Jules Jones

For anyone with a full length sf&f novel they're looking to place, copied from the Angry Robot blog :

• The next Angry Robot Open Door opens December 1st 2015
• It will close on January 31st 2016
• It will be open to full-length science fiction and fantasy novels
• We want to buy and publish the best of these books on the Angry Robot list

We did want to say the following though. We appreciate diversity at Angry Robot. Our track record at AR speaks for itself, but we can do even better. We also know that writers from diverse backgrounds are sometimes hesitant to submit. So we’re saying this in big letters:

We want to explicitly invite writers from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to submit to this Open Door.

Gacked from Absolute Write: Carina have posted new submission guidelines. These include a higher minimum word count, which applies to unsolicited manuscripts already submitted but not yet accepted. All unsolicited manuscripts under 35,000 words will be rejected. They're working their way through the submission queue to send decline emails based on word count, but authors are welcome to withdraw too-short manuscripts now.

http://carinapress.com/blog/submission-guidelines/

NOTE: Limited open submission period - 01-14 October 2012

I'm not sure who or what started this, but there seems to have been some sort of twitterfest last night amongst the Big 6 speculative fiction editors saying that they do *so* take unagented submissions. I've obviously missed some bit of gossip about yet another round of "go self-pub because the dinosaurs won't take unagented submissions". Anyway, Harper Voyager would like you to know that although they don't normally take unsolicited submissions, they're starting a digital-only imprint, it will take unsolicited submissions, and it's open for submissions from 1 to 14 October 2012. Details here:
http://harpervoyagerbooks.com/harper-voyager-guidelines-for-digital-submission/

As ever, caveat scrivener -- I have not read the fine print and don't know whether there are any interesting gotchas.

Big Finish is looking for Blake's 7 novellas -- 20 kword, first season only, open submission call. Outline and first 1000 words to be in by 10 June 2012. More details at their website:

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/blake-s-7-writers-opportunity

(I very much regret to say that I recognise that it's impractical for me to submit to this call. I don't have anything suitable on hand even in partial draft, and there is no way I can write a novella from scratch in a commercial timeframe until my RSI has improved somewhat. Writers who miss deadlines without very good reason go to the end of the queue for the next submission slot. But dear god I would like to write something for this.)

Need to do a quick scan of the market listings on ERA and erotic_authors to see if there's anything that might suit short stories I have on file. I used to do this regularly for inspiration as well, but given my current output rate there's not much point in that other than if something insists on being written. (Which hasn't happened for a while, which in itself tells you something about how badly going back to a day job hammered my creative energy.)
( under a cut because it's boring to most people )

The big news in the romance blogosphere yesterday was that Harlequin/Mills&Boon are opening a digital-only press, Carina Press, which will cover a much broader range of genres than the print divisions do. They'll be publishing more than romance, and in romance they'll be publishing material that wouldn't fit into the print lines. While it doesn't explicitly say so on the website, apparently that will include LGBT, multiracial, and other "non traditional" romances that have already proven popular at the established digital publishers. It will also include things which you might think at first glance would be perfectly traditional Mills & Boon fare, but which don't actually fit into their existing lines -- e.g., if you've got a cross-genre, it won't be necessary to ramp up the romance to make it fit. The other print-related restriction that's gone is story length -- they'll consider a much wider range of manuscript lengths.

Part of the big news is that they've recruited Angela James, former editor-in-chief at Samhain. This is a smart move. Angela has several years of experience at one of the biggest players in the current digital publishing market. This matters, because while Harlequin have been doing well at digitising their print lines, what this represents is a direct move into a different style of digital publishing. Carina Press is digital-only, DRM-free, and following the model of no advance but high royalty rate -- the same model that has become a flourishing niche market over the last decade by being able to cater to genres with a readership too small for mass market but large enough to support excellent small press sales.

Will it succeed? Maybe not. But this is Harlequin we're talking about. They've survived in business for a century by giving the market what it wants, and they've already got good experience in what it takes on the technical side to put together an ebook and sell it. I want to see their royalty rate and contract[*] before signing on the dotted line, and I want to see them in business long enough to look viable before I risk a full-length manuscript with them, but yes, I'm interested.

[* Harlequin is an actual example of "big publishers screw over their authors too". They've improved over the years, under pressure from the RWA and others, but their contracts have at times been examples of Publishing Evil.]

ETA: apparently I can't read, in spite having read the guidelines looking for *and* *expecting* *to* *find* a statement that LGBT was welcome. It's certainly there now. Insufficiently caffeinated this morning, obviously.

Just been trawling the anthology listings at ERA, and sorted the ones that give specific submission dates by the date. Four due in the next week, so if anyone was thinking of submitting, do something about them this weekend.


June


30 Cruising
Starbooks Press, public sex, m/m (and multiple m), $25 + c
(Note: doesn't explicitly say male writers only, but editor is Shane Allison.)
http://www.erotica-readers.com/ERA/G/Gay_Stories.htm


30 Justus Roux (last week of every month)
fiction and poetry to 7.5k, all orientations, $10
http://www.justusroux.com/36.html


July


1 Shifting Them
Torquere, shapeshifters, m/m/f, 8-10k, $50 + copy
http://www.erotica-readers.com/ERA/G/Shifting_Them.htm


1 Flipped Fables
Torquere, fables, m/m, 5-8, $35 + c
http://www.erotica-readers.com/ERA/G/Flipped_Fables.htm

( more markets )

No idea what this one's like, as I haven't had a chance to do any digging on it, but it was mentioned on the Broad Universe mailing list:

http://www.sniplits.com/authorsroom.jsp

Audio fiction, 100-8000 words, pays $15-$150, broad range of genres but not porn or excess violence (that's most of mine out, then...). Will consider reprints. Doesn't say whether they want just audio rights.

Full details of the Loose Id short story competition are now up at their website: http://www.loose-id.com/marchmadness.aspx

5000-7,000 words erotic romance, all genres and orientations (including poly), closing date 1 March.

Prizes are publishing contracts for the top two entries, VIP club membership or gift certificates for the semi-finalists, and smaller gift certificates for the quarter-finalists. Now, I don't go for slushpiles dressed up as contests, but in this case the contest really does give you something you won't get simply by submitting over the transom, which is the chance to cold-submit a short story -- Loose Id does not normally accept short stories except from authors it already publishes in novella/novel length, and not many of those.

Call for submissions: Samhain Publishing 2008 Fall Ménage and More anthology

Two men focused on her pleasure. One night of indulgence with her best friend and her man. Three men…one love. What’s your fantasy? More than any other, we hear from our readers that the ménage and more is the fantasy they most love reading in erotic romance. In Fall 2008, Samhain Publishing will present three red hot ménage and more stories to our readers…your book could be one of them.

( more details )

From Angela James' blog: http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=1224