Taking Submissions: When Vampires Save the (Day) Night
Deadline: March 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Vampires that are doing good in unique and interesting ways (see below for more!)
Submission Period: 1 January to 31 March 2025
Maximum Word Count: 8000
Submission Email: [email protected]
“When Vampires Save the Day Night: Heroes, Anti-Heroes, and Not-So-Reformed Villains” is seeking nontraditional vampire stories for an anthology to be edited and released by Rebecca Buchanan.
What do we mean by “nontraditional”? We want stories of vampires as beings of order, continuity, preservation, and conservation; beings concerned with their legacy, with their connection to humanity and the world at large. For example,
— a vampire who guards a hidden library of banned and forgotten books;
— a vampire with gardens of extinct plants and secret seed vaults scattered around the world;
— a vampire linguist leading an expedition into the wilds of northern Canada to record a dying language;
— a vampire who has dedicated their fortune to bringing back extinct animal species through genetic research;
— a vampire archaeologist who tires of misinformation about their ancient birth civilization, and leads a dig to uncover it;
— a vampire guarding an isolated wilderness from those who would exploit it;
— a vampire anthropologist arranging for an endangered culture to be transported safely off-planet;
— a vampire hematologist working to cure a blood-borne illness;
— a vampire who offers shelter to the restless souls of suicide victims;
— and more.
We’re interested in fiction, essays, poetry, comics, recipes, plays, and more. Surprise us with your creativity! Draw from the world’s vast and varied vampire mythology and lore, but please don’t send in a rehash of “Dracula” or “Carmilla.” Yes, your vampire can and should still be scary — because they’re vampires, duh! And, yes, their vampiric nature must be a key narrative element in the story, not just slapped on for a bit of sparkle.
We’re interested in stories that could be broadly defined as urban fantasy, occult detective, paranormal mystery, action/adventure, science fiction, and more. Your vampire’s motivations might be altruistic (they really do just want to make the world a better place) or selfish (because how are they supposed to get the silk for their favorite clothes if all the silkworms die out?). Your vampire might live in a society that accepts the paranormal or they might be hiding as an ordinary human. They might be fighting others of their own kind or greedy corporations or the ignorance of humanity.
Minimum word count for fiction and essays is 1000. Maximum word count is 8000 (a smidge over is fine). Send your submission to [email protected] as a .doc/.docx, .rtf, or .txt attachment. Please include your name, type of submission, and title in the subject field. No special formatting is necessary, but times new roman or courier is preferred. Include your name and contact information in the submission. Submissions will be open from 1 January to 31 March 2025 only. Submissions sent outside this reading period will be automatically rejected. Responses to all submissions will be sent by 1 May 2025. We anticipate an August 2025 release date in both digital and print formats.
No reprints.
No plagiarism. No plagiarism software. Your submission must be your own creation, not stolen, directly or indirectly, from another author.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know as soon as possible if your work is accepted elsewhere.
No multiple submissions. Please limit yourself to one submission.
Payment will be made in the form of royalty shares via Draft2Digital. As the editor, formatter, and publisher, Rebecca Buchanan will take 25% of the royalties. The remaining 75% will be distributed equally among all of the contributors for as long as the anthology remains available. “When Vampires Save the Day Night” requires one year world-wide exclusivity from date of publication, after which the anthology will retain non-exclusive rights. At that point, contributors may publish their piece elsewhere as they see fit.
Contributors will also receive a free digital edition in .pdf or .epub format, as they prefer. Physical copies may be purchased at cost, plus shipping.
Not sure if your idea will work? Query the editor!
And happy writing!
Via: Eternal Haunted Summer.
