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So, yes. Realms of Fantasy has reopened to submissions as of ...now. :)
I know my last post on this subject indicated that it would probably be a few more months before this happened, but I've never been part of the reopening of a major speculative magazine before. My calculations were clearly imperfect. I am sure you will all find it in your hearts to forgive me. Anyway, until our website moves beyond its current placeholder format (no guesses on that, sorry), the only spot to find the latest version of the submission guidelines is here. We've been open to art submissions for a while, but for artists, again, the place to find our art guidelines is here.
Now that we've reopened to submissions, I imagine the number one question floating through the minds of those familiar with our slush process is when Shawna and I are going to do our next slush transfer. I can't answer that at this time, sorry. We're basically building the slush up from zero, and we're doing this via snail-mail as opposed to email submissions, so that does slow things down a bit. How fast the submissions roll in and accumulate will dictate when our next slush transfer will happen and everything that follows before Shawna does her next buying round.
That said, I will confess that I've been secretly fearing getting buried in an avalanche of submissions all along. If that happens, our next slush transfer will be sooner rather than later. Now we shall see if these fears I've been nursing for some seven months (which have been growing with each month) are true. Now, far be it from me to discourage anyone from submitting to the magazine. Shawna and I are excited to open the editorial department once more. We're looking forward to reading your stories. But if the avalanche expectations are correct, do be warned that I wouldn't be at all surprised if competition this time around--not just in quantity, but also quality--is somewhat fiercer than usual. Or maybe I'm wrong, we'll see. I'll be curious to see how everything shakes out.
All right, I think that's everything. If you have any questions, feel free to ask under comments.
Now go send us something! :)
I know that the other day Shawna sent out a bunch of rejections to the final batch of limbo stories on her end. I'm not 100% certain she's rejected everything she means to reject yet, so if you're still waiting to hear back from her I'd advise against reading into this too much.
And as it happens, today Shawna also made her picks for next issue's fiction; i.e. the December 2009 issue. Those selections will stay under wraps for the time being, but I can share the following:
When I saw what Shawna's picks were, I sat down and figured some stuff out. Even after the December issue comes out (which happens in October, btw), we'll still be somewhat overstocked in terms of our inventory. Not by much, but overstocked nonetheless. Now factor into this that Shawna has one final round of acceptances to make for the last of those stories stuck in limbo when Sovereign pulled the plug. I don't know which stories she's taking from this batch, and until I see what we've added to our existing inventory, it's impossible to know when the doors will be thrown open. Even so, I can make a reasonable guess it's going to be a few more months at the least. As I've said before and will say again, nothing but time will change this. We need more issues to come out so we can burn through additional inventory. If that seems to be taking forever, it is. Remember, we're bimonthly.
As to those final few waiting to hear back on something, as I said already, Shawna sent out some rejections the other day. It could be everything she means to reject, but I'm not positive. As Warren continues to get caught up with the magazine, I know he is definitely closer to being able to send out contracts for Shawna's selections from this last batch. I'm not going to say when he hopes to do this. If it proved otherwise, too many people would be disappointed, including everyone at RoF.
And that's pretty much all there is to report. Sorry there isn't more. I must admit I've gained a slight additional appreciation why George R. R. Martin doesn't like providing blog updates to A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.* It'll be great announcing we've reopened, but updates like this one are no fun at all. I know it isn't the news people want to hear.
Again, when we reopen to submissions, I will blog about it as soon as possible.
*And yes, I'm quite aware that George has a lot more people waiting for his books!
Unfortunately, there is no new news to report at this time. It's still going to be at least a few months before we reopen to submissions. So if you've been holding onto something that you want to send us because you're hoping we'll open in a little while, please be advised you're still in for a considerable wait.
I'm sure this is frustrating to some and head-scratching to others. After all, Warren bought the magazine in early March. Since then, he's brought back me and Shawna, the nonfiction department has been cranking along, as has the art department, and I've replied to all the submissions on my end that were stuck in limbo when Sovereign Media pulled the plug on RoF back in January. Our first issue back was June 30th, and we're not that far from the next issue going to press. We've even accepted a few fiction pieces that were stuck in limbo.
