submissions for “Distant Realms”, an anthology of novella length Fantasy.
Fantasy sometimes needs big brush strokes to paint a world, or room to
spread and grow to show the entire picture, and that can make the novella
the perfect length. It’s a length often neglected in modern genre fiction,
but it has the potential to deliver incredible stories. We believe very
strongly in that potential and invite you to help us find it.
The details:
There are a lot of different opinions on how many words it takes to make a
novella. For Distant Realms, we’re looking for stories that run between
20,000 and 30,000 words. Those two numbers make fairly solid barriers and
it makes us sad to reject things solely based on length.
We prefer your submission be in standard manuscript format and attached to
your e-mail as an rtf file. For a good reference on what standard
manuscript format entails, please see William Shunn’s web
page
Payment for inclusion in this anthology will be $100, two contributor’s
copies of the book, and the everlasting knowledge of being involved in
something special. In return, you’ll be giving Library of Science Fiction &
Fantasy Press two year exclusive print and electronic rights from the date
of publication; not to the world you’ve created, just to the story.
Submissions are open and will close at midnight on 31 Mar 2010. This is a
fairly large window, but we recognize the size and scope of a novella can
require a great deal more time than a short story. If you don’t have one
ready to go, we’d like to give you a chance to write and polish one from
scratch.
Submissions and Queries should be sent to distanteditor@gmail.com with
‘Submission – Distant Realms’ or ‘Query – Distant Realms’ in the subject
line, as applicable.
Caveats:
Strange Horizons provides a wonderfully detailed (yet certainly
incomplete) list
of overused themes and
plots
We’re not saying don’t do it, because it’s always possible to bring
something new to a cliché, but if you’ve picked something from this list as
your main focus, try to stand it on its head.
Because there is only room for 4 or 5 stories in Distant Realms, submissions
will be taken in two stages, building a shortlist of possible inclusions.
Rejections will happen, but final decisions on acceptances won’t be made
until ALL submissions have been read.
The speculative elements you choose, whatever they are, must be integral to
the story. If you can write the same story without them, then it’s not a
genre story. That said, our definition of Fantasy is very broad. If you
can say Fantasy when you look at your story, please send it because we want
to read it.
