He just posted a timely cartoon, and encouraged us to share it. I think it's pretty on point, so I'm doing so.
Friday, September 21, 2018
Barry Deutsch Cartoon
Barry Deutsch is one of my favorite political cartoonists. I support him on Patreon, and enjoy his work very much.
He just posted a timely cartoon, and encouraged us to share it. I think it's pretty on point, so I'm doing so.
He just posted a timely cartoon, and encouraged us to share it. I think it's pretty on point, so I'm doing so.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
The Legalities of Fanfic
I went to a panel at a convention recently on the legalities of fanfic. I've written fanfic in the past, and will probably read more in the future. And I look forward to the day when fans of my own writing like it enough to write fanfic based on it. So I was looking forward to the panel discussion.
Unfortunately, it seems none of the people on the panel knew anything about the actual legalities of fanfic. The discussion was mostly, "Well, I like fanfic, so I think it's legal," and "I think fanfic is stealing, so I think it's illegal," and back and forth from there, based on what the panelists thought and felt about it.
In the real world, what any individual thinks or feels about fanfic is completely irrelevant to the question. The moderator made it clear that contributions from the audience had to be 1) only questions, and 2) tweet-length or less, so I didn't bother trying to throw any actual facts into the mix at that time.
In actuality, 1) nobody knows for sure whether fanfic is legal or illegal because it's never been litigated, and 2) if it is, most likely only some of it is, and the rest is not.
The fact is, the Fair Use rules are purposely ambiguous.
Whether you're making money with your derivative work is one factor, and the fanfic that gets written and posted to people’s journals, tumblrs, on Facebook, on personal web sites, and on archives like AO3 and fanfiction dot net for anyone to read for free satisfy that particular factor. That's not the only point, however.
Another point is whether the work is used as criticism or parody, and some fanfic clearly is. I know a popular fanfic writer who thinks Dumbledore is an evil, sociopathic villain, and a dark lord himself if you look at what he did and what he allowed to happen over the course of the books. She also thinks Ron Weasley is a selfish, lazy, jealous git who turned against Harry at the drop of a hat, multiple times, generally an asshole. Pretty much all her HP fanfic reflects these two beliefs, in how she writes these characters. You could make a good argument that all of her HP fanfic is criticism of Rowling's books. And a lot of fics are clearly parodies of the original works, and therefore would be no more infringement than Bored of the Rings was an infringement on Lord of the Rings. (Believe me, if the Tolkien estate could've sued National Lampoon for that, they would've; they’re notoriously litigious.) Many other fics don't satisfy the criticism or parody points, so it's possible that the critical/parody fics are completely legal while the others are not.
Another factor is whether the work is transformative. Did the fan writer clearly change a significant part of the IP to create something new? In this case, people who write further-adventures type stories, where Kirk and Spock beam down to a planet and stop two peoples from going to war against each other, are more likely to be in legal peril, while the people who write alternate universe stories where, for example, Kirk and Spock are each members of a different species of dragon, and their dragon clans have been feuding for a thousand years, but the guys meet and get together and bring peace to their clans, Romeo-and-Juliet style but without the tragic ending, are more likely to be in the legal clear.
And another factor is whether the derivative work is likely to negatively impact the earning potential of the original IP. If someone is writing My Little Pony fanfic that's just so wonderful and awesome that Pony fans stop watching the show (and buying the merch) and only read that fanfic, then the MLP IP holder would have a reason to sue, and might win. Although I don't know of many IP holders, either of books/stories or TV/movies, who'd be willing to stand up in court and say that the fanfic of their work is so much better than the work itself that it's cutting into their revenue. :)
And in actuality, if anything it's the opposite. Rabid fans of a property (and you have to be a fairly rabid fan to put in the work and effort of writing fanfic) drag their friends into the fandom by the ear, shoving books or boxed-set DVDs into their hands and practically forcing them to get into the original so that they'll understand the fanfic.
And some people read the fanfic first, then go looking for the original. I've done that a couple of times, in fact. I watched the first couple of episodes of Stargate: Atlantis, went "Meh," and wandered away. A couple of years later, a fanfic writer I like a lot started writing Atlantis fic, and I read it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, went back to the show, and (reading it through slash goggles that I won't apologize for, plus with the extra world- and character-building the fan writers had done in my mind) I enjoyed the show much more. I ended up buying all five seasons on DVD. I also read a really great fic based on the movie Blackhawk Down, then watched the movie, which wasn't my usual thing; I'd never have watched it if I hadn't read the fic first. This isn't the normal way people get into a fandom, but I'm not the only one who's come in through the side door this way. Fanfic and its writers/fans increase engagement with the canon IP, rather than decrease it. Creators who object to fanfic are, IMO, shooting themselves in the foot, and then refusing even a bandage out of sheer cussedness.
The fact is, nobody knows whether "fanfic" is illegal or not. There've been people, usually IP owners of one sort or another, who've very firmly insisted for a long time that it definitely IS, and who've gotten very nasty with their fans who write fanfic. This is stupid, but hey, if someone wants to piss in their own soup pot, that's their choice. For myself, I'd be delighted to find fanfic written about any of my published work.
Unfortunately, it seems none of the people on the panel knew anything about the actual legalities of fanfic. The discussion was mostly, "Well, I like fanfic, so I think it's legal," and "I think fanfic is stealing, so I think it's illegal," and back and forth from there, based on what the panelists thought and felt about it.
In the real world, what any individual thinks or feels about fanfic is completely irrelevant to the question. The moderator made it clear that contributions from the audience had to be 1) only questions, and 2) tweet-length or less, so I didn't bother trying to throw any actual facts into the mix at that time.
In actuality, 1) nobody knows for sure whether fanfic is legal or illegal because it's never been litigated, and 2) if it is, most likely only some of it is, and the rest is not.
The fact is, the Fair Use rules are purposely ambiguous.
Whether you're making money with your derivative work is one factor, and the fanfic that gets written and posted to people’s journals, tumblrs, on Facebook, on personal web sites, and on archives like AO3 and fanfiction dot net for anyone to read for free satisfy that particular factor. That's not the only point, however.
Another point is whether the work is used as criticism or parody, and some fanfic clearly is. I know a popular fanfic writer who thinks Dumbledore is an evil, sociopathic villain, and a dark lord himself if you look at what he did and what he allowed to happen over the course of the books. She also thinks Ron Weasley is a selfish, lazy, jealous git who turned against Harry at the drop of a hat, multiple times, generally an asshole. Pretty much all her HP fanfic reflects these two beliefs, in how she writes these characters. You could make a good argument that all of her HP fanfic is criticism of Rowling's books. And a lot of fics are clearly parodies of the original works, and therefore would be no more infringement than Bored of the Rings was an infringement on Lord of the Rings. (Believe me, if the Tolkien estate could've sued National Lampoon for that, they would've; they’re notoriously litigious.) Many other fics don't satisfy the criticism or parody points, so it's possible that the critical/parody fics are completely legal while the others are not.
Another factor is whether the work is transformative. Did the fan writer clearly change a significant part of the IP to create something new? In this case, people who write further-adventures type stories, where Kirk and Spock beam down to a planet and stop two peoples from going to war against each other, are more likely to be in legal peril, while the people who write alternate universe stories where, for example, Kirk and Spock are each members of a different species of dragon, and their dragon clans have been feuding for a thousand years, but the guys meet and get together and bring peace to their clans, Romeo-and-Juliet style but without the tragic ending, are more likely to be in the legal clear.
And another factor is whether the derivative work is likely to negatively impact the earning potential of the original IP. If someone is writing My Little Pony fanfic that's just so wonderful and awesome that Pony fans stop watching the show (and buying the merch) and only read that fanfic, then the MLP IP holder would have a reason to sue, and might win. Although I don't know of many IP holders, either of books/stories or TV/movies, who'd be willing to stand up in court and say that the fanfic of their work is so much better than the work itself that it's cutting into their revenue. :)
And in actuality, if anything it's the opposite. Rabid fans of a property (and you have to be a fairly rabid fan to put in the work and effort of writing fanfic) drag their friends into the fandom by the ear, shoving books or boxed-set DVDs into their hands and practically forcing them to get into the original so that they'll understand the fanfic.
And some people read the fanfic first, then go looking for the original. I've done that a couple of times, in fact. I watched the first couple of episodes of Stargate: Atlantis, went "Meh," and wandered away. A couple of years later, a fanfic writer I like a lot started writing Atlantis fic, and I read it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, went back to the show, and (reading it through slash goggles that I won't apologize for, plus with the extra world- and character-building the fan writers had done in my mind) I enjoyed the show much more. I ended up buying all five seasons on DVD. I also read a really great fic based on the movie Blackhawk Down, then watched the movie, which wasn't my usual thing; I'd never have watched it if I hadn't read the fic first. This isn't the normal way people get into a fandom, but I'm not the only one who's come in through the side door this way. Fanfic and its writers/fans increase engagement with the canon IP, rather than decrease it. Creators who object to fanfic are, IMO, shooting themselves in the foot, and then refusing even a bandage out of sheer cussedness.
