Dark Secrets Submission Guidelines
I'm reproducing below the submission guidelines for Outlook Books' inaugural anthology, Dark Secrets, as the deadline is March 31st and many more submissions are needed. Hopefully everything you need to know is below, but if you have any questions there's an email address included which you can use to contact the editor, Alicia.
General Submission Guidelines for
Outlook Anthologies
If you have any questions, please contact the editor, Alicia E. Blackburn, by email:
How To Submit
Outlook Books accept submissions through the above email address.
Submissions are received by email only and should be sent as Word documents.
Please use Shunn format.
Outlook Books accepts submissions from authors all over the world, as long as they are in the correct format outlined above.
Please don’t submit more than one story.
Please don’t simultaneously submit a story elsewhere.
Editing Submissions
Authors must be open to the correction of punctuation, spelling, grammar or any other technical basics without further consultation.
It is in the author’s best interests to ensure that the work is in the best possible shape prior to submission. If the submission takes too much time to fix, it is likely to be rejected.
Submissions must be the FINAL version as far as the authors are concerned — no adjustments to documents (other than proofreading fixes as above) can be made once they have been received.
Story Guidelines
Stories must be romances but must contain erotic elements without becoming simple pornography.
Romance as a genre usually has a main plot revolving around two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship, with the conflict and the climax of the story directly related to that romantic relationship. A romance story must have an emotionally satisfying and uplifting ending.
Erotica consists of stories containing passionate, romantic or sexual relationships, intended to arouse similar feelings in readers, specifically sexual feelings, and commonly featuring sexual fantasies which, unlike pornography (see below) are not usually expressed in explicit language.
Pornographic fiction is for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal.
Stories should contain some racy or raunchy elements featuring both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. No illegal content will be permitted. Often the only way to tell if a story is acceptable is to submit it and permit the editors to make a judgement. The deadline for Dark Secrets is March 31st, 2020.
Response Times
Three weeks is the average time for responding to a submission.
If you grow concerned, or have any questions about anything, please email the editor at
Formats
Outlook Books publish in paperback and ebook formats.
Rights
Submitted work should not be subject to any other prior agreement and be exclusive to Outlook Books for one year after the date of publication.
Copyright
Copyright remains with the author at all times.
Word Count
Maximum word count is 2,500 words. No minimum.
Marketing
Each accepted author will receive an e-copy of the completed book, and will be encouraged to purchase THREE copies of the paperback book once released for distribution to friends and family, but will be under no obligation to do so.
Outlook Books will undertake online marketing.
Unsolicited Manuscripts
Outlook Books does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Again, if you have any questions, please email Alicia at: