EBP Launches New Anthology

At long last, Elephant’s Bookshelf Press is launching a new anthology effort!

So, what is the genre? Science fiction.

In a sense, it’s a way for me to go back to my beginnings, because when I started writing, my primary focus was on science fiction.

The best EBP anthologies to date have all had an overarching theme, and I think we have something unique and interesting to shoot for in this anthology.

The unifying theme of these short stories will be Flight.

One of the reasons I like this theme is because it’s a term that has multiple meanings and therefore multiple interpretations. Of course, flight can involve human or alien spaceships, heroes with super-human abilities, winged creatures, but it just as easily could include flight from danger. Heck, I bet there’s a clever person out there who can make a flight of stairs into a vital element of a science fiction story.

I don’t want to be too restrictive in this description. The story should incorporate flight; I leave the details to you.

For our anthology, the stories can be up to 5,000 words long. No erotica.

The submission deadline is January 15. There is no payment, though the published authors will receive both a paperback and electronic edition of the completed anthology.

(This will likely be the first EBP paperback since the demise of CreateSpace, but I’ve been told that this process will be as straight forward as what we had grown accustomed to.)

An early spring publication is my target.

Our team will review the stories as they come in.

Feel free to ask any questions. Send them to matt@elephantsbookshelfpress.com, and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Request for Submissions: Winter Anthology

Submissions are now open for the 2013/14 Winter Anthology.

Regrets, I’ve had a few…

To be human is to have regrets, to question decisions, even to doubt our own abilities and capacities. Whether it’s because of a path not taken or a decision made for selfish or –  perhaps worse – unselfish reasons, we all have had moments we regret. We might regret not recognizing an opportunity. Or we regret being too quick to clutch a seemingly easy victory that left us unable to grab the better opportunity behind it. I’ve known folks who have later regretted making the right decision. Of course, like most things in life, the difference between a right decision and a wrong one can be a matter of perspective.

That’s where you writers come in. The theme for the winter anthology is “regret.” We’re looking for stories that, in some sense, convey regret. As always, we’re looking for quality short stories, but this time the theme is a little different. As in the past, stories can be in almost any genre: no erotica.

I suspect we’ll see a few romance stories, and certainly some young adult and maybe some new adult pieces. I could also imagine some middle grade stories. Children can learn about regret in such poignant ways, after all. And of course, I’m a sucker for traditional contemporary and literary fiction as well as science fiction.

With the flood of submissions we received for what became the two summer anthologies, we’ve decided to change things around a little. First, the word limit is now 5,500 words. (I almost trimmed it to 5,000, but sometimes a story is well-served with a couple more pages.) Second, given that we’re launching our first novel, Whispering Minds in October, we’re that much more time-pressed than we’ve been before, so don’t be shocked if it takes several weeks before you get a decision about whether your story has been accepted. I think it may easily be 4-6 weeks before we send you a yes or no. We’ll try to let you know earlier.

We’re looking for one submission per author. And we're unable to pay for stories, though published authors will receive a copy of the anthology. 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 October 15.

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 always looking to create – 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.

And if you're on the fence about whether your story is good enough, do your best not to regret your decision, whatever it may be.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

Thinking About Summer (and Short Stories)

You ever see a Facebook friend’s relationship status change from “in a relationship” or “married” to “it’s complicated” or even something more definite (“ass handed to me along with a frying pan to the head”) and wonder, “Uh oh, what happened there? They seemed so happy.”

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!