In fifteenth-century Rome, legend has it that a Roman priest was imprisoned and martyred for illegally marrying couples in secret. Whispered Vows takes the theme of secret marriages from St. Valentine and runs with it—or shall we say elopes? This anthology will celebrate forbidden love, overcoming obstacles, and the timeless romance at the core of Valentine's Day, all laced with an edge of GLBT er0tic passion.
Happily-ever-after endings are a requirement for this anthology, as well as stories that have strong er0tic romance elements at their cores. We also encourage that the marriage not be the perfect bow tied at the end of the story, but a plot element that carries its own weight and consequences. Are your characters running from the law, from their families, from another lover? Flexible definitions of marriage are also welcome in order to keep the door open for genres beyond contemporary and historical. They will, however, need to be well thought out and integral to the progression of the characters.
Genres: Any
Pairings: M/M, F/F, multi-partner
HEA or HFN Ending Required
Expected Release Date: February 3, 2012
General Submission Guidelines
Unless otherwise specified in the particular call, anthology submissions are subject to the following guidelines:
Submissions must be between 10,000 and 20,000 words. All submissions will be edited, but this is no excuse to send in a first draft. Stories should be as polished as possible before being submitted. Submissions must have either a core romantic plot or a reasonable amount of erotic content. Genre, pairing, and/or other restrictions may apply—read the anthology call closely before submitting!
All works submitted to Storm Moon Press must be unreleased works. We are only interested in acquiring exclusive first English language rights. This means if a work has been self-published, published by a subsidy press, on a website, journal, or other public forum, those rights have already been used and we cannot accept your submission.
Royalties and Contracts
Initial contract length will be for exclusive print and electronic rights for three years. Six months after the release of the anthology, each author's submission will additionally be made available for purchase separately in electronic formats.
Authors will receive royalties as well as an initial payment of $50 for their story. This payment is not an advance and does not have to be earned out before royalties are paid. Royalties on individual e-book releases will be 50% of cover price on direct sales through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 40% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors. In addition, authors will receive the same percentage royalty on sales of the anthology e-book divided equally among the authors, as well as 25% of cover price on direct sales of the print anthology through Storm Moon Press' e-store, and 20% of cover price minus distribution costs for sales through third party vendors, also divided equally among all authors. All royalties will be paid quarterly.
Contributors will also be given 2 print copies of the anthology, one PDF copy of the anthology, and one PDF copy of their single release short story.
How To Submit
Submissions must be sent electronically, through email. Please do not send hard copies of manuscripts to our place of business as we will not return them, nor will they be reviewed.
Submission Requirements:
* Please send submissions to submissions @ stormmoonpress.com (remove the spaces when surrounding the @ sign when emailing us)
* Email subject should read: ANTHOLOGY TITLE: STORY TITLE - AUTHOR
* Include a 300 word bio of the author as a cover page
* The top left of the cover page should include the following: submission title, author's name, address, phone number, and e-mail
* Submissions must be sent as a RTF attachment, the file named ANTHOLOGY_TITLE_STORY_TITLE_AUTHORNAME
* Double spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1" margins.
* Do not indent your paragraphs, insert a blank line between paragraphs, ### or *** between scene breaks
Contact Information:
For inquiries: submissions@stormmoonpress.com
For submissions: submissions@stormmoonpress.com
Website: http://www.stormmoonpress.com
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