Deadline: December 31st, 2024
Payment: Contributor’s copy
Theme: The stories must be ‘trashy’ in some way (ideas below.)

Deadline for submissions: midnight, 31 December 2024

We are excited to invite submissions for a new anthology of trashy fiction – TRASH TALES – due to be published in August 2025!

All profits (after expenses) will be donated to literacy charities in the UK and US.

The full submission guidelines are available below.

The collection will be produced by me (CriminOlly) and Alex from micro press Kilter and Rammel. Check out Kilter and Rammel’s site here.

We’re looking for short story submissions, no longer than 5000 words and previously unpublished. It can be in any category or genre you like, as long as it’s what we might all consider of a trashy nature!

Some ideas (this list is non-exhaustive):

• Naughty nurses and sexy shifters: spicy or sweet category romance
• One man armies: men’s adventure
• The Wild, and sometimes Weird West: westerns
• Trashy Tales of Terror : cheesy horror fiction featuring creepy kids, killer animals, mutants and monsters, etc.
• Science Fiction Shenanigans: Alien invaders, technology gone haywire
• Crime, Pulp, That Sort of Thing: Gritty detective fiction, real world or with an added twist of the supernatural/paranormal/occult
• Mystery-solving Moggies: Cosy crime involving animals, baked goods and such like
• Level Up: LitRPG (Literary Roleplaying Game) stories.

So get thinking up those trashy stories, and we look forward to seeing what you’ve got for us to read!

If you have any questions about submitting, or about the project in general, please email us at [email protected].

TRASH TALES
Submission Guidelines
Stories selected by Olly Clarke, Alex J Gardner and the editorial team.
Edited by Alex J Gardner. To be published by Kilter & Rammel Publishing in August 2025.

How to Submit:
Send a PDF of your story to [email protected] by midnight on 31 December 2024.

N.B. ‘Midnight’ applies to your own specific time zone, rather than GMT.

Please include your contact information on the manuscript itself. Required information: legal name; pseudonym (if applicable); postal address; email address; word count (to the nearest 100 words).
One entry per writer, please.

Submissions should be maximum 5000 words, in standard manuscript format (1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced).

Submitted work should be previously unpublished. You are free to submit your work elsewhere even if it is accepted for Trash Tales, but please tell us if it is accepted elsewhere before we publish.\

What will we accept?
Short stories, flash fiction, micro fiction in any category we all might consider a bit trashy!
Categories include but are not limited to: category romance; men’s adventure; westerns; horror; science fiction; gritty crime or cosy mystery; LitRPGs.

What won’t we accept?

– Blatant pornography
– Fan fiction or adaptations (unless the source material is public domain)
– Any content created solely using artificial intelligence (AI).

Legal information

Selected writers will be required to sign a contract indicating they are the sole and true owner of the material submitted.
We reserve the right to cancel the project as circumstances demand i.e. if we do not receive enough qualified submissions, or publishing costs change significantly, etc.

By submitting, you:
– Indicate a level of understanding of “trash” or “trashy” in relation to
literature.
– Agree to one-time, non-exclusive use by Kilter & Rammel Publishing

Compensation:
If selected, you will receive an e-book (sent via email in a format suitable for your e-reader) and one paperback copy of the finished product.

Timeline:

– Now – 31 December 2024: submissions accepted.
– 1 January – 28 February 2025: reading and selection. Authors notified of
decisions.
– 1 March – 31 March 2025: agreements signed. Editing begins.
– 1 April – 30 June 2025: editing continues, followed by typesetting and
proofreading. Cover art chosen. Final proof of galleys completed by end of
June.
– 1 July – 31 July 2024: Publicity push (including distribution of e-ARCs).
– 1 August 2025: publication!

If you have any queries related to submission, please contact us at [email protected]
Get your trashy thinking caps on and get writing! We can’t wait to read what you come up with!
Alex and Olly

Via: Crimon Olly.