So given all this, you might be wondering what's taking so long. Well, first of all, it's publishing. Publishing can be rather slow, alas. RoF is not the exception to the rule. Second, the last issue Sovereign put out only contained four stories, which is less than what RoF normally publishes. Third, our publishing schedule had to skip an issue before coming back. Fourth, the first issue back also only contained four stories (though more overall wordage than the last issue that Sovereign put out).
Factors 2-4 created a slight logjam in terms of what we have in inventory. But honestly, there's much more to it than this. When Warren took over the magazine, there were a number of stories that Shawna had accepted, but which hadn't been paid for by Sovereign. Warren chose to honor everything that had been accepted so it might eventually be published in RoF, so that increased how much fiction we had in inventory. At the same time, as publisher he wanted and wants to have a certain amount of fiction in inventory. And right now, all these additional acceptances puts us well ahead of the targeted amount. Come our next issue, we will be publishing more fiction, both in terms of the amount of stories and in terms of raw word counts. That helps (and we're going to do our best to publish at least five stories each issue going forward) but even so, we'll still be overstocked after the next issue comes out.
Couple this with the fact that there are still some poor authors whose stories are with Shawna after being stuck in limbo when Sovereign pulled the plug, and, well, it just doesn't make sense to open up to submissions yet. Now, yes, we did do one buying round about a month ago on some other stories that were stuck in limbo, but this was for the benefit of the art department. The nonfiction department is once again cranking along, the fiction department is overstocked, but the art department's inventory was precariously thin when Warren took over. So we needed to build our inventory and get lots of stuff in the pipeline in order to get this department caught up. Given what we still have from Sovereign, how much has rolled in since Warren handed me the keys to the car, and that more illustrations are currently scheduled to be coming in all the way through November, this department is now indeed caught up.
But the fiction department remains overstocked. Nothing will change that but publishing more fiction in more issues. How many issues? I can't say. Remember, Shawna still has some limbo stories in her possession. How much Shawna chooses to take from this final batch should have a direct bearing on when we eventually reopen to submissions.
And as to you poor souls with fiction still stuck in limbo, I communicated with Shawna about this today. Based on what she told me, it sounds like the finish line is in sight. Stick with us a little longer. We're sorry for the wait, really. I hope everything above helps explain why you've been waiting as long as you have.
Anyway, that's about as much as I can share without revealing the inner workings of Realms of Fantasy. Hopefully this sheds some light on the situation. Again, once we're open to submissions, I will announce it here the first chance I get. Promise.
Lastly, I'm happy to say that with these limbo submissions all accounted for, I am now 100% caught up in all three departments: nonfiction, art, and slush. And just in time for the long weekend! :)
- Mood:
relieved
I'm afraid we're still not open to fiction submissions and won't be for a while. But I wanted to provide the following update for those of you who had submissions stuck in limbo after Sovereign Media pulled the plug on RoF. The limbo batch has been received and organized. There are 103 submissions, which represents the smallest complete batch I've ever had to deal with. Concerning the international crowd, unless you provide enough IRCs for the return of your manuscripts, this should be the last batch that I honor your IRCs. Going forward, I'm just going to respond via email. All right, I think that's everything. I should start slushing tomorrow. Good luck to everyone this time around, and to everyone from the last batch moving on to the next round.
I wanted to update everyone regarding the submissions situation. Basically, we won't be reopening to fiction submissions for a while. The reason is simple: now that we've had a chance to confer about this we've determined that we're overstocked. Right now, this is the one area of RoF where we have an abundance of materials. The last issue of RoF was published in February and contained just four stories. The next issue won't be published until July. So as everything relates to the fiction, this has put a monkey wrench in the machine. I'm all about being proactive to fix stuff or make it better with the magazine, but nothing can fix this but time. Sorry about that. Now far be it from me to encourage you to submit your stuff elsewhere first, but if you've been holding onto something in the hopes of submitting to us in the near future, I wanted to let you know you're in for a wait. As to when we will be reopening, I can't give you a date right now. Suffice it to say it won't be for at least a couple of months.
Now I know there are some writers out there whose stories got stuck in limbo when Sovereign pulled the plug back in January. I have some stories I need to pass along to Shawna and Shawna has some stuff that was submitted to the P.O. Box before RoF was canceled. First, I'd like to thank you guys for your patience to this point. Now I want to assure you that you haven't been forgotten. And your stories are still going to be considered for the magazine, so you haven't been waiting for nothing. Shawna and I hope to figure out in the next few days how we'll be handling these tales of limbo. Until then, hang tight. Thanks.