The fact is, nobody knows whether "fanfic" is illegal or not. There've been people, usually IP owners of one sort or another, who've very firmly insisted for a long time that it definitely IS, and who've gotten very nasty with their fans who write fanfic. This is stupid, but hey, if someone wants to piss in their own soup pot, that's their choice. For myself, I'd be delighted to find fanfic written about any of my published work.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Anthology Markets
If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month, so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one. If you want to get an e-mail notification when the listing is posted, get the list a week early, or get a full listing of everything I've found (as opposed to the two months' worth I post here) a week early, you can support my Patreon.
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, with "Always Open" and "Until Filled" markets (if any) at the bottom.
Markets open only to writers in a limited demographic are marked with a [NOTE:] from me, in italics, right after the main header.
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 guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
30 September 2018 -- Bubble Off Plumb -- ed. Kathy Finfrock; Feral Cat Publishers
Theme: "Bubble Off Plumb" (BOP) is a colloquial expression for things being not quite right. We’re looking for original fiction short stories of such a nature; odd, unsettling, full of twists, etc. All genres are welcome, if you have a story which doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere else, we might be the home for it! If you’re not sure a story is odd enough: submit it. We know BOP when we see it. If you submit a love story about a dreamy vampire meeting up with a young person, it had better be damn good!
Rules: Story can range from 1,000 to 5,000 words. Multiple submittals will be accepted for consideration, but please do not overwhelm us with unpolished drafts. First world rights are preferred. Reprint rights will be accepted if the story is good enough. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as well, provided prompt notice is given should the story be picked up elsewhere. Stories may exceed the 5K word count limit, if the story merits, however the advances are limited to a maximum of $150. Downstream royalty shares will be calculated on the actual word count.
Editor: Our Lead Editor is author Kathy Finfrock who, along with Sarah Fields from Dreamlined LLC, will shepherd the work to a polished end product.
Submission Process: All submissions should follow proper manuscript format. Email to submissions @ feralcatpublishers.com. Subject line to read: "BOP-[Author Name],[Story Title], [Reprint or First]". Please attach all submissions in .doc, .docx, or rtf formatted electronic files—No submissions embedded within the body of an email will be considered. Include personal bio and relevant copyright information for story in your cover letter.
Compensation: Selected authors will receive an advance of $0.03/word of final, edited version of their story, plus a pro rata share of downstream royalties less up-front expenses, plus one paperback proof copy, and wholesale unit rates when purchasing extra paperbacks. The authors of the three highest-ranked stories will be listed on the front cover; the remaining authors will be listed on the back cover.
Terms and Conditions: Standard contract terms example available here.
***
30 September 2018 -- Ashes and Entropy -- ed. Robert S. Wilson; Nightscape Press
[NOTE: Submissions open only to underrepresented demographics, such as women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, disabled persons, etc.]
Thanks to our amazing Kickstarter backers, the upcoming anthology Ashes and Entropy including stories by Laird Barron, Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, Kristi DeMeester, Jon Padgett, Nadia Bulkin, Matthew M. Bartlett, Lucy A. Snyder, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, and more will be open for two short story submission slots to writers from underrepresented demographics (women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, disabled persons, etc.) starting on September 1st through September 30th.
GUIDELINES: We're looking for phenomenal, original and gritty cosmic horror and noir (or neo-noir) stories with a strong emotional core. Stories should be 6,000 words or less. Anything longer than that will be a hard sell at this point. The content guidelines for this book are open for interpretation however, so don't be afraid to color outside of the lines. Great writing, originality and pushing these genres to new heights will get you to the top of the slush pile faster than anything else. No reprints or multiple submissions, please.
PAYMENT: This anthology will pay 6 cents a word up to 6,000 words. Any longer stories accepted, payment will be capped at 6,000 words. If the Kickstarter campaign reaches its Audiobook stretch goal, an audiobook narrated by Jon Padgett will be produced and payment will be doubled.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT THROUGH
OUR ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL
***
30 September 2018 -- John Silence -- ed. Lev Mirov; Ginger Goat Press
The John Silence RPG & Anthology is a collective projective reinvisioning Algernon Blackwood's "John Silence" short stories to focus on non-white/POC/ethnically and racially marginalized psychic detectives in an alternate American noir setting spanning the 1920s to the 1990s. The core rules by Josh Jordan for the collaborative, non-violent gameplay will make up part of the anthology. The other half is stories and poems in settings focusing on the adventures and lives of these psychic detectives and their dealings with the Unseen World. Being gifted (cursed?) with the ability to see and interact with the Unseen World compels you to try and protect others from the destruction being wrought by creatures that come through -- but why are they so destructive? What is it they want? What does protection mean? The wide range of time invites many possibilities-- themes I'm especially interested in is how communities (spiritual, physical, linguistic, ancestral, cross-cultural, adoptive) might deal with unseen threats and living in a world where spiritual gifts, so demonized by hegemonic culture, are now valuable assets. Explorations of historical and cross-cultural queer, trans, gender non-conforming, and unclassifiable experiences of gender and sexuality are welcome as protagonists and themes. So is home/away, diaspora/immigration, belonging and loss, family (found, made, and born) and of course, a good old-fashioned glimpse at the scary and the beautiful in our strange and monstrous otherworldly beings. We also love a classic Detective Romp where underrepresented heroes and their communities get to take center stage and shine as the geniuses who save the day through cunning, compassion, or culturally specific values, practices, or beliefs. Religious stories, particularly from religious minorities (including but not limited to Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, folk/marginalized Christianities, African and Afro-diasporic and indigenous religions) are especially welcome. Please don't send me a story about a religion that you don't practice that you don't have some other deep tie to. The setting isn't just weird noir into the 50s. Show me your Cold War immigrant kid pieces and your indigenous resistance songs, an alternate 1970s-- wander far afield in time, as well as locale. Psychic Monsters visit Mobile and Fresno as well as New York and New Orleans.
POETRY
$30 flat fee. Any length. I will work with you to make it fit the physical book copy. I like rhymed verse, so if you like rhymed verse, go wild. I also like "unclassifiables" and oddities-- fake scholarship around your poem, or footnotes, or an unusual form, is also welcome. Multilingual poetry is extremely welcome. All protagonists must be racially marginalized. Borderline prose-poetry also welcome. Submit to gingergoatpress@gmail.com by September 30th using the format described below.
FICTION
$0.06/word, up to 6,000 but with a preference for flash fiction to 4,000 words. (Shorter is better. The shorter your piece can resolve or explore the problems of unseen creatures disrupting life in a satisfying way, the more likely I am to say yes.) There is no budget for works over 6,000 words, sorry. Even if you are famous. If you are a Very Famous Person I will ask you to cut it down to size. Please play with with form! Diary entries, letters, fake newspaper entries, police reports, something weirder -- all are welcome. Surprise me with your form play. All stories must center on a ethnically marginalized person grappling with their psychic abilities (or lack thereof in a world where they're needed?) and the fact that violence cannot fix the problems created by the creatures on the other side of the veil or drive them away. Submit to gingergoatpress@gmail.com by September 30th using the format described below.
At least one space is reserved for an unpublished self-identified author of color or ethnically marginalized author. See FAQs below on what that means.
Please do not send me the following things: horror. Creepy-crawly tension is fine; I don't want to read A Quiet Place or Carrie retold with black girls. I'm not the right editor for that. gore, of any kind, in any genre. dead/tragic gay and trans people (I am aware historically this was a time of huge violence; this is an Alternate Universe, we don't have to go there, and we're not going to) murder or rape in your plot. It's 2018. Come on. We can investigate something else. graphic/R rated material, either in violence or sex level stories where the resolution is violence gratuitous slinging of slur words. no. I don't want to read it and it's not right for John Silence. work about non-racially marginalized people (this should be obvious but hey!) work that doesn't focus on psychic detectives and/or the setting
Things that will excite me: your genuine authentic heart and soul work really inventive use of form, wordplay, etc SHORT stories. I don't mind character studies without the standard Western "three act" tension as long as they explore the universe in a creative way. any poem or story that really embraces the ethos of collaboration and non-violence in the John Silence RPG pieces with heroic disabled protagonists queer and trans protagonists queer trans disabled protagonists!
I'm not going to say you're unrealistic. work you're convinced nobody else would ever buy, it's too weird your secret voice you were told to make sound more commercial. Whisper to me in your real voice. I cannot promise I will accept your real work, but I promise I will honor the privilege of reading it.
[NOTE: There are a lot of FAQs on the linked page if you click through, plus more info if you poke around the Kickstarter project pages. If you want to write for this book, I suggest you read everything there before you start writing.]
