Deadline: February 29th 2016
Payment: $5 advance and an equal share of fifty percent of the royalties received from sale of the anthology.

BEFORE READING FURTHER, PLEASE TAKE NOTE.  We are seeking short fiction in the Speculative Fiction genre (by which we mean to be the umbrella term for the wide and varied range of Science Fiction and Fantasy subgenres).  The stories are to be inspired by (by which we mean drawn from, informed by, derived from) the author’s personal experiences of being Jewish.  What does this mean to us?  More to the point, what does this mean to YOU?  We feel that the Jewish tent is a big tent, and want this collection to reflect that belief.  These stories can be explicitly about the Jewish Experience (past, present or future), but they can also be stories that take place on a spaceship, a distant planet, under the ocean, in the afterlife or in another dimension.  As long as it is Speculative Fiction, and something about the story was inspired or influenced by your Jewish Experience, it is a story we’d like to consider for our collection.

Another note:  If your story has Nazis in it, please don’t bother submitting.  No exceptions.

The Jewish Experience is ripe for stories that express one, or both, of two of the primary themes to be found in Speculative Fiction.  The idea of The Other; Someone or something that is apart or different from the supposed mainstream.  And the idea of the Not Other; The exploration of what it means to realize our potential as humans, asmenschen.  But don’t feel limited to these; one of the great things about Spec-Fic is that the possibilities are literally endless.

Word count and Deadline:  Between 500 and 10,000 words.  These are guidelines, not laws; if you have a great story that runs a few words short or long, go ahead and submit it.

Genre:  We are looking for Speculative Fiction; We tend toward (soft) Science Fiction and Fantasy, but will also accept well-written Horror or Supernatural or Whatever, as long as it is Speculative Fiction and meets the other requirements stated here.  (Need more info on what qualifies as Speculative Fiction?  Check out the Goodreads entry that discusses the term.)

Theme:  Speculative Fiction inspired by the Jewish Experience.

Authors:  The theme is Speculative Fiction inspired the Jewish Experience.  Do you need to be Jewish to write for this collection?  Pretty much.  If you are Jewish, and have a great story that fits the criteria, submit it.  If you aren’t Jewish, and have a great story that fits the criteria, you will need to be very persuasive in your accompanying background paragraphs, and be able to convince us that you somehow can authentically write about the Jewish Experience without actually being Jewish…

GENERAL SUBMISSION NOTES:  Please read the entire page before clicking through to the submission guidelines for a specific publication.

We publish short fiction in the Speculative Fiction genre (by which we mean to be the umbrella term for the wide and varied range of Science Fiction and Fantasy subgenres). 

Word count :  Between 500 and 10,000 words.  These are guidelines, not laws; if you have a great story that runs a few words short or long, go ahead and submit it.

Genre:  We are looking for Speculative Fiction; We tend toward (soft) Science Fiction and Fantasy, but will also accept well-written Horror or Supernatural or Whatever, as long as it is Speculative Fiction and meets the other requirements stated here.  (Need more info on what qualifies as Speculative Fiction?  Check out the Goodreads entry that discusses the term.)

Theme:  Each publication has a specific theme.  Please study the requirements for a given publication VERY THOROUGHLY and follow those requirements EXACTLY.  Submissions that do not meet the requirements WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR PUBLICATION.

Simultaneous Submissions and Multiple Submissions:  In short, we would prefer not to see them.  But we’re writers too, we understand that life happens.  If you happen to submit a story that is subsequently accepted elsewhere, we ask that you let us know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and we will celebrate your good fortune with you.  And while we feel that it is HIGHLY unlikely that you have multiple stories that meet our criteria AND also happen to be GREAT stories, we will concede that such an occurrence is possible.  If in doubt, submit, and let the chips fall where they may.

Format:  Look, we’re not going to kick your story back because you use Courier instead of Times New Roman, or your submission is 10 point instead of 12.  We’re most comfortable reading a story in standard submission format, with a 12 pt. Times New Roman font.  But there are these cool new inventions called computers, and if you can get your story to us in a .doc or a .docx file, chances are, we can read it.  If we can’t, we’ll let you know.

Compensation:  Tree-Lion is small.  Tree-Lion is independent.  Tree-Lion works on the Travis McGee model.  Authors whose submissions are included in the anthology will receive an initial $5 payment advance and will share equally fifty percent of the royalties received from sale of the anthology.

Some Final Thoughts:  If you want to write Spec-Fic, we hope that you have read Spec-Fic.  (We really, really hope that you have read Spec-Fic  And that you love Spec-Fic.)  And if you have read Spec-Fic, you know that some stuff has already been done.  Some stuff has already been done A LOT.  Strange Horizons, an online speculative fiction magazine, has put together a list of Stories They’ve Seen Too Often, and it’s worth a read.  Again, it’s not a law that you can’t submit a story that resembles something on the Strange Horizons list.  Just be aware that it’ll have to be really,really good to be a contender.

More Final Thoughts:  But while we’re on the subject, there actually are some laws that we want to lay down, right here and right now.  These include:  No gratuitous sex and/or violence.  No preaching.  No gratuitous exoticization/spiritualization.  No splatter gore.  No adult content.  No stuffed-in-a-fridge shockers.  If you wouldn’t want your teenage daughter to read it, then this probably isn’t the right market for it.

Final Final Thoughts: It’s all kind of like the judging criteria on Alton Brown’s Cutthroat Kitchen television show.  1. Does it taste good, i.e., is it a great story?  2. Is it presented well, i.e., have you used correct spelling and grammar and such?  3.  Does it remind me of the dish that it is supposed to remind me of, i.e., is it Speculative Fiction and does it fit the theme?

If you’ve digested all of this, and still think you’ve got a great story that fits the criteria, we want to see it.  Please save your 500-10,000 word speculative fiction story (that fits the theme) as a Word .doc or .docx file– along with your 1-3 paragraph background information, in the same file,  of HOW the story was inspired or how you feel that it fits the theme–  and send it to [email protected].  Please include the words “Submission” and the Theme for which you are submitting.

Via: Tree Lion Press.