Deadline: December 1st, 2020
Payment: $100 for a short story, or $200 for a novella.
Theme: “Politics as Story Conflict.”

Lagrange Books is soliciting short stories and novellas by new and established authors in the fantasy genre, between 3,500 and 7,000 words in length for short stories and between 9,000 and 15,000 words for novellas. (Shorter or longer works will be considered in cases of exceptional merit.) The goal is to select at least ten entries for publication* in a short-story anthology.

Theme: “Politics as Story Conflict.”

Your story must include as a significant plot element a political conflict that makes up a key piece of the worldbuilding. (For guidance on how to do this, you can refer to Beyond Kings and Princesses: Governments for Worldbuilders, from Lagrange Books.)

Accepted authors will receive $100 for a short story, or $200 for a novella.

Submission Rules

How to submit: Email your manuscript (acceptable document formats: Word, PDF, Pages, TXT, RTF) to the following address: editor at lagrangebooks dot com. Begin the subject line with “[Worldbuilding Submission]”, and make sure to list your contact information in the email itself. (Also, please mention how you heard of this anthology!)

Submission deadline: December 1, 2020.

Genre: Fantasy, broadly defined. This includes traditional high fantasy, urban fantasy, or any other flavor that includes a magical or fantastical element. (If you are interested in other genres, please suggest them for our next project!)

Details

Entries must be your own work, must be previously unpublished, and may not be plagiarized. You must own all copyright to work submitted. No exceptions!

Read this post and then this post for discussions of my editorial preferences. Be warned especially that even though the focus of this anthology is on worldbuilding, that does not free you from the need to have a strong plot.

Works must show adequate command of the English language, grammar, and punctuation. Rule-breaking for effect, as with stream-of-consciousness writing or the use of a Flowers-for-Algernon type of narrator, will have to show particular merit. Otherwise, do your editing in advance!

Works with strong thematic elements are encouraged. Characters must face significant obstacles to be overcome (whether they succeed or not). Nihilism can be part of the setup, but should not be the conclusion—the characters should push through nihilism to the other side, whatever that is.

Works that are overtly proselytizing, or overtly bigoted against a particular religion or against religion in general, will be rejected out of hand.

PG-13. Swearing should be mild, sex of the fade-to-black variety; gore can be present if justified by the plot and theme, but should not be luridly emphasized.

Good luck!

* Selected authors will be asked to sign a contract granting exclusive publication rights to their story in print and electronic media for a term of 12 months from publication; and further allowing us to keep this anthology in print even after other rights have reverted back.

Via: LaGrange Books.