SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
GENERAL BUT IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Please read prior to submitting!
NOTE:
We are currently only accepting short stories for the anthologies and cannot accept full-length novel manuscripts at this time.
** Please put the anthology you're submitting to, and the word count of the story in the subject line of the email.**
Payment for accepted stories will be $5 USD per 1000 words for all current anthologies. Payments occur via PayPal, so please have a PayPal account into which we can pay you. We will also provide you with a digital copy (epub and pdf) of the finished manuscript. (Paperback and hard cover editions will be available via Amazon.)
We're looking for speculative fiction across all anthologies (unless otherwise specified). That includes everything from high fantasy to hard scifi and anything in between.
We do accept reprints, simultaneous submissions, and multiple submissions, though these will slow down our response time.
Story lengths should be anywhere from flash-length to about 12k words, but we have at times made exceptions. We know a story is complete when it's complete, and arbitrary word count requirements are not always helpful. If you have an amazing story that exceeds 12k words, let us know. We may be able to make special accommodations. :)
With regard to copyright, we request the non-exclusive right to publish your story in the anthology to which it was accepted. You retain the rights to your individual story to do with as you wish. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Note: We do have long lead times with our anthologies, because we want to ensure quality work gets included, and then once the deadline has passed, we move very fast to publication so as to get the book into your hands. Thanks for your understanding on this.
Check here for open calls for stories.
FORMATTING INFORMATION
Formatting a manuscript is always a pain. Every publication has its own rules--headers, spacing, font, file format, required information, and so on and so forth.
We want to make it simple. Our submission guidelines are:
Send your story along with a short query describing your work to:
The main things to keep in mind:
- Include your name. (You'd be surprised how many forget.)
- As mentioned above, include the name of the anthology you're submitting to in the subject line, along with the word count. We get so much mail that things can so easily get lost in the shuffle without this.
- Let us know if this is original, a reprint, a simultaneous submission.
- A "short query" is probably fewer than 200 words/a couple of sentences, but use your best judgment. We know some people don't like writing queries, but please just give us an idea what the story is about. This can help us save a lot of time to be able to get back to you writers more quickly.
- Give a quick rundown of how your story fits the theme of the anthology you're submitting to (this may be clear in the story description, but just in case it isn't...), and we'll get them into our various project queues for each anthology.
Without these things, we can't promise we'll be able to get back to you. That said, if 90 days have passed since you submitted to us, please query. Stories do fall through the cracks from time to time, and we absolutely don't want that to be the reason your story isn't included.
We won't/can't read anything in a format we can't open or a language we can't read.
Microsoft Word doc/docx files are always a safe bet, and Apple's Pages is also okay. If you're an Open Office user, please save as a Rich Text File or similar.
We reserve the right to reject a manuscript or query for any reason, including but not limited to criminal neglect of creativity, first degree murder of the English language, adverbial abuse, possession of cliché with intent to distribute, and pathological telegraphing. :D
Usually, however, it's just that we didn't think your work was a good fit, and that's all. Nothing sinister.
Keep in mind also that in the process of creating a master manuscript, we will make some edits to fix minor errors and adhere to a uniform style throughout.
A SHORT LIST OF WHAT NOT TO SEND
Taking a line from the great Clarkesworld magazine on this, and listing a few story items we'd prefer writers didn't submit:
- Sexy vampires/werewolves/zombies/etc.
- Stories about your RPG character.
- Stories containing rapes or rapists, child abusers, or cannibals.
- Stories punching down at or demonizing members of oppressed groups, including gender, orientation, mental/physical health/disability, body size, skin color, etc. (Side note: Avoid describing skin color using foods.)
- Stories containing details about killing women in gory ways. Murder mysteries are one thing--kill fantasies are quite another.
Everything else, we're happy to have a look at. We're also not inflexible, and if you have a story you are certain is amazing and contains one of these elements, let us know in the query and tell us why you think we should make an exception. :)