Deadline: July 31st 2012
Payment: All contributors are will be paid £3.00 for every 150 copies of their respective anthology sold. This payment is cumulative, meaning that, if a given anthology sells 300 copies, each contributor will receive £6.00, if it sells 450 copies, each contributor will receive £9.00 and so on. This applies to all sales of the anthology, in every format.

Royalties will be payable for the first two years of the book’s existence.

Cruentus Libri Press is pleased to announce its forthcoming anthology, now open for submission.

Lucha Gore: Scares from the Squared Circle is a horror anthology set in wild and wonderful world of professional wrestling. We are looking for stories that successfully combine the blood, sweat and tears of pro-wrestling with the macabre majesty of the horror genre.

WHAT WE WANT

Professional wrestling must, at the very least, provide the backdrop to the stories and, ideally, be an integral part of the narrative. We want to see the pageantry of sports entertainment, the no-nonsense appeal of old-school wrasslers, dazzling luchadores, hard-hitting puroresu and carnys stiffing the ever-loving crap out of boozed-up spectators in a post-War county fair. To this we want you to add suitably dark layers of horror and the macabre that make the reader realise that an unprotected chairshot is the least of a man’s worries.

WHAT WE DON’T WANT

It goes without saying that we do not want fan fiction. We have no desire to raise the ire of WWE’s legal department (nor that of any other existing promotion), any story that includes real wrestlers will be dismissed out of hand. Similarly, any storylines that are a bit too close to an existing pro-wrestling angle will be a big no-no. Use your imagination and come up with something new and exciting, not to mention dark and disturbing.

Secondly, we don’t want stories that read like match reports. The match itself may well be an essential part of the story you’re hoping to convey, but reams of text detailing every transition and highspot is, frankly, a bore to read. Tell us what’s doing through the mind of your protagonist as he squares off against a zombie, by all means, but don’t think that listing a dozen suplex variations will make your story that more readable – it will just feel like padding.

Finally, no cursed lucha libre masks. When we first decided to run with this anthology, that was the biggest cliché we could imagine when combining horror and wrestling so, unless you have a truly original twist on it, we’d rather not see it.

This is a horror anthology intended for an adult audience. Whilst we have no qualms about including sex, violence and swearing in the stories, don’t make it gratuitous – ask yourself whether the scene in question adds to the story or if it is simply there to shock.

THE RULES

First, check out our Writer’s Guidelines and, specifically, that part pertaining to Anthology Submissions. They should tell you all you need to know about sending us your work.

Word Count: 2500-7500 words. Whilst we will accept some leeway in this word count, don’t be sending us flash fiction or novellas, as they will be returned unread.

Reading Period: 01 May 2012 to 31 July 2012.

Reprints: Yes

Multiple Submissions: No.

Simultaneous Submissions: We understand that writers want to find a home for their work and, as such, we have no problem with sending you story to other markets as well as our own. We ask only that you inform us if your story gets accepted elsewhere before the end of the reading period, so that we can remove it from our slushpile.

Payment: This anthology is a paying market, paying shared royalties based on sales. Please see our royalty guide here for details.

Rights: Cruentus Libri Press request One Time Print and Electronic Publishing Rights for each story published. This means that, once your story is published with us, thereafter it can only be marketed as a reprint. This can limit the number of markets that will accept it, as many publications will not accept reprints and those that do may offer a reduced pay rate as a consequence. Please bear this in mind when submitting your story for inclusion in this anthology.

Once you’re satisfied with your entry and you’re sure it meets the guidelines, submit it as an attachment to [email protected]

[via: Cruentus Libri Press.]