International authors, please take note that we now include in the guidelines our willingness to respond to your submissions via email. I will honor those submissions with IRCs in the slush that were sent our way before these updated guidelines were posted. But after these, unless you provide IRCs for the return of your manuscript, I am done with IRCs. It is a pain for me to go to the post office, so this policy makes both of our lives easier. And since all you have to do is read the guidelines--something there is no excuse for not doing--you're out of excuses.* If there is an email address with your IRC, I'll still consider your submission. But I will discard your IRC and simply respond to you via email. Consider this fair warning.
*Here's a fun exception: Send me your manuscript with the necessary IRCs enclosed for a response. Use a typewriter to write the submission and make sure those lines are neat and not smudged. DO NOT include an email address but make sure you include a phone #. Point all of this out to me in the cover letter and kindly ask if I'll make an exception under the circumstances, because you simply do not have access to a computer. Be certain to explain how exactly you learned about this exception without having access to a computer, because I'll be rather curious. If you're just starting out as a writer, I in turn will wonder how in the hell you're getting by without an email address, and will then consider honoring your request (assuming you meet the rest of our guidelines).
Anyway:
Editorial Guidelines
Realms of Fantasy, a bimonthly magazine, is a professional market for the best in fantastic short fiction. Stories should be no longer than 10,000 words, and can address any area in the realms of fantasy: heroic, contemporary, traditional, feminist, dark, light, and the ever-popular "unclassifiable." What we do not want to see is standard SF (this means no alien worlds, no hard-edged technology, no FTL drives, etc.) Additionally, ROF is not a market for poetry. What we do want to see is the very best in the field--Realms of Fantasy is a highly competitive market.
For stories under 7,500 words, rates begin at 6 cents per word for new writers and move upward as a writer gains recognition. For stories over 7,500 words, the rates break at 7,500 to 4 cents a word. Thus, a 10,000-word story by a newcomer would pay $550. Again, for established writers, the rates will be proportionally higher.
All submissions must be typed in a 12 pt. serif font such as Courier or Times Roman, double-spaced, and accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope large enough to hold your manuscript. Manuscripts not typed and double-spaced will not be considered. Manuscripts without return postage will not be returned. If you wish us to discard the ms. and reply only by letter, you need only enclose a letter-size (#10) envelope and mark your ms. DISPOSABLE. Your name, address, email address and phone number should appear on the first page of the text, not on a cover sheet, as cover sheets can easily get separated from the rest of the ms.
International authors must still submit hardcopies of their stories but we will respond via email rather than regular mail, assuming that you do not require your ms. to be returned to you. We do not accept multiple or simultaneous submissions. Response time is ordinarily 8 to 12 weeks. We regret that the majority of our responses must be in the form of pretyped letters. This in no way reflects on your work, only on our time and work load.
Thank you for your interest in Realms of Fantasy, and we look forward to seeing your work in our pages.
Shawna McCarthy
Editorial Address: Realms of Fantasy P.O. Box 527 Rumson, NJ 07760
Today I received an email from an author, requesting submission guidelines. A while back I'd asked Shawna if we could tweak the existing guidelines for the new website to make my life a little easier going forward, to which she said sure. So when I received this latest request, I emailed Shawna, hoping that she had a copy of these tweaked guidelines in her possession to pass along to me.
Alas, not only does Shawna not have a copy of the tweaked guidelines, she doesn't even have a copy of the old guidelines. Neither do I for that matter. I checked my old email records, the old RoF forum (somewhat--there are a lot of threads there!), Carina's old slush site, but I ended up with a big fat goosegg. In the past, whenever I received a query about submission guidelines via email, I'd email back a link to guidelines on the old website. When I received queries about this via mail, I'd print up the guidelines from the website and mail them back. But the old website (other than the forum) is gone. The links I used to email back are now broken URLS. So I can't go this route.
Now this isn't a pressing emergency, but it would be way easier for Shawna to update the fiction guidelines if she had the old ones to work with. Otherwise she'll have to put them together from scratch, which she'd rather not do. So I told her that it wouldn't hurt to check with everyone on my blog, to which she agreed. So ...does anyone have a copy of the old submission guidelines? Perhaps you printed them out once upon a time? Or maybe you once requested them via mail and I sent them to you?