***
1 October 2018 -- American Psychos -- ed. Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax; Red Room Press
Note: Anthology updates will be posted in the right hand column [of the web page] (accepted authors, tentative contributors, etc.)
Red Room Press is seeking stories for a new dark crime/thriller/horror anthology, American Psychos: A Serial Killer Anthology. Inspired by the most disturbingly violent and graphic crime thriller novels of our time, including Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Shane Steven’s By Reason of Insanity, Michael Slade’s Headhunter, our goal is to make American Psychos a brutal, suspenseful, nightmare-inducing hard ride into hell.
Stories must be about a serial killer, obviously. The story can either be based on a real serial killer or a fictional serial killer. Stories should primarily be set in the USA, but the character may travel abroad. We want stories that are brutal, graphic, disturbing and violent. The above referenced books will give you a good idea of what we are looking for. Serial killers must be human; no supernatural elements, monsters, or vampires. They can have supernatural beliefs, however, and they can be any gender or race.
Publication Date: Early 2019
Length: 3500-5500 words.
Response Time: 4-8 weeks
Payment for original stories: $100 ($150 if we meet our crowdfunding campaign goal, See sidebar for details and other anthology updates)
No unsolicited reprints or multiple submissions.
What to Send
In the body of an email:
== Author name
== Story title
== Word Count
== A brief bio
== A short description of the story.
== Attachment of entire manuscript in rtf, doc, or docx format only. Standard formatting.
We’ll send a notification within 48 hours that we received your submission. If you don’t get this, please inquire. We may not have received it.
EMAIL TO: americanpsychos@redroompress.com
***
1 October 2018 -- Crash Code -- ed. Kevin Holton; Blood Bound Books
The future is now. At least, that's what we're told, but the more advanced technology gets, the more ways people find to hurt each other. Many say that technology changes the way we define 'human.' In this anthology, we'll erase the definition entirely.
That's what you'll answer. In Crash Code, we want to see the pinnacle of our technology meeting the depths of our depravity. Let's talk voluntary amputations so we can wear cybernetic limbs as fashion statements. Tell us how commercial interplanetary flight changes human tracking. Show the world what the criminal underworld can do in an age of quantum computers. This anthology is going to focus on just how far human kind is willing to fall in pursuit of the next innovation, whether it's paying for bionic sex in bitcoins, five-year-olds browsing the Dark Web, bar code tattoos, mainstream holographic snuff films, or corrupted neural implants driving their users mad.
Think Neuromancer with even more drugs and crime. Imagine Blade Runner meets Saw. Picture Wrath James White's version of Brave New World. Imagine a test-tube baby made from George Orwell and Jack Ketchum. If your story makes people think American Mary merged with Altered Carbon, we want it.
These are just some ideas. Pick one if you like, or come up with your own sick, twisted future. Just make sure it answers one question:
In a world where everything demands a dollar sign and subscription fees, is humanity something we can afford to lose?
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form
Email: bbbcrashcode@gmail.com
Length: 1,500 words up to 7K
Deadline: October 1st 2018
Multiple Submissions: No
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Payment: 3 cents/word
***
1 November 2018 -- Unlocking the Magic -- ed. Vivian Caethe
Word limit: 3000-6000 words.
Pay rate: $300/story + royalties
Genre: Fantasy only (no Science Fiction or Horror, although horror elements may be present in the story). Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, and other genres of fantasy are all encouraged.
Language: English (translations are welcome).
Submissions close: November 1, 2018
Rights: We claim first world English rights (no reprints). For an excellent break down of what this means, please see Neil Clarke’s post here.
In fantasy, we read about how people with mental illness are more susceptible to magic, closer to breaks in reality, more likely to be able to see the unseen. These stereotypes are harmful and contribute to keeping people from seeing the good in getting help, taking their meds, or talking to someone.
This anthology is about changing the narrative and telling stories of strength and perseverance, of getting help despite the darkness. Not the myth that getting help will kill creativity and magic. Not the story our society tells about mentally ill people: that art and magic must come from suffering.
I want stories that show what can be accomplished when we take care of ourselves and seek help. I want stories that show the reality of being mentally ill within a fantasy setting. I want to see how mental illness and its treatment affects the magic that lies within all of us. I want to read realistic portrayals of mental illness in magical worlds.
Send your stories formatted in Standard Manuscript format attached as a .doc to cuppateaanthologies at gmail dot com. Include your name, byline, email address, mailing address, and approximate word count. In your cover letter, also include the mental illness diagnosis your story addresses (e.g. depression, PTSD, bipolar, etc).
When writing your story, consider that you’re writing about real experiences that real people have, not just something fictional characters have to deal with. Do your research and write with compassion. I am looking for noblebright, not grimdark.
Submissions from diverse individuals and those with mental illnesses are encouraged.
***
30 November 2018 -- Monstrous Outlines -- Martian Migraine Press
[NOTE: The guidelines page lists the due date as 31 November. November has only 30 days, so I adjusted the date. If you want to take a chance and sub on 1 December, which is sort of the equivalent of 31 November, that's up to you. :) ]
Monstrous Outlines will be an anthology of horror and weird fiction with a focus on the theme of camouflage: people, entities, monsters, gods, even concepts, that masquerade as things other than themselves. Predators in plain sight, deities on their down time, sublime extra-dimensional terrors slumming in 4D. We want to see stories of exceptionally well done camouflage, all the more baffling and frightening for its seamless nature. We want to see stories of seeming where the hidden thing is poorly hidden for a number of reasons: perhaps there are layers to its camouflage, or perhaps it doesn’t care how well it hides. Imagine the moment when the perfectly hidden thing reveals itself. When the poorly hidden thing reveals itself. We’re also interested in duplicates, doppelgangers, and shapeshifters. Think John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? and its cinematic offspring, The Thing, for the latter. The seed story for this anthology will be Algernon Blackwood’s classic tale, The Willows, a story of two worlds touching, of men meeting the unnameable through the medium of the nearest natural analogue, the titular willow trees.
Submission period closes 30 NOVEMBER 2018. The anthology will be released in trade paperback and electronic book formats in early March 2019.
SUBMITTING
Please use Standard Manuscript format when submitting. That's double spaced, left justified, Times New Roman or Courier or something at least readable, a header on the first page (at least) with your author info and word count and… well, you know the drill. RTF or DOC files preferred, but DOCx and text files also accepted. Obviously, you could send us something that's not in Standard Manuscript format, but it will lower your chances of it being looked at seriously.
We will look at both original work and REPRINTS.
To submit a story to Monstrous Outlines, send an e-mail (with the story file attached, not in the body of the email) to: submissions@martianmigrainepress.com, with subject line: OUTLINES, title of your story, and your name.
LENGTH
For short fiction, we’d like to see anything from 1,500 to 7,000 words. If your story goes over 7k, please inquire first.
FLASH FICTION: got something under 1500 words? Send it in. However, the following still applies…
NO POETRY.
PAYMENT
All accepted submissions will be paid .03CAD per word, via Paypal, as well as a contributor copy (paperback) of the anthology, and copies in all electronic formats (mobi, EPUB, and PDF). Authors are also entitled to complete access to all titles in the MMP ebook catalogue.
REPLIES AND QUERIES
We will try to acknowledge receipt of your submission within a week of its arrival in our inbox. The submission period itself will close on 30 NOVEMBER 2018 and we should be responding to all submissions, yay or nay, by early January 2019. If you haven’t heard from us by 15 January 2019, please query.
***
1 December 2018 -- Rosalind's Siblings -- ed. Bogi Takács; Galli Books
[NOTE: DO NOT SUBMIT BEFORE 1 NOVEMBER.]
Rosalind's Siblings is an anthology of speculative stories about people of marginalized genders/sexes who are scientists: scientists doing good, changing the world, or just getting on with their work of expanding human knowledge in a speculative context, presented in a positive light. This anthology is named for Rosalind Franklin, the so-called Dark Lady of DNA, one of the most famously erased female scientists in history, and a direct relation of the founder of Galli Books. The anthology is being edited by Bogi Takács.
The stories do not need to problematize gender/sex, though this is also welcome, and we would like to publish a mix of approaches. We are generally interested in positive portrayals of science and the protagonists doing research, but this can include a critical reappraisal. (E.g., we would very much like to see stories in which science is decolonized and/or Indigenized, or in some other ways incorporates approaches beyond Western neo-positivism.) We are not interested in "mad scientist" tropes or "evil science." We are also not interested in disability cure narratives and related tropes, unless they are actively subverted / deconstructed.
Stories must contain a speculative element. We are happy to read works from any speculative subgenre: science fiction, fantasy, horror, alternate history, magical realism, fabulism, mythic work, Weird fiction and so on. Any amount of science detail is welcome with thoughtful engagement.
