Twelfth Planet Press is announcing a reading period for Speakeasy, a new anthology to be launched at Natcon50 in Perth 2011.
With Prohibition in full force in the US, speakeasies were all the rage, cocaine was still legal and the Charleston, the Shimmy and The Bunny Hog were in their heyday! Art deco influenced the faces of cities, jazz music was widely popular, eyeshadow was very heavy, the women’s suffrage movement made major progress and movies got sound. The Roaring Twenties was the era of Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Albert Einstein, Greta Garbo and Niels Bohr. King George V was on the throne in the UK, Mussolini had power in Italy, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf and King Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered.
Speakeasy is a roaring, lively and exciting new original anthology, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and published by Twelfth Planet Press. It will blend art deco with urban fantasy, the Charleston with the vampire and the flapper with the noir detective. It will be fast paced, action packed and well dressed. Stories in the vein of Dorothy Parker’s “Flappers: A Hate Song” will also be considered.
Stories for Speakeasy should be original, unpublished fantasy stories of between 2,500 wds and 7,500 wds, set in the 1920s and fun.
How: send your submission in rtf attachment to submissions@twelfthplanetpress.com
Length: stories should be between 2 500 and 7 500 words
Submissions will open June 1 and close September 30, 2010.
Payment: AUS$50 per story
Interesting idea, given that Art Deco was itself an expression of a futuristic vision.
[...] Urban Fantasy meets the Roaring 20s in a new anthology, Speakeasy, from Australian publisher Twelth Planet Press. The editors are looking for dark fantasy stories between 2500 and 7500 words. These stories can feature vampires, werewolves, magic, and other urban fantasy elements. The dealine for entries is September 30, 2010. Read the submission guidelines here. [...]
As a born and bred Perth native, and a published Urban Fantasy and historical fiction writer, I would have loved to have contributed to this anthology. I was quite excited by the submission guidlines…until I got to the last line.
$50 for between 10 and 30 pages of manuscript? With research for an historical setting included?
Come on.
Are you seriously expecting quality submissions at that rate?
If you publish an anthology with work bought at that rate, are you really expecting the anthology to sell well?
You have my very best wishes for mega sales. I would honestly like to be able to contribute to a publication based in my birth city. But as a full time working writer, I would be spending money I would not get back if I spent time writing a story for this publication.
Tracy Cooper-Posey
Thanks for your comment. I wish TPP was in a position to pay more, and attract more established authors for doing so, and it’s certainly a long term goal of ours. At this moment, we’re an indie press and we’re focussing on breaking new local authors and exposing them to international audiences, and we simply don’t have the money to pay the rates that established and successful authors deserve.
Hi,
In a similar vein to Tracy Cooper-Posey’s comment -
Will you be offering a contributor’s copy to accepted submissions?
This will sweeten the deal for the newer authors seeking publication.
Kind regards,
Chantal
Hi Chantal, yes, one contributor copy is included in author payments.
In addition, review copies are sent globally and reviews appear in respected outlets, individual stories are nominated for many awards (both locally and internationally) and Twelfth Planet Press works hard to make sure writers’ works are well promoted and marketed. I’d imagine that the value of that would sweeten the deal for many newer writers.
Alisa, if I had a story, I’d send you one. Never know, I might get inspired.
Caselberg.
Well I hope you get inspired! I’d love to see a story from you!
Hi, Alisa. I love the premise for this antho. I was wondering how Bizarro friendly is the antho and do you want sex/violence in moderation or is more extreme horror okay?
Hi Garrett, I’m not averse to extreme horror.
Great. If I find the time, I will definitely write something for this.
Are stories by US-based authors eligible for submission?
Absolutely!
Why not allow direct mail too? I have a short story THE DEADLY SEMICIRCLE
set in KENYA where I was born and I believe has the dark fantasy you seek. It’s of 7000 words thus comfortably between your limits of 2500 to 7500. I found
your Flash as the first on P.11 of the September issue of the UK’s Writers’ News.
I was indeed briefly a hunter in the deep and dangerous African bush in my mis-
spent youth. I hope you’ll like my story. Warmest good wishes, Desmond Rice, pen-name Desmond Meiring
I only accept electronic submissions.
Kind regards,
Alisa Krasnostein
In the US, $50 is decent pay for an antho publication. While a pro-rate of .5c/wd is better, for the prolific writer, $50 is more than compensary for trunk stories we wrote then stuck in the back of our computer waiting for the right place to submit. Also, for pulp writers such as myself who are already familiar with that era, the research is not as difficult as it would be for someone starting from scratch. So, while I respect the aforementioned comments, and wish every outlet could pay pro-rates, they can’t. And trust me when I say, not every story that comes from a pro is pro-rate worthy. Sometimes the $50 is just enough to take your snuggle-bunny out for a nice dinner and that, in itself, is worth the effort put forth.
I’m posting this anthology to a group of pulp writers I work with. I’m sure they’d like some international attention.
I wish you the best,
David Boop
To Tracy, Not only does Alisa expect to get good quality authors with those sort of pay rates, she WILL get good quality authors and top quality stories. People in the spec-fic industry hold Alisa in high esteem and look for opportunities to appear in her anthologies. She makes sure that her anthologies are seen by the biggest names in the business and as a result her authors and their stories regularly appear in Year’s Bests and on all the award ballots. She sets the standards for Indy-publishers and regularly raises the bar. In the end the authors don’t care about the money, they care about being seen in a TPP production.
Regards
Lyn Battersby
As always, it’s entertaining to see the professionalism of authors who visit a submissions page and then snark the very editors/publishers who are offering money and exposure via their anthology.
Here’s a simple approach: if you don’t like what’s on offer, don’t submit. If you’re a full-time working writer (and I’ve visited your website, Tracey, so am aware of your publication history), you’ll find other places to work. If you see reward in the process, submit. To quote the immortal David Pleat, it’s not exactly rocket surgery
Are UK author submissions Ok?
Absolutely!
The only restrictions are to length and theme.
Well I have to admit I thought $50 was pretty low too but then a lot of people don’t pay at all. I see the cash as an added bonus and agree that if you’re a working writer with better options then…good for you and congratulations. I LOVE the stimulus for this anthology (or theme) and I am enjoying writing my story. I will submit because IT IS FUN. I also think its great when people get off their buts and put together interesting initiatives like this one FOR aspiring AND established authors! YAY! Can’t wait to submit.
Also, can you clarify what an RTF attachment is? I assume you mean we need to save our documents as rich text format then send but I’m not 100% sure. This is unusual. I have never come across it before.
Hi Susie,
A RTF is indeed a rich text format – it means its less likely to get corrupted or be incompatible.
Cheers, sending my story across now! Yippy
Alisa,
I know it’s very late in the day, but I think this is a fantastic idea for an anthology. I’ve really enjoyed writing the story, and I’m emailing it over to you now. I hope Speakeasy is a huge success.
JT