Book Smugglers Publishing: Open Call For Short Stories Submissions (Summer 2016)

Submissions for short stories are now closed.

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 June and August 2016, the theme is:

SUPERHEROES

Recently, we announced that 2016 is going to be the Year of the Superhero and we have quite a few things in the pipeline. To supplement the awesome projects we have in the works, we are also looking to add short stories to our Superhero calendar! When it comes to superheroes, we think of sweeping themes that deal with the central issues of heroism and, of course, superpowers. As usual, we welcome authors to subvert these sample themes, to expand upon what “superhero” 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: PLEASE SEND THEM TO US. 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!
• 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 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• These SFF offerings must be previously unpublished; we do not accept simultaneous submissions.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 2015 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 highly 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 2016.

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").