Protagonists can be trans and/or nonbinary people, women, intersex people, genderqueer or gender-nonconforming people, people of culturally specific genders/sexes, and any combinations thereof. They do not need to identify as women, feminine or femme specifically, but those stories are particularly welcome; as are stories with trans, nonbinary and/or intersex men or masculine protagonists. Protagonists can have any sexual orientation.
You do not need to belong to any marginalized group to submit, but we are very happy to consider submissions from people who belong to underrepresented / marginalized groups in speculative fiction, including Black, Indigenous people and/or people of color, non-Western and/or non-Anglophonic people, migrants, QUILTBAG+ people, disabled, chronically ill and/or neuroatypical people. We welcome people from all letters of the QUILTBAG+, including trans, intersex, asexual, aromantic and bisexual people, who are more commonly ignored. Please don’t self-reject!
You do not need to disclose your marginalizations in your cover letter, but you are welcome to do so. Please send submissions to galli-books@galli-books.co.uk with "ROSALIND" in the subject line and the story title. Format submissions reasonably close to Standard Manuscript Format, and send them in .doc, .odt, .rtf formats, or .pdf if the story has unusual formatting that needs to be preserved. Please do NOT send .docx files.
Submissions open on 1st November and close on 1st December. Please do not submit outside that window.
We pay £0.08/word upon signed contract and are interested in previously unpublished short stories between 500 and 7500 words, and nonfiction essays on our theme.
***
ALWAYS OPEN -- Future Visions Anthology Series -- ed. Brian J Walton; Camton House Publishing
The Future Visions Anthologies is a science fiction anthology series, aiming to deliver excellent and diverse short story collections on a quarterly basis. In the tradition of great television anthology series such as The Twilight Zone, and Black Mirror, the Future Visions Anthologies will broadly explore all genres and traditions of science fiction and speculative fiction, seeking in each story to explore deeply themes that are relevant to a modern audience.
Themes:
What do you hope the future will bring? What are you afraid we may become? How do our visions of the future inform and give shape to the hopes and fears that we have today?
These questions are what defines anthology series like The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. Rather than mandating a theme for each publication, (one publication for cyborgs, one for time travelers, etc...) I want authors to feel free to explore these larger questions using any and all of the popular science fiction tropes: new technology, exploration, nightmarish dystopians, alien species, baffling utopias, the list goes on...
Diversity:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to bring diversity to all aspects of their publications, from the stories and authors we publish, to the themes and genres we explore. All authors may apply regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political affiliation.
Terms:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to engage authors with fair and equitable terms through participation in the anthologies. The anthologies will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited for an initial six-month term, during which stories will be exclusive to the anthology. After this, anthologies will continue be available as an ebook (not in KU) for an additional six-month term. During this term, partial publication rights will return to the author to publish as an ebook, except for in KU. After one year, the ebook will be unpublished, returning all rights to the author.
Payment will be based on a profit-share model with a guaranteed minimum payment of $150. Authors will receive royalties during the first six months of membership. At the end of the royalty period, if the author's royalties do not meet the minimum payment of $150 then the remaining amount will be paid. There is no cap to the amount of royalties that may be earned. Earning reports for the anthology will be provided to all participating authors to ensure complete transparency. Specific terms will be available after initial acceptance of the author's story.
Submission Guidelines:
== Authors must read and be in agreement with the above before submitting.
== There is no fee to submit.
== Submissions must be original, never before published works.
== Submissions may be set in a larger universe, but should be a complete story; do not send excerpts, parts, or volumes.
== Word Count is 2k-7k words (exceptions for up to one story per anthology can be made).
== Submissions should be written to the best of the author's ability. Professional editing is not required but may help in the consideration of your piece. Camton House Publishing will provide professional editing and proofreading, approved by the author, and a final, edited version will be submitted to the author upon publication.
== Adult language and sexual situations are permitted, but no hate speech, erotica or "X-rated" material.
== Formatting: 12pt Times New Roman font with 1.5-line spacing; 1-inch margins on all sides; no extra spaces between paragraphs; leading indentations, but no tabs.
== Include "Future Visions Short Story Submission" in the header and the following information in the body of the email:
o Author Name
o Story Title
o Word Count
o Brief Bio, written in the third person. 100-300 words.
== Submissions should be submitted in docx format as an attachment.
== Submissions should be emailed to futurevisionssubmissions@gmail.com
Submissions that do not follow the above guidelines will not be considered.
Deadlines:
Submissions are always open. Authors who have submitted will be notified within 4-6 weeks of submission regarding whether their story has been selected.
[Okay, this is different. I'll be treating this one like an "Until Filled" market, in that I'll be checking every month to make sure they're still alive. Unlike a UF, I'll keep posting this so long as it's still alive. (Unless it turns morbid or skeevy, the usual.) Note that this is a royalty split with a guaranteed minimum, which works out to pro rates up to 2500 words, and semi-pro after that. Best practice IMO is to assume that the minimum is all you'll ever get from this market; that way, so long as you do get paid, all your surprises will happy ones.
Interesting business model; it's basically a magazine that's being treated like an antho series, more or less. I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and may revisit the listing in the future.]
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Black Superheroes Do It Too! -- Black Books Publishing -- First Listed January 2018
We are currently accepting submissions for our Black Erotica/Superhero Anthology (Working Title: Black Superheroes Do It Too!). Submissions should be full stories, not just sex scenes and between 3500 and 10,000 words. Writers, feel free to query to ensure your story idea hasn't already been submitted.
This anthology pays $100US. The submission period will remain open until our goal of a 225+ page anthology has been reached.
Thoroughly edited material has the best chance of acceptance. You don't need to pay someone to edit your material, but if you're serious about your writing, we do recommend it. At a minimum, we suggest you have others read over your work for typos and grammatical errors.
All manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word and should be double spaced with an extra space between each paragraph. THIS EXTRA SPACE SHOULD BE DONE IN MICROSOFT WORD, THROUGH YOUR PARAGRAPH SETTINGS, NOT BY YOU ACTUALLY HITTING "ENTER" TWICE. There should be no indention at the start of each paragraph.
Send to: submissions@blackbookspublishing.com with "Superhero Erotica" in the subject heading.
***
If you've found this listing useful, and especially if you've sold a story to a market you found here (score!) I'd love to hear about it. You can e-mail me at angiepen at gmail dot com.
If you'd like to support these listings in a more concrete way, here are a couple of ways to do it:
Become a Patron!
Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, with "Always Open" and "Until Filled" markets (if any) at the bottom.
Markets open only to writers in a limited demographic are marked with a [NOTE:] from me, in italics, right after the main header.
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 guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.
***
30 September 2018 -- Bubble Off Plumb -- ed. Kathy Finfrock; Feral Cat Publishers
Theme: "Bubble Off Plumb" (BOP) is a colloquial expression for things being not quite right. We’re looking for original fiction short stories of such a nature; odd, unsettling, full of twists, etc. All genres are welcome, if you have a story which doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere else, we might be the home for it! If you’re not sure a story is odd enough: submit it. We know BOP when we see it. If you submit a love story about a dreamy vampire meeting up with a young person, it had better be damn good!
Rules: Story can range from 1,000 to 5,000 words. Multiple submittals will be accepted for consideration, but please do not overwhelm us with unpolished drafts. First world rights are preferred. Reprint rights will be accepted if the story is good enough. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as well, provided prompt notice is given should the story be picked up elsewhere. Stories may exceed the 5K word count limit, if the story merits, however the advances are limited to a maximum of $150. Downstream royalty shares will be calculated on the actual word count.
Editor: Our Lead Editor is author Kathy Finfrock who, along with Sarah Fields from Dreamlined LLC, will shepherd the work to a polished end product.
Submission Process: All submissions should follow proper manuscript format. Email to submissions @ feralcatpublishers.com. Subject line to read: "BOP-[Author Name],[Story Title], [Reprint or First]". Please attach all submissions in .doc, .docx, or rtf formatted electronic files—No submissions embedded within the body of an email will be considered. Include personal bio and relevant copyright information for story in your cover letter.
Compensation: Selected authors will receive an advance of $0.03/word of final, edited version of their story, plus a pro rata share of downstream royalties less up-front expenses, plus one paperback proof copy, and wholesale unit rates when purchasing extra paperbacks. The authors of the three highest-ranked stories will be listed on the front cover; the remaining authors will be listed on the back cover.
Terms and Conditions: Standard contract terms example available here.
***
30 September 2018 -- Ashes and Entropy -- ed. Robert S. Wilson; Nightscape Press
[NOTE: Submissions open only to underrepresented demographics, such as women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, disabled persons, etc.]
Thanks to our amazing Kickstarter backers, the upcoming anthology Ashes and Entropy including stories by Laird Barron, Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, Kristi DeMeester, Jon Padgett, Nadia Bulkin, Matthew M. Bartlett, Lucy A. Snyder, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, and more will be open for two short story submission slots to writers from underrepresented demographics (women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, disabled persons, etc.) starting on September 1st through September 30th.
