John Scalzi doesn't make a major point of discussing big publishers messing over writers, so when he does, you know it's bad. He looks over a deal sheet Random House's new electronic imprint Hydra is offering, and points out a few red flags.
* No advance.
* The author is charged "set-up costs" for editing, artwork, sale, marketing, publicity — i.e., all the costs a publisher is has been expected to bear. The "good news" is that the author is not charged up front for these; they're taken out of the backend. If the book is ever published in paper, costs are deducted for those, too. [Note from Angie: there's also a permanent 10% of net charge for the on-going sales and marketing that Hydra most likely won't be doing.]
* The contract asks for primary and subsidiary rights for the term of copyright.
Click through for more detail and some commentary I found pretty entertaining. It's clear, though, that Random House is looking to squeeze as much money from ignorant baby writers as it can, while hoping to pay out little or nothing.
Also recall that "term of copyright" these days means your lifetime plus seventy years. Your grandkids will still be getting royalty statements from Hydra saying, "Nope, haven't made up those costs yet."
This reminds me of the electronic "imprints" set up by some of the other big publishers through AuthorHouse, which were clearly meant to be cash cows for the sponsoring publishers. It looks like someone at Random House figured they could rip off writers just as well on their own, without having to hire another company to do it. Eliminate the middle-man and make more money, right? And hey, some bright RH executive thought of taking the rights for the duration of copyright, which even AuthorHouse, as horrible as its rep might be, doesn't do. Go you, Random House! Way to be eviller than a notoriously deceptive vanity press!
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, SFWA has issued a statement declaring that Hydra is not a qualifying market. [cough]
Angie
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
February Stuff
I've been on the Oregon coast for the last week and a half, doing two workshops back-to-back. It was a grueling experience, as the single workshop I did last year was. And it was awesome, and I'll definitely be doing it again. I got lots of writing done, and I SOLD A STORY!! Which got the all-caps treatment because it's my first professional sale, as in more than five cents per word, holy freaking yay!!! :D
I'm going to have a story in Fiction River's anthology How to Save the World, edited by John Helfers. (Scroll down a bit -- it's the second book.) Holy sheep, I'm gonna be in a book with David Gerrold!
I've been trying to break into mainstream SF/F for ages, so this is a huge deal for me. I'm still getting this really silly grin on my face whenever I think about it, so I beg pardon of anyone who sees me and thinks o_O about my state of mind. :)
I wrote almost 29K words in February, which is good -- I'm still well ahead of quota for making my 2013 goal. My wordcount meter says I'm at 27%, so I'm where I was hoping to be at about a week into April. That's great; I love having padding on my quota. I was hoping for more in February (January was over 35K) but there were several days when I was in the workshop and frantically reading rather than writing. I count those days well spent, though. I also killed my streak, but I was anticipating that, too. No prob; doing an Oregon workshop is one of the better reasons I can think of for having days with no actual writing.
The workshops I did were The Business and Craft of Short Fiction, and the Anthology Workshop. The Antho Workshop is a repeat for me; it's worth doing over and over, and many writers do. I took a ton of notes, especially at the first one, and learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before, which is the point. (Wow, a story that's in a continually extended option with Hollywood can make you a buttload of money, even if they never make the movie!) Great info; it's going to take a while to absorb it all.
Currently I'm sitting in a hotel room in Portland; I have a flight home at 2:30. I'll do some writing today, then fall into bed (ten hours last night, still not caught up) and my next Thing To Go To is a dentist's appointment on Thursday.
Oh, yeah, didn't blog about that before. :/ So on Wednesday two weeks ago, Jim and I were having dinner at this little cafe across the street. They have these really good ice cream sandwiches -- two chocolate chip cookies, made in-house, with in-house ice cream in the middle, then freeze the whole thing. So I was eating my ice cream sandwich when one of my crowns (upper incisor) snapped off at the gum line. :( Luckily I had a root canal before they put the crown on, so it didn't hurt; I was just damn startled, and then all ACK!! when I realized what'd happened. And that I was getting on a plane Saturday morning to go to the workshops. [headdesk]
I went to my dentist the next morning and they put in a very fragile, non-functional, temporary tooth-like object, cemented to the teeth to either side on the back. I was warned not to bite anything, and not even to brush. And when your dentist tells you not to brush, you know your fragile dental work is FRAGILE. I was very careful, but it was a bit wiggly within about 24 hours. I had some vague hope that it'd last at least until the second workshop, but no luck; it came out just a bit over three days after having been installed. So I've been going just over a week now with this huge gap in my front teeth, and talking a little funny.
I feel like I'm seven again. :P
Anyway, this is fixable, although it's going to be expensive. Civil Service has notoriously lousy dental insurance, and the Pacific Northwest has notoriously expensive dental care, for whatever reason. So the bill for an implant is going to be very large, and our insurance isn't picking up a dollar of it. This is our tentatively planned cruise for this year, going into my mouth.
I just hope my other crowns last longer. At least I know to stay away from the Market Cafe's ice cream sandwiches; that was the most expensive dessert I've ever eaten, by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Angie
I'm going to have a story in Fiction River's anthology How to Save the World, edited by John Helfers. (Scroll down a bit -- it's the second book.) Holy sheep, I'm gonna be in a book with David Gerrold!
I've been trying to break into mainstream SF/F for ages, so this is a huge deal for me. I'm still getting this really silly grin on my face whenever I think about it, so I beg pardon of anyone who sees me and thinks o_O about my state of mind. :)
I wrote almost 29K words in February, which is good -- I'm still well ahead of quota for making my 2013 goal. My wordcount meter says I'm at 27%, so I'm where I was hoping to be at about a week into April. That's great; I love having padding on my quota. I was hoping for more in February (January was over 35K) but there were several days when I was in the workshop and frantically reading rather than writing. I count those days well spent, though. I also killed my streak, but I was anticipating that, too. No prob; doing an Oregon workshop is one of the better reasons I can think of for having days with no actual writing.
The workshops I did were The Business and Craft of Short Fiction, and the Anthology Workshop. The Antho Workshop is a repeat for me; it's worth doing over and over, and many writers do. I took a ton of notes, especially at the first one, and learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before, which is the point. (Wow, a story that's in a continually extended option with Hollywood can make you a buttload of money, even if they never make the movie!) Great info; it's going to take a while to absorb it all.
Currently I'm sitting in a hotel room in Portland; I have a flight home at 2:30. I'll do some writing today, then fall into bed (ten hours last night, still not caught up) and my next Thing To Go To is a dentist's appointment on Thursday.
Oh, yeah, didn't blog about that before. :/ So on Wednesday two weeks ago, Jim and I were having dinner at this little cafe across the street. They have these really good ice cream sandwiches -- two chocolate chip cookies, made in-house, with in-house ice cream in the middle, then freeze the whole thing. So I was eating my ice cream sandwich when one of my crowns (upper incisor) snapped off at the gum line. :( Luckily I had a root canal before they put the crown on, so it didn't hurt; I was just damn startled, and then all ACK!! when I realized what'd happened. And that I was getting on a plane Saturday morning to go to the workshops. [headdesk]
I went to my dentist the next morning and they put in a very fragile, non-functional, temporary tooth-like object, cemented to the teeth to either side on the back. I was warned not to bite anything, and not even to brush. And when your dentist tells you not to brush, you know your fragile dental work is FRAGILE. I was very careful, but it was a bit wiggly within about 24 hours. I had some vague hope that it'd last at least until the second workshop, but no luck; it came out just a bit over three days after having been installed. So I've been going just over a week now with this huge gap in my front teeth, and talking a little funny.
I feel like I'm seven again. :P
Anyway, this is fixable, although it's going to be expensive. Civil Service has notoriously lousy dental insurance, and the Pacific Northwest has notoriously expensive dental care, for whatever reason. So the bill for an implant is going to be very large, and our insurance isn't picking up a dollar of it. This is our tentatively planned cruise for this year, going into my mouth.
I just hope my other crowns last longer. At least I know to stay away from the Market Cafe's ice cream sandwiches; that was the most expensive dessert I've ever eaten, by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Angie
Monday, February 18, 2013
Random Penguin
This site? Is great.
When the merger of Random House and Penguin was approved, it was clear to all that the new company needed to be called Random Penguin. Well, perhaps not to all. That the executives in charge decided to call it Penguin Random House instead just proves that their souls had withered some decades past. One lone protester decided to demonstrate against this great nomenclatural wrong by putting random penguins into the covers of books issued by Penguin or Random House. The results are great -- check 'em out.
