Category: Royalties

Taking Submissions: Darkest Shadow, Brightest

Deadline: June 1st, 2024
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Dark Fantasy

Do you love dark and gritty fantasy settings? What about situations of overwhelming odds?

Then you may want to submit to Darkest Shadow, Brightest Light. A Dark Fantasy anthology where the situation can be as grim as you want it to be, even ending in personal tragedy (Death of the heroes), but they need to succeed in the end.

 

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Epic Publishing Seeks Orphaned Novels

Payment: Royalties
Theme: Speculative Fiction Novels that recently lost a publisher.

It’s come to our attention recently that several small and medium publishers have decided to close their doors, leaving the authors they once published out in the cold. Such announcements are sad for me to hear, as I’ve always felt like it was less a competition among smaller publishers than a community that we at Epic Publishing are a part of. Obviously, not all publishers feel that way, but I’ve done my best to help other publishers, as they have helped me, so why not keep paying it forward? We all love books, right? And that’s what publishing is all about: loving books and supporting others’ love of books and those who write them.

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Cemetery Gates Media Is Open For Debut Horror Novel Series

Payment: Paying $500 signing bonus + $500 advance upon publication, and a 60% (author) royalty share on physical and electronic editions of the book.
Theme: Horror

We’re looking for submissions for 40k+ word manuscripts from authors who’ve never published a novel. Paying $500 signing bonus + $500 advance upon publication, and a 60% (author) royalty share on physical and electronic editions of the book.

You’re welcome to submit (1) complete, original, and unpublished 40k+ word manuscript to [email protected] if you have at least (2) paid horror writing credits and have never published a novel. If you have novellas and short story collections in print, you’re still eligible.

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Early Details On PitDark May 2023

Pitch Date: May 25th, 2023
Prizes: A book contract from a publisher; contracts vary between publishers. Generally royalties with the possibility of an advance.
Themes: Darker literature (horror, or other forms of fiction that are dark or are mixed genres.

Welcome to #PitDark, the only Twitter pitching contest for dark literature!

#PitDark is the first and only Twitter pitch event to highlight literature of a “darker” nature. Importantly, this is not limited to horror works; however, any pitched manuscript must contain an element of horror or darker writing. Examples of such categories include pure horror novels, dark fantasy, murder mysteries, psychological horror stories, non-fiction works about darker subjects, etc. MG, YA, NA, and adult age categories are welcome.

The next #PitDark will take place on May 25, 2023.

You can find the agents and publishers that participated in previous #PitDark events here.

Please follow the @PitDark_ Twitter account for up-to-date information about the event.

The Basics

The contest will happen on Twitter under a common hashtag (#PitDark). During a 12-hour window on the chosen day, authors with completed manuscripts who are seeking representation or publication can tweet a pitch for their books (at most, once per hour).

Agents and publishers will make requests by marking pitches as a like on Twitter. If your tweet is liked, please follow the agent or publisher’s submission guidelines.

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Taking Submissions: The Dance

Deadline: August 1st, 2023
Payment: Royalties: one (1%) per cent of net sales
Theme: “Life is the dance between choice and chance.”

“Life is the dance between choice and chance.

How did you come to the point in life where you now find yourself? Two factors were likely in play: choice and chance.

The choices you make are clearly a factor in shaping your life. For example: a woman in one universe elopes with her high school sweetheart, but they are too young to make the marriage work and divorce at any early age; in a second universe, she marries him after they graduate from university and happily becomes a stay-at-home mom; in a third universe, she doesn’t marry him and pursues a successful career. Making different choices about the same life goal can lead to very different lives.

It’s also true, though, that chance, forces that are out of our control, shapes the choices that are available to us. This may be because of the choices of others which directly affect us, or it may because of the society into which we are born. For instance: a black man sleeps in his car in the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant. In one universe, two white cops are sent to deal with him; forty-five minutes later, one of them has shot him dead. In a second universe, one of the white cops and a psychiatrist are sent to deal with him; after a tense confrontation, he is arrested and his car impounded. In a third universe, the psychiatrist and a social worker droid are sent to deal with him; he is sent home to sleep it off and told he can pick up his impounded car the next day. The different outcomes are a product of chance, the different structures of the societies in which the main character finds himself.

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Taking Submissions: Rising Dark

Deadline: June 1st, 2023
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Horror
Note: Reprints Welcome

M Presents is looking for submissions for their next Enter Madness anthology, Rising Dark, to be released later this year. Stories should be horrific, deal with the mysterious, and avoid the use of anything that could be considered socially unacceptable (violence toward children, unnecessary gore, sex for the sake of sex, erotica). I am only a single person so I will try my best to respond to all submissions.
Stories must be fewer than 5,000 words, payment is a percent of royalties based upon the total number of words published. Open: March 1, 2023. Deadline: June 1, 2023.

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Ongoing Submissions: 224-Verse

Payment: Royalties
Theme: Space Opera

Theme: Space Opera.

Submission Period: Ongoing.

Word Count: Anything from 2,000 words to novel length. Submission should be written in third person point of perspective, past tense.

Author Eligibility: Open to all.

Reprints: Not allowed.

Simultaneous Submissions: Not allowed.

Multiple Submissions: Allowed but please wait for a response on your previous submission before sending the next.

Publication: Each story will be a standalone publication, published in digital format, unless otherwise indicated. Sequels are always a possibility, as are print editions, especially for authors with multiple pieces accepted into the universe.

Author Compensation: Royalty split.

To find out more, about what content we are looking for, please visit our 224-Verse page.

Please make sure to read our Submission Guidelines before submitting. Thanks!

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Taking Submissions: A Darker Continent: Strange Tales of Europe at War

Deadline: August 31st, 2023
Payment: Royalties and a contributors copy
Theme: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946

CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 – from (and including) the Spanish Civil War to the immediate winding down of conflicts after World War Two. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind.

SETTING: Geographically, stories should fall in the zone from Ireland to Russia, the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean shores. Stories can be set during direct military conflicts or far from battle, where distant wars have local repercussions for society or individuals. We’re not looking for ‘war stories’ so much as stories set DURING the war across Europe and showing some awareness of its impact. This was a bleak time for most. Go inventive with this one, such as (a few throwaway illustrations):

  • Something unnatural walking through the fires of the London Blitz
  • German occupiers learning terror in an isolated Norwegian village
  • Dread and disquiet amongst the Free French in Tunisia
  • US troops lost in the Ardennes
  • Families in Britain sensing a wrongness about returnees
  • Torn loyalties and minds in Ireland
  • Horror in the snows of the Eastern Front
  • An Italian soldier dealing with fear by disassociating from reality
  • Balkan partisans trapped in the mountains
  • Communities trying to pretend that there is no war

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