GUIDELINES: We're looking for phenomenal, original and gritty cosmic horror and noir (or neo-noir) stories with a strong emotional core. Stories should be 6,000 words or less. Anything longer than that will be a hard sell at this point. The content guidelines for this book are open for interpretation however, so don't be afraid to color outside of the lines. Great writing, originality and pushing these genres to new heights will get you to the top of the slush pile faster than anything else. No reprints or multiple submissions, please.
PAYMENT: This anthology will pay 6 cents a word up to 6,000 words. Any longer stories accepted, payment will be capped at 6,000 words. If the Kickstarter campaign reaches its Audiobook stretch goal, an audiobook narrated by Jon Padgett will be produced and payment will be doubled.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT THROUGH
OUR ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL
***
30 September 2018 -- John Silence -- ed. Lev Mirov; Ginger Goat Press
The John Silence RPG & Anthology is a collective projective reinvisioning Algernon Blackwood's "John Silence" short stories to focus on non-white/POC/ethnically and racially marginalized psychic detectives in an alternate American noir setting spanning the 1920s to the 1990s. The core rules by Josh Jordan for the collaborative, non-violent gameplay will make up part of the anthology. The other half is stories and poems in settings focusing on the adventures and lives of these psychic detectives and their dealings with the Unseen World. Being gifted (cursed?) with the ability to see and interact with the Unseen World compels you to try and protect others from the destruction being wrought by creatures that come through -- but why are they so destructive? What is it they want? What does protection mean? The wide range of time invites many possibilities-- themes I'm especially interested in is how communities (spiritual, physical, linguistic, ancestral, cross-cultural, adoptive) might deal with unseen threats and living in a world where spiritual gifts, so demonized by hegemonic culture, are now valuable assets. Explorations of historical and cross-cultural queer, trans, gender non-conforming, and unclassifiable experiences of gender and sexuality are welcome as protagonists and themes. So is home/away, diaspora/immigration, belonging and loss, family (found, made, and born) and of course, a good old-fashioned glimpse at the scary and the beautiful in our strange and monstrous otherworldly beings. We also love a classic Detective Romp where underrepresented heroes and their communities get to take center stage and shine as the geniuses who save the day through cunning, compassion, or culturally specific values, practices, or beliefs. Religious stories, particularly from religious minorities (including but not limited to Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, folk/marginalized Christianities, African and Afro-diasporic and indigenous religions) are especially welcome. Please don't send me a story about a religion that you don't practice that you don't have some other deep tie to. The setting isn't just weird noir into the 50s. Show me your Cold War immigrant kid pieces and your indigenous resistance songs, an alternate 1970s-- wander far afield in time, as well as locale. Psychic Monsters visit Mobile and Fresno as well as New York and New Orleans.
POETRY
$30 flat fee. Any length. I will work with you to make it fit the physical book copy. I like rhymed verse, so if you like rhymed verse, go wild. I also like "unclassifiables" and oddities-- fake scholarship around your poem, or footnotes, or an unusual form, is also welcome. Multilingual poetry is extremely welcome. All protagonists must be racially marginalized. Borderline prose-poetry also welcome. Submit to gingergoatpress@gmail.com by September 30th using the format described below.
FICTION
$0.06/word, up to 6,000 but with a preference for flash fiction to 4,000 words. (Shorter is better. The shorter your piece can resolve or explore the problems of unseen creatures disrupting life in a satisfying way, the more likely I am to say yes.) There is no budget for works over 6,000 words, sorry. Even if you are famous. If you are a Very Famous Person I will ask you to cut it down to size. Please play with with form! Diary entries, letters, fake newspaper entries, police reports, something weirder -- all are welcome. Surprise me with your form play. All stories must center on a ethnically marginalized person grappling with their psychic abilities (or lack thereof in a world where they're needed?) and the fact that violence cannot fix the problems created by the creatures on the other side of the veil or drive them away. Submit to gingergoatpress@gmail.com by September 30th using the format described below.
At least one space is reserved for an unpublished self-identified author of color or ethnically marginalized author. See FAQs below on what that means.
Please do not send me the following things: horror. Creepy-crawly tension is fine; I don't want to read A Quiet Place or Carrie retold with black girls. I'm not the right editor for that. gore, of any kind, in any genre. dead/tragic gay and trans people (I am aware historically this was a time of huge violence; this is an Alternate Universe, we don't have to go there, and we're not going to) murder or rape in your plot. It's 2018. Come on. We can investigate something else. graphic/R rated material, either in violence or sex level stories where the resolution is violence gratuitous slinging of slur words. no. I don't want to read it and it's not right for John Silence. work about non-racially marginalized people (this should be obvious but hey!) work that doesn't focus on psychic detectives and/or the setting
Things that will excite me: your genuine authentic heart and soul work really inventive use of form, wordplay, etc SHORT stories. I don't mind character studies without the standard Western "three act" tension as long as they explore the universe in a creative way. any poem or story that really embraces the ethos of collaboration and non-violence in the John Silence RPG pieces with heroic disabled protagonists queer and trans protagonists queer trans disabled protagonists!
I'm not going to say you're unrealistic. work you're convinced nobody else would ever buy, it's too weird your secret voice you were told to make sound more commercial. Whisper to me in your real voice. I cannot promise I will accept your real work, but I promise I will honor the privilege of reading it.
[NOTE: There are a lot of FAQs on the linked page if you click through, plus more info if you poke around the Kickstarter project pages. If you want to write for this book, I suggest you read everything there before you start writing.]
***
1 October 2018 -- American Psychos -- ed. Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax; Red Room Press
Note: Anthology updates will be posted in the right hand column [of the web page] (accepted authors, tentative contributors, etc.)
Red Room Press is seeking stories for a new dark crime/thriller/horror anthology, American Psychos: A Serial Killer Anthology. Inspired by the most disturbingly violent and graphic crime thriller novels of our time, including Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Shane Steven’s By Reason of Insanity, Michael Slade’s Headhunter, our goal is to make American Psychos a brutal, suspenseful, nightmare-inducing hard ride into hell.
Stories must be about a serial killer, obviously. The story can either be based on a real serial killer or a fictional serial killer. Stories should primarily be set in the USA, but the character may travel abroad. We want stories that are brutal, graphic, disturbing and violent. The above referenced books will give you a good idea of what we are looking for. Serial killers must be human; no supernatural elements, monsters, or vampires. They can have supernatural beliefs, however, and they can be any gender or race.
Publication Date: Early 2019
Length: 3500-5500 words.
Response Time: 4-8 weeks
Payment for original stories: $100 ($150 if we meet our crowdfunding campaign goal, See sidebar for details and other anthology updates)
No unsolicited reprints or multiple submissions.
What to Send
In the body of an email:
== Author name
== Story title
== Word Count
== A brief bio
== A short description of the story.
== Attachment of entire manuscript in rtf, doc, or docx format only. Standard formatting.
We’ll send a notification within 48 hours that we received your submission. If you don’t get this, please inquire. We may not have received it.
EMAIL TO: americanpsychos@redroompress.com
***
1 October 2018 -- Crash Code -- ed. Kevin Holton; Blood Bound Books
The future is now. At least, that's what we're told, but the more advanced technology gets, the more ways people find to hurt each other. Many say that technology changes the way we define 'human.' In this anthology, we'll erase the definition entirely.
That's what you'll answer. In Crash Code, we want to see the pinnacle of our technology meeting the depths of our depravity. Let's talk voluntary amputations so we can wear cybernetic limbs as fashion statements. Tell us how commercial interplanetary flight changes human tracking. Show the world what the criminal underworld can do in an age of quantum computers. This anthology is going to focus on just how far human kind is willing to fall in pursuit of the next innovation, whether it's paying for bionic sex in bitcoins, five-year-olds browsing the Dark Web, bar code tattoos, mainstream holographic snuff films, or corrupted neural implants driving their users mad.
Think Neuromancer with even more drugs and crime. Imagine Blade Runner meets Saw. Picture Wrath James White's version of Brave New World. Imagine a test-tube baby made from George Orwell and Jack Ketchum. If your story makes people think American Mary merged with Altered Carbon, we want it.
These are just some ideas. Pick one if you like, or come up with your own sick, twisted future. Just make sure it answers one question:
In a world where everything demands a dollar sign and subscription fees, is humanity something we can afford to lose?
Stories must be previously unpublished in any form
Email: bbbcrashcode@gmail.com
Length: 1,500 words up to 7K
Deadline: October 1st 2018
Multiple Submissions: No
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Payment: 3 cents/word
***
1 November 2018 -- Unlocking the Magic -- ed. Vivian Caethe
Word limit: 3000-6000 words.