I particularly like Mists of Avalon and Throne of the Crescent Moon. :D
(Note that they're taking submissions, too, so if you feel inspired, fire up Photoshop make with the random penguins.)
Angie
When the merger of Random House and Penguin was approved, it was clear to all that the new company needed to be called Random Penguin. Well, perhaps not to all. That the executives in charge decided to call it Penguin Random House instead just proves that their souls had withered some decades past. One lone protester decided to demonstrate against this great nomenclatural wrong by putting random penguins into the covers of books issued by Penguin or Random House. The results are great -- check 'em out.
I particularly like Mists of Avalon and Throne of the Crescent Moon. :D
(Note that they're taking submissions, too, so if you feel inspired, fire up Photoshop make with the random penguins.)
Angie
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Serials, or, How to Make Your Readers Hate You
Can we talk about serials for a minute?
I know serialization is supposed to be the hot new way of sucking extra money out of readers. (Oops, was I not supposed to say that out loud?) But you know, most readers can actually do the, like, second grade math required to figure out how much the whole story cost them. If your short novel is coming out in five two-dollar parts, or your normal sized novel is coming out in ten two-dollar parts, a lot of people are going to do the above-mentioned math and figure out that you're ripping them off. 'Cause seriously, ten bucks for a short novel in electronic form is ludicrous. So is twenty bucks for a regular sized e-novel. If this is how you price your "serial," then you (either the writer or the publisher, whoever came up with the scheme in any given case) has absolutely no moral ground to stand on when readers start complaining, in print, on their blogs or on Goodreads or wherever else. Because that? [points up] That's a major rip-off.
Better yet is when the writer/publisher/whoever fails to let readers know up front that a story is, indeed, a serial. When a reader has bought what they think is a short story or a novelette and is reading along only to find that the story cuts off abruptly at the end, leaving them hanging, needing to wait..wait...wait for the next installment, and fork over another chunk of cash to get it? Yeah, you're going to get complaints about that, too. And again, you'll have no grounds whatsoever to whine about those complaints, even when they're made publicly. The reader who posts to their blog or leaves a comment on a vendor site or a social reader's site to complain about your stealth-serial isn't being mean or sabotaging you or whatever. They're making a legitimate complaint about your lack of up-front disclosure that you were selling them a fraction of a story.
Let's look at an example. I don't usually call out specifics when I'm writing about a general trend, but this one's unfortunately perfect.
Monty Gets Arrested is up on Goodreads with four ratings and a 3.0 average. This isn't a lot of ratings, and the average might improve with time. But what's significant here are the comments. One commenter, who left a one-star rating, says, "It's not even half a story." Another, who left two stars, says, "Not bad, just .. way too short. More like a chapter than a book." A third said:
Ok I am not rating this right now cause I'm mad.
I didn't realize that this was a short story to be continued....
And not continued soon, but a whole month away. I just read Anitra Lynn McLeod series Seven Brothers for McBride and I had to wait a whole 7 seven days for the next installment. And let me tell you that was a raging 7 days and each Saturday Anitra came through with the story.
Now I have to wait a month for the next installment? This was ok but I don't know that I care enough to 'post-it note myself' 30 days out.
Wow, great marketing strategy this turned out to be.
Someone came along and commented to one of the reviews, explaining that Monty is a five-part series, with parts to be released once a month. I'm assuming this person knows the writer, or works for the publisher, or whatever. Okay, that's good information to have. Why didn't the publisher give it to us? Because this good information should've been given to the readers before they spent their money.
Monty's page on ARe (a popular e-book vendor site specializing in romance) says nothing at all about the book being the first part of a serial. The full title is Monty Gets Arrested (Marshall's Park #1), but that's also how series books are often titled; it looks to a savvy reader like there are going to be more books about Marshall's Park. Which is fine; if you like Monty, you'll probably be interested in reading more books set in the same place, by the same writer. But nowhere on this page does it say "Serial," or "Story to be continued," or anything similar. The reader (potential customer at this point) is given no hint that they're not buying a complete product, or that they'll have to pay more money to get the rest of the story.
Obligatory statement that I'm not writing this to rag on the author. I have three of her books on my to-buy shelf on Goodreads, which means at the very least she can write good summary blurbs. Her total average rating on Goodreads is 3.82, which is very good; she can clearly write stories that readers enjoy, and I expect to enjoy a few of them when I get around to it. For that matter, the summary blurb on Monty makes it sound like a fun story. I'm betting the problem here is with a publisher who thought they could make an eventual $9.95 for a 57K word novel (assuming all five parts cost the same and are about the same length) instead of the more usual $4-5.99 a novel that length would bring in if sold as one book, and who apparently hoped no one would notice or complain about their shenanigans.
I'm not going to say that serialization is a bad concept entirely. Rather, I'll say I've never seen it implemented well, in e-book form. Serialization goes back to the days when newsstands were full of magazines carrying fiction (heck, it goes back to the days when there were newsstands) and many of those magazines serialized novels a chapter at a time, or a chunk of chapters at a time. Purchasing the magazine got you a lot more than that issue's serial, though. Even if the serial was the major selling point of the magazine (as magazines with Dickens's work often were, as I understand) the fact is that there was still more to read once you were done with the serial installment. Even if the only effect was psychological, it's the psychological effect of realizing that you just paid money for a fifth or a tenth or a fifteenth of a story that I'm talking about here. A reader who'll pay $2.99 for a 12K-word novelette -- a complete story -- might well balk at paying $2.99 for a 12K-word chunk of a longer novel, when they realize that the whole novel is going to cost them $15, and that they're used to paying $5.99 at most for a single (complete story) e-book of that length. The psychological effect is exactly the problem, and saying it shouldn't be that way doesn't make it vanish.
What it comes down to is that serializing a longer work and selling the parts individually is a sales and marketing strategy. The publisher is trying to make more money selling the parts separately than they'd make selling the work as a whole. Wanting to make money isn't a problem -- everyone who doesn't consider this a hobby wants to make money. The problem is when you're doing it so blatantly that your customer can't help noticing your hand rooting around in their pocket.
Some readers like serials, and are maybe even willing to pay more to get each chunk of story as soon as possible. Okay, that's great; selling serials to people who like them is a good idea. If you're targetting readers who like serials, then let the readers know up front that you're publishing a serial. There's no excuse for letting someone buy what they think is a complete short story or novelette, only to spring the surprise on them at the end that the story is incomplete. Announce in the marketing material -- within the summary blurb would be a good place -- that this is part of a serial, with more parts to come (and previous parts if it's not the first). Give the readers the information they need to make a valid decision whether to hand you money for your product. Some people will decide not to buy, yes. But the alternative is to deal in bad faith, and have people complaining about you in public afterwards. This kind of behavior might make you a few more dollars now, but it'll lose you customers in the long run.
If you're going to sell a serial, act in good faith. Let people know what they're buying before they give you money, and then see how many do. However much money you make when everyone knows what they're buying? That's the measure of whether serials are successful.
Angie
I know serialization is supposed to be the hot new way of sucking extra money out of readers. (Oops, was I not supposed to say that out loud?) But you know, most readers can actually do the, like, second grade math required to figure out how much the whole story cost them. If your short novel is coming out in five two-dollar parts, or your normal sized novel is coming out in ten two-dollar parts, a lot of people are going to do the above-mentioned math and figure out that you're ripping them off. 'Cause seriously, ten bucks for a short novel in electronic form is ludicrous. So is twenty bucks for a regular sized e-novel. If this is how you price your "serial," then you (either the writer or the publisher, whoever came up with the scheme in any given case) has absolutely no moral ground to stand on when readers start complaining, in print, on their blogs or on Goodreads or wherever else. Because that? [points up] That's a major rip-off.
Better yet is when the writer/publisher/whoever fails to let readers know up front that a story is, indeed, a serial. When a reader has bought what they think is a short story or a novelette and is reading along only to find that the story cuts off abruptly at the end, leaving them hanging, needing to wait..wait...wait for the next installment, and fork over another chunk of cash to get it? Yeah, you're going to get complaints about that, too. And again, you'll have no grounds whatsoever to whine about those complaints, even when they're made publicly. The reader who posts to their blog or leaves a comment on a vendor site or a social reader's site to complain about your stealth-serial isn't being mean or sabotaging you or whatever. They're making a legitimate complaint about your lack of up-front disclosure that you were selling them a fraction of a story.
