the story is accepted elsewhere.
== No reprints.
== Poetry and Nonfiction: please query first.
== Everyone will hear from us no later than July 1st, but our goal will be a 1 month response time (or at least an update if your story is under consideration.)

Pay Rates & Rights

We pay 2¢ per word for fiction. Authors will also receive an electronic ARC of the anthology.

Weird Bard Press takes First World English Rights. Works sent to us should not have been published elsewhere.

We will use a traditional copyright, but authors may choose any Creative Commons license for their individual story if prefered.

Genres/Themes

There are no genre limitations associated with Torn Pages. Mainstream and genre stories alike are welcome.

Read this article for background on what led to the anthology. Stories that fit Torn Pages will take that article and situations like it as their prompt.

Updated 02/09/14:

Given the title, Torn Pages, the ideal submission will deal in issues such as religion in the science classroom, censorship, historical revisionism, chilling effect, book (media) burning, net neutrality, or Orwellian concepts like Newspeak and Thoughtcrime. Watching the recent Nye/Ham debate we were reminded of Burrough's assertion that language is a virus. Think books. Think classroom. Think logical fallacies, partisan politics, and education standards in the balance.

Acceptable as well are stories related to a real-life wrong so great or insidious that the issue must be told, though it may not relate directly to books or the classroom, such as abuses of political or social power. Pussy Riot, Occupy, or Anonymous may be good starting points, but refrain from propaganda for or against any one of these.

Inherent in this project is an interest in stories from under-represented points of view, be they ethnic, gender, cultural, sexual orientation, or others we have not considered. The person who comes from what they perceive as a mundane background may have an equally important story to tell.

There is a cultural upheaval we wish to see reflected in these stories. In our article, it is a struggle of the secular and the religious, the individual against senseless power structures, and finally censorship and altered history (and, perhaps, a struggle of value systems related to issues of sexuality...) but your story may address totally different issues. Issues we may not know about right now. Awesome. We're keeping the guidelines intentionally vague.

These stories may skew more political than some markets normally prefer, but no matter if we agree or disagree with your politics, stories right for this project will not be partisan soap boxes. It's a difficult line to walk. The best stories will be those that bridge between the different points of view in the given story. We are all human and we all believe that we are the good guys.

Feel free to tell us more about the issue or cite sources in your cover letter. Stories will be accepted on their merit alone.

Diversity statement:

Queer, POC, strong female main characters, disabled characters, and other under-represented points of view are welcome and encouraged.

What we don't want (and other considerations):

This is not an erotica market. Sexual situations and themes are fine. This is not a YA market either, but we hope the final product is suitable for high-school age consumption. Profanity will not lead to rejection, but if accepted, we may edit those words. We'll work closely with you if this is the case.

Violence is fine. Excessive gore is not. Stories that portray abuse in graphic detail are not welcome. For example, the main character is a bad guy who does bad things for most of the story, until, in the final act, he gets what is coming to him. Don't send us that story.

Stories based on familiar genre tropes are hard sells. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc.

Format:

Standard manuscript format. Word, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Rich Text are all fine. Send to us as attachments in your email. We are not sticklers, but do avoid odd fonts, colors, or creative formatting that makes reading or editing your text difficult.

Reading Period:

We open to submissions on March 1st and will remain open through July 31st. [Updated from 31 May.] Submissions received outside of the reading period will be deleted.

Email submissions to: editors(at)weirdbard[dot]com

Please include in your subject line:

Fiction Submission: Story Title

or some similar indication of your email contents.

Questions may be directed to the same address.

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1 August 2014 -- The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk -- ed. Sean Wallace; Running Press

I'm now taking original submissions for The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, to be published by Constable & Robinson in the UK and Running Press in the US in 2015. Stories can be emailed to prime at prime-books dot com. The deadline is August 1st, 2014. You will be notified soon after the deadline if your work is accepted or rejected. Pay rate is five cents a word to eight cents a word.

If you need to know what dieselpunk is, it's a subcategory of steampunk, essentially, covering the 1920s through the 1950s, including the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, and even a little beyond that, but here's the thing: I want material from all over the world, I don't want a white-washed representation of this theme.

[Sorry, this was all I could come up with; I had to dig around just to find the editor's name. :/ It sounds like a fun book, though, and the pay's good.]

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UNTIL FILLED -- Thresholds -- Dreadful Cafe ** First Posted December 2013

We cross boundaries every day - the door to a room, a crack in a sidewalk, the border of a city.

The stories in Thresholds will take the reader to another time, into the dark, into the arms of a lover, to another world, or to the dark recesses of the mind.

Are you ready?

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 (fiction) and samples (art) for Thresholds, our second anthology of art and fiction. All genres are eligible, but preference is given to works that cross more than one and which reflect the flavor and theme described above.

For FICTION:

Manuscripts must be between 1,000 and 25,000 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 (1,000-7,000 words) — $125
== Novelettes (7,001-13,000 words) — $250
== Novellas (13,001-25,000 words) — Negotiable

Estimated Publication: Third Quarter of 2014

[Click through for more info.]