Pay rate: $300/story + royalties
Genre: Fantasy only (no Science Fiction or Horror, although horror elements may be present in the story). Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, and other genres of fantasy are all encouraged.
Language: English (translations are welcome).
Submissions close: November 1, 2018
Rights: We claim first world English rights (no reprints). For an excellent break down of what this means, please see Neil Clarke’s post here.
In fantasy, we read about how people with mental illness are more susceptible to magic, closer to breaks in reality, more likely to be able to see the unseen. These stereotypes are harmful and contribute to keeping people from seeing the good in getting help, taking their meds, or talking to someone.
This anthology is about changing the narrative and telling stories of strength and perseverance, of getting help despite the darkness. Not the myth that getting help will kill creativity and magic. Not the story our society tells about mentally ill people: that art and magic must come from suffering.
I want stories that show what can be accomplished when we take care of ourselves and seek help. I want stories that show the reality of being mentally ill within a fantasy setting. I want to see how mental illness and its treatment affects the magic that lies within all of us. I want to read realistic portrayals of mental illness in magical worlds.
Send your stories formatted in Standard Manuscript format attached as a .doc to cuppateaanthologies at gmail dot com. Include your name, byline, email address, mailing address, and approximate word count. In your cover letter, also include the mental illness diagnosis your story addresses (e.g. depression, PTSD, bipolar, etc).
When writing your story, consider that you’re writing about real experiences that real people have, not just something fictional characters have to deal with. Do your research and write with compassion. I am looking for noblebright, not grimdark.
Submissions from diverse individuals and those with mental illnesses are encouraged.
***
30 November 2018 -- Monstrous Outlines -- Martian Migraine Press
[NOTE: The guidelines page lists the due date as 31 November. November has only 30 days, so I adjusted the date. If you want to take a chance and sub on 1 December, which is sort of the equivalent of 31 November, that's up to you. :) ]
Monstrous Outlines will be an anthology of horror and weird fiction with a focus on the theme of camouflage: people, entities, monsters, gods, even concepts, that masquerade as things other than themselves. Predators in plain sight, deities on their down time, sublime extra-dimensional terrors slumming in 4D. We want to see stories of exceptionally well done camouflage, all the more baffling and frightening for its seamless nature. We want to see stories of seeming where the hidden thing is poorly hidden for a number of reasons: perhaps there are layers to its camouflage, or perhaps it doesn’t care how well it hides. Imagine the moment when the perfectly hidden thing reveals itself. When the poorly hidden thing reveals itself. We’re also interested in duplicates, doppelgangers, and shapeshifters. Think John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? and its cinematic offspring, The Thing, for the latter. The seed story for this anthology will be Algernon Blackwood’s classic tale, The Willows, a story of two worlds touching, of men meeting the unnameable through the medium of the nearest natural analogue, the titular willow trees.
Submission period closes 30 NOVEMBER 2018. The anthology will be released in trade paperback and electronic book formats in early March 2019.
SUBMITTING
Please use Standard Manuscript format when submitting. That's double spaced, left justified, Times New Roman or Courier or something at least readable, a header on the first page (at least) with your author info and word count and… well, you know the drill. RTF or DOC files preferred, but DOCx and text files also accepted. Obviously, you could send us something that's not in Standard Manuscript format, but it will lower your chances of it being looked at seriously.
We will look at both original work and REPRINTS.
To submit a story to Monstrous Outlines, send an e-mail (with the story file attached, not in the body of the email) to: submissions@martianmigrainepress.com, with subject line: OUTLINES, title of your story, and your name.
LENGTH
For short fiction, we’d like to see anything from 1,500 to 7,000 words. If your story goes over 7k, please inquire first.
FLASH FICTION: got something under 1500 words? Send it in. However, the following still applies…
NO POETRY.
PAYMENT
All accepted submissions will be paid .03CAD per word, via Paypal, as well as a contributor copy (paperback) of the anthology, and copies in all electronic formats (mobi, EPUB, and PDF). Authors are also entitled to complete access to all titles in the MMP ebook catalogue.
REPLIES AND QUERIES
We will try to acknowledge receipt of your submission within a week of its arrival in our inbox. The submission period itself will close on 30 NOVEMBER 2018 and we should be responding to all submissions, yay or nay, by early January 2019. If you haven’t heard from us by 15 January 2019, please query.
***
1 December 2018 -- Rosalind's Siblings -- ed. Bogi Takács; Galli Books
[NOTE: DO NOT SUBMIT BEFORE 1 NOVEMBER.]
Rosalind's Siblings is an anthology of speculative stories about people of marginalized genders/sexes who are scientists: scientists doing good, changing the world, or just getting on with their work of expanding human knowledge in a speculative context, presented in a positive light. This anthology is named for Rosalind Franklin, the so-called Dark Lady of DNA, one of the most famously erased female scientists in history, and a direct relation of the founder of Galli Books. The anthology is being edited by Bogi Takács.
The stories do not need to problematize gender/sex, though this is also welcome, and we would like to publish a mix of approaches. We are generally interested in positive portrayals of science and the protagonists doing research, but this can include a critical reappraisal. (E.g., we would very much like to see stories in which science is decolonized and/or Indigenized, or in some other ways incorporates approaches beyond Western neo-positivism.) We are not interested in "mad scientist" tropes or "evil science." We are also not interested in disability cure narratives and related tropes, unless they are actively subverted / deconstructed.
Stories must contain a speculative element. We are happy to read works from any speculative subgenre: science fiction, fantasy, horror, alternate history, magical realism, fabulism, mythic work, Weird fiction and so on. Any amount of science detail is welcome with thoughtful engagement.
Protagonists can be trans and/or nonbinary people, women, intersex people, genderqueer or gender-nonconforming people, people of culturally specific genders/sexes, and any combinations thereof. They do not need to identify as women, feminine or femme specifically, but those stories are particularly welcome; as are stories with trans, nonbinary and/or intersex men or masculine protagonists. Protagonists can have any sexual orientation.
You do not need to belong to any marginalized group to submit, but we are very happy to consider submissions from people who belong to underrepresented / marginalized groups in speculative fiction, including Black, Indigenous people and/or people of color, non-Western and/or non-Anglophonic people, migrants, QUILTBAG+ people, disabled, chronically ill and/or neuroatypical people. We welcome people from all letters of the QUILTBAG+, including trans, intersex, asexual, aromantic and bisexual people, who are more commonly ignored. Please don’t self-reject!
You do not need to disclose your marginalizations in your cover letter, but you are welcome to do so. Please send submissions to galli-books@galli-books.co.uk with "ROSALIND" in the subject line and the story title. Format submissions reasonably close to Standard Manuscript Format, and send them in .doc, .odt, .rtf formats, or .pdf if the story has unusual formatting that needs to be preserved. Please do NOT send .docx files.
Submissions open on 1st November and close on 1st December. Please do not submit outside that window.
We pay £0.08/word upon signed contract and are interested in previously unpublished short stories between 500 and 7500 words, and nonfiction essays on our theme.
***
ALWAYS OPEN -- Future Visions Anthology Series -- ed. Brian J Walton; Camton House Publishing
The Future Visions Anthologies is a science fiction anthology series, aiming to deliver excellent and diverse short story collections on a quarterly basis. In the tradition of great television anthology series such as The Twilight Zone, and Black Mirror, the Future Visions Anthologies will broadly explore all genres and traditions of science fiction and speculative fiction, seeking in each story to explore deeply themes that are relevant to a modern audience.
Themes:
What do you hope the future will bring? What are you afraid we may become? How do our visions of the future inform and give shape to the hopes and fears that we have today?
These questions are what defines anthology series like The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. Rather than mandating a theme for each publication, (one publication for cyborgs, one for time travelers, etc...) I want authors to feel free to explore these larger questions using any and all of the popular science fiction tropes: new technology, exploration, nightmarish dystopians, alien species, baffling utopias, the list goes on...
Diversity:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to bring diversity to all aspects of their publications, from the stories and authors we publish, to the themes and genres we explore. All authors may apply regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political affiliation.
Terms:
The Future Visions Anthologies seeks to engage authors with fair and equitable terms through participation in the anthologies. The anthologies will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited for an initial six-month term, during which stories will be exclusive to the anthology. After this, anthologies will continue be available as an ebook (not in KU) for an additional six-month term. During this term, partial publication rights will return to the author to publish as an ebook, except for in KU. After one year, the ebook will be unpublished, returning all rights to the author.
Payment will be based on a profit-share model with a guaranteed minimum payment of $150. Authors will receive royalties during the first six months of membership. At the end of the royalty period, if the author's royalties do not meet the minimum payment of $150 then the remaining amount will be paid. There is no cap to the amount of royalties that may be earned. Earning reports for the anthology will be provided to all participating authors to ensure complete transparency. Specific terms will be available after initial acceptance of the author's story.