If you have a copy of them, please feel free to contact me through my LJ, or to drop me an email: slushmaster@gmail.com
So while this has only happened twice, I've decided to do something about this (the writers for RoF will confim that I tend to be rather proactive). First, I'm going to explain myself again, this time in a separate post as opposed to a comment to try to keep this from happening again. In a nutshell, I talk about RoF here all the time. I have no qualms about revealing all sorts of behind-the-scenes goodness, and I love getting to know people associated with or interested in the magazine. But the thought of conducting RoF's actual business through my blog makes me very uncomfortable. Some exceptions were made when the magazine was cancelled and revived, but there were extenuating circumstances. With the old website down and the new one still in its infancy, my LJ was the natural place to post anything that needed to find its way to the internet at large. Beyond this, the most business I've ever conducted on this blog were in the nature of announcing the submissions for our (now defunct) Halloween issue. In other words, I kept it very general.
But once one artist is allowed to post his/her links here, it opens Pandora's Box. I also value organization. We have submission guidelines, and when you don't follow these, it becomes harder for me to do my job, especially when I'm also juggling the fiction and nonfiction departments. And since I don't accept fiction submissions through my blog, I'm not going to accept art submissions here. Links to your websites most definitely qualify as such. I imagine many of the artists are new to this blog, so I'll let you know that I'm actually very easygoing. But on this I need to draw a proverbial line in the sand, and it's better to do it now instead of later.
All right, now that the explanation part is out of the way, here's what else I'm going to do:
1) I'm posting an abridged version of this explanation on my Profile Page. This abridged version also lets you know that if you post your website links here anyway I'm not going to follow them and I won't respond to your post.
2) Here is the link to our submission guidelines that I posted on my blog a while back. When the magazine's website has evolved beyond its infancy, rest assured that the guidelines will be posted there as well.
3) I am including the above explanation at the bottom of those submission guidelines as a further reminder since I'd imagine some people will skip reading the comments and miss this explanation the first time.
4) Since it was this second artist's decision to post a link to his website that made me put up this post, I have deleted his comment. This isn't out of malice. I'm doing it to spare him any undue embarrassment. That's not my wish at all.
5) If you have questions, I have set up the following email address: realmsoffantasyart@gmail.com. You'll find this address on my profile page as well. I fully understand that posting this email address will lead to artists sending me links to their websites. But at least they'll be sent privately and in one place as opposed to on my blog. And for the record, I much prefer physical submissions to the P.O. Box. If I like your work, I like to have physical samples on file. I'm old-school like that.
Thanks, folks. And I'm not an ogre, really. Just ask the writers! But I do like having my system in place (again, ask the writers). It makes my life easier, and it also helps me respond to everyone faster.
The art submission guidelines have been updated to include the rights that RoF is asking for.
I just wanted to provide a reminder that U.S. postage rates are going up on May 11th, 2009. This might seem a little early for such a reminder, but I thought I should do it now because Realms of Fantasy isn't open yet to fiction submissions. So by the time we are and I read your story, there's a fair chance your SASE will require 44 cents. And if I pass along your story to Shawna, I am almost certain that by the time she responds to your story your SASE will require 44 cents.
So writers may consider this fair warning. Artists, since we're currently open to art submissions, gauge everything accordingly as things advance.
Hi Guys,
I know some of you have been curious as to whether we'll still be doing a Halloween issue this year. Well, I had a chance to discuss this matter with Warren and Shawna today. Unfortunately, the three of us have decided that we're going to have to shelve the Halloween issue. Given the interruption to RoF's schedule these last two months, trying to put out a themed issue so soon after changing publishers would create too many difficulties in the art and fiction departments. It's possible we may try to do a Halloween issue at some point in the future, and if that should happen we'll be certain to make an announcement.
I'm sure the writers out there still have some questions, so I'll do my best to answer them now:
1) What if my story was accepted for the Halloween issue?
We'll still publish it.
2) What if I have a story at the magazine that I'm waiting to hear back on?
We'll still consider it for the magazine.
3) What if I was working on a story for the Halloween issue? Should I still send it?
