Deadline: November 30th, 2017
Payment: $15 (more depending on Kickstarter) and a contributor’s copy
Once again, we are inviting submissions from the world at large! WELCOME TO PACIFIC CITY is a sort-of shared world project: we name the place, you bring it to life through the mediums of science fiction, fantasy or horror. Stories should be set in our fictionalised Pacific City, and a key element should be heroism and/or villainy, be it “super” or otherwise. You can check here for an inspirational guide to the city, or download the short Pacific City Manifesto for other useful information.
However, although this is primarily a speculative fiction project, we are also open to stories that help make Pacific City feel like a real place. Not every inspiring (or insidious) story demands the out of the ordinary for impact — but if a masked avenger wanders by while you’re bringing us down to earth, well, that won’t do your chances any harm…
Although we can only offer a nominal fee up front, all contributors will also receive a physical copy of the collection. In addition, we plan to run a Kickstarter campaign prior to publication in an attempt to raise funds for increased author fees. The editor has previously organised two successful fiction-related campaigns, including one for our 2015 anthology — this is no guarantee of future success, but it bodes well!
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Maximum Word Count: 7,500.
This is a very firm limit. Pieces between 2,500 and 5,000 words preferred. Flash fiction will be considered, but the longer a story the more it needs to impress.
Submission Deadline: November 30th, 2017.
Minimum Compensation:USD$15 on acceptance of contract, plus one contributor’s copy of the print-on-demand paperback on publication.
All submissions must be the original work of the author — we will not accept any story incorporating copyrighted characters or material, fan fiction, etc.
We require First Print and Digital rights, plus a six month period of exclusivity from the date of publication. All other rights remain entirely with the authors.
While this anthology is intended for an adult readership, this is not a market for pornographic or offensively extreme content. “Artistic justification” is a good (if subjective) argument, and we shall (subjectively) assess each story according to its (subjective) merits.
We welcome writers of any and all backgrounds and submissions exploring diverse perspectives, provided they do not seek only to attack or demean those of others.
FORMATTING GUIDELINES:
Acceptable document types are RTF, DOC or DOCX.
Straightforward formatting is preferred for editorial convenience:
Please use an easy-reading font (Times New Roman 12pt, etc.).
Do not insert empty lines between paragraphs, or first-line indents.
Use a single # to represent essential text breaks.
Use italics for italics, don’t underline. Smart (“curly”) punctuation is fine.
If your manuscript includes any unusual formatting, please alert the editors when submitting and have a really good, story-related reason.
All submissions should be emailed to Andrew at:
andrew [dot] leon [dot] hudson [at] gmail [dot] com
If you can’t figure out how to turn the above into a working email address, please consider this page your form rejection.
If you can, then we look forward to reading your submissions!
Deadline: February 4th, 2018
Payment: * cents (CA)/word.
Edited by Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum
Historian Thomas Cahill, author of The Gifts of the Jews (Knopf, 1999) claimed that the Jews invented the very concept of history. They were the first, he said, to perceive time not as an endless circle of life, death and rebirth, but as the flight of an arrow, on a linear path to somewhere from somewhere.
However, what if time is not one arrow, but a volley of arrows? What if there are other timelines, other histories, other Jews? Would they still have a covenant with the one God? What would have become of their triumphs? Their defeats? Their suffering and their successes?
Award-winning author/editors Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum propose to answer this question in Other Covenants, the first-ever anthology of Jewish alternate history, to be published by ChiZine Publications in Fall 2019!
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submission window: August 28, 2017 at 12:01 AM Eastern Time to Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
Open to submissions by authors of all backgrounds, from anywhere in the world.
Stories must be in the alternate history genre and must be clearly relevant to the theme of the anthology.
Length: 500–15,000 words. There are relatively few spots for stories at the high end, so please query first if you think your story will go long.
Preference will be given to stories previously unpublished in English, however, we will consider previously published stories on a case-by-case basis.
NEW: Also open to poetry submissions. Original poems on theme. No more than 2 pages (8.5 x 11) in length. (Maximum word count set arbitrarily to 2,000 words as system won’t allow max lines or pages.) No need to double-space.
Submissions may be made in English or French. Author is responsible for translations into English after acceptance.
English-language translations of stories from other languages (published or unpublished) are welcome, but we can only accept submissions in English or French.
Multiple submissions welcome; up to two stories maximum per author, sent under separate cover.