Let's look at an example. I don't usually call out specifics when I'm writing about a general trend, but this one's unfortunately perfect.
Monty Gets Arrested is up on Goodreads with four ratings and a 3.0 average. This isn't a lot of ratings, and the average might improve with time. But what's significant here are the comments. One commenter, who left a one-star rating, says, "It's not even half a story." Another, who left two stars, says, "Not bad, just .. way too short. More like a chapter than a book." A third said:
Ok I am not rating this right now cause I'm mad.
I didn't realize that this was a short story to be continued....
And not continued soon, but a whole month away. I just read Anitra Lynn McLeod series Seven Brothers for McBride and I had to wait a whole 7 seven days for the next installment. And let me tell you that was a raging 7 days and each Saturday Anitra came through with the story.
Now I have to wait a month for the next installment? This was ok but I don't know that I care enough to 'post-it note myself' 30 days out.
Wow, great marketing strategy this turned out to be.
Someone came along and commented to one of the reviews, explaining that Monty is a five-part series, with parts to be released once a month. I'm assuming this person knows the writer, or works for the publisher, or whatever. Okay, that's good information to have. Why didn't the publisher give it to us? Because this good information should've been given to the readers before they spent their money.
Monty's page on ARe (a popular e-book vendor site specializing in romance) says nothing at all about the book being the first part of a serial. The full title is Monty Gets Arrested (Marshall's Park #1), but that's also how series books are often titled; it looks to a savvy reader like there are going to be more books about Marshall's Park. Which is fine; if you like Monty, you'll probably be interested in reading more books set in the same place, by the same writer. But nowhere on this page does it say "Serial," or "Story to be continued," or anything similar. The reader (potential customer at this point) is given no hint that they're not buying a complete product, or that they'll have to pay more money to get the rest of the story.
Obligatory statement that I'm not writing this to rag on the author. I have three of her books on my to-buy shelf on Goodreads, which means at the very least she can write good summary blurbs. Her total average rating on Goodreads is 3.82, which is very good; she can clearly write stories that readers enjoy, and I expect to enjoy a few of them when I get around to it. For that matter, the summary blurb on Monty makes it sound like a fun story. I'm betting the problem here is with a publisher who thought they could make an eventual $9.95 for a 57K word novel (assuming all five parts cost the same and are about the same length) instead of the more usual $4-5.99 a novel that length would bring in if sold as one book, and who apparently hoped no one would notice or complain about their shenanigans.
I'm not going to say that serialization is a bad concept entirely. Rather, I'll say I've never seen it implemented well, in e-book form. Serialization goes back to the days when newsstands were full of magazines carrying fiction (heck, it goes back to the days when there were newsstands) and many of those magazines serialized novels a chapter at a time, or a chunk of chapters at a time. Purchasing the magazine got you a lot more than that issue's serial, though. Even if the serial was the major selling point of the magazine (as magazines with Dickens's work often were, as I understand) the fact is that there was still more to read once you were done with the serial installment. Even if the only effect was psychological, it's the psychological effect of realizing that you just paid money for a fifth or a tenth or a fifteenth of a story that I'm talking about here. A reader who'll pay $2.99 for a 12K-word novelette -- a complete story -- might well balk at paying $2.99 for a 12K-word chunk of a longer novel, when they realize that the whole novel is going to cost them $15, and that they're used to paying $5.99 at most for a single (complete story) e-book of that length. The psychological effect is exactly the problem, and saying it shouldn't be that way doesn't make it vanish.
What it comes down to is that serializing a longer work and selling the parts individually is a sales and marketing strategy. The publisher is trying to make more money selling the parts separately than they'd make selling the work as a whole. Wanting to make money isn't a problem -- everyone who doesn't consider this a hobby wants to make money. The problem is when you're doing it so blatantly that your customer can't help noticing your hand rooting around in their pocket.
Some readers like serials, and are maybe even willing to pay more to get each chunk of story as soon as possible. Okay, that's great; selling serials to people who like them is a good idea. If you're targetting readers who like serials, then let the readers know up front that you're publishing a serial. There's no excuse for letting someone buy what they think is a complete short story or novelette, only to spring the surprise on them at the end that the story is incomplete. Announce in the marketing material -- within the summary blurb would be a good place -- that this is part of a serial, with more parts to come (and previous parts if it's not the first). Give the readers the information they need to make a valid decision whether to hand you money for your product. Some people will decide not to buy, yes. But the alternative is to deal in bad faith, and have people complaining about you in public afterwards. This kind of behavior might make you a few more dollars now, but it'll lose you customers in the long run.
If you're going to sell a serial, act in good faith. Let people know what they're buying before they give you money, and then see how many do. However much money you make when everyone knows what they're buying? That's the measure of whether serials are successful.
Angie
Friday, February 15, 2013
But They're PROFESSIONALS
You still hear people talking about how of course any real/good/whatever writer would want to be signed with one of the big NY publishers. After all, that's being really published, being a real writer. It's all about working with professionals who know what they're doing. I've heard indie writers called selfish for wanting control over their own editing and covers and such. Because of course that's the classic definition of a selfish person -- someone who doesn't want to fob the work off on others. Clearly that makes perfect sense.
But mostly all the snarky criticism of indie writers is about the belief that no mere writer can possibly do as good a job publishing and promoting their book as The Professionals can. Despite many, many anecdotes to the contrary.
Here's another one, from Lawrence Block's blog, in a post aptly titled Great Moments in Contemporary Publishing:
An independent bookseller I know landed a major bestselling author for a rare in-store signing. He got the word out, took advance phone and interent orders for signed copies, and called his sales rep at the publisher to make sure the books would reach him in plenty of time.
“You’ve ordered 450 copies,” the rep told him. “I’m afraid we can only ship you 200.”
Why, fort God’s sake? Hadn’t they printed enough?
“No, it’s policy,” he was told. “Two hundred books is our maximum order. We can’t take the chance of huge returns, or credit problems.”
“But the copies are sold,” the store owner said. “I’ve got prepaid orders for them, and I’ll pay in advance myself, and take them from you on a non-returnable basis. There’s no risk, and there won’t be any returns, and that’s 450 copies of a $30 book at the usual 40% off, which makes it an $8100 cash order. So what’s the problem?”
He got nowhere.
“But the author’s gonna go crazy when she hears this! You think you guys’ll ever get another book from her?”
Nowhere! Rules blah blah blah. Policy blah blah blah. “And be grateful we’re sending you the 200 books.”
Click through for more, including what the bookstore owner did to get around the publisher's idiocy.
All I can say is, this kind of professionalism I can do without. [sigh]
Angie
But mostly all the snarky criticism of indie writers is about the belief that no mere writer can possibly do as good a job publishing and promoting their book as The Professionals can. Despite many, many anecdotes to the contrary.
Here's another one, from Lawrence Block's blog, in a post aptly titled Great Moments in Contemporary Publishing:
An independent bookseller I know landed a major bestselling author for a rare in-store signing. He got the word out, took advance phone and interent orders for signed copies, and called his sales rep at the publisher to make sure the books would reach him in plenty of time.
“You’ve ordered 450 copies,” the rep told him. “I’m afraid we can only ship you 200.”
Why, fort God’s sake? Hadn’t they printed enough?
“No, it’s policy,” he was told. “Two hundred books is our maximum order. We can’t take the chance of huge returns, or credit problems.”
“But the copies are sold,” the store owner said. “I’ve got prepaid orders for them, and I’ll pay in advance myself, and take them from you on a non-returnable basis. There’s no risk, and there won’t be any returns, and that’s 450 copies of a $30 book at the usual 40% off, which makes it an $8100 cash order. So what’s the problem?”
He got nowhere.
“But the author’s gonna go crazy when she hears this! You think you guys’ll ever get another book from her?”
Nowhere! Rules blah blah blah. Policy blah blah blah. “And be grateful we’re sending you the 200 books.”
Click through for more, including what the bookstore owner did to get around the publisher's idiocy.
All I can say is, this kind of professionalism I can do without. [sigh]
Angie
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month (except last month, but anyway), so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
1 March 2013 -- Handsome Devil -- ed. Steve Berman; Prime Books
Incubi. They seduce women (and some men) with their devilish ways. Infernal Casanovas and fiendish Romeos. This anthology will feature supernatural tales of lotharios that entice, arouse, and often destroy their prey. Tales do not have to be horror--dark fantasy is fine but please no paranormal romance (no vampires!). Seeking stories no less than 3,000 words in length, no more than 12,000. Payment for original fiction is at least 3 cents a word. Reprints at least 1 cent a word.
