Silver Empire Opens Submissions On Urban Fantasy Novels

As I’ve mentioned before, Silver Empire will be cranking up the production pipelines hard in 2018. Earlier this week I announced that we’re bringing on author Christopher Lansdown. Back in December I announced that we’re republishing Declan Finn’s urban fantasy Love at First Bite series – and that we have another, entirely original, urban fantasy series in the work from Mr. Finn that’s already making rapid progress.

Today I’d like to announce that Silver Empire is opening submissions wide for Urban Fantasy novels. Our submission requirements are loose, but we do have some guidelines:

• Minimum word count is 50,000 words. 60,000+ is preferable.
• Maximum word count is 120,000 words but 90,000 or below is preferable.
• While we will consider one-off novels, series with at least 5 books planned get a strong preference and will get priority. Bonus points if you’ve already written more than one book in the series. But please only send us the first book until/unless we ask for more.
• Although we will consider books targeted at women and/or with female protagonists, we are primarily focused at the moment on series with male leads aimed at men.
• “Supernatural thrillers” are perfectly acceptable.
• While we do plan to expand into the genre in the future, we are NOT accepting submissions for Paranormal Romance at this time. The genres (and reader expectations) are distinct, and for now we want to stay firmly on the UF/ST side. If your book is on the borderline we might consider it, but only if it’s clearly on the UF/ST side of the line.
• Manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word format (either DOC or DOCX is fine). We’re not overly worried about fonts, formatting, or a lot of “standard manuscript” BS. But make sure it’s legible. If we can’t read it, we won’t bother. Also, make sure the document has you’re name and contact info in it.
• Submissions should be e-mailed to submissions@silverempire.org
• It will probably be at least 30 days before you hear back from us, but please give us at least 90 before you ask us for status.

And if you’re excited about this development, stick around. We’ve got another major project in the works for 2018. I can’t talk about that one just yet… but maybe I can drop a tiny hint.

Silver Empire Submissions Update

Submissions for our upcoming superheroes anthology are now closed. We’re still combing through all of the submissions we’ve received. If you’ve submitted a story and haven’t heard back from us yet, please be patient! We’re targeting a September release date for this project, and everything is looking good to make that happen.

We’re still accepting submissions for our upcoming Stairs in the Woods anthology, and will be until August 31. The target release date is October. We lined up a few authors ahead of time who should be turning in some very interesting stories! This anthology has very specific requirements, so please make sure you read them thoroughly before submitting.

We’re also accepting submissions for a space science fiction novel. Specifically, we’d really like to have either a pulpy space opera, a hard science fiction novel, or a military scifi novel. Submissions should be part of a series – bonus points if you have the second novel written or partly written already! Again, please be sure to see the submission guidelines.

And last, but certainly not least, we always need more short stories for Lyonesse. We’re looking for tales of wondrous, heroic adventure in the science fiction and fantasy realms. We run a new story every single week, so we burn through works rather quickly.

Superheroes Anthology – Submission Deadline Extended!

We’ve received some fantastic submissions for our upcoming superheroes anthology – and I mean that in every meaning of the word. However… the submissions continue to roll in, and we’re still getting good ones. And I’ve got one or two specific authors that have promised stories that I’d really like to have. So we’re extending the deadline by just a little bit. We will continue taking submissions at least through May 31.

You can find the submission requirements here.

Lyonesse Open Submissions – Holiday Stories!

We’re now only a few stories away from meeting our launch goals for project Lyonesse – so please keep sending them in! In addition to our general call for submissions for Lyonesse, we are also looking for science fiction and fantasy short stories specifically themed around the holidays of New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Submissions should follow the previously laid out Lyonesse submission guidelines.

• Science fiction or fantasy short stories of roughly 3,000 to 20,000 words.
• Previously unpublished works.
• There is no theme – topics are wide open.
• This project is not specifically superversive. However, superversive stories are preferred.
• The payment model for this project is royalty based. However, the model is somewhat unique. Details will be provided upon acceptance of stories. We expect this project to be able to at least provide payment comparable to old school short-fiction magazines (ie, within the range of $0.03 to $0.05 per word). In fact, we think it will eventually do considerably better than that. However, this is an experimental project and this is not guaranteed.
• Stories that are part of a larger world or series that you’re developing are perfectly fine – even if previous or later stories are not published through us.
• Authors whose stories are accepted will also have opportunities to advertise previous, current, or up and coming works as part of this project.
• Submissions should be in Word format (doc or docx is fine).
• At this time we’re ONLY looking for submissions for this particular project – but we will be opening up for more in the very near future.
• E-mail submissions to submissions@silverempire.org.
• Please specify that your submission is for Lyonesse!

OPEN SUBMISSIONS – Superversive Superheroes

Yesterday I discussed what superversive fiction is and briefly talked about the two anthologies of superversive science fiction and fantasy that I’ve published in the last two years. Today I’m pleased to announce that Silver Empire is now accepting submissions for our next superversive anthology.

Our first superversive anthology focused on “manly courage.” Our second focused on “devotion to family.” This time the theme will be “superheroes.”

