Deadline: 30 June 2011
Think beyond the borders of the usual settings (The United States seems to be the only place where spaceships land). Future Hong Kong. Post-apocalyptic Africa. The drowned coastlines of Australia in a warmer world. A city beneath the waves near Easter Island. India five thousand years from now.
Future Lovecraft will open to submissions for short stories and poetry from May 1 to June 30, 2011. Do not send any submissions before this date. Yes, we mean it.
The anthology will be available in print and as an e-book, and is edited by the eldritch duo of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles.
What We Want
Lovecraftian science fiction stories. ‘Lovecraftian’ can include Mythos elements, but we have a broader view of what Lovecraftian means. Interpret and distill it. Stories may be set in the near future or distant future. They may be cyberpunk, biopunk, space opera, dystopic, post-apocalyptic, or any other flavour of science fiction.
Surprise us with your visions of the future. Think beyond the borders of the usual settings (The United States seems to be the only place where spaceships land). Future Hong Kong. Post-apocalyptic Africa. The drowned coastlines of Australia in a warmer world. A city beneath the waves near Easter Island. India five thousand years from now. The distant spaceport of New Port-au-Prince. The Martian and Lunar colonies. Give us protagonists with diverse and interesting backgrounds. Give us women who can battle Nyarlathotep’s deadly soldiers with wit and bravado, not sacrificial space-maidens. Gives us the story of the little folk that are often forgotten, like the cook aboard the space vessel who discovers a terrible secret.
Further fiction guidelines below. For poetry, send up to three poems pasted in the body of the e-mail, with a cover letter. Poems paid at $10 CAD per poem. A physical contributor’s copy and e-book copy are provided.
Length
Short fiction (1,000 words) to novelette (10,000 words). Keep in mind we have a payment cap of $70 CAD, and limited space in the anthology, so your long novelette might be better served by finding another home.
Payment
One cent per word up to a maximum of $70 CAD; one physical copy of the anthology and one e-book copy.
Payment made via PayPal or Canadian check upon publication.
We are purchasing first English anthology print and electronic rights.
Reprints
Considered, with a few caveats:
1. Indicate where and when the story was originally published in your cover letter.
2. Reprints offered should not be easily available in print or online.
3. Payment is a flat $30 CAD for reprints.
If you published it in a small collection in 1985 and it’s no longer on the market, that’s fine. If it was published in a German magazine and never translated to English, we’d like to see it. If it appeared in a now-defunct zine, that’s okay, too. If it was in a recent issue of an English-language zine that is currently online, no.
Submitting
E-mail us at innsmouthfp AT gmail.com. Subject line: Future Lovecraft, [Title of your Story, Author's Name]. The subject line is important; otherwise, the story might go into the wrong pile.
Do not send simultaneous submissions. Do not send more than one short story submission, because we will not consider more than one at a time and will make you resubmit any simultaneous submissions after we answer on the previous one. If we reject one story, you can send another one.
Include a cover letter with the story word count, salient writing credits and any reprint information (if applicable). Yes, we do read cover letters, so please include the information (Paula gets cranky when stories arrive sans byline, title, or cover letter).
Attach story as an RTF (preferred) or Word document. Use standard manuscript format. Italics as italics, bold as bold. No fancy fonts.
Stories can be sent in English, French, or Spanish.
Submissions are accepted from May 1 to June 30, 2011. Do not send anything before or after that date. If you do, we will ignore it.
We will reject some stories as they come in and send others to the hold pile. Final story selection will take place in July 2011.
Contact Information:
For inquiries: innsmouthfp AT gmail.com
For submissions: innsmouthfp AT gmail.com
Website: http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com