***
15 March 2013 -- Love, Lust and Zombies -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Let’s face it: zombies are hot, and baby, they’re getting hotter. Although not the most traditional of sex symbols, zombies are truly coming into their own, even landing on the silver screen in romantic roles, not to mention ambling and shambling across the pages of novels and television screens. Gone are those one-dimensional gut-munching characters from George Romero’s grim and gruesome flick Night of the Living Dead. Zombies now have a lot more to offer, and thank heavens we non-zombies are finally beginning to recognise this.
From the bestselling novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the hit TV series The Walking Dead, zombies are infiltrating and enriching our daily lives. So isn’t it about time they had their more…err… romantic and sexy sides showcased? It’s my goal as editor of Love, Lust and Zombies to help make this happen. And here’s how you can help.
I want you to write some fun and steamy stories featuring sexy zombie characters and send them over for me to chew on (in a literary sense, that is). Can zombies be sexy? Why the hell not? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. So can you do it without grossing us out too much or being too gory? Sure you can. And you know you want to!
Submission deadline:
Mar 15, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Love, Lust and Zombies
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
31 March 2013 -- Playing with Fire -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Fires and backfires from inventions (Greek fire?), culture clashes, climate change, comets and meteors, Hephaestus, and so forth.
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
1 March 2013 -- Handsome Devil -- ed. Steve Berman; Prime Books
Incubi. They seduce women (and some men) with their devilish ways. Infernal Casanovas and fiendish Romeos. This anthology will feature supernatural tales of lotharios that entice, arouse, and often destroy their prey. Tales do not have to be horror--dark fantasy is fine but please no paranormal romance (no vampires!). Seeking stories no less than 3,000 words in length, no more than 12,000. Payment for original fiction is at least 3 cents a word. Reprints at least 1 cent a word.
***
15 March 2013 -- Love, Lust and Zombies -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Let’s face it: zombies are hot, and baby, they’re getting hotter. Although not the most traditional of sex symbols, zombies are truly coming into their own, even landing on the silver screen in romantic roles, not to mention ambling and shambling across the pages of novels and television screens. Gone are those one-dimensional gut-munching characters from George Romero’s grim and gruesome flick Night of the Living Dead. Zombies now have a lot more to offer, and thank heavens we non-zombies are finally beginning to recognise this.
From the bestselling novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the hit TV series The Walking Dead, zombies are infiltrating and enriching our daily lives. So isn’t it about time they had their more…err… romantic and sexy sides showcased? It’s my goal as editor of Love, Lust and Zombies to help make this happen. And here’s how you can help.
I want you to write some fun and steamy stories featuring sexy zombie characters and send them over for me to chew on (in a literary sense, that is). Can zombies be sexy? Why the hell not? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. So can you do it without grossing us out too much or being too gory? Sure you can. And you know you want to!
Submission deadline:
Mar 15, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Love, Lust and Zombies
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
31 March 2013 -- Playing with Fire -- Third Flatiron Anthologies
Fires and backfires from inventions (Greek fire?), culture clashes, climate change, comets and meteors, Hephaestus, and so forth.
Third Flatiron Publishing is an e-publishing venture based in Boulder, Colorado. We are looking for submissions to our quarterly themed online anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We’re looking for tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios.
Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today.
Click through to the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc.
For each issue, we will also accept a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred.
Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Beginning with the Summer 2013 issue, accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties, as we're now into our second year.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Writer Hit by Trademark Bully
I've been watching this one develop all day, since I saw John Scalzi's post about it, and things look to be turning around for the writer involved. Still, she's still pretty firmly in suckland at this point, and the fact that it's happening at all is outrageous.
MCA Hogarth wrote a book called Spots the Space Marine and self-pubbed it. Games Workshop (a large game company that publishes the very popular game Warhammer 40K) has recently decided to exercise its trademark of the term "space marine" -- it has the term trademarked in the area of tabletop games and video games -- against fiction. It sent a DMCA notice to Amazon, claiming that Spots violated its trademark, and Amazon took the book down.
Wow, where to start?
First, Games Workshop does not own the term "space marine" in the context of fiction. There've been space marines running around SF for about as long as there's been a recognized genre called science fiction, and maybe even longer. Doc Smith and Robert Heinlein had space marines. There's reams of prior art. Just because GW's got a lock on the term in the gaming arena doesn't mean they own it in fiction too, and the fact that they've started publishing fiction recently doesn't change that.
Second, as Cory Doctorow points out, the DMCA doesn't cover trademarks, only copyrights, so Amazon was under no obligation to comply with the take-down notice. They chose to do so freely when they didn't have to -- a thwap of the salmon to Amazon for being an auxiliary idiot here. (The comments to Cory's post are pretty entertaining, if you're at all familiar with Heinlein's Starship Troopers. :D )
Third, someone at Games Workshop must know their trademark assertion is completely bogus, because they're going after a tiny little indie-pubbed book, but (so far as I've heard) haven't said so much as "Peep" any of the big New York publishers who are "infringing" just as much on their supposed trademark, but who all have lawyers on staff.
This is pathetic behavior on the part of Games Workshop. I don't know where their legal advice is coming from, but it's not a source I'd ever hire, because it's making them look like idiots.
The legal blog Popehat is calling for pro bono help for Ms. Hogarth in fighting this crap, which she can't afford to do on her own. (Which GW counted on, I'm sure.) Popehat has a good track record with this sort of thing, as when attorney Charles Carreon sued Matt Inman; I'm betting they can get help for Ms. Hogarth too, and I'm looking forward to reading about the results.
I've been a gamer since I was a teenager. I played in the same FRPG campaign for almost twenty years, until I got married and moved away from my group. I used to work as a developer/gamemaster for a company that does online multi-player RPGs. I have no local gaming group, but still play computer games. As a member of the community Games Workshop is trying to do business in, I have to say that I'll never again buy one of their products, ever. They're a pack of cowardly, bullying douchebags and don't deserve my business. I hope a lot of other gamers make the same decision.
And I hope a trademark attorney or two responds to Popehat's call and gives Games Workshop a good smack upside the head on Ms. Hogarth's behalf. They definitely need a few brain cells jarred loose.
Angie
MCA Hogarth wrote a book called Spots the Space Marine and self-pubbed it. Games Workshop (a large game company that publishes the very popular game Warhammer 40K) has recently decided to exercise its trademark of the term "space marine" -- it has the term trademarked in the area of tabletop games and video games -- against fiction. It sent a DMCA notice to Amazon, claiming that Spots violated its trademark, and Amazon took the book down.
Wow, where to start?
First, Games Workshop does not own the term "space marine" in the context of fiction. There've been space marines running around SF for about as long as there's been a recognized genre called science fiction, and maybe even longer. Doc Smith and Robert Heinlein had space marines. There's reams of prior art. Just because GW's got a lock on the term in the gaming arena doesn't mean they own it in fiction too, and the fact that they've started publishing fiction recently doesn't change that.
Second, as Cory Doctorow points out, the DMCA doesn't cover trademarks, only copyrights, so Amazon was under no obligation to comply with the take-down notice. They chose to do so freely when they didn't have to -- a thwap of the salmon to Amazon for being an auxiliary idiot here. (The comments to Cory's post are pretty entertaining, if you're at all familiar with Heinlein's Starship Troopers. :D )
Third, someone at Games Workshop must know their trademark assertion is completely bogus, because they're going after a tiny little indie-pubbed book, but (so far as I've heard) haven't said so much as "Peep" any of the big New York publishers who are "infringing" just as much on their supposed trademark, but who all have lawyers on staff.
This is pathetic behavior on the part of Games Workshop. I don't know where their legal advice is coming from, but it's not a source I'd ever hire, because it's making them look like idiots.
The legal blog Popehat is calling for pro bono help for Ms. Hogarth in fighting this crap, which she can't afford to do on her own. (Which GW counted on, I'm sure.) Popehat has a good track record with this sort of thing, as when attorney Charles Carreon sued Matt Inman; I'm betting they can get help for Ms. Hogarth too, and I'm looking forward to reading about the results.
