We will be creating an anthology titled Utter Fabrication: Historical Accounts of Unusual Buildings and Structures. It will be a collection of fictional stories about haunted houses and other weird places. For this anthology, our pay will be 2¢/word.
We are particularly looking for stories from authors who are underrepresented in fiction: people of color, LGBTQ, non-Western religions and cultures.
Each story is written from the perspective of someone who has encountered this strange location. Like our regular magazine, this narrator will also have a bio. Be certain that your story meets these requirements:
❏ 1st person
❏ 500-8000 words in length
❏ Focuses on a strange building or place
❏ Not a reprint
Here are some ideas that we pitched when we made our Kickstarter, but this is meant to be inspirational and not definitive.
- Haunted houses, obviously.
- Space stations poised at the edge of an anomaly.
- Towns missing people for no clear reason.
- Espresso stands that travel through time.
- Malls that function as dimensional crossroads.
- A cursed painting in an otherwise empty field.
- Unusual sculptures that seem to come from out of this world.
- Structures or ruins left behind by indigenous peoples. (But please don’t stoop to “Indian burial ground” or similar tropes. Seriously, don’t be that person.)
DO NOT send us poetry or screenplays.
Submissions should be in Standard Manuscript Format and sent via Submittable between March 1 and March 31. As with our regular submissions, we are asking for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year. Multiple submissions are okay, simultaneous submissions are not.
For more information about how we normally do business, check out our Submissions page.
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When is the cutoff date?
What exactly are you wanting in the short bios? I looked on the standard manuscript page and elsewhere on your page and I could not find a sample of what you were specifically wanting in the bio.
The narrator bios are similar to the author bios. You can see many examples of them on the stories we’ve published to the website previously.
We don’t require the narrator bios until after stories have been accepted for the anthology, so you have time to work on crafting one.
Sorry, my mistake… What format do you want the manuscripts?
Word, RTF, or .TXT.
1st person is a hard and fast requirement? I have a great submission for you, but not written in first person:
Premise: For centuries, the Catholic Church has recognized fifteen rituals, including baptism, communion, marriage, exorcism. When an ancient parchment for the Rite of Resurrection—a sixteenth ritual—is discovered in Romania, a young scholar from New York is summoned to verify the document.
Thanks!
Yes. First person is a strict requirement. It’s the point of all of the anthologies we’ve done along these lines. The story described also doesn’t seem to be about a weird place.
Does it have to be a real place, like a real haunted house, etc.?
No. This is a fiction anthology, so you can completely make up the location.
I have a perfect tale but it runs 17K, would you be open to looking at something that long or is that a deal-breaker?
Unfortunately, 8,000 words is a hard cap.
Hard cap means you won’t accept 8,181 words, right?
Never mind, I edited the gosh darn heck out of it and it’s a better story for it.
Woo!
Would you like us to write the bio for the narrator?
Present tense okay? Or is it more like someone narrating something that happened to them in the past?
Present tense is fine. “Historical” in the title is for flavor and not a requirement.
Could we send in an excerpt from a longer story…like the first chapter…that leaves the ending open to the readers?
We’d prefer something self contained.
Hey, I’m a straight, white male–should I bother to submit?
Yes. We aren’t excluding anyone, we’re just shooting for a wider range.
Is profanity accepted or off limits?
Thanks
As long as it fits with the story and isn’t just for shock.
Does it have to be a building or structure, or would another type of weird place work?
We’re open to other types of weird places.
What time tomorrow do you stop accepting submissions?
Midnight Pacific Time.
I just found out about this anthology call for submissions yesterday. Been working on a short ever since that I think you guys will love. I’ll have it to you by 6 PM. Hope you enjoy it and I’m sorry for the late submission. I wish I had known when the call first opened. As soon as my editor returns the story, it’ll be sent directly to you guys.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Charles