Wednesday 20 February 2013


Night Shade: An anthology of Adult horror & ghost stories.

OPEN SUBMISSION from FEB 20th
SUBMISSION GATES ARE NOW OPEN
CLOSE March 31st 2013

Calling all writers of horror and creepy stuff! Little Bird Publishing will be launching it's anthology 'Night Shade' in the Summer of 2013. It is the bigger, badder, darker big sister to 'Dark Heart' (The YA anthology we released earlier this year.)

THEME: 
The Theme is BONES & REMAINS although this theme is intended to inspire rather than restrict. You are welcome to take these words in any direction you wish.

Night Shade will comprise of seven / eight short stories and is designed to be a showcase for indie and small press authors.

REMITTANCE: 
Although we are not currently in a position to pay you for your story in money, the idea of Dark Heart & Night Shade is that they are a platform to market your work and connect with readers. It is also an opportunity to hook up with fellow authors and engage in cross promotion. We will continually support your marketing, offering you slots on our blog, placing you on our LBPH website, offering tweets and shoutouts via Twitter and promoting you on Facebook. We will continue to support as you release new works.

Of course, you also get to say that you have had a short story 'published' by us which all adds to your writer's C.V.

PRICING POLICY: 
After initially being on sale for $2.99 for a couple of months until all costs are covered, the anthology will be part of the Amazon KDP select program and will be offered for Free for a five day period (During which time we will co-ordinate a big push) Once this has finished, it will be on sale for $0.99 and any profits raised after this time will go to a charity voted for by the contributors.

Widgets will be placed on the blog that will track the funds we have raised.

PAPERBACKS & e-BOOKS: 
We will also be producing a paperback which will be available to purchase from us at cost. We will be using the paperbacks mainly for swag. Any profits from the paperback after costs will go into the charity pot. We will use some of the money to fund the swag, postage and marketing of the anthology.

SUBMISSION:
Submission gates will open on FEB 20th 2013.
Works should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words.
Poetry will be considered.

Please top your MS with your name, your postal address, your e-mail address and your social networking links.

Please ensure that MS are formatted in the following way:
Page size:  A4
Font: Times New Roman or Garamond
Size:  12
Spacing: 1 and 1/2
Paragraph style:  U.K traditional indentation
PLEASE USE RULERS for Indentation of dialogue and paragraph rather than space bar.
Please ensure that work has been through a grammar and spell check.

OTHER NOTES: 
You will maintain copyright and intellectual property of your story. (We are just borrowing it)
You will be required to sign a release form so that we have proof you are happy for us to use it infinitum.
You CAN submit previously published stories as long as you own the copyright.
Traditional ghost stories and dark fairy tales are also welcome.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES: 
We're pretty open minded her at LBPH but at the same time we don't wish to publish erotica or extreme gore-fests.

SEX:
Sex scenes in context are acceptable, although gratuitously explicit scenes which involve extreme  violence / sado-masochism will not be accepted. If there are themes of sexual abuse or rape, then we request that you deal with the issue sensitively and justly in a mainstream fashion. We understand that sexual undertones or motivations are part of horror and will accept them within limits.

VIOLENCE:
Obviously violence or implied violence are part of most horror. Again, we are not prudish but please ensure that the violence is not gratuitous or there just for the shock value.

As touchstone guidance works in the style of Poe, Lovecraft, King, Koontz etc.

SEND TO:
Please send your submission to Kitty Rackham on this e-mail address littlebirdpublishinghouse@yahoo.com

We look forward to reading your tales.

Kindness,
Katie and Kitty.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Dark Heart Anthology

Earlier this year I talked about my involvement with an anthology called 'Dark Heart'. The idea of the anthology was to invite authors (either previously published or not) to submit a Young Adult Dark Fairy Tale. 

Little Bird Publishing House is my publisher. LBPH aims to create an ethical publishing house that has an open door policy, encouraging new talent and supporting authors getting their work into the hands of readers. It is a great supporter of the indie movement and believes passionately in the freedoms and autonomy that self publishing brings, not only to the author but to the reader. 
When we set about this project, myself and Kitty (Editor and general big cheese) of LBPH were unsure as to how successful the project would be. We knew that there was a whole load of talented writers out there doing their thing but we weren't sure how many would support a project by a new and not yet established publisher. 
Six months down the line and what a journey. Firstly we had over sixty submissions - an incredible response and one wholly unexpected. After much reading and heated debate we settled on the collection of tales we have now published. 
What I love most about Dark Heart is that at no point did the editorial team look at the author's biographies or previous works before making our selections. As a result we have managed to collate together an incredibly varied, fresh and interesting collection of stories. 
No part of editing this anthology felt like work and it didn't matter how many read throughs had to happen, I found myself visiting each story with fondness. 
There are seven stories in the anthology, written by eight writers. (Bethany Rockey and Marya Heiman come as writing pair - something I marvel at!) The stories are as varied in their style as they are in their subjects; from fairy assassins, to magical trees, to demonic night beasts, to goblins and witches. There is sure to be at least one story that you fall in love with. 

I'm now really looking forward to working on our Volume Two later in the year. We have the cover all ready to go and already writers are asking us when the next volume is coming out, which is a really good sign. 

In the mean time, I wish all of the contributors a really wonderful and positive 2013. I know we are going to see many more wonderful stories from them. 


Monday 4 February 2013

The First Amazon Review is in ...


CONGRATULATIONS to our AMAZING AUTHORS. The first Amazon Review is in and it has some great things to say about the anthology. Here's to many more great reviews!
4.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Anthology! 1 Feb 2013
By Pyxi Rose - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition
If you love your faerytales dark, this anthology is for you! I'll be honest with you, I normally don't do short stories collections but I was pleasantly surprised at this one. From witches to murderous faeries, it is a rollercoaster of thrills, chills and a tad bit gory. I loved it! A few stories that stood out for me were Wicked Games by Tammy Basic and Nightmare by Marya Heiman and Bethany Rockey.

Wicked Games played on the beauty of something deadly and the human craving for something that is oh so bad for you. And Nightmare was just plain scary as hell! To have no control over your reality once you close your eyes...there is a thin line between sanity and madness. And both authors danced skillfully on that line. I look forward to reading more from these authors. Very intriguing collection indeed!


GRAB YOUR COPY HERE.