2020 Themed Anthology:
Working title: Misbehaving
Rogues, Rapscallions, Ne'er-do-well Scoundrels, and Pirates
(any genre - no gory horror or erotica)
Bring out your rogues and antiheroes, your pirates and thieves, your heartbreakers, and redemption (or not) stories.
APOLOGIES - this is a long page. Please read, though.
Submissions Editors will be Aiki Flinthart and Pamela Jeffs.
The GOAL:
So it will, initially, be a closed-call for submissions ONLY from SWG members. Should we not receive enough qualifying stories to fill the anthology, then we will open to outside authors, or publish a smaller anthology. BUT - we'd like everyone in SWG to end up with a great story that will take pride of place in the anthology.
NOTE: for authors already familiar with submitting for emags and anthologies, please be aware that the group has several new authors who are just learning all the steps. Please be patient with the time it will take to put the anthology together. If you are willing to help newer authors with critiquing and beta reading, that would be fantastic.
It will be a five-stage submission process. Estimated publishing will be around November 2020 (unless it's ready earlier)
This will allow authors to get feedback at each stage, and a chance to re-submit - rather than just an instant 'No' as you'd get from online magazines and other anthologies.
The idea is that you get a chance to learn from feedback. Go away and rework the story as needed, then re-submit.
Some authors might go straight from Stages 1 & 2 to 5, others might need every stage. It's all good.
Overview - Wordcount up to 4500
What we DON'T want to see:
What we DO want to see:
Have fun with it.
DETAILS
Stage 1 - Story Pitch - Submission Deadline Date 30th August 2019. (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Requirements
a) 200 word synopsis of the story showing
Authors will receive idea acceptance and/or feedback by the 15th of September to allow time for the story to be written and submitted by the end of November
NOTE: Might be worth having a second idea roughed out, just in case your first one is too similar to someone else's already accepted.
Stage 2 - Formatted/Genre conventions - Submission Deadline Date January 2020. (Any submissions received after this date will not be considered but submitting before is definitely encouraged.)
Requirements:
a) A story on theme, with a maximum wordcount of 4500 words. No exceptions unless both editors agree the story would suffer if 500+ words were culled to make it fit.
b) File must be formatted according to submission guidelines. This is industry-standard formatting. Most e-mags and anthologies will immediately reject any stories not following similar guidelines.
Button/Link to Style Guide/formatting is at the END of this page
c) The author must have read and applied the genre-norm guidelines. This is a condensed 'how to write' guide outlining things such as passive writing, handling flashbacks, filter words, etc. Use these guidelines to polish your writing as much as possible before submission. Stories that have not applied these guidelines (eg: contain too much passive writing, too much telling, too many filter words, etc etc) will be returned with a suggestion for improvement.
NOTE: these are NOT 'rules' per se, so don't get upset that we are crushing your voice or vision. This is more a condensed version of Everything that modern genre writing espouses as 'correct' and 'expected' at the moment. It's meant to help you understand what modern readers and editors are anticipating when they read your story. If you know the conventions and break them for a clear reason that works well, of course we won't reject that.
Button/Link to Genre Writing Expectations is at the END of this page.
If the story fulfills all three requirements will be immediately passed on to Stage 2 and will receive a Structural critique feedback.
Stage 3 - Structural 1/2 - Submission Deadline Date 15th March 2020 (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
This is the re-submission of those that were returned after Stage 2 as incorrectly formatted or needing work on genre-norm guidelines.
Correctly-formatted stories received for Stage 2 & 3 will be returned with critique suggestions for structural improvement, and will be eligible to enter into Stage 4
(but must remember to re-apply all the formatting and genre-norms to any changes made)
NOTE: After the first round of structural critiquing, re-submits received before the end of February 2020 will receive a second round of structural critiquing.
Stage 4 - Line Edit 1 - Submission Deadline Date 30th April 2020 (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Stories submitted for Stage 4 are expected to have solid story structures and need no more development work. If they do, they will not be eligible. Stories with solid structure will be given two rounds of line-editing suggestions.
Stage 5 - Proofing - Submission Deadline Date 30th July (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Stories submitted for Stage 4 should be fully developed and fully line-edited, polished by the author after final line edits.
At this point, the stories will be read by both editors and, if they agree that the stories are ready, they will be included in the anthology.
Should there not be enough completed stories available, the anthology may either be published in a smaller version, or opened up to non SWG authors for submissions by the end of August 2020.
The Anthology would then be ready for publication in December 2020
Any questions, just email [email protected]
APOLOGIES - this is a long page. Please read, though.
Submissions Editors will be Aiki Flinthart and Pamela Jeffs.
The GOAL:
- To produce a professional-level anthology of approx 20, multi-genre, themed short stories
- To help everyone improve their story-telling craft. So there will be less emphasis on from-scratch story development, and more on people working as a team to help each other critique, learn new skills, and improve stories between submission rounds.
- To help everyone get familiar with the submissions process in the 'real' world, AND to encourage self-paced learning of craft skills.
So it will, initially, be a closed-call for submissions ONLY from SWG members. Should we not receive enough qualifying stories to fill the anthology, then we will open to outside authors, or publish a smaller anthology. BUT - we'd like everyone in SWG to end up with a great story that will take pride of place in the anthology.
NOTE: for authors already familiar with submitting for emags and anthologies, please be aware that the group has several new authors who are just learning all the steps. Please be patient with the time it will take to put the anthology together. If you are willing to help newer authors with critiquing and beta reading, that would be fantastic.
