Deadline: March 31st, 2013
Payment: $10.00 and a copy of the book in 1 ebook format and print format.

A collection of 10 stories within a defined theme brought out by Marion Margaret Press
and Ron Leming, artist, editor, and writer.
It will be published in ebook and print edition.

Theme:
The Confederacy of Steam is a worldwide organization, based in America, whose main purpose is to wipe out the zombie plague, wherever it may strike. Young Doctor Orloff, along with his Zombie Extermination team is the inventor, fabricator and technician of the Confederacy.

Your tale may take place anywhere in the world and in any period of time, from the Victorian era to present day, so long as the world you create is an extrapolated steam-driven world, with the concepts of steampunk intact, and you base your story around expeditions of the Confederacy and its members battling the threat of the zombie plague. It can be scientifiction, adventure, romance, fantasy, whatever genre you like, provided they follow the guidelines of our little world, an uncertain future, where the aesthetics and ethics of Victorian society are combined with advanced steam-powered technology.

I, personally, hope I may see a few famous people show up. People like Franz Mesmer; Prosper- Rene Blondelot and his discovery and use of N rays; Charles Babbage and his invention, the Difference Machine, used extensively by the Confederacy; Charles Dickens; Florence Nightingale; Alexander Graham Bell; Arthur Conan Doyle; Harry Houdini; Thomas Edison; and, of course, Young Doctor Orloff. The field is wide open. Send me a steampunk Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies story. I’m looking for the fabulous and unusual.

Stories can be up to 7000 words.

When is the submission period? We will accept submissions for the anthology from January 1, 2013 until March 31, 2013 or until the anthology is full.

Length: Up to 7000 words
Reprints: Not allowed.
Multiple Submissions: Up to three submissions allowed per author.
Simultaneous: We need to know up front if the story is also submitted elsewhere.
Formatting:
NEW request: Send your submission in the body of your email
No fancy font.
Use italics, underlines, and bolds where they should be.
Regular paragraphs with standard 5pt indent.
Use one inch margins.
Bold and center the title of the story, with the author’s name underneath the title.
Submit by email only.
Editor in charge of this anthology is Ron Leming. Send your submission to him at [email protected] Do Not send to any other address on our site. Stories sent elsewhere will not be considered for the anthology, nor answered.

In subject line of email use “Steam Anthology: ‘Title of Your Story'”

In body of email include the following:
Your Name
Your Real Name if you use a pen name for above.
Your address, for mailing purposes if your story is chosen. We will not give our your physical address or email for anyone not affiliated with Marion Margaret Press.
Do Not give us your phone number. We have no reason to need it.
Do Not give us your social security number. We have no reason to need it.
N/A
Let us know if it is submitted elsewhere.
State the word count of your story. Your software’s counting feature is close enough.
Give a short bio for the publication in the event your story is chosen.
One story per email. If you’re sending three stories, you need to send three emails.

What we pay for your story:
$10.00 and a copy of the book in 1 ebook format and print format.

What rights we are purchasing:
We buy the rights for the purpose of the e-anthology and the print edition only. The anthologies will remain available for up to 5 years each.

The rights are not exclusive. The author is free to use the story elsewhere, if so desired, but bear in mind that most publications will not publish pieces that have been published in print, eBook, or on the web, so for all intents and purposes after your work is published by us it can only be marketed as a reprint, which severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive. It is up to you, the author, to decide if publishing your work in print and/or eBook formats and/or on the web, giving up your First Publishing Right for no and/or a token payment, is really what you want to do.

Writers will be notified:
By the end of judging period: we plan to be finished by April 30, 2013 for this anthology.

Anthology will be available:
The planned schedule is to have the Confederate Steam vs. Zombies anthology available for purchase during the month of July 2013. Back up publication date, should there be a delay, is August 2013.

Hints for increasing the chances of your story being chosen:
Follow the theme. Our themes for each anthology is specified.
Hook us right at the beginning. Make your first paragraph grab our attention and then keep it until the end. Make your story stand out from the other submissions.
Send us your cleanest manuscript. Don’t let grammar, punctuation, and typing errors pull us out of your story. If we have multiple stories left of equal quality and only have a few spots left, the cleanest ones will get chosen first.
Have faith. Send us your story. Believe in yourself as a writer and believe in your story. If you do, it will speak to us.

[via: Marion Margaret Press