Of course! Remember, in order to be a match for the Halloween issue your story first needs to be a match for RoF. That still hasn't changed.
If you have other questions, feel free to ask in the comments thread.
Hi Guys,
There are still some things to sort out regarding the art department, but I'm happy to announce that we are now accepting submissions. Please note that we still remain closed to fiction submissions. The moment this changes you can be sure I'll let you know. Nonfiction people, I know you still have questions. I haven't forgotten you. Hang tight. You should be hearing from me soon.
I'm posting the updated guidelines for art below. If you read the guidelines, you'll see that the way we'll be handling covers has changed. I'm pointing this out so you won't be surprised in the future. I'm still trying to determine what we have in inventory, so if we've acquired some finished covers from Sovereign, it might be a couple of issues before this change goes into effect. We'll see.
I know we've been saying that the magazine will be very close to the original, but please understand that this publisher is not Sovereign Media. Some change is inevitable. At our core though, we'd like to believe we'll be very much the same and that you'll continue enjoying RoF for many issues to come. We hope so anyway.
Please feel free to spread the word regarding the art department. Artists, I wish you luck and I'm looking forward to working with you.
ETA: Please do not post links to your websites on my blog so I'll look at your portfolios. I discuss RoF a lot here, but I'm not comfortable conducting its business here. If you insist on posting such a link anyway, please consider yourself warned I will not follow the link or respond to your post. I have very few rules on my LJ, but I'm pretty firm on this. If you have questions, you can email me here: realmsoffantasyart@gmail.com
ROF Art Submission Guidelines
Here are our suggestions for submitting your artwork to Realms of Fantasy:
Submit samples of your work in the form of tear sheets or color printouts. Please make sure samples will fit in a standard file folder. Indicate which samples should be returned and include a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope. If you don’t require any samples returned to you but would still like a response, please enclose a business-sized SASE. Submissions lacking some sort of return postage will go unanswered if we pass on your work. Please allow up to twelve weeks for a response.
Realms of Fantasy pays $450.00 for interior illustrations. Each issue, we will feature one of the interior illustrations on the cover. Artists who have an interior illustration appearing on the cover will receive an additional $200.00. In other words, if your interior illustration is chosen to appear on the cover, you will receive $650.00 total, your illustration will appear on the cover, and it will also appear inside the magazine with the story you were originally hired to illustrate. Remember, to be considered for the cover, your artwork must leave enough space at the top for the magazine's logo and enough room on the left side for cover text. Also, please be advised that on occasion we may decide none of the art for a given issue is quite right for the cover. Should this happen, we will acquire cover art elsewhere.
Realms of Fantasy pays within sixty days of receiving the finished artwork. We ask for the following rights: First North American Serial Rights, and nonexclusive book rights for hardcover, trade paperback, and electronic. We seek trade paperback rights and electronic rights for a trade paperback edition and an electronic edition of the magazine. The hardcover rights are for a yearly hardcover that includes all six issues combined into one hardcover book. The art will only be used in conjunction with the story that it illustrates.
If you're just starting to break into the illustration field, please remember that Realms of Fantasy is a professional magazine that receives submissions from experienced professionals and it can be very hard to break in here.
Please send your submissions to the following address:
Realms of Fantasy Magazine
Art Department
P.O. Box 1357
Valley Stream, NY 11582
Good luck!
- Mood: excited
Hi Guys,
I seem to be going for the record for blog entries today!
Anywho, I know a number of authors had stories that were accepted but not paid for, and they're wondering what the deal is. This is what Warren remarked to one such writer somewhere in the comments thread for one of these entries: My understanding is that if your story was accepted, but not paid for, I'll be paying you for it once Shawna gets the info from Sovereign as to which stories have been paid for and which one's have not. It shouldn't be too much longer and the checks will flow.
It's buried in the comments thread of my previous entry, so I wanted to make a fresh entry for this one. This from the horse's mouth (the horse being RoF's new publisher, Warren Lapine--oh great, I've already called the boss a horse!) regarding stories that were purchased and paid for by Sovereign Media: According to the contract the stories that were purchased and paid for by Sovereign are being transferred to Tir Na Nog. So we should be publishing them
The news is slowly leaking through the internet. Allow me to provide additional confirmation. Realms of Fantasy has indeed pulled a phoenix. The magazine is coming back. Sovereign Media, the old publishers, have sold the magazine to Warren Lapine. Some of you may remember Warren as the publisher of DNA Publications, which put out magazines such as Weird Tales, Absolute Magnitude, Fantastic Stories, etc. Now he'll be publishing RoF.
