Please Don’t Feed the Writer

If you’re a fantasy writer this may just be a great opportunity for you.  Carnivah House has given an open call for submissions for it’s “Infinity Swords” anthology.  stories should be between 1,000 and 6,000 words. Payment is a flat fee $50.00.

this is a good opportunity if you have a knack for writing very short pieces that tell the whole story. (And it’s not easy to do, let me tell you!)  their submission guidelines are prety straightforward, though there seems to be some confusion as to whether the final date for submission is January 15th or June 15th 2008.  I think I’d shoot for january, if i were you.

Have Fun!

Escape Velocity Magazine is accepting stories in the Hard SciFi Genre.  While the magazine only pays $10.00 US for a story, they prefer true shorts of 1,000 to 5,000 words.  If you write like i do, you’re talking about $10.00 for about an hour’s work (three if you want to go back and polish), and a good bit of exposure for your work.

Please note that Escape Velocity is about Hard Science fiction, they do not accept fantasy stories or “cowboys in space” (think Han Solo or Flash Gordon).  If you happen to have something lying about that fits their guidelines, it may be well worth the time to send it in to them.

Though this company does not pay quite as handsomely as the previous two I’ve listed, it’s a great place to submit if you like to write on the darker side of Fantasy.

Dark Recesses (http://www.darkrecesses.com) is a quarterly ezine that publishes horror and dark fantasy. The publication pays 3 cents a word, up to $150 for stories 500-5000 words (shorter pieces have a better chance here.) Complete guidelines are available at the website. There are plans in the works to move into a print publication in 2008.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have one or two pretty dark tales floating around in my sluch-pile. maybe I’ll have to dust them off.

Jim Baen’s Universe (http://www.baensuniverse.com) is another beautiful online publication, this one bi-monthly. The publication recently re-opened to submissions. Editors are looking for all kinds of science fiction and fantasy stories, or various lengths. At least two slots per issue are dedicated to new writers. They have a complicated pay structure, ranging from 6 cents a word for new writers, to 8 to 15 cents a word for slush pile manuscripts from more established writers, to 25 cents a word for commissioned works. In addition, they pay royalties if the magazine reprints the story in paper and some other circumstances detailed in their guidelines. Length is wide open here, from short stories to novellas. They have a lot to say about the length debate in their guidelines.

If you write science fiction or fantasy and have a short story you think is worth getting out to the world, why not submit it to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show? The IGMS
pays 6 cents per word up to 7,500 and 5 cents per word thereafter, which means for a quick 7,500 word story that fits their guidelines, you have the opportunity to net a nice little payment for $450.00, and of course, it just goes up from there. (That’s 0.06 * 7500 = $450.00)

They only take the rights to your story for one year, and after that you’re free to submit it to other anthologies or publishers. If they choose to reprint it, you get more royalties. Not a bad plan at all, if you ask me.

(Now where’d I put that old story???)

Do you have a manuscript that has that PERFECT first line?  You know it rocks…everyone says it rocks…and the ms is just sitting there collecting dust!  Do something about it!  Samhain, e and print publisher of ALL genres has a first lines contest!

Thanks to inspiration from the Romance Divas and author Karin Tabke, Samhain Publishing is going to be holding a Best First Line contest on our blog (http://www.samhainpublishing.com/blog).

Starting Monday, June 4th at 8am Eastern, authors are invited to leave the first line of a previously unpublished work (of 12,000 words or more) in the comments of the Best First Line blog post. The contest is open to published and unpublished authors not currently contracted with Samhain Publishing.

On Friday, June 8th at noon Eastern, we will close the comments and no more entrants will be admitted into the contest. Only those who enter by posting on our first line contest blog post between 8:00 a.m. EST, June 4th 2007 and 12:00 Noon EST, June 8th will be eligible to participate in the first line contest.

Samhain editors will choose a group of entrants for the next round and the “winning” first lines will be posted on Monday, June 11th. Winners of the first round will have until early noon Eastern on Friday to post their first and second lines (both must be posted together) in the comments of that blog post—we will not email those who move on to the next round, you must check back at the blog. The contest will run in a subsequent manner(with previous lines plus the new line, being posted), with editors paring down the entries and asking for the next line in the entry, for a total of 5 lines. The contest will end on July 6th and a minimum of three entrants will be invited to submit their manuscript (first three chapters and complete synopsis, minimum) to Samhain Publishing for consideration for publication on our 2008 schedule.

A few rules:
1) One line only (a dialogue tag is allowed, but make sure you’re punctuating things correctly. We’re editors. We’ll know if you cheat and use an action tag making it a second line, instead of one whole line)
2) If you move on to the second round, you cannot change that first line in any way. Each line posted must remain as written as you move through the rounds.
3) If we close the comments before you’ve had a chance to post your next line, we’re very sorry, but you will be eliminated from the competition. We must make this fair for everyone and still make it workable for us, and the only way to do that is to post a deadline.
4) This contest is for new material only. No previously published material
5) Samhain is a general publisher, you may enter material of any genre!
6) One entry per person, please.

This is an opportunity for everyone who’s been waiting for submissions to open. Submissions are due to remain closed until later in the summer, so we’re giving at least three people the chance to get their work in front of a Samhain editor before submissions re-open. If interest in the contest is high, we will give this opportunity to five authors.

*permission to forward granted*

I know someone who’ll be very interested in this message :-)