Book Smugglers Publishing: Open Call For Short Stories Submissions (Summer 2017)

Submissions are now closed. As of August 23, 2016 Book Smugglers Publishing is currently open for short stories submissions for publication in 2017.

General information and theme:

We’re looking for original short stories from all around the world as long as they are written in English. Our goal is to publish at least three short stories, unified by a central theme. Each short story will be accompanied by one original piece of artwork from an artist commissioned by us separately.

For the publication period between May and August 2017, the theme is:

GODS AND MONSTERS

GODS AND MONSTERS will be Book Smugglers Publishing’s fourth season of short stories, following Fairytale Retellings, First Contact, and Superheroes.

When it comes to Gods and Monsters, anything goes. You – the author – should take the theme and run with it any way you want. It can be Gods VERSUS Monsters, or Gods but not Monsters, or Monsters without Gods. As usual, we encourage authors to subvert these sample themes, to expand upon what “gods and/or monsters” means, and adapt the prompt to other possible connotations and genres under the Speculative Fiction umbrella.

What We’re Looking For:

• DIVERSITY. We want to read and publish short stories that reflect the diverse world we live in, about and from traditionally underrepresented perspectives. We more than welcome stories featuring LGBTQIA characters. Following Fireside Fiction’s recent report on underrepresented black writers, we more than welcome black writers to submit their stories.
• Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audience submissions are welcome. Good speculative fiction is ageless!
• We are VERY keen on receiving Romance stories – or stories with strong romantic elements.
• We are VERY keen on receiving Horror stories – or stories with strong horror elements.
• Creativity & Subversion. We love subversive stories. We want you to challenge the status quo with your characters, story telling technique, and themes.

Guidelines for Submission:

• We are looking for original speculative fiction, between 1,500 and 17,500 words in length.
• These SFF offerings must be previously unpublished; we do not accept simultaneous submissions.
• Profanity, sex, and other explicit situations are fine as long as they fit within the context of the story.
• Submissions are open now, and will be open through December 31 2016 11:59PM PST. Any submissions received after that date will not be considered.

Payment and Terms:

We are funding this ourselves because we are passionate about finding new and diverse voices in SFF. We will be paying $0.06 per word up to $500 (although we welcome stories from a minimum of 1,500 words and up to a maximum of 17,500 words long).

We plan on publishing these short stories for free in their entirety on thebooksmugglers.com. We also plan on selling these stories in ebook (and possibly limited print editions) at a 50% net royalty, with potential inclusion in future anthologies (royalty to be negotiated). We ask for exclusive rights for one year, and non-exclusive rights following that.

How to Submit:

Submissions should be emailed to submissions@thebooksmugglers.com. You may also use the contact form below.

Please attach your full story as a document (.doc, .docx, .rtf). Do not send your story as text in the body of an email; we will ignore any manuscripts that are not attachments.

A cover letter is highly recommended – tell us who you are! – as we would love to learn a little bit about you and the inspiration behind your work (or anything else you think is relevant to your story submission). Important new addition for 2017: We are including an optional self-identification field in the submissions form. If you would like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background please do so by filling out this field (or if you prefer to email, in your cover letter). This is completely voluntary and not a requirement.

We will reply to all authors who have submitted work with our decision by February 10 2017.

We are happy to answer any of your questions – leave a comment or email us (contact@thebooksmugglers.com), and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

And…that’s it! We hope to be reading your excellent short stories very soon.

Submissions Form

Use this form to submit your manuscript for Book Smugglers Publishing: Summer 2018 ("Awakenings").