When
I see it, I’m usually sad for those people. But then again, perhaps the
relationship was not in a good place anyway. After all, who really knows
everything that goes on behind someone’s closed doors?
Well,
in fiction, the writers do. That’s where you come in.
It’s
time to announce the next anthology from Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. As always,
we’re looking for quality short stories, but this time the theme is a little
different. As much as we all like to think about
what might have been, we all know that not all relationships were meant to
last. For you, perhaps it was a May to September romance that still tastes
sweet, or a one-night stand that lasted too long, or maybe the haunting pain
associated with a parent or child who died too young.
In the next anthology from Elephant's
Bookshelf Press, we explore the short-term relationship.
For
the summer edition of our four-season series, we are looking for stories that
share a love or relationship that is or appears to be short-lived or not long
for this world. You might say it’s a combination of Spring Fevers and The Fall:
Relationships facing apocalyptic change.
This
need not be negative. And I pray that it’s sometimes funny. I mean, sometimes getting burned is okay, isn't it?
We’re
looking for previously unpublished stories of up to 7,500 words (Yes, that’s
shorter than we allowed earlier, but those 10,000 word “shorts” can be pretty
hard to get through in one sitting unless they really sing.) They can be in any
style except erotica. I expect we’ll see several Young Adult and New
Adult pieces, maybe even a Middle Grade or two. Romance, steampunk, steampunk
romance, traditional literary, science fiction, science fiction with a lusty
alien or two… you get the point. [Edited 1/17/13: I cannot offer payment for published stories at this time, but all authors will receive a print or electronic version of the finished work. Also, all rights -- including reprint rights -- revert to the author.]
If
there’s something in your trunk based on that guy or girl who left you in the
lurch not long before you wrote it twenty years ago, give it a good once-or-twice-over and make sure it can
handle walking around in the twenty-first century (unless of course it’s
supposed to be set in the twentieth, or sixteenth, or the dawn of time. I seem
to recall Adam and Eve had some issues to get through.) As I’ve said before, inspire
your manuscript with a healthy dose of vitality.
We’re
looking for one submission per author.
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 anthologies@elephantsbookshelfpress.com. The deadline is April 19, but I’ve
already received a story and will gladly accept others ahead of the deadline.
For
this anthology, we have secured the talents of copy editor Laura Carlson of
American Editing Services, who
already has impressed me with her work, and I know other writers who are
impressed by her too and recommend her highly. I'm very much looking forward to working with her, and I believe all the writers in the anthology will be pleased also.
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;
·
When
you want to denote a scene 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 a potential annoyance and challenge for some of the
e-publishing formats, but it’s not a deal breaker. We’ll work with the copy.
But 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 produces books and
anthologies that entertain the reader and keep them thinking – and when
appropriate, laughing too.
After
all, just because your love life or life in general is on the rocks, it doesn’t
mean you can’t splash it with a little water and add a beer chaser. God knows,
sometimes a sip of something stronger than you can shake you back into a happy
place, and it might even allow you to salvage that relationship. We’d be okay
with that. Who doesn’t like a happy ending?
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!
