Submission Window: November 1st – December 31st, 2024
Payment: 8 cents per word
Theme: Stories that take place within the Our Dust Earth mini-RPG

We are seeking submissions for an anthology to be titled Our Dust Earth which will collect stories that take place within the Our Dust Earth mini-RPG (see the RPG section after Submission Guidelines in the linked PDF) world. This anthology is to be published in early summer of 2025 by the Air and Nothingness Press.

Stories will be based upon the RPG – Our Dust Earth, which is a “Dying Earth” era game. Please see the attached RPG pages for details on the world, types of characters and classes of beings, along with a small map of cities and areas encountered by players. The RPG will be published in the anthology as well.

We would prefer Science Fiction genre stories for this anthology, though if you are familiar with Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, M. John Harrison’s The Pastel City, or Matthew Hughes’s Archonate Series, you may know there is a thin line between SF and Fantasy in those narratives. All stories are requested to be between 1000 and 3000 words in length.

Submission Dates
Submissions open: November 1st, 2024
Submissions close: December 31st, 2024
Reading/Review begins: January 1, 2025
Reading/Review ends: February 28th, 2025
All authors will be contacted by: April 15, 2025

Download the complete OC submission PDF here. (Some Details listed below.)

General Submission Information

We like to seek out new authors and book ideas ourselves rather than be contacted directly because we are a small, self-funded press, and only publish 4-5 books a year. We usually offer open call submissions on anthologies we decide to do, or we contact authors directly if we have particular needs.

We pay $0.08/word for the stories we publish. Most of our books are limited editions of between 100 and 200 copies and we prefer to print physical books over creating ebooks.

The Air and Nothingness Press is interested only in publishing works created by the individual, creative efforts of human authors.

We are not completely opposed to the use of AI as a tool to develop art or writing, rather we are opposed to the use of it in place of art or writing. If you “wrote” a story by supplying an AI with a prompt, we are not interested.

Stories by authors who have employed any AI text-generation software, apps, services, or any other computer-assisted service or program in the writing of their submissions, including plot generators, human-machine “collaboration,” titling, outlining, or any other form of computer driven influence on their creative process other than spelling and grammar checking will not be considered.

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We are seeking submissions for an anthology to be titled Our Dust Earth which will collect stories that take place within the Our Dust Earth mini-RPG (see the RPG section after Submission Guidelines) world. This anthology is to be published in early summer of 2025 by the Air and Nothingness Press. All stories to be between 1000 and 3000 words.

Theme:
Stories will be based upon the RPG – Our Dust Earth, which is a “Dying Earth” era game. Please see the attached RPG pages for details on the world, types of characters and classes of beings, along with a small map of cities and areas encountered by players. The RPG will be published in the anthology as well.

We would prefer Science Fiction genre stories for this anthology, though if you are familiar with Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, M. John Harrison’s The Pastel City, or Matthew Hughes’s Archonate Series, you may know there is a thin line between SF and Fantasy in those narratives. All stories are requested to be between 1000 and 3000 words in length. We will use MSWord as the word count application.

How to submit:
Email your submission to [email protected] (Submissions open November 1st, 2024 and close December 31st, 2024). These are firm dates.

Compensation: Our pay rate is 8 cents a word. Anthology authors will receive one print copy of the anthology, plus wholesale pricing for additional print copies (40% off the retail price).

Rights: AaNPress purchases Worldwide First English print rights, exclusive for 1 year from publication, and nonexclusive after.

Submissions: New authors are as welcome as established writers. We especially encourage WOC/POC authors.

AaNPress does not accept reprints or multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions are ok but please let us know promptly if the submission is accepted elsewhere. We will consider mature content only if we like the story, and find the mature content to be integral to it. No AI generated stories of any sort will be considered.

Manuscript Format: Standard manuscript format – .doc or .docx (MS Word), .rtf (Rich Text Format). Please also send a one paragraph biography. We would prefer the additional layout specs – Page Size: Letter; Margins: .5”; Font: Calibri 11 point, single spaced – if possible (but we understand if you prefer a standard format).

If you have limited internet usage, please email us for alternate submission options.

Confirmation: When your submission is received by us, we will email you within 24 hours to confirm. If you do not hear from us, please contact us (Twitter: @aanpress, or by email) to make sure we have you in our inbox.

Editorial Process: AaNPress will read submissions January 1st, 2025 through February 28th, 2025. If a story does not work for the anthology, we will reject it. If we think the story has potential but is not quite complete yet, we will request a rewrite. Stories that are accepted for the anthology will be held for publication.

Regardless of the decision, you will receive email notifying you of our decision in a timely manner.

Response Time: Final decisions will be made by April 15th, 2025.

Remember, for full details about this world, Download the complete OC submission PDF here.

Via: Air and Nothingness Press.