Taking Submissions: Science Fiction Is a Drag!

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Deadline: October 1st, 2024
Payment: $50 and royalties
Theme: Original, previously unpublished, science fiction stories that are, first and foremost, drag

Science Fiction Is a Drag! is a drag anthology.

We’re looking for original, previously unpublished, science fiction stories that are, first and foremost, drag.  This is an anthology where those of us in the drag community can gather and tell the stories that we’d never be able to publish anywhere else.  Stories up to 10,000 words will be considered.

Publication date is sometime in 2025.

Submission Deadline: October 1, 2024

What we don’t want:

• Stories by straight people who think drag performers are cute, funny, scary, etc. and have no real connection to the drag community or drag rhetoric. (We, of course, are cute, funny, scary, etc., but there’s an ineffable deeper element that those of us who are drag get and others don’t.)

• Stories by LGBT+ people who think drag performers are cute, funny, scary, etc. and have no real connection to the drag community or drag rhetoric. (Or, if you think of people who do drag as “them” and not “us,” I’d prefer if you let “us” have a room of our own.)

• Stories by members of the drag community that were written for the straights and have nothing drag about them at all.  You may certainly send us your drag stories that were written for the straights or your stories that are written for us in the drag community.  But they must be drag stories not just by someone who does drag.

• Look, I don’t have the money to take on Disney, Paramount, Warner, the Frank Herbert estate. If it’s set in someone else’s intellectual property, I can’t use it.  The day I have the money to get the proper permissions to do Star Wars Episode 69: A New Drag, I plan to write it myself.

What we do want:

This is drag. You be you.  Write it, submit it, and let me worry about how to make a show out of it.

Pay rate:

Anyone doing an authentic drag anthology has to know that it’s a limited market.  While we’re all hoping that it will be a big hit, we can’t bet the farm on that.  So we’re paying an advance of $50 per story, payable on publication.  50% of the publisher’s gross royalties (the money we get sent from the company that does our printing and distribution after they take their cut of what the bookseller pays them) will go to the authors equally, payable in $50 increments after the advance has been recouped (so when we’ve earned enough to pay each author a total of $100, each author will get paid the next $50) or quarterly, whichever happens second.

Rights:

We ask for first worldwide English rights, exclusive for a period of 2 years after the publication of the anthology, non-exclusive thereafter.  It is our policy to grant reprint permission for legitimate “Year’s Best” and awards-consideration anthologies that will be released during the exclusivity period provided they provide courtesy credit to us.

Simultaneous Submissions:

The whole point of doing this anthology is to give drag writers a chance to tell drag stories.  If you can convince Trevor Quachri to buy your drag story, we want you to!  Just let us know if the story is on submit elsewhere or if you plan to keep it in circulation while we’re considering it, and then withdraw it promptly if you get an acceptance elsewhere for it.

Multiple Submissions:

I don’t want your entire fucking trunk, but at the same time I don’t want you trying to guess which of your masterpieces is going to be the best fit.  Don’t abuse the privilege, and you may feel free to send me more than one story at a time.  Send me the ones you know are among your strongest but are very, very different from each other.

Developmental Editing:

If I believed there were opportunities for drag writers to tell drag science fiction stories elsewhere, I wouldn’t be bothering with this project.  That means that I welcome and encourage writers who haven’t had a chance to fully develop their skills to send me their stuff.  If it’s promising but I don’t think it’s ready for prime time, I may just send you a huge list of rewrites I think you should do.  You’re welcome to take all or some of those suggestions and send me a revision for further consideration.  You’re also free to tell me go fuck myself.  It’s your story, not mine.

A.I. Policy:

Just don’t. If I wanted A.I.-written stories, I’d generate them myself and not pay you to do it. And if I wanted plagiarized stories, I know people who do it way better than the A.I.s.

FAQ:

How do you define drag?

If I could define drag, it wouldn’t be drag any more. The drag community is huge, global, diverse, and always rethinking itself. If you’re drag, you know it. Bring me your definition of drag.

Are women allowed to submit?

Yes.

Do you accept drag king stories?

Drag king is absolutely drag. The queens may be dominant, but we’re not the only voices. Submit away!

Are trans stories allowed?

Drag ≠ Trans.  Trans ≠ Drag.  But if it’s trans and drag, then sure!

Can straight people submit?

Are you drag? I know there are people who don’t believe straights can do drag, but if you’re drag you don’t listen to those people, now do you? If you’re not drag, then stop trying to barge in on someone else’s space.

What if I’m not part of the drag community?

I’m going to break that down. Are you drag but lacking a community?  If so, then you belong here, and if anyone has ever made you feel like you don’t belong, then you should be calling us out on that in your story. If you’re not drag but think you can write drag, please save the space for someone who is drag and sit this one out.

But what if I’m not drag enough?

Oh, honey, you are enough. Don’t go self-rejecting.

But what if I’m not drag myself but I write for a drag performer?

That is so drag!

Is explicit content allowed?

This is drag.

How do you define science fiction?

I don’t.  This is drag.

Can I co-write my story with someone else?

Yes! In fact, if you’re drag but not a writer, or a writer but not drag, co-writing is a great approach. However, the advance and royalties are going to be per piece, not per author, so you have to figure out on your own how you’re dividing up the spoils.

How to Submit:

Submit stories via our Moksha submission portal.

Queries:

I use gmail for my correspondence.

If you have questions or need guidance, feel free to reach out to me. Put “QUERY” in the subject line so I know it’s not spam. Submissions sent to the query address will be treated like spam.

The username is ladyzinniafuchs.

Note that that’s an H. I don’t know who’s got that username with a K, but trust me, they don’t want that sort of query. Fuchs is an old Deutsch word for “fox,” which is what I am. The C-H-S is pronounced like an X, so my name is pronounced just like “Fox” but with a U sound. ladyzinniafuchs.

Via: Lady Zinnia.

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