Following up last week’s story about the impending launch of Fantastic Stories, editor and publisher Warren Lapine supplies these writers’ guidelines:
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is a full-sized, quarterly fiction magazine.
I’m looking for stories that cover the entire science fiction, fantasy, and horror spectrum. I love magic realism (think Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman). I want a story to surprise me and to take me to unexpected places. I love word play, and would like to see stories with a literary bent, though decidedly not a pretentious bent. I could spend some time telling you what I don’t want, but I’ve found that good stories can make me buy them regardless of how many of my rules they violate. Let your imagination run wild, push and blur the limits of genre, or send me something traditional. I want it all.
Story length: 1,000 to 10,000 words. Sorry no e-mail submissions.
Payment: 4 to 10 cents per word on acceptance for original stories, or 2 cents per word for reprints from the web. A check will accompany the contract, so no simultaneous submissions please. I am purchasing First North American Serial Rights, non-exclusive electronic rights and non-exclusive book rights.
Each issue of Fantastic Stories will be released as a magazine and as a trade paper back. Each year, all four issues will be bound together as a yearly hardcover. Contributors will receive two copies of all three editions.
Fantastic Stories will begin reading on 2 April 2009. At that point, you can send submissions to:
Editor Warren Lapine
Tir Na Nog Press
PO Box 243
Blacksburg, VA 24060