I'm sure there are bunches of you with bunches of questions, so I'll try to answer what I can in advance:
1) When is the magazine coming back?
We're hoping to come back in May. When I have an exact release date, you can be sure I'll announce it here.
2) Is there a website?
Glad you asked. We already have a temporary website in place.
3) So if you're this excited, does this mean that you're staying with the magazine?
Very perceptive of you. I am remaining as assistant editor and Shawna McCarthy is staying on as editor.
4) Will it be the same magazine?
From what I understand, we should be awfully similar to what we were under Sovereign Media. We'll have the same fiction editors, and I imagine many of the same writers will continue submitting their work to us. My understanding is that we'll still have color artwork. I don't have solid details about the non-fiction columns, but in talking with Warren my impression is that we wants to change very little.
5) Are you going to be paying the same rates for fiction?
That's what I've been told by Shawna.
6. Same word counts for fiction?
That's what I've been told by Shawna.
7. Will RoF still be a SFWA market?
So says Shawna.
8. Will you guys still be bi-monthly?
My understanding is that this is currently the plan.
9. Great. Can I submit my work to you?
Not just yet. Everything became official yesterday, so we're still sorting a lot of things out. When I asked Shawna about this, she told me that her guess is we'll need 3-4 weeks before we're ready to open again to submissions. We may end up opening to submissions sooner, or maybe a little longer than this. At this point, my recommendation would be to wait until you read on the new website or on my blog or Warren's blog that we're open to submissions. Once we are open, I'll announce it here ASAP.
10. Are you still doing a Halloween issue?
We don't know yet. Rest assured that if we decide not to go this route, your story will still be considered for RoF. If your story was bought or accepted for the Halloween issue, read 12 & 13.
11. So when the news broke that RoF was closing, my story was in the slush and I never heard back from you. What happens to my story now?
I already started slushing again yesterday. Responses to those stories will go out today. My last batch of slush runs all the way through 1/14/09. I anticipate getting through it before March is over. If you sent us something that is postmarked after this date, it's still with Shawna. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for me to look at it until the next slush transfer (and at this point I have no idea when that will be, sorry).
12. I had a story that was paid and/or contracted for. What should I do?
Hold on a little longer. Some of the details regarding the transfer of stories to the new publisher are still being hammered out. I would suggest to wait until you hear from Shawna or Warren. If they ask me to contract you, I will of course do so ASAP.
13. I had a story that was accepted for the magazine, but I never received a contract or payment. What should I do?
See 12.
14. I had a story that was passed along to Shawna but I never heard back from her. What should I do?
Keep waiting and please continue having patience with us. I'm not sure when Shawna will start reading for RoF again (for all I know she's started again already), but these stories will be considered for the new RoF.
15. You, Doug, have my story and it was going to be passed along to Shawna before the news broke about RoF. What should I do?
Keep waiting and please continue having patience with us. Like I said, I don't know when the next slush transfer will be, but your story will be passed along to Shawna for consideration. Once that next slush transfer takes place, I fully intend to get us back to our old schedule in terms of response times, and to do it ASAP.
16. I had submitted a story to RoF, then contacted you, letting you know that I'd submitted it elsewhere before you put up that hold request on your blog. What happens now?
First, if you never contacted me before and your story is being considered elsewhere, please contact me now. Second, if you've sold a story you submitted to us and still haven't told me, please do so now. Next, if you have a story you've sent elsewhere and it was supposed to be considered by Shawna, Shawna tells me these stories will be among the first ones she reads when she starts reading again for RoF. So sit tight and wait to hear from Shawna, and if you hear back from this other magazine before you hear from Shawna, please let me know (regardless of response, so I can update my records accordingly). I know a few of you had stories that were going to be passed along to Shawna, but right now they're still with me and you submitted them elsewhere before I put up that hold request. When I do my next slush transfer with Shawna, I'll put these stories on top. But if you hear back from these other magazines before you hear back from Shawna, please let me know (regardless of response, so I can update my records accordingly).