It will be a five-stage submission process. Estimated publishing will be around November 2020 (unless it's ready earlier)
This will allow authors to get feedback at each stage, and a chance to re-submit - rather than just an instant 'No' as you'd get from online magazines and other anthologies.
The idea is that you get a chance to learn from feedback. Go away and rework the story as needed, then re-submit.
Some authors might go straight from Stages 1 & 2 to 5, others might need every stage. It's all good.
Overview - Wordcount up to 4500
- Stage 1 - Story pitch - submit a 200 word (max) synopsis - this helps the editors decide whether the story is a good fit/not a duplicated idea with anyone else's story, and whether you have a solid idea, characters and conflict.
- Stage 2 - Formatting submission polished draft - submit and get immediate response regarding whether it fits theme, formatting, and genre norms/expectations.
- Stage 3 - Structural 1 submission - submit properly formatted/polished story for structural feedback. (Resubmit for second round of feedback before Stage 4, if needed)
- Stage 4 - Line Edit submission - submit properly structured/formatted/polished story for line edit feedback (Resubmit for second round before Stage 5, if needed)
- Stage 5 - Proofing submission - submit final story for assessment by both editors. If both editors agree, it will be accepted into the anthology.
What we DON'T want to see:
- vampires/shapeshifters/zombies/elves
- dream sequences
- Opening scenes with weather descriptions
- Fan-fiction
- stories you have had published elsewhere (no simultaneous submissions or previously published stories)
- stories focussed on found magical objects like swords, jewelry, etc (unless it's really unique and weird)
- stories with no external conflict / no plot
- stories with no internal character arc / internal character conflict/character motivation
- Chosen One stories or Mary-Sue/Marty-Stu stories.
- Erotica or gory horror.
- Death of a character (even if offscreen) just to motivate another on a revenge quest.
- sexual abuse against anyone
What we DO want to see:
- protagonists with good motivations; and with agency so they make choices that affect the plot
- diversity is good but not a requirement, and proving themselves 'normal' should not be the driving motivation for the character.
- really unusual/interesting settings that affect the plot
- characters with interesting flaws, personalities, goals, unique voices, and points of view.
- strong/interesting external and internal conflicts
- a unique or unusual type of rogue/scoundrel character in a unique or unusual conflict/setting. Think outside the box. Subvert expectations.
Have fun with it.
DETAILS
Stage 1 - Story Pitch - Submission Deadline Date 30th August 2019. (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Requirements
a) 200 word synopsis of the story showing
- character's starting situation & story setting
- what the character wants
- outer conflict/plot
- inner conflict/character growth arc
- main obstacles to achieving character goal
- climax (include spoilers. This is a synopsis, not a blurb. We need to know how it finishes)
Authors will receive idea acceptance and/or feedback by the 15th of September to allow time for the story to be written and submitted by the end of November
NOTE: Might be worth having a second idea roughed out, just in case your first one is too similar to someone else's already accepted.
Stage 2 - Formatted/Genre conventions - Submission Deadline Date January 2020. (Any submissions received after this date will not be considered but submitting before is definitely encouraged.)
Requirements:
a) A story on theme, with a maximum wordcount of 4500 words. No exceptions unless both editors agree the story would suffer if 500+ words were culled to make it fit.
b) File must be formatted according to submission guidelines. This is industry-standard formatting. Most e-mags and anthologies will immediately reject any stories not following similar guidelines.
Button/Link to Style Guide/formatting is at the END of this page
c) The author must have read and applied the genre-norm guidelines. This is a condensed 'how to write' guide outlining things such as passive writing, handling flashbacks, filter words, etc. Use these guidelines to polish your writing as much as possible before submission. Stories that have not applied these guidelines (eg: contain too much passive writing, too much telling, too many filter words, etc etc) will be returned with a suggestion for improvement.
NOTE: these are NOT 'rules' per se, so don't get upset that we are crushing your voice or vision. This is more a condensed version of Everything that modern genre writing espouses as 'correct' and 'expected' at the moment. It's meant to help you understand what modern readers and editors are anticipating when they read your story. If you know the conventions and break them for a clear reason that works well, of course we won't reject that.
Button/Link to Genre Writing Expectations is at the END of this page.
If the story fulfills all three requirements will be immediately passed on to Stage 2 and will receive a Structural critique feedback.
Stage 3 - Structural 1/2 - Submission Deadline Date 15th March 2020 (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
This is the re-submission of those that were returned after Stage 2 as incorrectly formatted or needing work on genre-norm guidelines.
Correctly-formatted stories received for Stage 2 & 3 will be returned with critique suggestions for structural improvement, and will be eligible to enter into Stage 4
(but must remember to re-apply all the formatting and genre-norms to any changes made)
NOTE: After the first round of structural critiquing, re-submits received before the end of February 2020 will receive a second round of structural critiquing.
Stage 4 - Line Edit 1 - Submission Deadline Date 30th April 2020 (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Stories submitted for Stage 4 are expected to have solid story structures and need no more development work. If they do, they will not be eligible. Stories with solid structure will be given two rounds of line-editing suggestions.
Stage 5 - Proofing - Submission Deadline Date 30th July (Any submissions received after this date will, regretfully, be declined)
Stories submitted for Stage 4 should be fully developed and fully line-edited, polished by the author after final line edits.
At this point, the stories will be read by both editors and, if they agree that the stories are ready, they will be included in the anthology.
Should there not be enough completed stories available, the anthology may either be published in a smaller version, or opened up to non SWG authors for submissions by the end of August 2020.
The Anthology would then be ready for publication in December 2020
Any questions, just email [email protected]