We consider stories for two types of publications:
- Website
- Anthologies (approximately 20 stories per anthology)
Response Time: We will try our best to respond in four to eight weeks after the submission period ends. The first wave of rejections is usually quick (two weeks after the submission period ends)
Word Count: 4,000–15,000 for website and anthologies; 500–2000 for flash fiction anthologies
Submission Fee: None
Rights: the copyright to the story remains yours. All we ask for are nonexclusive rights to publish your story
Payment:
Currently, there is no payment for website publications because the blog is not yet monetized and we are in the beta phase (which may last for eight to twelve months). Once we get the numbers, we will come up with a model (probably token advance) that will allow us to pay our writers as well as fund the growth of TGVB (YouTube channel, audiobooks, story podcast, etc). It is an important goal for us to reach the stage when we can pay a decent sum to our authors. However, it will take time as these are some hard times for small presses. But we are sure we will get there if we keep working diligently. While monetary payment is not possible at the moment, we still want to offer some perks!
Payment is 40% net profit divided equally among the contributors of that anthology. Net profit accounts for discounts, returns, and printing cost; we do not subtract any cover art, editing, formatting, or promotion costs. In other words, we pay 40% of the money vendors (such as Amazon) pay us. If the anthology doesn’t perform well, we will pay a one-time payment of 5 USD to each author (if future royalty share exceeds this amount, the remainder will also be paid). We understand that this amount is quite low. TGVB is currently operating under loss. Payment will increase as we grow.
We believe in transparency. Our goal is to become a press our authors are super proud and happy to be associated with. Unfortunately, TGVB was founded not long before the pandemic of 2020. This is a difficult time for many industries. Small presses may not heal for a long time. Therefore, the profit earned from anthologies is quite small; the reason why we heavily invested in the website model. The one thing we can promise is that we will do everything we can to create absolutely gorgeous paperbacks and make them available widely. Print is a slow game. Eventually, the website traffic will help our books gain even more visibility, so we expect that the profit for anthologies will also rise. At that time, we will shift to the token payment model (along with royalties).
(Note: these payment terms are applicable to all previous TGVB anthologies as well)
Format:
(We have tried our best to keep our formatting guidelines standard. If you feel any guideline is extraneous or frustrating, please contact us and we will consider changing it.)
- File type: .docx only (our system does not support any other format currently. But if there’s no way you can convert the file, send an email to thegreatvoidsubmissions(at)gmail(dot)com. However, while every story will be read, stories submitted using the TGVB Submissions Manager will receive responses faster.)
- Font: Times New Roman, 12-point
- Don’t include any details inside the document; start directly (we read submissions blind)
- Use indents of 0.5 inches for paragraphs; don’t use tabs or spaces
- Single space after periods. No unnecessary blank lines between paragraphs
- Use *** (three asterisks) for scene breaks
- Check your punctuation marks (em-dash should be em-dash, not a hyphen or two consecutive hyphens; ellipsis should be an ellipsis, not three consecutive periods; and please use curly marks for quotes, commas, and apostrophes)
- No spacing around em-dashes and ellipses
- No double spacing after periods. Use italics instead of underlines.
How to submit:
You’ll find the TGVB Submissions Manager at the right bottom corner of the page. Go there and TGVB’s virtual assistant Voidly will guide you with the procedure.
Please note that stories submitted without a summary will not be considered. We have only one editor. We cannot read all stories completely. We read the first three pages and the summary to determine the first cut. This sounds a little harsh, but please understand that this is the only way we can keep up with the schedule. This is a good thing for writers too because we can be quick in sending out the first wave of rejections.
A good summary should tell what the story is about. It should describe the main characters, the conflict, and the main plot points. If you’re following a standard plot structure, also mention that. All in 2000 characters (300-450 words). Think of it like a super-condensed outline.
The following submissions will not be considered:
- Poems (single-author poetry collections will be considered in the future)
- Screenplays
- Stories with word count outside the word count range (100-200 words here and there is fine)
- Stories sent before or after the submission period
- Stories that do not belong to the genre or the theme of the anthology
- Stories that may be hurtful to members of the LGBTQIA+ community or POC or any race. Stories that include these elements but treat them seriously and sensitively will be considered.
- Stories that rely too much on shock value. Sometimes, such stories will be considered for certain subgenres of horror (but even then we prefer stories with substance)
- Stories that were submitted in a previous submission period but were declined. Please know that we consider all possibilities before rejecting a story. So, submitting it again will not change our opinion. We will consider such a story only if it has been significantly edited; in this case, please describe the changes in the summary section.
- Stories cannot be submitted without a summary. No blurbs in place of summary, please.
We have no problem with simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions (three max), and reprints. In fact, since we cannot pay much at the moment, we encourage you to submit reprints so that you can continue trying for well-paying publications for your unpublished stories and we can give your old darlings a new life. We love all good stories equally.
Before you submit, please read our understanding of a good story (and it’s not just ours—good storytelling is universal). The following passages are small because we don’t want to waste your time, but our editor has included all the main points. Upon reading them, if you think your story needs another round of editing, please consider doing that first before submitting; otherwise, your story may not get very far in the selection process. We read submissions several times a year, so you can even skip the current submission period if you need more time—the doors will be open before long.
That’s all! Thank you so much for considering TGVB. We really hope you will give us a chance. We are looking forward to reading your amazing stories!
