Deadline: 10 October 2010
Geographical Restrictions: no mention
Reading Fee: none
Accepts (genre): short stories
Prize/Payment: contributors of winning stories published in the “My First Time” anthology will be awarded token cash prizes of $5 - $10
SoftCopy Publishing is seeking short works of fiction on the theme “My First Time.” This can be the first time someone fell in love, had sex, stole a car, encountered death, ate sushi, whatever – the unifying element is the experiential first.
Deadline: October 1, 2010
To encourage early submissions, SoftCopy plans to review pieces received before September 1st in an early review session. A few pieces may be directly accepted, and some pieces will receive suggestions for improvement. All pieces that score above a threshold will be eligible for consideration in our main review.
Theme and Structure
All works must be written in the first person.
Each work must begin with a line of the form: “The first time I X, Y.”
Some examples:
* The first time I suspected I wasn’t seeing things clearly, I was having pancakes with Ed Asner.
* The first time I killed, I had just moved to the suburbs.
* The first time I gave birth, I didn’t make a sound.
* The first time they made contact, I was in the cereal aisle holding a box of Cocoa Puffs.
We are looking for stories with plot -- conflict, climax, that sort of thing. Non-fiction personal accounts are fine, but without a real story arc, they tend to fall flat. Pieces that follow the basic outline of: “The first time I went to Morocco, I saw some crazy things. Here are some crazy things I saw. Boy, that was a crazy time.” don’t tend to make it past the Review Committee.
Length and Genre
Fiction is our fortè, but well written works in any genre are eligible.
* Submissions may be up to 5000 words
* Shorter works are encouraged
* Flash fiction and poetry will absolutely be considered
Publication
Our target is digital publishing for eReader devices like the Kindle and iPad. We expect to make this anthology available for purchase through Amazon’s Kindle bookstore and potentially through Apple’s iBook store. Software for reading the digital formats used by Kindle and iPad is freely available for Macs and PCs -- no Kindle or iPad is necessary.
Fees and Compensation
There is no submission, inclusion, or publication fee for contributors.
At a minimum, contributors of winning stories published in the “My First Time” anthology will be awarded token cash prizes of $5 - $10. Due to digital rights issues, it is difficult to provide contributors with free copies of the publication, but the cash prizes will be greater than the price of the Kindle edition.
If the sales of the digital anthology exceed a certain threshold in the first six months after the initial publication, the cash prizes will be increased. We sell more copies in the first six months, the cash prizes get bigger. Oh, Happy Day.
We make no assurances on publication availability, marketing, or sales. Our best guess is that you’ll be able to laugh all the way to the piggy bank.
Note: Cash prizes apply to winning stories, not the tweet contest. For details on that, follow us on twitter.
Selection
Inclusion in the collection is at the sole discretion of the Editorial Review Committee. Submission does not guarantee inclusion. Some pieces may be solicited by invitation to seed the anthology.
Format and Submission
Submit pieces to submissions@softcopypublishing.com. Include the words “first time” in the subject line. Submissions should be attached to the email as a .txt, .doc or .docx. Please use 12pt Courier, double-spaced, and insert page numbers on each page. Special formatting may not be preserved in the conversion process to the DTP and epub formats, and it is not advised.
On the first page, please include:
* Name of the Author
* Email Address
* Postal Address
* Title of the Piece
* Genre (Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry)
* Word Count for the Piece
* How you learned about us
You may submit up to two pieces simultaneously. Occasionally, select authors may be invited to submit additional works.
More information here.
Geographical Restrictions: no mention
Reading Fee: none
Accepts (genre): short stories
Prize/Payment: contributors of winning stories published in the “My First Time” anthology will be awarded token cash prizes of $5 - $10
SoftCopy Publishing is seeking short works of fiction on the theme “My First Time.” This can be the first time someone fell in love, had sex, stole a car, encountered death, ate sushi, whatever – the unifying element is the experiential first.
Deadline: October 1, 2010
To encourage early submissions, SoftCopy plans to review pieces received before September 1st in an early review session. A few pieces may be directly accepted, and some pieces will receive suggestions for improvement. All pieces that score above a threshold will be eligible for consideration in our main review.
Theme and Structure
All works must be written in the first person.
Each work must begin with a line of the form: “The first time I X, Y.”
Some examples:
* The first time I suspected I wasn’t seeing things clearly, I was having pancakes with Ed Asner.
* The first time I killed, I had just moved to the suburbs.
* The first time I gave birth, I didn’t make a sound.
* The first time they made contact, I was in the cereal aisle holding a box of Cocoa Puffs.
We are looking for stories with plot -- conflict, climax, that sort of thing. Non-fiction personal accounts are fine, but without a real story arc, they tend to fall flat. Pieces that follow the basic outline of: “The first time I went to Morocco, I saw some crazy things. Here are some crazy things I saw. Boy, that was a crazy time.” don’t tend to make it past the Review Committee.
Length and Genre
Fiction is our fortè, but well written works in any genre are eligible.
* Submissions may be up to 5000 words
* Shorter works are encouraged
* Flash fiction and poetry will absolutely be considered
Publication
Our target is digital publishing for eReader devices like the Kindle and iPad. We expect to make this anthology available for purchase through Amazon’s Kindle bookstore and potentially through Apple’s iBook store. Software for reading the digital formats used by Kindle and iPad is freely available for Macs and PCs -- no Kindle or iPad is necessary.
Fees and Compensation
There is no submission, inclusion, or publication fee for contributors.
At a minimum, contributors of winning stories published in the “My First Time” anthology will be awarded token cash prizes of $5 - $10. Due to digital rights issues, it is difficult to provide contributors with free copies of the publication, but the cash prizes will be greater than the price of the Kindle edition.
If the sales of the digital anthology exceed a certain threshold in the first six months after the initial publication, the cash prizes will be increased. We sell more copies in the first six months, the cash prizes get bigger. Oh, Happy Day.
We make no assurances on publication availability, marketing, or sales. Our best guess is that you’ll be able to laugh all the way to the piggy bank.
Note: Cash prizes apply to winning stories, not the tweet contest. For details on that, follow us on twitter.
Selection
Inclusion in the collection is at the sole discretion of the Editorial Review Committee. Submission does not guarantee inclusion. Some pieces may be solicited by invitation to seed the anthology.
Format and Submission
Submit pieces to submissions@softcopypublishing.com. Include the words “first time” in the subject line. Submissions should be attached to the email as a .txt, .doc or .docx. Please use 12pt Courier, double-spaced, and insert page numbers on each page. Special formatting may not be preserved in the conversion process to the DTP and epub formats, and it is not advised.
On the first page, please include:
* Name of the Author
* Email Address
* Postal Address
* Title of the Piece
* Genre (Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry)
* Word Count for the Piece
* How you learned about us
You may submit up to two pieces simultaneously. Occasionally, select authors may be invited to submit additional works.
More information here.