• It should be a short story of roughly 3,000 to 15,000 words. These are loose guidelines. If the story is strong, we’ll accept stuff outside of it. And I’m not going to quibble over a few words if it’s 2,998 or 15,011 words or something like that. But that’s about the size we’re shooting for.
• It should be a science fiction or fantasy story.
• We are looking for exclusive publication rights, and also the rights to republish the story in our upcoming Lyonesse project (republication will only make you more money, so don’t fear!)
• Submissions are due by April 30th, 2017.
• The theme of this anthology is “superheroes.”
• The anthology is deliberately superversive. Thus, we’re looking for serious submissions. Satire and Parody are ok *IF* they take the theme seriously.
• The superheroes should be heroic – or if they aren’t, the story should showcase this as a failing. No “Captain America was actually Hydra all along” stories will be accepted.
• You must have the rights to the characters you use and be able to legally transfer them to us for the purposes of this anthology. Unless by some miracle you actually are DC or Marvel and want to let us use your characters, we can’t use them. Trust me – we want to use them as badly as you do. This is just how the world works.
• Payment will be in royalties – no advances. The royalty rates will be relatively high, but our sales volumes will likely be relatively low. Exact rates will depend on how many stories end up in the anthology but will follow a simple formula based on word count (50% of sales sent to authors, prorated to each author based on the word count of the story compared to the word count of the anthology as a whole).
• Stories that are part of a larger world or series that you’re developing are perfectly fine – even if previous or later stories are not published through us.
• Submissions should be in Word format (doc or docx is fine).
• Submissions can be e-mailed to submissions@silverempire.org.

Mysterious Stairs in the Woods – Call for Submissions

We’re putting together an anthology about mysterious stairs in the woods. The submission requirements are as follows:

• There are stairs in the woods – as if you cut and pasted stairs from a house.
• The stairs are usually in good shape – strong and sturdy and not rotted. Sometimes they are in immaculate condition, as if somebody is maintaining them.
• They’re locations don’t follow any understood pattern.
• You might or might not be able to find the same stairs twice (up to the individual author).
• Approaching and/or climbing the stairs gives a sense of foreboding and weirdness.
• Sometimes really bad things happen if you approach or climb the stairs.
• The authorities (notably the park service) is keeping quiet about the stairs. Officially, they don’t exist. The authorities do not talk about them – even among themselves.
• You can explain the stairs or leave them unexplained – up to you.
• Science fiction, fantasy, and horror are most likely – but your story can be in any genre. One author I contacted told me I wasn’t likely to get many Romantic Comedies – but if you’ve got a good one, submit it!
• You can submit as many stories as you like, but we’ll only publish one story per author in this anthology.
• Submissions should be in the 3000-20,000 word range.
• Submissions should be never before published. We’re asking for exclusive rights on this one.
• Submissions should be in Microsoft Word format (doc or docx) and should be readable. Otherwise, I’m not your high school English teacher and I don’t care about margins, spacing, font, etc.
• EMail Submissions to submissions@silverempire.org and must include contact information (name, e-mail, etc).
• Submissions are due by August 31, 2017.
• Payment will be the Silver Empire anthology standard: 50% of royalties go to the story contributors, prorated to each author by word count.

One author has already sent me half of a rough draft, while several others have made verbal commitments. Let your imagination go crazy – the more wildly different the stories are, the better!

Arthurian Anthology Submissions

Anthony M over at SuperversiveSF.com has opened submissions for an Arthurian themed anthology of short stories. I’d like to submit one myself but I’m not sure I’ll have time to get one done. So you should submit one! Details are available at the link.

This is not a Silver Empire project, and I have no relation to it other than the fact that I love Arthurian legends and I love superversive fiction. However, we are still accepting submissions of science fiction and fantasy short stories (Arthurian and otherwise) for an upcoming project.

Silver Empire Open Submissions

Silver Empire is now accepting open submissions for an upcoming project that will revitalize the marketplace for short fiction.

We’re looking for another 20-30 fantasy and science fiction short stories. We’ll be taking submissions through the summer. Submissions should be:

• Science fiction or fantasy short stories of roughly 3,000 to 20,000 words.
• Previously unpublished works.
• There is no theme – topics are wide open.
• This project is not specifically superversive. However, superversive stories are preferred.
• The payment model for this project is royalty based. However, the model is somewhat unique. Details will be provided upon acceptance of stories. We expect this project to be able to at least provide payment comparable to old school short-fiction magazines (ie, within the range of $0.03 to $0.05 per word). In fact, we think it will eventually do considerably better than that. However, this is an experimental project and this is not guaranteed.
• Stories that are part of a larger world or series that you’re developing are perfectly fine – even if previous or later stories are not published through us.
• Authors whose stories are accepted will also have opportunities to advertise previous, current, or up and coming works as part of this project.
• Submissions should be in Word format (doc or docx is fine).
• At this time we’re ONLY looking for submissions for this particular project – but we will be opening up for more in the very near future.
• Submissions can be e-mailed to submissions@silverempire.org.