One
thing shouldn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: We’re looking for
quality. We’re not the Statue of Liberty. We’re not looking for your tired or
poor stories. If you have one yearning to breathe the free air outside of the
trunk where it’s sat for the past twenty years, make sure you give it some
mouth to mouth. Inspire your manuscript with a healthy dose of vitality. That
worked for some writers published in Spring
Fevers.
What we’re looking for right now are submissions for The Fall. It will be an anthology of
short stories that are dystopian, apocalyptic, or post-apocalyptic in nature.
More to the point, they will deal with endings and subsequent beginnings. To be
sure, we writers can be a depressing lot if left to our own maudlin devices.
And some of the stories will carry a dark cloud along with them, which means
we’ll need some that, perhaps, blow those clouds away and cleanse the palette
and the prairie.
I’m
looking for one submission per author.
Sorry, no previously published stories. If it’s appeared on your blog already, let me
know, but that is not an automatic kill in my book. Send submissions to antholsubs@gmail.com. The deadline is August 17. If you have something ready before then, you are most welcome to send it early. It will definitely help us stay on schedule. Sorry, there's no payment for an accepted story. .
These
stories can take just about any form: science fiction; young adult; middle
grade; heck, even romance if you can swing that. The restriction is
erotica. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a well-told sexy story, but they're not
always appreciated by readers – or writers whose stories appear right after the
erotica, for that matter.
The
maximum length is 10,000 words. That’s a maximum, not a target. None of the
stories in Spring Fevers came close
to five figures.
For
ease of formatting and time-saving on the copyediting and final proofing,
please adhere to the following format styles:
·
Use
Times Roman;
·
12
pt. type;
·
1"
margin all around;
·
Double-spaced
lines;
·
Do
not add extra line between every paragraph;
·
Instead
of an extra line between a paragraph to denote a break, please use a single “#”;
·
Paragraphs
indented 0.5". Please use the autoformat settings on Microsoft Word for
paragraph indentations rather than manually inserting a tab or individual
spaces. This feature is found under the ‘Paragraph’ format window;
·
Use a SINGLE SPACE following a period at
the end of a sentence, NOT two spaces;
·
Use STRAIGHT QUOTES rather than SMART
QUOTES. This is an autoformat/autocorrect feature in Word that, if checked,
turns straight quote marks and apostrophes into ‘curly’ quote marks and
apostrophes. This can cause formatting issues when the text is converted to a
final font and style for publication. Under WORD OPTIONS, click on PROOFING,
then on AUTOCORRECT OPTIONS, then make sure the line that says ‘Replace
straight quotes with smart quotes’ is UNCHECKED.
Should
you choose not to adhere to these guidelines, your story will still be
considered. It’s an annoyance, but it’s not a deal breaker. The more you can do
in advance, the faster the editing process will go and the cleaner and more
consistent the final published book presentation will be.
Because
that’s part of what we’re looking to create, too – a clean, consistent book
that readers enjoy by authors whose work they want to read again and again.
Ideally, you’ll discover that Elephant’s Bookshelf Press, LLC, will produce
books and anthologies that entertain the reader and keep them thinking. A laugh
here and there is also appropriate.
After
all, whether you’re facing the end of the world, the end of a relationship, or
the end of a blog post, it’s good to be able to smile and say, “Yeah, that was
pretty darn satisfying.”
If
you have additional questions, feel free to post a comment here, or you can
send it to the email address above. A comment will allow me to respond for
everyone. Because if you were confused, it’s possible others were too.
Thanks in advance to everyone!
