Sub Ops Ten

Carina Press Senior Editor Angela James issued an open call for novel submissions last month, and is looking for ". . . an author who has a contemporary romance trilogy or series planned. Any heat level considered! I’m specifically looking for contemporary romance novels (over 70k) but will consider a novella series (for novellas, even better if they’re erotic, but not necessary)." Also: "A new paranormal romance (or urban fantasy w/romantic elements) series. The good news for you is that I’ll consider all manner of paranormal, including vampires, shifters, etc. I’m not wore out on paranormal, so hit me with your A-game, even if it’s a vampire series! Again, any heat level considered." Also: "A very, very hot erotic romance series. Smokin’ hot. Any subgenre, any length. Can be BDSM or m/m. Just looking for smokin’ hot erotic romance (not erotica, please)." She also notes: "So the trend here is that I’m looking for an author/authors I can build within a series in these particular genres. I’m not looking for standalone novels or novellas for this particular submissions call for myself (though Carina Press is always willing to and does acquire standalones)." No deadline mentioned, but as she mentions acquiring for Fall 2012 I wouldn't wait forever to submit. Carina pays royalties with no advance; I don't have the latest figures but they're decent. See blog post for more details.

SF author David Conyers has an open call for his Extreme Planets Antho, and is looking for "short stories set on or about alien worlds that push the limits of what we believe is possible in a planetary environment. These could be planets with gravities many times that of the Earth or orbiting neutron stars so their oceans are elongated into egg shapes. Carbon worlds or diamond worlds, iron worlds, or planets with extremely elliptical orbits. Worlds made of exotic elements or with bizarre atmospheres. Planets were time and space behaves strangely or against the laws of physics. Even artificially created worlds can find a home in this anthology, either transformed by bizarre technology or the creation of alien civilisations. Mostly, we hope you dazzle us with worlds we haven’t even thought about." Length: 4-10K (established authors, up to 20K; query first), Payment: "US 3 cents a word and 3 contributor copies" No reprints (may make exception for pro/established authors; again query first), electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details. Deadline: June 30, 2012.

Fantastique Unfettered quarterly print & e-zine will be accepting submissions for their fifth issue during February & March 2012, and is looking for most sub-genre speculative fiction. Length: Ralan notes: ¾k-9k (prefers 4k-5k; >6k=masterpiece); Payment: fic=1¢/word; poem=3¢/word ($5min/$10max); +PDF copy. Query on reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. See a sample of the e-zine online here.

Flash Fiction Online e-zine is open to submissions, and is looking for: "science fiction and fantasy, but we also like literary fiction; and in any case, great flash stories aren’t always easily classified. If you wrote it, and you love it, then submit it. Second-person point of view has a hard time running our gauntlet. Some of us like it, some don’t. You can submit it, but the odds of publication are lower than first- or third-person. We want our publication to be accessible to a variety of ages, so please, no erotica, porn, or graphic sex or violence. Think Law and Order: Special Victims Unit or Criminal Minds on TV: they handle horrific situations, but always obliquely enough to be shown on TV — and for the most part, you never notice that the graphic elements aren’t shown. But sex is also a part of life: if your story addresses sexual issues or contains non-graphic sexual content for a purpose, nobody on the editorial staff will be offended if you send it in. The worst we can do is say “no”, right? In the same way, we won’t publish profanity. However, you don’t need to remove profanity to submit to us; just be prepared to modify it if we accept the story. There are things that we’ll consider, but that are a hard sell for us. These include: Second-person point-of-view (does the story really need that perspective?), queer fiction (in particular, stories which would be obvious or trite if the characters had been straight), polemical fiction (we prefer stories with messages in them over messages told as stories). That said, we won’t rule out any of these, so the worst case is that we say “no”. Length: .5 to 1k; Payment $50.00, no reprints, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.

Flashquake e-zine is seeking "complete works, stories, essays and poems that demonstrate a mastery of the English language, contain original thoughts, demonstrate imagination, and weave their magic with power. We don’t appreciate romance stories, nor work with excessive gore or violence, “goth” vampire tales, hard-core science fiction, rhyming poetry, or works of a religious nature. FQ has a long tradition of publishing: Flash Fiction (up to 1,000 words); Flash Nonfiction—Essays, Memoir, Stories, Etc (up to 1,000 words) Poetry (up to 35 lines); Prose Poetry (up to 300 words) FQ also seeks to publish (From the Editor’s Desk section): 10 Minute Plays; Haibun (up to 1,000 words); Other forms which could be considered flash (up to 1,000 words); Book Reviews, esp. as they pertain to the flash reader and/or flash writer, including poetry (up to 1,000 words); Author Interviews, especially as they pertain to the flash reader and/or flash writer, including poetry (up to 1,000 words). In addition, FQ has a special affinity for: Translations, esp. those in which audio and/or video can be obtained from both the original language and the English version." Payment: .pdf and exposure. No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Current reading period: January 1 - February 20, 2012.