Submission Guidelines:
== Authors must read and be in agreement with the above before submitting.
== There is no fee to submit.
== Submissions must be original, never before published works.
== Submissions may be set in a larger universe, but should be a complete story; do not send excerpts, parts, or volumes.
== Word Count is 2k-7k words (exceptions for up to one story per anthology can be made).
== Submissions should be written to the best of the author's ability. Professional editing is not required but may help in the consideration of your piece. Camton House Publishing will provide professional editing and proofreading, approved by the author, and a final, edited version will be submitted to the author upon publication.
== Adult language and sexual situations are permitted, but no hate speech, erotica or "X-rated" material.
== Formatting: 12pt Times New Roman font with 1.5-line spacing; 1-inch margins on all sides; no extra spaces between paragraphs; leading indentations, but no tabs.
== Include "Future Visions Short Story Submission" in the header and the following information in the body of the email:
o Author Name
o Story Title
o Word Count
o Brief Bio, written in the third person. 100-300 words.
== Submissions should be submitted in docx format as an attachment.
== Submissions should be emailed to futurevisionssubmissions@gmail.com
Submissions that do not follow the above guidelines will not be considered.
Deadlines:
Submissions are always open. Authors who have submitted will be notified within 4-6 weeks of submission regarding whether their story has been selected.
[Okay, this is different. I'll be treating this one like an "Until Filled" market, in that I'll be checking every month to make sure they're still alive. Unlike a UF, I'll keep posting this so long as it's still alive. (Unless it turns morbid or skeevy, the usual.) Note that this is a royalty split with a guaranteed minimum, which works out to pro rates up to 2500 words, and semi-pro after that. Best practice IMO is to assume that the minimum is all you'll ever get from this market; that way, so long as you do get paid, all your surprises will happy ones.
Interesting business model; it's basically a magazine that's being treated like an antho series, more or less. I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and may revisit the listing in the future.]
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Black Superheroes Do It Too! -- Black Books Publishing -- First Listed January 2018
We are currently accepting submissions for our Black Erotica/Superhero Anthology (Working Title: Black Superheroes Do It Too!). Submissions should be full stories, not just sex scenes and between 3500 and 10,000 words. Writers, feel free to query to ensure your story idea hasn't already been submitted.
This anthology pays $100US. The submission period will remain open until our goal of a 225+ page anthology has been reached.
Thoroughly edited material has the best chance of acceptance. You don't need to pay someone to edit your material, but if you're serious about your writing, we do recommend it. At a minimum, we suggest you have others read over your work for typos and grammatical errors.
All manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word and should be double spaced with an extra space between each paragraph. THIS EXTRA SPACE SHOULD BE DONE IN MICROSOFT WORD, THROUGH YOUR PARAGRAPH SETTINGS, NOT BY YOU ACTUALLY HITTING "ENTER" TWICE. There should be no indention at the start of each paragraph.
Send to: submissions@blackbookspublishing.com with "Superhero Erotica" in the subject heading.
***
If you've found this listing useful, and especially if you've sold a story to a market you found here (score!) I'd love to hear about it. You can e-mail me at angiepen at gmail dot com.
If you'd like to support these listings in a more concrete way, here are a couple of ways to do it:
Become a Patron!
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Challenge Worth Watching
Dean Wesley Smith is starting a new challenge tomorrow, to write ten novels in a hundred days. That's pretty radical even for Dean, but if anyone can do it in this day and age, he can. :)
He's blogging about it as he goes, and the posts will eventually be collected into a book. (Assuming he succeeds.)
The challenge starts tomorrow, and the introductory post is up today.
Excerpt:
He's blogging about it as he goes, and the posts will eventually be collected into a book. (Assuming he succeeds.)
The challenge starts tomorrow, and the introductory post is up today.
Excerpt:
This is a book about the process of writing ten novels in one hundred days. Yup, that simple and that crazy.
This book will take its original shape in blogs on my website and I hope to add a bunch more to the book in the final form once the one hundred days are complete. But the origin will be on my blog as the one hundred days goes along.
And as I write this introduction, I have no idea at the outcome, if I will be able to write ten novels or not. I am writing this introduction the night before the first day. This is a challenge for me, one that actually worries me as I start into it.
But if you are actually reading this introduction in a book, you know I managed to do it.
So I hope you get the sense, as you read this, of the fun and the pressure of this challenge. I have no idea what books I will be writing. I will think about what the first book might be tomorrow, on the first day. I have done no outlines or any prep work beyond trying to get some business projects done and out of the way.
During the one hundred days, I have at least one trip planned, a full week of a workshop to teach, my birthday, a marathon to run, and Thanksgiving holidays. And I work a lot of hours each week as the CFO of WMG Publishing, plus teach online workshops. And I exercise at least three hours a day on top of that.
In other words, I am going to do this with my real life going on.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Working On Your To-Do List?
I found a great web site that helps you work on your to-do list, plus encourages you to build and maintain good habits and get over bad habits. Thanks to Jim Hines for the link a couple of days ago.
The site is called Habitica, and it's a gamification site. What that means is that it takes something in your life -- in this case, getting stuff done and building good habits -- and turns it into a game. Habitica has the form of a fantasy roleplaying game.
When you create an account, which is free, you become a character in the land of Habitica. You're a first level Warrior with basically no gear. The first step is to set up some things you want to do (or want to stop doing) in a fairly intuitive (sorta -- there is a learning curve, but there's also a very thorough wiki) Tasks page. I have a combination of personal and work tasks on mine, ranging from Write 1000 Words, to Walk 1000 Steps, to Eat a Piece of Fruit, to Call Mom, to Read a Chapter of a Writing Book. I have Eat Junk Food as a negative; if I do that, I click on the Junk Food button and my character takes some damage. :/ I haven't done that yet, but I suppose I will at some point.
You set up each task with a frequency (every day, week or month; three times a week, or just to keep tabs but with no set goal) and estimate about how hard the task is. You can set up a larger task with an internal checklist, so if your task is cleaning the kitchen, it could have a checklist that includes Load the Dishwasher, Clean the Stove, Wipe Down the Counters, and Put Away Leftovers. It's really very flexible once you get the hang of it, and the wiki is great help.
As you do tasks, you click to check them off, and the system gives you experience points and gold pieces for each one. Sometimes (after you hit Level 3) you get an item drop. You accumulate experience points and make levels. When you hit Level 10, you can change professions if you want and become a Mage, a Rogue or a Healer. You also get some skills, which are like special abilities, or spells if you're a Mage or a Healer. I haven't gotten there yet (I'm currently Level 4) but it looks like fun.
There are also guilds you can join. I joined The Wordsmiths, a writers' guild, and The Renaissance Man, which despite the sexism of its name, seems like an interesting guild with a broad base of interests.
Guilds can set Challenges, too. A Challenge is a collection of Tasks, usually around a theme and with a deadline. You click to join the Challenge, and the Tasks are added to your Task page. Usually there's some kind of a prize in gems at the end for a random person who worked on the Challenge. Gems are another (rarer) form of currency in the game; there are things you can only buy with gems. I don't have any yet.
You can also form a party. A party is a smaller group than a Guild, and Parties do quests together. I started a party all by myself, since I wanted to try the baby quest (I'm battling some rabid dust bunnies right now :D ) and didn't know anybody on the site. There are two kinds of quests, the Boss Battle quest and the Collection quest. The Dust Bunny quest is a boss battle quest, with some unknown (to me, at least) number of dust bunnies to be defeated. Every time I check off a task, I do some amount of damage to the current dust bunny I'm fighting. When you've killed them all, you win the quest, yay. If you're playing a collection quest, as you check off tasks, there's a chance you'll get an item drop that's a quest item. When your party has collected enough of each type of item, you've won the quest, yay. The whole party gets a reward when the quest is done.
As you accumulate gold, you can buy gear for your character. You also get some gear for checking in to the site a certain number of times. I have a cool set of Bardic Robes (which increase my Perception stat) that I got for checking in the second day I played. I also have a helm, a sword and a shield. Different pieces of gear increase different stats, and you can buy better gear as you move up. Your stats are taken into account as you "fight." For example, having a better weapon gives you more strength, so you do more damage to whatever you're fighting each time you check off a task.
Basically, if you're a gamer geek, this is an awesome way to motivate yourself to get stuff done. I've been amazingly productive the last couple of days. I even called to make a dentist appointment O_O which I'd usually have put off for weeks. [hides under keyboard] I'm sure some of the enthusiasm will wear off soon, but I'm hoping most of it lasts. :)
I highly recommend trying Habitica if you're at all into gaming. If you do, drop a note here and we can get together and go questing. :D
Angie
The site is called Habitica, and it's a gamification site. What that means is that it takes something in your life -- in this case, getting stuff done and building good habits -- and turns it into a game. Habitica has the form of a fantasy roleplaying game.
