If you would like to submit an excerpt from a longer, recently published or scheduled to be published work for possible publication on the website, please use the form below.  Instructions and help for using the form are located below the form.

INSTRUCTIONS & HELP

INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY YOU TO AMAZING STORIES THROUGH THIS FORM WILL BE RETAINED CONFIDENTIALLY AND WILL NOT BE SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY PURPOSE.

You may receive queries/information from Amazing Stories at the email address you submit.  You will always have the option of opting out of such communications.

1. DO NOT USE ANY METHOD OTHER THAN THIS FORM TO SUBMIT EXCERPTS TO AMAZING STORIES.  Do not send it in email, do not send it to one of our contributors, do not add it to a comment.  Use only this form.

1A. Excerpt submissions that do not use this form will be SUMMARILY REJECTED.

1B. We will not accept any further submissions from the author for six (6) months. (We may also point at you and laugh.)

2. Real Name:  This may or may not be your author’s name.  Please type in your full, legal name.

3. Pseudonym:  if your work is published using a pseudonym, please enter it here.  If you are publicly and commonly known by a name other than your legal name, please enter it here.

4. Email:  Enter your everyday, associated with your writing, email address.  (We will be communicating with you through this address, so please make sure it is accurate and up-to-date.

5. Website:  We like to help publicize the authors and works submitted and would like to be able to send our readers to the best place to obtain information about you.  If you do not have a website, feel free to add a social networking site address or the website of your publisher.

6. Your Profile/Biography:  Please include a link to background materials regarding yourself, your career and your writing.

EXCERPT MATERIALS

Title: The current, actual and/or working title of your story.

Background:  Use a few paragraphs here to tell us about your story; where it is set, what it is about, how/why you came to write it.  Consider this to be your introduction to us – not the reader.

Introduction: If your excerpt is published, it will be preceded by this introduction.  The introduction should be a few paragraphs devoted to bringing the reader up to speed – summarizing events prior to the excerpt and/or setting the scene for the excerpt in a compelling fashion.

Excerpt: Length:  We’ve previously published everything from multiple chapters to a few paragraphs.  The word count of the excerpt is up to you, but it should meet the following criteria:  sufficient to convey the concepts of the longer work, selected to entice and excite the reader, sufficient to display your authorial skills.  Less is probably ‘more’ in this case (our experience is that about 50% of readers like excerpts and 50% don’t bother with them).  You want to leave the reader wanting more, but not frustrated with not being able to read more right now.  DO NOT submit your entire novel/longer work.  If you think that your excerpt submission is overly long (out of necessity), include a portion of it and include (at the end of the excerpt) a note to the effect that you have more you wish us to consider.  Format:  Copy and paste from your original document into the text area provided.  Most of your original formatting will probably be stripped out (bold, italics, underlines, etc) – don’t worry about it.  If we accept your excerpt for publication, we’ll request a properly formatted copy from you.

7. Publication Status:  You have two choices and you must select one.  Either your work is already in publication or it is scheduled for publication.  UNPUBLISHED, UNSCHEDULED works are inadmissible for this program.

Works in publication must have been originally published within six months of the date of submission here.

Works scheduled for release must have a release date within six months of the date of submission here.

Indie/self-pubbed works ARE eligible.  In such cases, the author and the publisher are usually one and the same.  Indie works that are scheduled for release must be ready for release – writing finished and edited, layout and formatting completed, cover art and method of production selected/arranged.  (We may ask to see the completed work prior to acceptance.)

8. Original publication/anticipated release date:  If your work has already been published, please include the first publication date here.  If it is scheduled for release, enter that date here.  We will check on this, so please be accurate.

9. Genre:  Your entry here should be science fiction, fantasy, horror or one of the many sub-genres associated with them (steampunk, slipstream, alternate history, epic fantasy, paranormal romance, etc).  Try to be as accurate as possible with as few genre labels as possible.

10. Cover Art Link:  Existing publications – a link to a purchasing opportunity will suffice.  Scheduled works should be sufficiently far along in development to have had artwork selected and prepared (or mostly prepared).  If the artwork has not been completed, include a link to the artist’s page.

11. Publishing Company Name:  Indie works – this will be your publishing entity.  Enter the full name – the imprint name – of the entity that has or is going to publish the work.

12. Publisher/Editor Contact Name:  Please enter your editor’s name or the name of the individual who is responsible for shepherding the work to publication (which could be you yourself.)

13. Publisher Email:  The contact email for the individual entered into the Contact Name field.

14. Publisher’s Website:  Your personal imprint site if you are self-pubbing; the imprint/publisher’s site if traditional.

15. Ownership Type:  If your rights to the work are not described by one of the options below, we can not consider your work for publication.  Furthermore, claiming rights/permissions you do not have will get you on the blackout list.  Select the option that best describes the rights and permissions you retain in the work being submitted.  (If you do think you have rights that allow us to publish your excerpt but do not believe that the included selections accurately describe them, do not use this form – send a note to the editor – explaining your situation.

16. Permission: By granting Amazing Stories permission, you are only granting us the Non-Exclusive, electronic right to publish the EXCERPT, the Introduction and the Background that you submit and to retain those works in our electronic archive here on the site.

We do not have the resources to molly-coddle submissions.  This form was created so that we can review and accept/reject works as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  Failure to use it properly and/or abuse of the submission system will result in blacklisting of associated URLs and email addresses.

Last But Not Least:  If you are in doubt, do not feel that the form allows you to submit your work in an effective manner or have some other question regarding submission – DO NOT FILL OUT THE FORM.  Contact us FIRST with your questions.

Our excerpt program should be viewed as a marketing and promotional opportunity for you, your work and the publisher.  If you do not think that the opportunity is right for you – don’t submit.  If you think that slight changes/modifications to the program would make it a good fit, please feel free to share those ideas with us prior to submitting.

Additional opportunities exist on the site that can be used in conjunction with an excerpt to enhance your promotional benefits:  you may want to think of making one or more copies of your work available as give-aways through the site (or in collaboration with your own site);  you may want to think about advertising your work/website here as well (advertising/not advertising will not affect our review of your excerpt in any way whatsoever);  you may also want to think about becoming a contributor to the site.