Innsmouth Free Press has an open call for their Fungi antho, and are looking for "dark speculative fiction (horror, fantasy, science fiction, and any other variant, such as steampunk) focused solely on the fungal. No happy mushrooms from Mario Bros. A fungus of some type must be a key element in the story, not just a throwaway element. A character can attempt to poison someone with a mushroom, mushroom cultivation may be of importance to the story, the dark patch of mould on the ceiling may begin to terrify an unhappy tenant, a group of people may consume hallucinogenic mushrooms, etc. We are looking for a variety of settings and protagonists. Mushrooms sprout around the world, after all." [And just when I stopped writing about the Lok-Teel, too. Rats.] Length: up to 5K, Payment: "1 cent per word for original stories; Reprints paid at a flat rate of $35. Canadian dollars, eh. One complimentary print copy and one e-book copy provided." Reprints okay, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details. Reading period opens January 15, 2012; Deadline February 15, 2012.

Heads up for Canadian publishers and published authors: Imaginarium, the best Canadian speculative writing has a call for submissions: "Publishers are invited to submit their anthologies or short story collections to editors Halli Villegas and Sandra Kasturi in hard copy or by PDF. If the work is from a collection or anthology, it must have appeared there for the first time. Reprints published within the last year are not eligible. Individual authors, if they wish, are also invited to submit work that may have appeared in a low print run or other obscure place if it was published in the preceding year (Jan 1 - Dec 31) and compensation was received for it. We will also accept submissions from Canadian authors writing in another language, but they must have a publishable English translation along with the original." No Length limit, Payment: CA1¢/word. Reprints only, electronic and snail mail submission, see announcement for more details. Deadline: January 31, 2012.

Journalstone is holding a horror novel contest: "Our first one turned out so well we decided to do it again, and again, and again. . . If you are interested please submit your 75,000 words or more manuscript/novel to joel@journalstone.com on or before April 1, 2012, and you will be entered. The winner will receive a $2,000 advance against future royalties and have his/her novel published by JournalStone. Grammar counts, have it edited before you submit your entry." See guidelines for more details.

Science Fiction Trails magazine features "stories with science fiction content that are set in the Wild West era. Stories must take place on earth during the time period 1850-1900 AD. All stories should have a strong connection to the western region of the United States [this can include western Canada or northern Mexico]." and are looking for "... character driven adventure. Take the time to develop interesting characters. We want science, but we want characters, too. A few things we like are The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr and the short-lived Legend TV shows, Aaron Larson’s Haakon Jones stories or our editor’s Miles O’Malley stories. Not all of these shows or stories had SF content, but many did. The point is, they were fun to watch or read with interesting characters. It would be worth your time to ask your library to get some of them for you. A few things that don’t really work are aliens in some mine or cave for some inexplicable reason or some clod goes back in time and doesn’t really belong there. Time travel is discouraged because it's an easy crutch for the writer to use and it rarely leads to an entertaining story.
Things we'd really like to see: an alchemy tale; something with flying machines. Please do not submit stories about copyrighted characters you did not create. We liked Jim West and Artamus Gordon, but they are someone else’s creation and we won’t use them." Length: 1-7k; Payment: $20.00 + contributor's copy, query on reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details.

Stonetelling e-zine is looking for "literary speculative poems with a strong emotional core. We focus on fantasy, science fiction, surrealism, and slipstream, but would consider outstanding science poetry and non-speculative poetry that fits the flavor of the magazine. Please note that we are not a mainstream literary poetry market, and non-speculative poetry will be an extremely hard sell. While we are open to all speculative poetry, we are especially interested in seeing work that is multi-cultural and boundary-crossing, work that deals with othering and Others, work that considers race, gender, sexuality, identity, and disability issues in nontrivial and evocative ways. We’d love to see multilingual poetry, though that can sometimes be tricky. Try us! There are no style limitations, but rhymed poetry will be a hard sell. Please try us with visual poetry, prose poetry, and other genre-bending forms. We will consider experimental poetry, but please remember that not all experimental poems are easy to represent in an e-zine format." Length: no limits; Payment: $5.00; query on reprints, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details. Open to submission through February 20, 2012.