I've been a gamer since I was a teenager. I played in the same FRPG campaign for almost twenty years, until I got married and moved away from my group. I used to work as a developer/gamemaster for a company that does online multi-player RPGs. I have no local gaming group, but still play computer games. As a member of the community Games Workshop is trying to do business in, I have to say that I'll never again buy one of their products, ever. They're a pack of cowardly, bullying douchebags and don't deserve my business. I hope a lot of other gamers make the same decision.
And I hope a trademark attorney or two responds to Popehat's call and gives Games Workshop a good smack upside the head on Ms. Hogarth's behalf. They definitely need a few brain cells jarred loose.
Angie
Monday, February 4, 2013
The Invisible War
I really want to see this movie. I know it's going to piss me off royally, but I still want to see it. And after researching things like this, I can't even find it in me to be skeptical about the movie's accuracy, based on what's in the trailer. If so many in Congress will help government contractors in the field (i.e., mercenaries working for the US government) cover up rapes, when these are just hired hands and not sworn troops, how can we imagine that the US Military would not do whatever it could to cover up a plague of rapes within its own ranks? What a scandal! Of course they'd cover it up, for the same reason the the Catholic Church covered up its child molestors for so long, the same reason Penn State covered up for Jerry Sandusky for so long. The authorities think that the scandal to themselves and their institution is worse than the horror of what the victims are put through.
Apologists claim that some significant number of women who report being raped are lying for whatever reason. Some radical wingnuts claim that most women who report a rape are lying. The fact is that even today, in the 21st century, enough women who report being raped are treated horribly -- during the report, during the investigation, during the trial if there is one, and sometimes even afterwards by their friends, families, co-workers -- that most women who are raped have to think long and hard about reporting it for fear of being traumatized all over again, and many never do.
This looks like a good movie. I hope it draws some attention to the issue.
Angie
PS -- of course, men are raped too. It's just as horrible for them, and the social pressure against reporting a rape is just as strong for men, if for different reasons. Most people who are raped are women, though, so that's where most of the problem is. If there are men in the military being raped by their fellow soldiers, I hope someone makes a movie about that as well. Any nest of vipers needs to be hit with a flamethrower, no matter who's being bitten.
Apologists claim that some significant number of women who report being raped are lying for whatever reason. Some radical wingnuts claim that most women who report a rape are lying. The fact is that even today, in the 21st century, enough women who report being raped are treated horribly -- during the report, during the investigation, during the trial if there is one, and sometimes even afterwards by their friends, families, co-workers -- that most women who are raped have to think long and hard about reporting it for fear of being traumatized all over again, and many never do.
This looks like a good movie. I hope it draws some attention to the issue.
Angie
PS -- of course, men are raped too. It's just as horrible for them, and the social pressure against reporting a rape is just as strong for men, if for different reasons. Most people who are raped are women, though, so that's where most of the problem is. If there are men in the military being raped by their fellow soldiers, I hope someone makes a movie about that as well. Any nest of vipers needs to be hit with a flamethrower, no matter who's being bitten.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
January Stuff and Onward
The Koala is still missing, but I've joined a challenge through a mailing list I'm on. Participants each picked a wordcount goal for the year, and we divide it by fifty to get a weekly goal (assuming two weeks of vacation per year) and report our progress each week. There's a secondary challenge to see how long we can maintain a writing streak, meaning writing every day for X number of days, "writing every day" meaning producing at least 250 words -- no adding one word and calling it a writing day. :) So far I've written every day since January 2nd (I didn't do any work on the first) and I'm well over quota for making my goal for this year of 250K words, yay. I'm not counting on that lasting, since my productivity is at the mercy of my brain chemistry, but it's great to see a buffer building up.
I added a wordcount meter-thingy to the sidebar of Angie's Desk to track my progress. Apologies to folks who read the other sites, but I don't want another separate thing I have to update regularly across three sites. Hopefully I won't completely embarass myself over the course of the year, having this out in public. [crossed fingers] I'll update the meter-thingy every Sunday night or Monday morning, when I send my wordcount to the guy who's organizing the challenge.
My total for January was 35,454 words, which is my best month since December of 2011. (I think I mentioned a little while ago that 2012 was a massively sucky writing year? :P )
I finished the third Sentinel Novel a few days ago, which is another major milestone. It still doesn't have a permanent title; I'll figure that out before I submit it. This is Manny's story, and since Manny used to drive an ambulance, I've gotten some feedback from a couple of friends in the medical profession on how I'm handling medical type stuff. I need to incorporate those comments, and also go over the whole thing with sandpaper looking for typos and stray commas and inconsistencies and such. I expect to get it subbed soon, though, and that's pretty awesome.
Since wrapping Book3, I've been kind of bouncing around, doing a bit of this project and a bit of that, not really finding anything I can settle on. I have a lot of partials on my hard drive, and I've worked on a few of them. I also started something new, but that was more in the way of getting an idea down in pixels before I lost it, rather than being ready to do serious work on it; I think that one'll probably stew for a while before I focus on it. But I'm feeling like a whole litter of popcorn kittens right now -- I always have a lot of ideas/stories I could work on, but having just finished a big project, I also have an opportunity to work on whatever I want, and it's hard to commit to any one thing because so many things look cool and interesting. :/ I figure I'll let myself bounce around for a few more days, then settle into something. Note that I almost always work a bit here and there on various projects; what I'm looking for is something to be my main project, that one that gets most of my attention.
Until then, I guess I'll keep poking around, working a little here and a little there. Eventually it'll all come together like biorhythms and I'll finish three things in a week, and that'll be cool too, LOL!
Angie
I added a wordcount meter-thingy to the sidebar of Angie's Desk to track my progress. Apologies to folks who read the other sites, but I don't want another separate thing I have to update regularly across three sites. Hopefully I won't completely embarass myself over the course of the year, having this out in public. [crossed fingers] I'll update the meter-thingy every Sunday night or Monday morning, when I send my wordcount to the guy who's organizing the challenge.
My total for January was 35,454 words, which is my best month since December of 2011. (I think I mentioned a little while ago that 2012 was a massively sucky writing year? :P )
I finished the third Sentinel Novel a few days ago, which is another major milestone. It still doesn't have a permanent title; I'll figure that out before I submit it. This is Manny's story, and since Manny used to drive an ambulance, I've gotten some feedback from a couple of friends in the medical profession on how I'm handling medical type stuff. I need to incorporate those comments, and also go over the whole thing with sandpaper looking for typos and stray commas and inconsistencies and such. I expect to get it subbed soon, though, and that's pretty awesome.
Since wrapping Book3, I've been kind of bouncing around, doing a bit of this project and a bit of that, not really finding anything I can settle on. I have a lot of partials on my hard drive, and I've worked on a few of them. I also started something new, but that was more in the way of getting an idea down in pixels before I lost it, rather than being ready to do serious work on it; I think that one'll probably stew for a while before I focus on it. But I'm feeling like a whole litter of popcorn kittens right now -- I always have a lot of ideas/stories I could work on, but having just finished a big project, I also have an opportunity to work on whatever I want, and it's hard to commit to any one thing because so many things look cool and interesting. :/ I figure I'll let myself bounce around for a few more days, then settle into something. Note that I almost always work a bit here and there on various projects; what I'm looking for is something to be my main project, that one that gets most of my attention.
Until then, I guess I'll keep poking around, working a little here and a little there. Eventually it'll all come together like biorhythms and I'll finish three things in a week, and that'll be cool too, LOL!
Angie
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Review of Emerging Magic
Lisa at Joyfully Reviewed did a great review of Emerging Magic. She said:
Multiple layers within a complex, explosive character driven storyline comes together in Emerging Magic. The various plotlines are carefully woven in and out, converging at points before going on another twist in this fantastical tale. Rory is dealing with almost overwhelming feelings of betrayal while also exploring his first real relationship. Low on sex, high on drama, it’s never dull, though the outcome is expected. Regardless, Emerging Magic delivers the goods.
Many thanks to Lisa -- I'm glad she enjoyed it. :)
Angie
Multiple layers within a complex, explosive character driven storyline comes together in Emerging Magic. The various plotlines are carefully woven in and out, converging at points before going on another twist in this fantastical tale. Rory is dealing with almost overwhelming feelings of betrayal while also exploring his first real relationship. Low on sex, high on drama, it’s never dull, though the outcome is expected. Regardless, Emerging Magic delivers the goods.