When you create an account, which is free, you become a character in the land of Habitica. You're a first level Warrior with basically no gear. The first step is to set up some things you want to do (or want to stop doing) in a fairly intuitive (sorta -- there is a learning curve, but there's also a very thorough wiki) Tasks page. I have a combination of personal and work tasks on mine, ranging from Write 1000 Words, to Walk 1000 Steps, to Eat a Piece of Fruit, to Call Mom, to Read a Chapter of a Writing Book. I have Eat Junk Food as a negative; if I do that, I click on the Junk Food button and my character takes some damage. :/ I haven't done that yet, but I suppose I will at some point.
You set up each task with a frequency (every day, week or month; three times a week, or just to keep tabs but with no set goal) and estimate about how hard the task is. You can set up a larger task with an internal checklist, so if your task is cleaning the kitchen, it could have a checklist that includes Load the Dishwasher, Clean the Stove, Wipe Down the Counters, and Put Away Leftovers. It's really very flexible once you get the hang of it, and the wiki is great help.
As you do tasks, you click to check them off, and the system gives you experience points and gold pieces for each one. Sometimes (after you hit Level 3) you get an item drop. You accumulate experience points and make levels. When you hit Level 10, you can change professions if you want and become a Mage, a Rogue or a Healer. You also get some skills, which are like special abilities, or spells if you're a Mage or a Healer. I haven't gotten there yet (I'm currently Level 4) but it looks like fun.
There are also guilds you can join. I joined The Wordsmiths, a writers' guild, and The Renaissance Man, which despite the sexism of its name, seems like an interesting guild with a broad base of interests.
Guilds can set Challenges, too. A Challenge is a collection of Tasks, usually around a theme and with a deadline. You click to join the Challenge, and the Tasks are added to your Task page. Usually there's some kind of a prize in gems at the end for a random person who worked on the Challenge. Gems are another (rarer) form of currency in the game; there are things you can only buy with gems. I don't have any yet.
You can also form a party. A party is a smaller group than a Guild, and Parties do quests together. I started a party all by myself, since I wanted to try the baby quest (I'm battling some rabid dust bunnies right now :D ) and didn't know anybody on the site. There are two kinds of quests, the Boss Battle quest and the Collection quest. The Dust Bunny quest is a boss battle quest, with some unknown (to me, at least) number of dust bunnies to be defeated. Every time I check off a task, I do some amount of damage to the current dust bunny I'm fighting. When you've killed them all, you win the quest, yay. If you're playing a collection quest, as you check off tasks, there's a chance you'll get an item drop that's a quest item. When your party has collected enough of each type of item, you've won the quest, yay. The whole party gets a reward when the quest is done.
As you accumulate gold, you can buy gear for your character. You also get some gear for checking in to the site a certain number of times. I have a cool set of Bardic Robes (which increase my Perception stat) that I got for checking in the second day I played. I also have a helm, a sword and a shield. Different pieces of gear increase different stats, and you can buy better gear as you move up. Your stats are taken into account as you "fight." For example, having a better weapon gives you more strength, so you do more damage to whatever you're fighting each time you check off a task.
Basically, if you're a gamer geek, this is an awesome way to motivate yourself to get stuff done. I've been amazingly productive the last couple of days. I even called to make a dentist appointment O_O which I'd usually have put off for weeks. [hides under keyboard] I'm sure some of the enthusiasm will wear off soon, but I'm hoping most of it lasts. :)
I highly recommend trying Habitica if you're at all into gaming. If you do, drop a note here and we can get together and go questing. :D
Angie
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Some Great Prizes
Fiction River, the anthology series I've written for a few times, is doing one of it's bi-annual Kickstarter subscription drives, and as always they have a lot of great prizes for supporters.
There's the usual Fiction River subscriptions, small or large, but the one that caught my eye had to do with classes. Kris and Dean teach some really great online classes, one of which I'm taking right now, and getting a lot out of. I'd already planned to take two more classes, so the husband and I had budgeted $600 ($300 each for two six-week classes) for the near future. But one of the Kickstarter rewards is an online class, for support at the $250 level. And you can get as many $250 classes as you want. That's a $100 savings all together for classes I was planning to take anyway, so I trotted over and pledged $500, yay! The husband was very pleased by the savings, which is another yay. :)
The stretch goals are fun too. They have stretch goals every $2500 after the base amount, and they're adding free books all along the way. If the Kickstarter goes to $50,000 (I think they passed $35,000 last time) they're giving everyone who pledges at least $15 twenty-five extra e-books. That's a lot of reading material for $15. And it's not an all-or-nothing thing, either; even if they make a lower amount (they've already hit the first stretch goal) they're still adding a lot of extra books.
My favorites, though, are the $40,000 and $45,000 stretch goals -- they're going to open up Fiction River submissions, one volume per goal level. :D Seriously, this'll be great. Dean and Kris have both edited open-submission markets before (Kris won a Hugo for editing F&SF back in the 90s) and I've heard them both say any number of times that they'd never-ever-ever read slush again, amen! I'm really hoping we get at least one of these stretch goals, because I expect the resulting rants after the fact will be entertaining for years. :D
In all seriousness, though, this'd be a great opportunity for short story writers. Fiction River has been invitation-only since its inception, so there's been a relatively closed(-ish) pool of writers contributing. They pay six cents per word, their contracts are author-friendly, and they're easy to work with. I got a reprint request from John Joseph Adams for one of my Fiction River stories, and a writer friend named Dave Hendrickson won a Derringer Award for a story he published in Fiction River last year. This is good stuff, folks.
If they do the open call for a volume, they'll be announcing the theme and opening the submission window for only one week. This is unusual for open-submission anthologies, but it's the same writing window that workshop attendees, who write most of Fiction River's stories, get. It does work, I promise. And everyone who supports the Kickstarter (no minimum amount mentioned) will get an announcement with guidelines two days early. I wouldn't know what to do with Nine Whole Days!! to write a Fiction River story, heh, but for folks not used to the tight deadline, the extra two days would be some nice padding. I think it'd be worth a few dollars to get that advance notice. If you write short stories, think about signing up for this.
Oh, and Fiction River publishes some really great stories, so subscribing is a good deal if you like short fiction.
Check it out, and consider supporting the campaign. It's going on until the 17th of this month.
Angie
There's the usual Fiction River subscriptions, small or large, but the one that caught my eye had to do with classes. Kris and Dean teach some really great online classes, one of which I'm taking right now, and getting a lot out of. I'd already planned to take two more classes, so the husband and I had budgeted $600 ($300 each for two six-week classes) for the near future. But one of the Kickstarter rewards is an online class, for support at the $250 level. And you can get as many $250 classes as you want. That's a $100 savings all together for classes I was planning to take anyway, so I trotted over and pledged $500, yay! The husband was very pleased by the savings, which is another yay. :)
The stretch goals are fun too. They have stretch goals every $2500 after the base amount, and they're adding free books all along the way. If the Kickstarter goes to $50,000 (I think they passed $35,000 last time) they're giving everyone who pledges at least $15 twenty-five extra e-books. That's a lot of reading material for $15. And it's not an all-or-nothing thing, either; even if they make a lower amount (they've already hit the first stretch goal) they're still adding a lot of extra books.
My favorites, though, are the $40,000 and $45,000 stretch goals -- they're going to open up Fiction River submissions, one volume per goal level. :D Seriously, this'll be great. Dean and Kris have both edited open-submission markets before (Kris won a Hugo for editing F&SF back in the 90s) and I've heard them both say any number of times that they'd never-ever-ever read slush again, amen! I'm really hoping we get at least one of these stretch goals, because I expect the resulting rants after the fact will be entertaining for years. :D
In all seriousness, though, this'd be a great opportunity for short story writers. Fiction River has been invitation-only since its inception, so there's been a relatively closed(-ish) pool of writers contributing. They pay six cents per word, their contracts are author-friendly, and they're easy to work with. I got a reprint request from John Joseph Adams for one of my Fiction River stories, and a writer friend named Dave Hendrickson won a Derringer Award for a story he published in Fiction River last year. This is good stuff, folks.
If they do the open call for a volume, they'll be announcing the theme and opening the submission window for only one week. This is unusual for open-submission anthologies, but it's the same writing window that workshop attendees, who write most of Fiction River's stories, get. It does work, I promise. And everyone who supports the Kickstarter (no minimum amount mentioned) will get an announcement with guidelines two days early. I wouldn't know what to do with Nine Whole Days!! to write a Fiction River story, heh, but for folks not used to the tight deadline, the extra two days would be some nice padding. I think it'd be worth a few dollars to get that advance notice. If you write short stories, think about signing up for this.
Oh, and Fiction River publishes some really great stories, so subscribing is a good deal if you like short fiction.
Check it out, and consider supporting the campaign. It's going on until the 17th of this month.
Angie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)