17. Your answer to 16 has given me a headache and left me even more confused.
I can't blame you. If you feel you somehow fall into category 16 and you're still confused, feel free to contact me through my LJ email or through my private email, which you should already have.
18. I still have questions.
That's what the comments thread is for. Ask away and I'll do my best to answer you.
We're back, baby!
- Mood: jubilant
This is the monthly reminder about our Halloween issue for 2009. Since we're now into 2009, I now have a better idea as to when is the deadline for sending us submissions for the Halloween issue. Right now, you may consider the deadline the middle of April. When we get closer, I'll post more exact information. The rest of announcement is basically the same for those who have read it before (though having some sort of deadline makes the announcement noticeably shorter!)
***
Shawna asked me to post about this on my blog. Feel free to link to and point interested parties to this post for all the essential details.
Realms of Fantasy plans on running a Halloween issue for our December 2009 issue (meaning it will hit the stands in October 2009). The story doesn't have to be about Halloween. It can deal with ghosts, vampires, witches, things that go bump in the night ...you get the idea. If you have something you think is a good fit for the issue, please send it. As with any story being considered for any issue of ROF, we're interested in nothing but your best work.
Overall, we need 7 stories for the issue, so you can expect competition to be fierce. Currently, just one of these slots has been filled, so we still need 6 more stories. Shawna and I need to get the lucky winners over to the publishers by June 2009. Right now, the deadline to send us stories is mid-April. I promise to post an exact date when the deadline draws closer.
Please send your stories to the usual mailing address. Please label your mailing envelope "HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION" somewhere I can't miss. Authors normally passed along directly to Shawna will be given the usual consideration.
All right. I think that covers everything. If anyone has any questions I haven't answered, please feel free to ask me under the comments thread (and please check the comments and tab threads before asking a question I may have already answered!)
Now get to writing!
Hey Folks,
So a while back I announced an experimental policy change regarding international submissions to Realms of Fantasy. In a nutshell, so long as international authors didn't require that we return their manuscripts to them, we would reply to their submissions via email. Until now, we had kept this policy experimental, because we wanted to make sure this change was something we were comfortable with.
And now we can say that we are. Shawna and I are removing the "experimental" tag from this policy change. You may now consider it official policy. Feel free to spread the word.
I'm a little late this posting this month (sorry), but this is the monthly reminder about our Halloween issue for 2009. I've made some tweaks to the announcement, but all of them are rather minor. Also, please note that while I mention we still need 6 more stories, we'll be doing a buying run for the magazine rather soon; I won't be at surprised if we end up filling a few more Halloween slots.
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Shawna asked me to post about this on my blog. Feel free to link to and point interested parties to this post for all the essential details.
Realms of Fantasy plans on running a Halloween issue for our December 2009 issue (meaning it will hit the stands in October 2009). The story doesn't have to be about Halloween. It can deal with ghosts, vampires, witches, things that go bump in the night ...you get the idea. If you have something you think is a good fit for the issue, please send it. As with any story being considered for any issue of ROF, we're interested in nothing but your best work.
Overall, we need 7 stories for the issue, so you can expect competition to be fierce. Currently, one of these slots has been filled, so we still need 6 more stories. Shawna and I need to get the lucky winners over to the publishers by June 2009. Right now, we can't give you an exact date as to when is the latest you can send us your story for consideration. Why? Simply put, Shawna and I meet every 4-6 weeks to do a slush transfer. I give her what's left from the last batch, and she leaves me with the new batch, to rummage through for literary gems. With this kind of system, it's impossible to predict exactly when we'll be meeting during the course of 2009. At this point, a good rule of thumb is that you don't want to mail your stories to us any later than March 2009. Please note this is not an official deadline. This is an informed guess as to when is the absolute latest you can send us your Halloween yarn without risk of missing the chance for it to be given due consideration. As things get closer, this unofficial deadline may change (and at some point will probably become official!) Either way, I promise to post more informed information concerning the deadline once we hit 2009.
Please send your stories to the usual mailing address. Please label your mailing envelope "HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION" somewhere I can't miss. Authors normally passed along directly to Shawna will be given the usual consideration.
All right. I think that covers everything. If anyone has any questions I haven't answered, please feel free to ask me under the comments thread (and please check the comments thread before asking a question I may have already answered!)
Now get to writing!
