Calling all UK based short story writers and poets. You are invited to submit your work for our new anthology of secrets and fairy tales with a strong sense of place.
Send us your stories of ghosts and surprises, magical realism and fantasy adventures … always with a strong relationship with the place or setting. The location should be one you know well.
This book will be launched in early 2024 in conjunction with an art exhibition at our Cirencester bookshop.
We are a collaborative publisher, so authors of successful submissions will be asked to make a contribution towards the cost of publication.
What are we looking for?
Short stories of between 800 and 2000 words, and poetry.
This is a mystery and magic themed anthology, so we’d like your submission to include either a sense of investigation or the supernatural. We love stories about frights, fairies, witches and wizards, the undead, magical realism, detective stories, the gothic and the unexplained.
Location is important for this collection, so think carefully about where the story or poem is set.
Your theme might be dark, or funny, or place an unusual twist upon a common theme. You might explore romance or mystery or even tell a tale based on true life.
Some suggested keywords for your premise might be: secrets, spells, spooky, surprising.
Submissions should not have been previously published. This means that the work should not have appeared in any form in publications, journals, serials, on blogs or social media.
New and established authors are welcome!
Exclusions:
Although murder and mayhem are commonplace in mystery stories, submissions should not include extreme or sexualised violence. Very dark horror will be excluded sorry – we scare easily!
About the finished book:
Each of our titles is creatively produced to reflect the author’s unique voice, and this book will receive the same high standard of design and attention to detail. This anthology will be beautiful inside and out and suitable for the Young Adult and adult readership.
This book will feature a number of black and white illustrations, produced in-house.
We publish in paperback and ebook.
What to submit:
You can submit up to 5 short stories or poems. Please make your submission by email in Word format. We can also accept .pages files.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself in your covering email.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 2 November 2023
Terms and Conditions:
Our decision to offer a publishing opportunity is final.
If we notify you that one or more of your submissions has been accepted, you will be offered the opportunity to sign a simple contract.
Authors must be UK based, or be able to provide a UK postal address to receive copies of the finished book and details of a UK bank account (for royalty payments).
We take your rights as the author of your work very seriously. Your work will not be shared with any third party without your agreement. If your submission is unsuccessful, you can ask for your work to be deleted from our system at any time.
The author contribution: this is collaborative publishing so authors of successful submissions will be asked to contribute a share of the publishing costs, on a per author basis (rather than per accepted work) payable at the point of signing a contract. There is no reading fee.
Costs for this publication are still being finalised, but rest assured that you will have plenty of time to ask any questions you may have at the next stage.
Please be aware that we reserve the right to select multiple works from some authors and single works by others. Each work will be assessed on its individual merits. We will give feedback where we are able.
Royalties: authors whose work is published in this anthology will receive royalties.
We publish in paperback and ebook.