We prefer no simultaneous submissions, please (we promise to respond promptly).
Initial responses (rejections, holds, and rewrite requests) within 30 days of submission; final responses no later than 30 days after the deadline.
Payment is 8 cents per word in Canadian funds. (SFWA qualifying after exchange to US funds).
File formats accepted: .docx, .doc, or .rtf.
Formatting: indented paragraphs; italics in italics (not underlined); Canadian spelling; use # (or other unambiguous symbol) to indicate scene breaks; no headers, footers, or pagination; no outlandish formatting, please; full contact info (name, street address, email, phone number) and word count on the first page. That said, don’t fret too much about formatting; good fiction is what’s most important. (Correct spelling also counts.)
Please include a cover letter with a brief author bio, title of story, and full contact info, including street address.
Please do not summarize or describe the story in the cover letter.
To be published by ChiZine Publications in Fall 2019.
Rights: First World Rights, including audio and translation rights. (NOTE: CZP has a foreign rights agent who will be presenting the anthology in foreign markets.)
NOTE ON PSEUDONYMS: we will only publish one story per author, even if you write under several names; please use your real name on all correspondence and indicate your pseudonym in the cover letter and on the byline of the story itself.
NOTE ON SUBJECT MATTER: Any book dealing with the Jewish people, Jewish history and Israel will, by definition, be controversial. We welcome controversy and politics, but don’t forget that this is a fiction anthology. Telling good stories takes first, second and third place. Submissions that grind axes loud enough to drown out the story are unlikely to be accepted.
Questions or queries: [email protected]. Please don’t submit stories via email, as noted above.
A WORD ABOUT THE ALTERNATE HISTORY GENRE
Other Covenants is open to authors of every background, and for those of you who may not be familiar with alternate history, here’s a quick thumbnail sketch of the genre.
A popular sub-genre of speculative fiction, alternative history weaves fictional narratives into the “what-if”s of the past, and explores the infinite number of historical roads not taken in the past, present or future.
The Collins English Dictionary defines alternative history as “a genre of fiction in which the author speculates on how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical event had had a different outcome.” According to Steven H. Silver, an American science fiction editor, alternate history requires three things:
1. A point of divergence from the history of our world prior to the time at which the author is writing
2. A change that would alter history as it is known
3. An examination of the ramifications of that change
Although alternate history is related to counterfactual history, it is distinct from it. The latter term is used by historians to refer to the academic, non-literary, question “what could have happened if . . .”.
Now please don’t take the above as prescriptive or proscriptive. We understand that boundaries are vague, definitions are fuzzy, and the distinction between an alternate history and a counterfactual may be entirely in the eye of the beholder. But whatever voice you write in, please keep in mind that first and foremost we are looking for stories about characters.
Also, though alternate history originated as a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy and may incorporate tropes like the many-worlds theory, parallel universes, time travel, mysticism and magic, these are notrequirements. Use them if you want to, don’t use them if you don’t. The only speculative element required is the break from history as we know it, and the effect of that break on the Jewish people.
THE KIND OF THEMES WE MIGHT EXPLORE:
Please don’t take these as prescriptive or proscriptive either, the whole canvas of Jewish history is open to you—Biblical, historical and mythological:
What if • the Holocaust had never happened? What if • Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery in Egypt? What if • The State of Israel had been established in Uganda? Or Germany? What if • Jesus’ followers had not broken with Judaism? What if • The Jews had proselytized their faith door-to-door for a thousand years? What if • The Romans had not destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple? What if • Judaism became the dominant Western religion, but was riven by conflicts between the Temple priesthood and reformist rabbis who put the Torah and prayer before Temple ritual and sacrifice? What if • The Spanish Inquisition had never occurred? What if • Napoleon had not smashed down Europe’s ghetto walls? What if • The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were reality . . . in some other universe?
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Andrea D. Lobel has been a writer and editor for over a decade, winning two awards for her work.
An ordained rabbi and university lecturer, she holds an M.A. in Religious Studies (McGill University), and a Ph.D. in Religion (Concordia University), specializing in the history of religion and science, astronomy and religion, celestial mythologies, calendars, magic, and religious authority in Judaism, as well as in the Hebrew Bible and its ancient Near Eastern context.
Her book, Under a Censored Sky: Astronomy and Rabbinic Authority in the Talmud Bavli and Related Literature, is forthcoming from Brill Publishers in 2018–19.