Many thanks to Lisa -- I'm glad she enjoyed it. :)
Angie
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
World's Best Dad, Seriously
This guy needs to get a huge trophy for being a completely fantastic dad.
He runs a triathlon every year and brings his daughter with him. She's thirteen and has cerebral palsy. She's not watching -- she's in the race with him. Massive awesome, click through for a pic.
Angie
He runs a triathlon every year and brings his daughter with him. She's thirteen and has cerebral palsy. She's not watching -- she's in the race with him. Massive awesome, click through for a pic.
Angie
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Who Has Final Say?
Kris Rusch's latest Business Rusch post is about working with editors. It's a great piece and well worth reading.
One of the things she talks about is who has the final say in what your manuscript looks like. She's referencing another article written by an editor who clearly works for a publisher that contractually gives the final say to your content editor; you can discuss and negotiate and try to persuade, but bottom line, at this house it's the editor who says what words end up in your book once it's for sale. This isn't a great situation, especially if your editor has a completely different vision for your book than you do.
This reminded me of something I read in Laura Resnick's book Rejection, Romance and Royalties, which is a collection of her columns and articles and such from various publications and places. (Also a great book, well worth digging up and reading.) One article is about awful glitches, and there's a doozy perpetrated by an editor working for an imprint of Kensington called Precious Gems.
This is on pages 127-8 in my copy:
Trish Jensen, writing under the pseudonym Trish Graves, sold them a novel called Just This Once in which the hero, among other things, mentors a teenage boy, steering him away from street gangs and toward organized sports. So you may imagine the author's shock when, upon reading her galleys, she discovered that the editor had changed the boy into a raccoon.
(I think I speak for everyone here when I say, "What?")
When Jensen asked the editor why on earth she had rewritten a teenager as a small nocturnal carnivore, the editor replied that the hero's mentoring the boy could be misconstrued as having undertones of pedophilia. (All together now: "Huh?") So the obvious solution was to rewrite the kid as an animal.
I am not making this up.
Jensen says, "I screamed to high heaven, my agent screamed to high heaven. We wanted the book pulled. Kensington said it was too late. They couldn't pull it, and it was too late to turn it back into what it had been." Understandably, she adds, "I was heartsick for a long time. To this day I can't look at that book."
The lesson here is that when you allow an editor absolute control over your work, as that Precious Gems contract stipulated, the results can be worse than your wildest nightmares. Jensen made sure her next contract with Kensington didn't have that clause, and she warned other Precious Gems writers about it, too. She's wryly philosophical about the experience these days, saying, "Now I'm known as 'the raccoon author.'"
As for Precious Gems, the imprint no longer exists. It folded within a few years of the raccoon episode. A rare example of things turning out as they should in the publishing industry.
Seriously, a raccoon?? Laura doesn't go into any detail here, but I have to wonder, did the editor do the fairly extensive rewrite it (sounds like it) would've taken to actually make the raccoon character fit into the book -- like, instead of a boy who was drifting toward a gang and was steered toward sports, have it be a raccoon who was raiding trash cans and messing up people's attics, who was trained or rehabilitated by the Guy? That would've taken a LOT of work, I would think, if this is any kind of a significant subplot in the novel. Or OTOH did the editor just change out the boy for a raccoon, but have it still playing Little League or whatever? Did the raccoon character still have dialogue after that edit...? o_O Incredible either way.
Kris strongly recommends never signing a contract that gives final say to the editor, nor signing away your moral rights. I'm sure very few professional editors would ever consider raccooning one of your characters, or anything similarly outrageous, but then I'm sure Ms. Jensen never expected her editor to do that either.
Read Kris's post, and be careful of your contracts.
Angie
One of the things she talks about is who has the final say in what your manuscript looks like. She's referencing another article written by an editor who clearly works for a publisher that contractually gives the final say to your content editor; you can discuss and negotiate and try to persuade, but bottom line, at this house it's the editor who says what words end up in your book once it's for sale. This isn't a great situation, especially if your editor has a completely different vision for your book than you do.
This reminded me of something I read in Laura Resnick's book Rejection, Romance and Royalties, which is a collection of her columns and articles and such from various publications and places. (Also a great book, well worth digging up and reading.) One article is about awful glitches, and there's a doozy perpetrated by an editor working for an imprint of Kensington called Precious Gems.
This is on pages 127-8 in my copy:
Trish Jensen, writing under the pseudonym Trish Graves, sold them a novel called Just This Once in which the hero, among other things, mentors a teenage boy, steering him away from street gangs and toward organized sports. So you may imagine the author's shock when, upon reading her galleys, she discovered that the editor had changed the boy into a raccoon.
(I think I speak for everyone here when I say, "What?")
When Jensen asked the editor why on earth she had rewritten a teenager as a small nocturnal carnivore, the editor replied that the hero's mentoring the boy could be misconstrued as having undertones of pedophilia. (All together now: "Huh?") So the obvious solution was to rewrite the kid as an animal.
I am not making this up.
Jensen says, "I screamed to high heaven, my agent screamed to high heaven. We wanted the book pulled. Kensington said it was too late. They couldn't pull it, and it was too late to turn it back into what it had been." Understandably, she adds, "I was heartsick for a long time. To this day I can't look at that book."
The lesson here is that when you allow an editor absolute control over your work, as that Precious Gems contract stipulated, the results can be worse than your wildest nightmares. Jensen made sure her next contract with Kensington didn't have that clause, and she warned other Precious Gems writers about it, too. She's wryly philosophical about the experience these days, saying, "Now I'm known as 'the raccoon author.'"
As for Precious Gems, the imprint no longer exists. It folded within a few years of the raccoon episode. A rare example of things turning out as they should in the publishing industry.
Seriously, a raccoon?? Laura doesn't go into any detail here, but I have to wonder, did the editor do the fairly extensive rewrite it (sounds like it) would've taken to actually make the raccoon character fit into the book -- like, instead of a boy who was drifting toward a gang and was steered toward sports, have it be a raccoon who was raiding trash cans and messing up people's attics, who was trained or rehabilitated by the Guy? That would've taken a LOT of work, I would think, if this is any kind of a significant subplot in the novel. Or OTOH did the editor just change out the boy for a raccoon, but have it still playing Little League or whatever? Did the raccoon character still have dialogue after that edit...? o_O Incredible either way.
Kris strongly recommends never signing a contract that gives final say to the editor, nor signing away your moral rights. I'm sure very few professional editors would ever consider raccooning one of your characters, or anything similarly outrageous, but then I'm sure Ms. Jensen never expected her editor to do that either.
Read Kris's post, and be careful of your contracts.
Angie
Monday, January 21, 2013
Blog Moderation Techniques
Okay, this is awesome. :) How does one handle jerkwad commenters? Sure, you can delete their posts, but certain practitioners of gluteal haberdashery are annoyingly persistent. What to do?
John Scalzi (a big-name SF writer, for anyone not into SF) has a ridiculously popular blog and doesn't shy away from controversial topics. I generally agree with him, so in my world he's a good guy, but there are folks out there who disagree with him strongly on various matters. If they're willing to be civil then all is well, but certain individuals come sliming and frothing their way onto his blog, spraying putrid stupidity all over the curtains. His usual response is to delete them (using the Mallet of Loving Correction -- some SF fans actually gave him a real one at WorldCon, like a fancy judge's mallet but about three feet long) but some folks, when their comments have been malleted, just keep coming back over and over. Handling them is annoying and takes up time.
So he borrowed a technique from blogger Jenny Lawton, in a move one of his commenters called "setting the Mallet to 'Kitten.'" It made me laugh, and after a couple of kittenings, a recent jerkwad couldn't take it anymore and vanished, yay!
I only wish I had 1/100 the blog traffic Scalzi does. My current jerkwad visitors are all comment spammers; moving up to active asshats would be an indication that my blog had achieved a new level of readership, so I'd actually kind of welcome that, at least as an indicator of popularity. [wry smile] Right now, I don't even need a Mallet, much less one with a "Kitten" setting. When/if I ever do, though, I'll keep it in mind. [snicker]
Check out the Kitten setting.
Angie
John Scalzi (a big-name SF writer, for anyone not into SF) has a ridiculously popular blog and doesn't shy away from controversial topics. I generally agree with him, so in my world he's a good guy, but there are folks out there who disagree with him strongly on various matters. If they're willing to be civil then all is well, but certain individuals come sliming and frothing their way onto his blog, spraying putrid stupidity all over the curtains. His usual response is to delete them (using the Mallet of Loving Correction -- some SF fans actually gave him a real one at WorldCon, like a fancy judge's mallet but about three feet long) but some folks, when their comments have been malleted, just keep coming back over and over. Handling them is annoying and takes up time.
