Taking Submissions: Stories On Flame

Submission Window: November 1st to December 31, 2024
Payment: $25 and a contributors copy
Theme: Music of Blue Öyster Cult

SUBMISSION CALL ALERT: Inspired by the success of “Dismember The Coop,” a horror anthology inspired by the music of Alice Cooper, I am putting together an anthology of short stories inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult. It’s tentatively titled “Stories On Flame”.
These are intended to be dark/horror fantasy and sci-fi stories, which is a consistent theme throughout BÖC’s music. Think of songs like “Black Blade,” “Monsters,” “Godzilla,” “I Love The Night,” “Sole Survivor,” “Take Me Away,” “E.T.I.,” and so many more.
Note that if you base a story on “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” it better be a killer because many other people probably will too, if the flood of stories based on “Welcome To My Nightmare” for “Dismember The Coop” was any indication. I will only accept one story for a particular song, so the more creative and deep catalog you can go, the better your chance of acceptance. Presuming it’s a good story, of course. Also, “Astronomy” is already spoken for. Sorry. 😉
Also, though I mentioned it above as an example, you should avoid a story based on “Godzilla,” as that’s another copyright pitfall waiting to happen.
What I expect is to take a song and use it as just a germ of an idea to spin a complete tale from. I don’t want simple prose retellings of songs, as that’s not creative at all, and they will be summarily rejected. If you need an example of how to do this successfully, check out “Dismember The Coop” on Kindle Unlimited.
Note that lyrics cannot be used in these stories. The copyrights on those can be a convoluted maze, and we don’t want to go down that road. Song titles and character names can be used, and I love Easter Eggs in stories, little nods to the band, other songs, etc.

Word count needs to be between 3000-5000 words. If it’s toward the upper end of that, it better be a killer story.
Payment will be $25, payable on publication, plus a paperback or ebook of the anthology. The intent is to create a paperback, ebook, and large print version of the anthology, and maybe an audiobook. I’m targeting Spring 2025 for publication.
Submission dates are from November 1 to December 31, 2024. So you have plenty of time to work on the story before the submission window opens. Stories must be in an editable format, preferably Microsoft Word. I will accept other formats such as Google Docs, but let’s face it, Google lets you easily export to Word anyway. Anything submitted in PDF will be rejected without being read. I’m not worried about fonts, etc., as I’ll reformat it all for publication anyway. Just don’t use anything that will give me a migraine reading it. 😉
Please submit stories, after November 1st, to [email protected]… You can also use that email if you have questions about the anthology, or you can contact me via Facebook Messenger…
So get those brains a-working and let’s see what you can come up with!

Via: Bert Edens.