Mark Shainblum was born and raised in Montreal, where he and illustrator Gabriel Morrissette co-created the acclaimed comics series Northguard and Angloman with Gabriel Morrissette. Northguard has recently been revived by Chapterhouse Comics in Toronto.
In addition to writing comics, Mark has published science fiction in various magazine and anthology markets including On Spec and Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic. As an editor, he co-edited Arrowdreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas with John Dupuis in 1998 and Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen in 2016 with Claude Lalumière.
Mark shared an Aurora Award with John Dupuis in 1999 for Arrowdreams, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.
Mark and Andrea live in Ottawa with their daughter.
Payment: We pay £3.50 for original flash fiction, £5 for original writing articles, and £6 for original short stories over 1000 words. For all reprints we pay £2.50.
Note: Reprints Allowed
Monsters everywhere are hungry, so we need you to write for us!
Here at Feed Your Monster we seek only the very tastiest, most unique delicacies for fussy monsters everywhere. We don’t serve school dinners or ready meals or cold leftovers. Our monsters want something satisfying to sink their hungry teeth into and we aim to deliver.
We love to dish up lighthearted fiction with a sprinkling of horror and a pickled garnish. We want original, fantastic, funny, gory, and scary all in the same course. To please us you’ll need to cook up your very best.
Here’s how:
***
What do we want?
Flash Fiction
Our bread and butter. We love flash fiction. We prefer it short and snappy, but with buckets of flavour and a shot of dark humour. Send us your snacks and appetisers.
Maximum word count 1000 words.
Short Stories
We prefer bite-sized stories, however every now and then we need something really meaty. If you can supply a bone chilling tale to pile high the greediest plate then we want to see it.
Maximum word count 3000 words
Writing Articles
We’re seeking well structured, dynamic pieces designed to help writers refine their skill. Can you help us pen the perfect plot, create heroes we root for, villains we love to hate, tips on prose and writing success? If so, we want to hear from you.
Maximum word count 1500 words
The Finer Details
One submission at a time please, wait for a response on your first submission before submitting another.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere if we have not already responded.
We do consider reprints provided the rights have reverted back to you, however we pay a marked down price for these see the payments section and please note, if your story is a reprint please say so in the submission email.
We welcome new and experienced writers. You may send us a bio with your submission if you like, however it’s the story we are interested in first and foremost.
Only a handful of stories will make the cut each month so make sure you send something extra tasty for the monster.
You can either paste the story into the body of the message, or attach a document.
As Feed Your Monster has only a very small amount of staff please allow three months for us to respond, after which you may query your submission. You can retract your submission at anytime by emailing Rinoa Cameron at the above address.
Payment
We don’t believe in free dinners. Every story or article we accept will receive a small payment to thank you for your hard work.
We pay £3.50 for original flash fiction, £5 for original writing articles, and £6 for original short stories over 1000 words. For all reprints we pay £2.50.
You will receive payment once you have agreed to our contract, which we will send upon accepting your submission. You will also receive the opportunity to have any books you wish to promote and up to two chosen webpages or Facebook pages featured in the Writer’s Buffet section of our website.
Payments are done via paypal with no other form of payment available.
Rights
Feed Your Monster purchases First Electronic Rights and/or (your contract will stipulate) limited one-time, non-exclusive rights to audio. All stories are copyright of and credited to their authors, however by submitting to us you are agreeing that you are in possession of the correct rights to the story/article. Please tell us if it is a reprint.
An important note to consider: If you sell your First Electronic Rights to Feed Your Monster, it is worth remembering that most other publications will consider it a published work that can only be sold going forwards as a reprint. This will limit the number of markets available to the piece in the future and will also reduce the pay rate you may be able to receive. Therefore, before submitting to us, please be certain that selling your First Electronic Rights for our token payment is something you are happy to proceed with. After all, we care about our writers and only want what’s best for you.
Tips for success
Keep it clean – we love a good scary, gory tale and we don’t even mind the odd F-bomb, but some things are just too disgusting to eat. We’re not looking for extreme horror here.
Read our ezine – there’s no better way to find out what we like!
Tidy up your mess – check your spellings and do your writing homework. Stories littered with mistakes will be fed straight to the monsters in our rejection bin.
Freak us out – be creepy or weird or creepy and weird. Make your story smell better (or perhaps worse) than the rest.
