Taking Submissions: Bisexual Thrillers

Deadline: February 27th, 2023
Payment: $0.01 CAD per word
Theme: Thrillers, that can have horror, see details below for full guidelines

Engen Books Ltd. and Quadrangle are proud to be teaming up again after the positive reception to ‘Acceptance: Stories at the Centre of Us!’

Over the last six years, the Engen’s has become one of the preeminent publishers of fiction anthologies in Atlantic Canada. We have been home to some amazing established talent and helped some new authors break through that have gone on to dominate their fields, becoming bestsellers in their own genres. The From the Rock series is going strong, and we’re happy that our Quadrangle partnership is growing as well!

Quadrangle’s mission is to create a community centre for 2SLGBTQAI+ individuals and organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador, a space that is a resource for building community resilience and connection, and that provides supports for existing initiatives of our 2SLGBTQAI+ community. As a registered charity, both working toward having a community centre, and taking up projects like this one contribute to Quad’s vision of contributing to sustainable, positive, community connections. All profits from this collection will go towards that goal.

We are currently accepting submissions for the second anthology in our partnership series with Quadrangle. This collection will feature strong fiction by and about members of the 2SLBGTQIA+ community.

We decided to pick a different genre and group under the 2SLGBTQIA+ banner with each collection to focus on, and to choose each pairing at random! The dice decided upon BISEXUAL THRILLER for this year’s combination!

When is the deadline?

February 27th, 2023. Expected for publication in Fall of 2023

What is a Thriller?

It’s a very broad term for a genre that gets your blood pumping, and is largely action-oriented. Action movies fall under thriller, as do spy and espionage stories. Crime and mystery stories fall under Thriller. Horror and suspense stories also fall under Thriller.

Note: while we will be accepting well-written stories that fall under the horror genre, we will not be considering stories in which the bisexual character represented plays the role of either monster or victim. Those tropes have been done to death, they’re not for this collection.

Further note: we WILL be accepting stories featuring positive 2SLGBTQIA+ representation from outside the “Bisexual Thriller” combination, but as that will be the main focus of the collection, stories with a Bisexual or Thriller take, or both, have a better shot of making it in.

What is the target audience?

For this specific collection, we’re going for an equivalent of PG to PG-13. Rather than limit our authors creatively, we encourage them to write from the heart and allow us to work with them to fine-tune the work after the fact.

What does it pay?

Authors are paid $0.01 CAD per word, to an upper limit of 7000 words.

Are there minimum/ maximum word limits?

There are not minimum word limits. In the past we have had stories as short as 250 words. We have set 7,000 words as a maximum word limit, only because we anticipate many submissions and want to fit as many as we can in.🙂

Can someone submit more than one story?

Of course! We may take one or both! We have had the same author in the same collection multiple times in the past.

Who can submit?

Any Canadian author looking to celebrate great Canadian writing! There is also no age restriction. Anyone over Canadian Age-of-Consent (16 years of age) can submit and sign the print release on their own. Entrants younger than that will have to sign the print release with a parent of guardian.🙂

Who keeps the printing rights?

You do! Engen Books Ltd merely gains the right to print your story in this one collection. You keep the rights to your story and property: so if it takes off and becomes a huge hit, you keep all the benefits!

Do you accept reprints?

Yes, so long as you hold the copyright to allow us to publish it in the collection and the other criteria for the collection are met. Please tell us if you are submitting a reprint. We do give priority to new stories except in extreme cases.

How do I submit?

All submissions should be directed to [email protected] and should be sent from a reliable email address that you check regularly (we will contact all applicants through email with the status of their submission once the deadline has passed).

When do submissions close?

February 27, 2023 11:59 PM Newfoundland Standard Time.

Do you have questions?

Email them to [email protected] with the words Quad Question in the subject line, we will answer you post haste!🙂

Happy Writing!

We regret that due to the volume of submissions we receive we will be unable to acknowledge receipt of entries. We will contact you after submissions close, usually within 30 days, to let you know if we accepted your work or not.

Via: Engen Books.

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