Book Smugglers Publishing: Open For Submissions (Spring 2015)

Book Smugglers Publishing is currently open for submissions for short stories to be published between April and June of 2015.

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 April and June of 2015, the theme is:

FIRST CONTACT

We know that the first things that come to mind with the phrase “First Contact” are “Science Fiction” and “Aliens.” While we are huge fans of aliens and would very much like to receive submissions featuring first contact with aliens, we would love to receive a broader pool of stories and traditions. We welcome authors to subvert this theme, to expand horizons and adapt the prompt to other possible connotations and genres within 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. It should go without saying that we’d hope for a respectful and responsible approach to creating diverse worlds and characters.
• Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audience submissions are welcome. Good speculative fiction is ageless!
• 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 long.
• These SFF offerings must be previously unpublished; we do not accept simultaneous submissions.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 2014 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 not strictly necessary but recommended, and 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).

We will reply to all authors who have submitted work with our decision by February 10 2015.

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
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