And good luck – sometimes it doesn’t matter how amazing a story is, it may just not be right for us. If we reject you don’t be disheartened. We want you to be the very best writer you can be. We love writers, we care for writers, we exist for writers.
Deadline: October 31st, 2017
Payment: $20 per story.
ANTIMATTER publishes flash fiction and story experiments inspired by the latest science news and discoveries.
We’re most interested in flash fiction, but we’re also open to story experiments, narrative games, and text messager-based stories.
HOW IT WORKS
First, find a recent scientific story, headline, or discovery that sparks your imagination. (View science headlines here. View scientific story prompts here.) Then, use that real science headline to inform, drive, or inspire an original flash science fiction story.
A short story up to 500 words (about one single-spaced page that can be read aloud in about five minutes).
A story with a plot (though we’re open to creative interpretation).
A story linked to a recent science headline, new discovery, or new hypothesis or theory.
Writers are encouraged to experiment with the flash fiction story form. For example, your story could be framed as a lab report, scientific article, message transcript, or a poem, or a script. It’s not required, but preference is given to stories crafted to feel real – like they really happened. Such stories can include many links to sources, authoritative quotes, and other techniques that lead the reader to suspend disbelief.
HOW TO SUBMIT A STORY
We use Submittable to manage story submissions. When you send us your story via Submittable, you will need to include a link to the article that inspired your story as well as a short bio.
You will receive notice if your story is accepted within five days of submission.
Payment is sent within 21 days of notice of acceptance.
Antimatter will promote your story via social media, potentially including paid promotion, and via our email newsletter.
PAY
Antimatter Magazine pays $20 per story.
We issue payment within 21 days of story publication.
Additionally, we reserve the right to offer you more money for additional reprinting in ANTIMATTER anthologies.
RIGHTS
In exchange for the fee we pay for your story, we ask for first North American serial rights and First Electronic Rights. Here’s a good, simple explanation of those rights. What does first publication mean?
Your story will be published on AntimatterMag.com.
Your story might be syndicated to our Medium publication at Medium.com/AntimatterMag.
A link to your story will be distributed to our email list.
Your story will be available to our other channels, including AntimatterMag.com, RSS, and through anthologized issues, which can appear on e-readers and other devices, and in our AntimatterMag.com archives.
Also, unless arrangements are made in advance, we reserve exclusive rights to published
content for 60 days. This means no other posting of the accepted story anywhere on the Web, or in print in the United States or Canada, for 60 days after its exclusive appearance on AntimatterMag.com and Antimatter Magazine channels.
After 60 days, AntimatterMag.com will share full rights with original writers.
First publication in Antimatter grants the Magazine permission to republish flashes, articles, and reviews elsewhere (in, for example, an anthology of the best pieces from Flash).
We are also asking for indefinite archiving rights, as the story may appear on AntimatterMag.com and associated channels.
At the writer’s request, we will remove the story from our archives after 60 days.
If the story is republished after 60 days, we ask that AntimatterMag.com be credited as the original publisher with a link to the piece on AntimatterMag.com in the byline or the body.
Please Note
In most cases, we don’t accept reprints, including from your personal website. If you think we should, though, let us know.
Please don’t submit the same story to us and any other venue at the same time. We’ll let you know if we accepted it within 5 business days of submission.
PROMOTION
We promote your stories on social media and in our newsletter.
Your bio and a link to your website and social profiles will be listed on AntimatterMag.com.
REQUIREMENTS
For Antimatter to accept your writing and pay you, we will need:
A print-ready, third-person bio with your cover letter.
A PayPal address or mailing address where we can send payment.
Deadline: September 30th, 2017
Payment: $30 per story, $10 per poem
Please read the following in its entirety before submitting. The rules are needed, and EC will not consider your work if they have not been followed.
It’s important to read samples of published work on EC. You can find just a few examples here.
HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT: No unsolicited work of any kind is being accepted. Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at EC.
— Six times a year, writers and poets will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories and poems. No non-fiction of any kind.
— Here are the submission periods: Months–January, March, May, July, September, November.
— Days of those months–the first through the 30th. That’s starting at 12 a.m. on the first day of a submission month. That’s ending at 11:59 p.m. of the 30th of a submission month (28th for February). Those are Eastern Standard Times.
— No stories or poems will be accepted in the following months, so please do not send any: February, April, June, August, October, December.
— You submit through email only. Please use this address only: [email protected] That’s for submissions only.
— All questions, but no submissions, should be sent to [email protected].
