Speculative Fiction 2013: Open for Submissions

Speculative Fiction: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary is a collection that celebrates the best in online Science Fiction and Fantasy non-fiction – the top book reviews, essays and commentary.

The goal is to have a collection published annually, rotating editors each year. We are proud to say that The Book Smugglers will be the editors of the 2013 edition!

The first volume, edited by bloggers Justin Landon (Staffer’s Musings – US) and Jared Shurin (Pornokitsch – UK), collects over fifty AWESOME pieces from science fiction and fantasy’s top authors, bloggers and critics (including an essay from yours truly) and is out NOW. All profits from sales of Speculative Fiction will be donated to Room to Read.

The 2012 edition also includes an afterword written by us in which we talk about what we will be looking for as editors of the 2013 edition.

As we assume the mantle of editors of the anthology, our goals are as follows:

1. We will strive to strike a balance between essential cyclical conversations (e.g those about diversity and representation and critical writing in SFF) and the New and Shiny catchprases or topics (e.g. Grimdark) that steal the stage in 2013.
2. We will do our best to capture a broad swath of the many fandoms and subcategories that fall under the SFF umbrella, including (but not limited to) reviews of novels/novellas/short stories, television shows, gaming, art (professional and fan), movie talk, as well as essays about the different aspects of SFF overall.
3. We will acknowledge the fact that SFF conversations are also happening in forums that are not SFF-exclusive (e.g. at locations very much like our own blog).
4. We will maintain the gender balance of contributors. More importantly, we will attempt to maintain the gender balance of the content itself.
5. We will solicit voices that cover different age ranges of SFF fiction – because the Young Adult and Middle Grade categories are exploding with books and discussions – as well as voices from often dismissed subgenres like Urban Fantasy and Romantic SFF. We’ll also do our very best to include international voices, beyond the United States and United Kingdom.

With all that in mind, we are happy to announce that we are open for 2013 submissions!

How It Works & What You Need To Know:

• We are looking for non-fiction reviews and essays (“works”) specific to some aspect of Speculative Fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and everything and anything that falls under the broad genre umbrella), including but not limited to: books, movies, tv shows, games, comics, conventions, genre trends, and so on!
• The works MUST have been originally published online in the calendar year 2013.
• You may nominate works published by anyone online. (This includes bloggers, friends, bloggers who are friends, authors who blog, bloggers who are authors, alien life forms, cats, etc…)
• You may submit your own work or someone else’s.
• You may submit as many works as you like. (NO limit on nominations, peeps! The more the merrier!)
• Submitted works ideally should be between 800 and 1500 words (but that’s not mandatory, we’ll consider longer and shorter pieces).
• Submitted works can be from anywhere in the world, although we do need an English translation for consideration.
• Please also note that we are VERY keen to receive submissions of works in the Middle Grade and Young Adult categories – we know there’s great SFF stuff being written in YA and MG!
• Do not be shy about submitting works published on non-exclusive SFF venues or in subgenres like Romantic SFF or Urban Fantasy.

The works that are chosen for the publication will be paid 1-cent/word for non-exclusive reprint rights, up to $10, on publication. All proceeds from book sales will be going to charity!

Submit your suggestions using the form below (or available online HERE). The form will be available throughout 2013 (on our navigation bar!) so you can go back to it if you find new stuff you want to submit.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment here, or send us an email: contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com.

Thanks, and happy linking, everyone!