Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Black Hole that is Facebook Advertising

In case anyone's still using Facebook to market their work, Colleen Doran -- comic writer and artist, who writes some great business posts when she's not busy making a living -- talks about why paying Facebook to try to reach more people is an expensive waste. Buying ads to get more "likes" actually makes it harder for your real fans to see what you post. The more you spend to get more likes on your page, the fewer real fans see each post. Facebook won't fix this because they're making money on it.

Check out Colleen's post and watch the video by Veritasium, explaining an experiment they did and the conclusions drawn. Every time I see something like this, I'm that much happier I've never bothered with Facebook.

Angie

Friday, April 11, 2014

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 April 2014 -- Spindles -- ed. Raechel Henderson; Eggplant Literary Productions

Spindles word limit = 5,000

Payment = 5 cents per word; 2.5 cents per word for reprints

Rights bought: First World English-language Rights

Multiple submissions welcome

No simultaneous submissions

Stories should follow the standard fairy tale structure, but can be placed in any time period. We’ll only be publishing one version of each story (so one Cinderella, on Snow White, etc.) so authors are encouraged to submit as many different stories as they want. We are looking for fairy tales from all over the world; not just Grimm and Anderson.

Please send fiction submissions to submissions@eggplantproductions.com.

Send submissions in the body of the e-mail. No attachments!

[NOTE: there are lots of great questions and answers on the comments under the guidelines post, so click through and read if you're thinking of subbing here.]

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30 April 2014 -- Triangulation: Parch -- PARSEC Ink

Submissions Close: April 30, 2014 — or until filled

Theme: "PARCH"

Word Count: We will consider fiction up to 10,000 words. There is no minimum word count.

Topics: We are interested in publishing a wide variety of entertaining and literate speculative fiction stories, so the more space a story would take, the more it will need to impress us. We publish science fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction.

Compensation: We pay 1.5 cents per word plus a $100 Editors’ Choice award to each of three stories that most effectively and ambitiously incorporate the theme. Authors will also receive an e-book version of the anthology and wholesale pricing for printed copies (typically 50% of cover price).

Rights: We purchase North American Serial Rights, and Electronic Rights for downloadable version(s). All subsidiary rights released upon publication.

Submissions: Our focus is on original stories. Please do not send previously published stories, even if they’ve only been published on your blog. Please, no simultaneous submissions (wait for a response from us before submitting elsewhere). We do not publish poetry. Sorry. No hand-written manuscripts. We gotta draw the line somewhere.

We love creative interpretations of our themes. 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 and if the mature content is integral to the story. So make sure there’s an actual story in that mature content.

No fanfic, even if it’s of a fictional universe that has passed into public domain.

No thinly-disguised transcripts of role playing sessions, no settings obviously based on D&D or other such games. Don’t get us wrong, we love to game ourselves, which means our imaginations are probably cluttered with elves and dwarves and orcs and the like as it is.

How To Submit: Electronic submissions make our lives easier. Please upload your story via Submittable. If this is your first time submitting to a publication that utilizes Submittable, you will need to create an account with them. It’s free.

Manuscript Format: 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.

We accept manuscripts in the following formats:

== .doc or .docx (MS Word)
== .rtf (Rich Text Format — generic document format that most word processors can create)
== .odt (OpenDocument Text — format used by the OpenOffice.org suite)

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

Triangulation 2014
312 N Beaver St.
New Castle PA 16101

Feedback: We are (in)famous for our feedback on submitted stories. We work with writers to improve accepted stories, as well. The results have been strong reviews from places like Tangent Online, and a reputation for consistent quality.

Response: Expect to hear back from us within a month. Please report your response times at Duotrope’s Digest.

Eligibility: All writers, including those who are known or even related to the editorial staff, are permitted to submit to the Triangulation anthology. That doesn’t mean we’ll automatically publish them; just that we’re willing to look at their work. (We’re not worried about nepotism; if our friends' writing sucks, we tell them.)

General Information:

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 do prefer traditional narrative to experimental technique. Our intent is to provide a strong story experience for our readership.

We publish both new and established writers; the level of experience for the authors gracing our pages has ranged from "first time in print" to "Hugo winner" and "Nebula winner". The majority of our stories usually wind up being from American authors, but we’ve had a number of international contributions; we’re happy to consider work from anywhere in the world, as long as it’s written in English.

Who We Are:

Triangulation is an annual short fiction anthology produced by PARSEC Ink, the publishing wing of the PARSEC science-fiction association in Pittsburgh, PA. We publish science fiction, fantasy, horror, and any other speculative fiction that catches the editors’ fancy. Every year since 2003 (save for a brief hiatus in 2006 when we changed over to an international format) we have a new theme. We pay for the work we select and issues are available online at places like Amazon.com. We are a small press but we work hard to produce a quality product.

Triangulation shares an informal relationship with Parsec’s annual short story contest. Note, though, that the Parsec contest and the Triangulation Anthology are two completely different publications and have different requirements and submission guidelines, including eligibility and word length.

***

15 May 2014 -- The One Who Got Away: Erotic Romance for Women -- ed. Kristina Wright; Cleis Press

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

The theme for this collection is about lost love, second chances, reunion stories and lovers reunited through chance or determination. Does love and lust stand the test of time? In this anthology it does! Whether it’s bumping into each other on the street or reconnecting on Facebook, these lovers find that the memories are still sweet and a shared history makes for some very erotic reconnections.

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 onewhoanthology@gmail.com with Submission: Story Title in the subject line. Please direct any questions to the same address. The deadline is May 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 October 1, please feel free to query me.

***

16 May 2014 -- Sword and Sorceress 29 -- ed. Elisabeth Waters

[NOTE: DO NOT SUBMIT BEFORE 19 APRIL.]

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 previous Sword and Sorceress volumes 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 19 to Friday, May 16, 2014. 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 16, 2014.

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 . The subject line should be "SS29, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS29, 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.

***

31 May 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 May 31st, or until filled so don’t wait. 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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.]