Paying Market: Phaze (Erotic Fiction)

11 June 2010
Paying Market: Phaze (Erotic Fiction)
Special Call for M/M Steampunk Anthology - title TBA

Edited by: Leigh Ellwood
Projected release date: late 2010

Hey, all you steampunk enthusiasts, grab your goggles and get to writing! Phaze Books is planning an all M/M (and bi-M menage) steampunk collection for eBook publication in 2010. If you have a yen for 19th century history with a touch of good humor and technological innovation (and a whole lot of manlove!), we hope you'll send us your hottest steampunk erotic romance of 10K - 20K words. If you're not sure about the genre, check out this Wikipedia entry for steampunk to get an idea of the style of stories we're looking for. Think H.G. Wells or Wild Wild West, then turn up the steam factor with an incredible M/M or MMF/MMM match-up!

This call is open indefinitely until the spots are filled. Contributors will offer one-time electronic and print rights to their works and receive a one-time payment of $50 and contributors' copies (eBook and/or print, if the book goes to print).

To submit to this anthology, please follow the Phaze Books structural guidelines (below) and attach your RTF document to Leigh Ellwood, c/o Phaze Books at submissions @ phaze (dot) com. Please use STEAMPUNK ANTHOLOGY is your subject header.


STANDARD SUBMISSIONS TO PHAZE

We are looking for erotic, romantic works, between 10,000 and 80,000 words (we will consider works as high as 100K, though mainly from in-house authors) in every subgenre, including but not limited to:

* Contemporary and Romantic Comedy
* Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
* BDSM
* Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
* Menage
* Interracial and Multicultural
* Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
* Steampunk and Cyberpunk
* Vampires, Werewolves and Shifters

We especially would like to see:

* Strong, passionate, intelligent characters
* Intense sensual tension and situations
* Well-defined, well-executed romantic plot that illustrates the mutual relationship between two to four central characters (the romantic unit) and which includes plenty of opportunity for erotic exploration and variety.
* Conflict to create the tension and move the plot
* Expressive language that is explicit, yet appropriate to the story

We do not want to see:

* Bestiality (By 'beast' we mean any non-intelligent, non-reasoning being)
* Pedophilia. None—Period.
* Necrophilia or anything close
* Bodily waste products
* Incest/Twincest
* Underage characters in sexual situations
* Serious injury, rape, or snuff portrayed in a positive light
* Hate literature and positive portrayal of negative stereotypes

Overall, the work must meet our publication criteria for high standards of excellence. The author must show true talent for telling a story, and telling it in an erotic, sensual way.

PUBLISHING RIGHTS

Your submission must have electronic (eBook) and print rights (paperback) available. If any of these rights are not available, please do not submit. Presently we will only consider original works by potential new authors. We are considering reprints only by in-house authors.

FORMATTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

* Your manuscript must be in Microsoft Word or RTF (Rich/Revisable Text Format) document.
* WPS and other formats are NOT accepted. Please do not paste your work in the body of an e-mail.
* Use only Courier New or Times New Roman 10 point font.
* Double space your manuscript. Use your word processor's double spacing functionality, do not add hard returns inside the paragraph and do not add extra paragraph returns between paragraphs.
* Use italics for any text that is to be italicized--NEVER use bold and italics at the same time.
* Margins should be 1 inch all around.
* No embedded images. Many eBook formats do not support embedded images.
* For scene breaks, insert four asterisks with spaces (* * * *) on a line by itself, then begin your new paragraph on the next line.

SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

We only accept electronic submissions as an e-mail cover letter with two file attachments. You must send all required information to be considered for publication. Partial submissions will be returned with a request to send a completed submission.

The Subject Line must be marked like this: Submission--title-of-novel. The Body of your e-mail cover letter must contain the following information:

* Your full (real) name.
* Your (good, reliable, and current) e-mail address.
* Your snail-mail address.
* Your phone number.
* The exact title of your book.
* The name you want on your book (pen name or real name).
* Approximate number of words (not number of pages).
* One short paragraph synopsis describing the novel.

Attach the complete manuscript as a separate Microsoft Word® or RTF-format file. File name must be title-of-your-novel.rtf (or .doc). Include nothing else in the file name. On the first page of your manuscript, at the top, you must have the following information:

* Your full (real) name.
* Your (good, reliable, and current) e-mail address.
* Your snail-mail address.
* Your phone number.
* The exact title of your book.
* The name you want on the book (pen name or real name).
* Approximate number of words (not number of pages).

More information here.
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