So he borrowed a technique from blogger Jenny Lawton, in a move one of his commenters called "setting the Mallet to 'Kitten.'" It made me laugh, and after a couple of kittenings, a recent jerkwad couldn't take it anymore and vanished, yay!
I only wish I had 1/100 the blog traffic Scalzi does. My current jerkwad visitors are all comment spammers; moving up to active asshats would be an indication that my blog had achieved a new level of readership, so I'd actually kind of welcome that, at least as an indicator of popularity. [wry smile] Right now, I don't even need a Mallet, much less one with a "Kitten" setting. When/if I ever do, though, I'll keep it in mind. [snicker]
Check out the Kitten setting.
Angie
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month (except last month, but anyway), so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
[UPDATED 1/22] 15 March 2013 -- Love, Lust and Zombies -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Let’s face it: zombies are hot, and baby, they’re getting hotter. Although not the most traditional of sex symbols, zombies are truly coming into their own, even landing on the silver screen in romantic roles, not to mention ambling and shambling across the pages of novels and television screens. Gone are those one-dimensional gut-munching characters from George Romero’s grim and gruesome flick Night of the Living Dead. Zombies now have a lot more to offer, and thank heavens we non-zombies are finally beginning to recognise this.
From the bestselling novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the hit TV series The Walking Dead, zombies are infiltrating and enriching our daily lives. So isn’t it about time they had their more…err… romantic and sexy sides showcased? It’s my goal as editor of Love, Lust and Zombies to help make this happen. And here’s how you can help.
I want you to write some fun and steamy stories featuring sexy zombie characters and send them over for me to chew on (in a literary sense, that is). Can zombies be sexy? Why the hell not? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. So can you do it without grossing us out too much or being too gory? Sure you can. And you know you want to!
Submission deadline:
Feb 10, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Love, Lust and Zombies
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
15 February 2013 -- Sword and Mythos -- Innsmouth Free Press
Sword and Mythos is an anthology paying professional rates (5 cents per word) looking for short fiction of up to 5,000 words which combines the pulp genres of Cthulhu Mythos and sword and sorcery.
WHAT WE WANT
Sword and Mythos. This includes any element of the Cthulhu Mythos (creatures such as shoggoths, characters like the King in Yellow, locations like Leng) combined with sword and sorcery (heroic fantasy). Stories can be told from the viewpoint of sorcerers or other non-traditional heroic characters, although fighters with brawn and brains will also be accepted.
We are looking for a variety of settings and characters (Yes, we are GLBT-friendly). Although much sword and sorcery has utilized a proto-European setting, we’d like to see stories that take place in settings inspired by Middle Eastern, African, Asian, Prehispanic, and other cultures. We will accept secondary world stories and stories set in historical settings with magical elements. For example, Robert E. Howard set his Mythos-inspired “Worms of the Earth” in real-life Great Britain.
We might also consider some sword and planet stories. But no copyrighted characters, please. We can’t afford the lawsuits.
There are many famous sword and sorcery male characters, but we’d also like to see women hacking tentacles. Or summoning Mythos creatures.
Overall, we want to be surprised and inspired to read beyond the first page.
Scenarios which might be fun:
== A Mayan warrior faces Cthulhu’s own daughter, Cthylla.
== A crafty thief steals more than she bargained for when she takes a statuette from a Tamil temple.
== A Kurdish mercenary is hired to rescue the son of a rich merchant from the clutches of a sorcerer in medieval Cairo.
== An acolyte of Dagon grows tired of his job and seeks new thrills.
== The sacrificial virgin procured for a certain ceremony proves to be adept at survival.
== A Maori warrior in the South Pacific fights thawed-out shoggoths from sunken R’lyeh.
== A Wampanoag builds a stone circle to unspeakable entities, in order to beat back European settlers.
== A Malian warrior teams up with a shaman in Timbuktu to fight a Black Pharoah from Egypt.
== In the late Parthian Empire, a pahlavan warrior and a Zoroastrian priestess investigate an alchemist who is raising the dead.
== Pearl divers hire samurai to fight an undersea race of carnivorous creatures.
PAYMENT
Sword and Mythos pays 5 cents per word. We are asking for First English Anthology Rights. Because we are a very small press, we don’t pay royalties. We do, however, offer to buy the stories on a non-exclusive basis.
Each contributor will receive two physical copies of the anthology and an e-book copy. More copies can be purchased at a discounted rate.
Story length is up to 5,000 words.
Reprints will be considered. Flat fee of $50 paid for reprints.
SUBMITTING
== E-mail us at innsmouthfp AT gmail.com. Subject line: Sword, [Title of your Story, Author's Name].
== Do not send more than one short story.
== Include a cover letter with the story word count, salient writing credits and any reprint information (if applicable). Yes, we do read cover letters, so include the information.
== Attach story as an RTF or Word document. Use standard manuscript format. Italics as italics, bold as bold. No fancy fonts.
== Stories can be sent in English, French, or Spanish.
== Submissions are accepted from January 15 to February 15, 2013. Do not send anything before or after that date. If you do, we will ignore it.
== Final story selection will take place in the spring of 2013. Check back for updates.
[Click through for more info.]
***
1 March 2013 -- Handsome Devil -- ed. Steve Berman; Prime Books
Incubi. They seduce women (and some men) with their devilish ways. Infernal Casanovas and fiendish Romeos. This anthology will feature supernatural tales of lotharios that entice, arouse, and often destroy their prey. Tales do not have to be horror--dark fantasy is fine but please no paranormal romance (no vampires!). Seeking stories no less than 3,000 words in length, no more than 12,000. Payment for original fiction is at least 3 cents a word. Reprints at least 1 cent a word.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
======
ETA: Comments closed because of a truly insane amount of spam. :/
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets (if there are any -- none this month) are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
[UPDATED 1/22] 15 March 2013 -- Love, Lust and Zombies -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Let’s face it: zombies are hot, and baby, they’re getting hotter. Although not the most traditional of sex symbols, zombies are truly coming into their own, even landing on the silver screen in romantic roles, not to mention ambling and shambling across the pages of novels and television screens. Gone are those one-dimensional gut-munching characters from George Romero’s grim and gruesome flick Night of the Living Dead. Zombies now have a lot more to offer, and thank heavens we non-zombies are finally beginning to recognise this.
From the bestselling novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the hit TV series The Walking Dead, zombies are infiltrating and enriching our daily lives. So isn’t it about time they had their more…err… romantic and sexy sides showcased? It’s my goal as editor of Love, Lust and Zombies to help make this happen. And here’s how you can help.
I want you to write some fun and steamy stories featuring sexy zombie characters and send them over for me to chew on (in a literary sense, that is). Can zombies be sexy? Why the hell not? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. So can you do it without grossing us out too much or being too gory? Sure you can. And you know you want to!
Submission deadline:
Feb 10, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Love, Lust and Zombies
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
***
15 February 2013 -- Sword and Mythos -- Innsmouth Free Press
Sword and Mythos is an anthology paying professional rates (5 cents per word) looking for short fiction of up to 5,000 words which combines the pulp genres of Cthulhu Mythos and sword and sorcery.
WHAT WE WANT
Sword and Mythos. This includes any element of the Cthulhu Mythos (creatures such as shoggoths, characters like the King in Yellow, locations like Leng) combined with sword and sorcery (heroic fantasy). Stories can be told from the viewpoint of sorcerers or other non-traditional heroic characters, although fighters with brawn and brains will also be accepted.
We are looking for a variety of settings and characters (Yes, we are GLBT-friendly). Although much sword and sorcery has utilized a proto-European setting, we’d like to see stories that take place in settings inspired by Middle Eastern, African, Asian, Prehispanic, and other cultures. We will accept secondary world stories and stories set in historical settings with magical elements. For example, Robert E. Howard set his Mythos-inspired “Worms of the Earth” in real-life Great Britain.
We might also consider some sword and planet stories. But no copyrighted characters, please. We can’t afford the lawsuits.
There are many famous sword and sorcery male characters, but we’d also like to see women hacking tentacles. Or summoning Mythos creatures.
Overall, we want to be surprised and inspired to read beyond the first page.