— Your last name, the month and the year should be in the subject line of the email.
— You must be 18 years old or older, but may be from any country.
— You should try to use American English word forms and punctuation.
— Do not send attachments. They will not be opened or considered. Paste your work in the body of an email.
— You will receive a response telling you I have received your submission.
— No editorial feedback of any kind will be provided. I’m sorry about that. I just do not have the time.
— No fancy spacing or characters, please. Do not indent for new paragraphs. Just do an extra return between them. My publishing platform is tricky. Heavy dialogue is very hard to format. Resist the urge. Most classic tales are not heavy on dialogue.
— Your submission must include how you follow EC. Methods include something Google related, Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest (the board called New Posts at Enchanted Conversation). You only need to follow in one way. Just search for my name, Kate Wolford, and you will be able to follow both me and EC. But if you don’t follow, your work will not be considered. For a better explanation, go here: http://bit.ly/27Y2FNI
— A Paypal address must be included. Without one, work will not be considered.
— Only previously unpublished work, please. Only one work per writer per submission period.
— First electronic rights are being bought. Once the story is published, you are free to shop it elsewhere.
— All things being equal, authors who comment and support EC will get greater consideration of their work. But quality takes precedence over all other considerations.
THEMES
Each of the six submission periods for 2017 will have a theme. Here they are:
1. January: “Steadfast Tin Soldier,”
2. March: “Diamonds and Toads,”
3. May: “Donkeyskin,”
4. July: “Emperors New Clothes,”
5. September: “Godfather Death,”
6. November: “Elves and the Shoemaker.”
When each window for submissions opens, a theme-related post will be published. Please read the relevant post before writing your submission. All of the themes are classic fairy tales, but I do not want retreads of the original stories. At the same time, your works should reflect the chosen theme, or there is no chance of publication.
WORD COUNT and CONTENT
Stories should be no shorter than 700 words and no longer than 3,000.
Poems may be of any length.
Absolutely none of the following: Sci-fi, dystopian, erotica, high fantasy, excessive world building, time-travel, futuristic, space travel, western. Oh, and I hate love triangles. Also, EC is NOT a children’s publication. Period
It’s essential that you read past EC stories and poems to see what I publish on EC. (Note, to make sure there is no confusion, understand that EC is on e-publication only. 12-31-16.) Also, Beyond the Glass Slipper, Krampusnacht, He Sees You When He’s Creepin, and Frozen Fairy Tales give great insight insight into what I publish. You can find them at Amazon, B&N and other booksellers. All are available in ebook form.
The essence of classic fairy tales must be maintained when you write these stories. Your are free to explore themes by retelling a classic tale–but in your own way and in keeping with the theme. I tend to prefer things to end happily, but it’s not essential. Please think of the classic fairy tale form when writing poems or stories. NOTIFICATION OF SUCCESS and PAYMENT
— Story pay: $30, Poem pay: $10. US dollars only.
— Payment will be made through PayPal only.
— Non-acceptance emails will not be sent out. Instead, the names of those whose works are chosen will be posted on EC no later than the 7th of the month following a submission month.
— The winners will usually be published at the end of the non-submission month following a submission month. Example: January is a submission month. Winners will be posted no later than February 7 and winners would usually be published on the last day of February.
Submissions must be in English and written to the highest quality you are capable. Avoid passive voice. Consider making a pass with an editor before submission.
Maximum Word Count is 10,000, however I’m not going to turn away something awesome that’s a little over.
This is a paid market anthology, with a royalty cut for each author. Details available upon request.
Each author retains all rights to their story.
All submissions will be edited and sent to the author for final approval before publication.
Open internationally, but submission must be in American English.
There is no fee to submit.
Please, no reprints or simultaneous submissions.
Multiple submissions accepted. Limit of two submissions per author.
Any genre is fine. However, we are not looking for nonfiction at this time.
Adult language and sexual situations are permitted.
Standard submission format is accepted, or please send in WORD doc or docx, formatted with; 12pt Times New Roman with 1.5-line spacing; left justified with 0.3″ indents on the first line of each new paragraph (Do NOT use TAB); no extra spacing between paragraphs; and no headers/footers/page numbers; one space at the end of a sentence, not two.
To submit, please send your story to [email protected] and include the following information in the body of the email:
Author (Legal) Name: Pseudonym (if applicable): Email: Story Title: Word Count: Short Summary: 3rd Person Biography:
