Shadow Plays

UPDATE
See this page for the changes made to the submission guidelines on 27 October 2005.

What Is 'Shadow Plays'?

We’re primarily taking submissions from Australian authors, although we won’t rule out the inclusion of overseas writers. Non-Australians should bear in mind that the anthology won’t be appearing in bookstores outside Australia,² although it will be available online and/or via mail-order.

What We’re Looking For

We are not looking for magic realism or straight horror.

We’d love to see some stories and worlds that take their cues from somewhere other than Germanic, Greek, Roman or Celtic traditions. Or you could just make it up and the hell if it makes proper sense, as long as it reads well. That said, we don’t in any way want to exclude stories rooted in the major Western traditions, with one caveat: we’d strongly prefer stories that step outside (or subvert) the post-Tolkien conventions perpetuated by Messrs Feist, Brooks and company.⁴

Still not sure exactly what we want? Neither are we, exactly, which is why we’ve taken so many words to say so. Surprise us.

Still interested? Have a squiz at the Things Most Likely and Unlikely To Blow Our Collective Skirts Up.⁵

What We’re Buying and Paying

We’re paying 0.5 cents (Australian) per word, minimum $10, up to $25. Payment will be on acceptance of final draft and the form of payment, while yet to be decided, will probably be cheque.⁶ In addition, the editors will choose one story to be awarded an Editors' Choice Award of $100. In the case of a difference of opinion between editors, the editors will determine the outcome through an officially arbitrated thumb-wrestle.

When and How to Submit

With hardcopy subs all manuscripts will be considered disposable, so don’t send us your only copy. If you include your email on the front page, we’ll respond to that, otherwise, include a SASE.⁷ Authors outside Australia who want a hardcopy response will need to provide an International Reply Coupon.

We are now accepting email submissions from Australian authors. And yes, that includes New Zealanders. Please email your electronic submissions to: The Editors. The attached document should be in RTF or Word format only. Write 'SUBMISSION:' at the beginning of your email's subject line. Please ensure that you have scanned the attachment for viruses before you hit send!

Authors outside Australia can query about electronic submission – submissions sent electronically by overseas authors without a prior query will not be read. For all query emails, please put QUERY at the beginning of the email's subject. In the body of the email provide the genre of the story, the title and word count, a brief paragraph about the story, and anything pertinent about your publication history (only fiction is relevant).

Submissions should be typewritten, 12pt Courier or Times New Roman,⁸ double-spaced. All pages should be numbered and your name, contact details and word count should be on the front page. Include your name and the story title (or a recognisable truncation) in the header of every page. Clean photocopies are acceptable.⁹ Save half a forest, if you like, and print double-sided, but please don’t do anything silly, confusing or annoying with your page order or orientation if you take this option.¹⁰

We make no promises on detailed written feedback, but we’ll do what we can. If you include an email address as part of your contact details then we will acknowledge receipt of your submission. We won’t be making any final decisions until submissions have closed, so don’t expect (or ask for) any responses prior to 12 December. Exceptions to this might be stories that are absolutely, definitively not what we’re looking for, or stories that we think have merit, but that we think need rewriting. We’ll aim to get all responses finished by the end of December. Our target for publication is April 2006.

Submit to:

Elise Bunter & Ian McHugh
PO Box 5139
Lyneham ACT 2602
AUSTRALIA

Australian electronic submissions and Australian/overseas queries to: The Editors

Happy Writing!

 

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