Scenarios which might be fun:
== A Mayan warrior faces Cthulhu’s own daughter, Cthylla.
== A crafty thief steals more than she bargained for when she takes a statuette from a Tamil temple.
== A Kurdish mercenary is hired to rescue the son of a rich merchant from the clutches of a sorcerer in medieval Cairo.
== An acolyte of Dagon grows tired of his job and seeks new thrills.
== The sacrificial virgin procured for a certain ceremony proves to be adept at survival.
== A Maori warrior in the South Pacific fights thawed-out shoggoths from sunken R’lyeh.
== A Wampanoag builds a stone circle to unspeakable entities, in order to beat back European settlers.
== A Malian warrior teams up with a shaman in Timbuktu to fight a Black Pharoah from Egypt.
== In the late Parthian Empire, a pahlavan warrior and a Zoroastrian priestess investigate an alchemist who is raising the dead.
== Pearl divers hire samurai to fight an undersea race of carnivorous creatures.
PAYMENT
Sword and Mythos pays 5 cents per word. We are asking for First English Anthology Rights. Because we are a very small press, we don’t pay royalties. We do, however, offer to buy the stories on a non-exclusive basis.
Each contributor will receive two physical copies of the anthology and an e-book copy. More copies can be purchased at a discounted rate.
Story length is up to 5,000 words.
Reprints will be considered. Flat fee of $50 paid for reprints.
SUBMITTING
== E-mail us at innsmouthfp AT gmail.com. Subject line: Sword, [Title of your Story, Author's Name].
== Do not send more than one short story.
== Include a cover letter with the story word count, salient writing credits and any reprint information (if applicable). Yes, we do read cover letters, so include the information.
== Attach story as an RTF or Word document. Use standard manuscript format. Italics as italics, bold as bold. No fancy fonts.
== Stories can be sent in English, French, or Spanish.
== Submissions are accepted from January 15 to February 15, 2013. Do not send anything before or after that date. If you do, we will ignore it.
== Final story selection will take place in the spring of 2013. Check back for updates.
[Click through for more info.]
***
1 March 2013 -- Handsome Devil -- ed. Steve Berman; Prime Books
Incubi. They seduce women (and some men) with their devilish ways. Infernal Casanovas and fiendish Romeos. This anthology will feature supernatural tales of lotharios that entice, arouse, and often destroy their prey. Tales do not have to be horror--dark fantasy is fine but please no paranormal romance (no vampires!). Seeking stories no less than 3,000 words in length, no more than 12,000. Payment for original fiction is at least 3 cents a word. Reprints at least 1 cent a word.
***
1 April 2013 -- Darker Edge of Desire -- ed. Mitzi Szereto, Cleis Press
A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA
Publication date: Autumn 2013
Gothic literature has always possessed a dark attraction ripe with the promise of the forbidden and the sensual. This theme has been successfully explored in my anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with a far gentler touch. In Darker Edge of Desire, I will take the sexualized Gothic and ratchet it up a few notches into the danger zone, opening the door into the darker side of lust and love that only the courageous dare to venture through.
I am looking for atmospheric and high quality stories with a distinct Gothic flavour that explore our more forbidden desires and contain plenty of added kink. In these tales love and lust know no boundaries, and all nature of being—from vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, succubae and creatures we may not even have heard of—can be found. Think Red Velvet and Absinthe, but with some very sharp edges!
Submission deadline: April 1, 2013
(I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, though I’ll still consider stories that make it in by the deadline).
Word count:
3,000 to 6,500
What I’m looking for:
Well-developed story lines and well-crafted prose told in a unique voice and containing interesting characters and settings. Stories may be set in the past, present, or future. Stories from female and male writers are welcome, as are those written from the POV of characters of any gender and containing characters of any sexual orientation.
Note that sexually explicit content is acceptable as well as a more subtle approach; however, absolutely no stock sex scenes or formulaic writing/terminology. Please refer to my previous anthologies to get an idea of the variety and style of content I look for. No excessive gore or violence. No reprints.
Payment:
One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology.
Submission requirements:
Stories should be formatted as follows: double-spaced Arial 12-point black font Word or RTF document. Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch. Do not add extra lines between paragraphs or any other irregular spacing. American spelling and punctuation only (i.e. quote marks, etc.). Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), postal address, and a fifty-word maximum author bio written in the third person. Contract is for one-time, non-exclusive anthology rights with one year’s exclusivity from date of publication. (This may be waived if your story is selected for a “Best Of” collection). No simultaneous submissions please.
In the subject line of your email, please state: Darker Edge of Desire
Send to: submissions @ mitziszereto.com
I look forward to reading your work!
======
ETA: Comments closed because of a truly insane amount of spam. :/
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
A New Year Starting With Free Stuff
I hope everyone had a great holiday and is humming along back at work. I'm doing well -- could hardly be worse after 2012 -- and have a couple of major goals for this year. One is to write at least 250K words of fiction. I've done that before, should be able to do it again, and have joined a challenge through one of the mailing lists I'm on to help encourage me along the way. On track so far, yay.
The other is to get into indie publishing this year. I have backlist stories that are sitting on my hard drive, unavailable to anyone who doesn't hang out on pirate sites, and I need to get those back up and available. I also have stories that've collected multiple positive rejections -- the kind that say, essentially, "Good story, well written, not buying it, enjoyed reading it, looking forward to reading more from you." If you have to be rejected, that's the kind of rejection you want to get, but it's still a rejection. I have some stories that've gotten multiples of these, from multiple professional editors. I figure any story that multiple pro editors thought was well written and enjoyed reading would probably be enjoyed by readers too, so I'm going to start putting them up myself.
To help me along with that, I downloaded and printed out the Smashwords formatting guide, figuring that was a good place to start. Then, in a great piece of serendipity, I heard that Adobe is giving away free copies of a lot of its older-version software, stuff that it's been using phone-home DRM on for a number of years while newer versions have been released. It's no longer cost effective for them to maintain the validation servers for their older packages, so rather than cut off all the customers who've handed them money for their software packages, they've released free, non-DRMed copies of this stuff, and it's open for anyone to grab. The list includes both Photoshop and InDesign, and I've grabbed copies of both. If you're thinking of indie pubbing, or if you're doing it already but have been saving up for expensive high-level software, I highly suggest you grab it too: Free Adobe Software. I have no idea how long this is going to last, so get it while you can.
And major props to Adobe for being cool about this. Plenty of companies in the same position just say, "Too bad, buy the new version, here's a percent-off coupon," and leave it at that. Making sure that the honest customers who've handed them money in the past can keep using the software they've paid for is a class act. Letting other people (like me) try these older versions for free is also very classy, and might make them some money in the future, if I like these tools and decide to upgrade.
Angie
The other is to get into indie publishing this year. I have backlist stories that are sitting on my hard drive, unavailable to anyone who doesn't hang out on pirate sites, and I need to get those back up and available. I also have stories that've collected multiple positive rejections -- the kind that say, essentially, "Good story, well written, not buying it, enjoyed reading it, looking forward to reading more from you." If you have to be rejected, that's the kind of rejection you want to get, but it's still a rejection. I have some stories that've gotten multiples of these, from multiple professional editors. I figure any story that multiple pro editors thought was well written and enjoyed reading would probably be enjoyed by readers too, so I'm going to start putting them up myself.
To help me along with that, I downloaded and printed out the Smashwords formatting guide, figuring that was a good place to start. Then, in a great piece of serendipity, I heard that Adobe is giving away free copies of a lot of its older-version software, stuff that it's been using phone-home DRM on for a number of years while newer versions have been released. It's no longer cost effective for them to maintain the validation servers for their older packages, so rather than cut off all the customers who've handed them money for their software packages, they've released free, non-DRMed copies of this stuff, and it's open for anyone to grab. The list includes both Photoshop and InDesign, and I've grabbed copies of both. If you're thinking of indie pubbing, or if you're doing it already but have been saving up for expensive high-level software, I highly suggest you grab it too: Free Adobe Software. I have no idea how long this is going to last, so get it while you can.
And major props to Adobe for being cool about this. Plenty of companies in the same position just say, "Too bad, buy the new version, here's a percent-off coupon," and leave it at that. Making sure that the honest customers who've handed them money in the past can keep using the software they've paid for is a class act. Letting other people (like me) try these older versions for free is also very classy, and might make them some money in the future, if I like these tools and decide to upgrade.
Angie
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