Deadline: January 31, 2012
Payment: Exposure Only

prose fiction

The Dead Walk Again is a conceptual piece oriented around a few basic concepts:

A zombie apocalypse has occurred. The Dead have risen from their graves and anyone that dies from anything besides serious head trauma will reanimate as a member of the walking dead.
A group of survivors somewhere in the United States have set up a website to allow very basic communication among other survivors through surviving PDA and wireless devices.
That people from all over the country have sent in their personal narratives to be told on their site.
I want to see an emphasis on realism whenever possible in storytelling. We are very much focused on the few survivors of a society that has shut down by zombies roaming in hordes around the country. Outside of that one conceit, the world is pretty much just a blasted out facsimile of our own. A few solid resources exist to tell what would happen to our country and world if our cities were suddenly abandoned and taken over by wildlife and can be found in the master reference list below.

Zombies in the world of The Dead Walk Again are very traditional. They are shambling monstrosities with no recognizable brain function outside of walk and eat (humans). Outside of humans and dogs, they show no sign of interest in eating any traditional North American animals. They can only be killed by damage to the brain. They suffer from rot and decay, but will not continuously rot until nothing is left of their bodies. A bite from a zombie will pass the infection on. Any concerns about the nature of zombies in the world should be put towards the e-mail listed on the account below.

What We Want:

The Dead Walk Again is looking for writers willing to contribute to the ongoing narrative of the zombie apocalypse. We want stories of survival in the zombie world told in the first person by actual survivors of the zombie hordes as they struggle to make it in a world overrun by zombies. We want to build this world from the tiniest stories. We want stories about perseverance through a terrible situation.

We recommend that you tell stories personal to your own area or to areas that you know well. Realism is key in The Dead Walk Again storytelling, and tales told about one’s own town often offer the most realistic look at the basics of surviving there should something go wrong. Basically, if you live in Utah, don’t base your story in New York City. Stay true to what you know.

We are not looking for just a bunch of “how I survived the first few days” stories, but we are looking for stories that cover the first three or four months of a zombie infestation. It’s fine if that’s a subject you want to cover, but outside of our first couple stories, that isn’t the focus here. The focus is on the ongoing struggle to survive in a world where humanity is suddenly not on top of the food chain.

We also aren’t interested in a whole lot of world building. No one should be figuring out the secret to why the zombies exist or anything to the effect. We may get to that story someday, but it will be quite some time in the future.

Both continuing narratives and snippets are acceptable. Remember though the conceit that this is all a still active website in the aftermath of the attack. That means that someone has to survive each story (or somehow find another way for the narrative to arrive to the site).

The Nitty-Gritty:

The Dead Walk Again volume one will be published in April 2012. That puts the deadline for submissions as January 31, 2012. No submissions will be accepted after that time and before the announcement of volume two.

Suggested story length is 5,000 to 30,000 words.

All stories must be 100% original and created by the contributors.

Individual creators have complete copyright ownership of their works. With acceptance, The Dead Walk Again only takes the rights to place the story in digital and print form.

The Dead Walk Again contributors will be paid in a percentage of the profits from book sales after cost. Generally this amount falls between 3 to 10% of the book’s total profits after cost. The Dead Walk Again plans to publish one to two anthologies of zombie fiction per year for the foreseeable future.

As we have a limited staff, it may take some time for us to look over your work. Do not be discouraged if we don’t get back to you until a few weeks after your submission is received.

All submissions should be sent to thedead {at} metahumanpress.com. Please include the story in either .doc, .docx or .rtf format.

You don’t have to have a professional writer to submit to us, but we do expect a professional quality manuscript. Proofread (and/or have a friend proofread) your story before submitting it to us.

audio and video storytelling

MHP will consider both audio and video stories as well. Just as in written fiction, realism is key. Cheap production values on video or bad voice acting or sound effects could adversely affect your chances at acceptance. It doesn’t have to be professional grade audio or video (in fact we would prefer it to look choppier), but the actor(s) need to make sure that listeners and viewers can buy in to the world that you are creating.

We would also be glad to replay any original zombie video or audio productions that fit the criteria of the site on our main page.

We offer no pay for audio or video stories, but all copyright remains with the creators. We will allow any links for the storytellers to whatever product page or information site they are interested in using.

photos

We are always on the lookout for zombie pictures, and you are always welcome to submit them. Keep in mind all zombie pictures should be original and owned by the submitter. Pictures filtered through one of the “zombie generators” online, as long as the picture is owned by the submitter, are acceptable.