Deadline: May 31st, 2021
Payment: £50
Theme: Stories that involve the supernatural in connection with railroads, railways, or any aspect of rail travel or location.

I hope to publish this anthology of supernatural fiction in the summer of 2021.

 

Submissions are invited. The closing date will be 31 May 2021.

 

WHAT I WANT:

I’m looking for 10 outstanding stories of between 2.000 and 10.000 words that involve the supernatural in connection with railroads, railways, or any aspect of rail travel or location. The stories should be set at any point in the past and be historically accurate where appropriate.

 

 

 

 

WHAT I DON’T WANT:

Badly written and constructed stories. To me, spelling and grammar are important. That doesn’t mean you can’t push the boundaries, but remember that you have to know the rules before you can break them.

 

Slasherfests that rely on violence and cliché to propel the stories.

 

Poor, badly constructed characterization whose only function is to drive the plot towards an unconvincing, or contrived conclusion.

 

Waffle that bears no relationship to the plot, but only serves to slow down or unnecessarily bulk out the story.

 

Excessive strong language that does not help to shape characters or events. If it’s necessary & appropriate: no problem.

 

 

 

CONDITIONS:

The deadline is currently the end of May 2021 but may be extended if I require more submissions.

I’m looking for stories of between 2.000 to 10.000 words. Word limits outside of this will be considered if the work is, in my opinion, exceptional.

Please do not send simultaneous submissions. Send one story at a time.

 

No multiple submissions, please.

 

 

Payment for First British print and electronic anthology rights will be £50 for original, previously unpublished stories, payable upon first publication.

 

If you want to send me a reprint, that’s fine, but I prefer unpublished work and will give preference to these submissions. Please state when and where the story was previously published. I’ll pay £20 upon publication for the reprint rights – print and electronic.

 

All successful contributors will also receive a contributor’s print copy of the book.

 

 

 

 

Send as Word or RTF attachments or in the body of the e-mail to this e-mail address only:

Submissions should only be sent to the following email address:

[email protected]

Please title the submission as follows:

RAILROAD TALES SUBMISSION + story title.

No postal submissions, please.

 

 

Include name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and the number of words at the top of the manuscript.  

Include a short introductory message.

 

 

 

 

 

I will acknowledge receipt by e-mail and will give a decision within two weeks of the closing date. Unsuccessful contributors may receive a decision earlier than this.

Please do not query progress until after this, if you have not heard from me.

 

 

 

 

 

I regret that, because of time constraints, I am unable to provide feedback to authors of stories that are not accepted, but reasons for non-acceptance could be as described above, or because stories are similar to ones I’ve already accepted, or are outside of the word limit, or have not been submitted in accordance with the above guidelines.

Upon acceptance, I will require a short biography to include in the anthology. Do not send this until I have confirmed acceptance.

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck and I look forward to reading your submissions.

 

Trevor Denyer

Editor & Publisher

Midnight Street Press

Via: Midnight Street Press.