When you start writing, you quickly realize that there is solid advice on manuscript formatting for authors. You can easily find examples of classic and modern Shunn manuscript format online, for example. Some publishers will ask you to submit manuscripts in standard format. Many will add their own submission guidelines that they expect you to follow.
So, publishers. Let’s talk about the reverse situation: what information do we, as authors, want - and expect! - for you to provide us in an open call?
It’s pretty simple, really. We want to know three types of details:
What you want: the anthology theme; acceptable genres; word count; publication rights; etc.
When you want it: the due date, what format to use, and how to submit.
What we get for it: cash, copies, royalty share, or internet quatloos.
Simple, right? Yet at when I’m updating the open calls for #TeamAndMore, I consistently see publishers who somehow manage to miss one or more of those critical elements.
So let’s look at a sample open call for My Amazing Anthology.
Title: My Amazing Anthology
Theme: Thanksgiving stories about wombats
Genre: SF|Fantasy|Horror|Romance|Non-Fiction|Whatever
Length: minimum - maximum
Due: August 1st, 2024
Format: Shunn format, Microsoft Word (docx) or RTF
Rights: One year, world-wide first serial rights in English | etc.
Restrictions: No reprints | No simultaneous submissions
Payment: $25 flat | $0.05 word up to $50 | 0.02 word | royalty share via (XXX)
Submission: foo@example.com, subject ‘MAA: $STORY_TITLE” | Submittable link | Moshka link | etc.
My Small Press is pleased to announce an open call for My Amazing Anthology, a collection of Thanksgiving stories that focus on wombats. We’re looking for you. most amazing wombat Thanksgiving stories. Why? Because WE LOVE WOMBATS! Stories that involve wombats dying are sad, though, and are not suitable for this anthology.
That looks good, right? An author can pretty much glance over that header and get 90% of the information they need. While it’s all pretty self-explanatory, let’s go over a few of the details in, well. More detail.
TITLE should be what you’re calling this thing. If you don’t have a real title yet, go ahead and list it as TBD or “Generic Anthology” or whatever. Keep in mind, though, that this is what all we writers will use when referring to this thing, so use the actual real title if you can.
THEME should be short, sweet, and tell us exactly what you’re looking for. No more than a short sentence. Yes, you can do it - you make us do it all the time! - so take a moment and come up with an easy-to-read description of your theme.
GENRE tells us what kind of stories are acceptable. Cast as wide a net as you can - but please note any major exclusions! “Fantasy (except Urban Fantasy)” is perfectly acceptable. Keep this short. If you have a laundry list of criteria, or don’t want a certain types of story, put that in the description.
LENGTH should be two numbers, a minimum and a maximum number of words. No, not pages. Words, please.
DUE DATE should be the last possible date that you will accept a story. You can list is as “01 Aug 2024”, “August 1st 2024”, “01/08/24”, or whatever, just please let us know what the deadline is!
FORMAT tells us how you want it - both the manuscript format and file type. If there’s a specific manuscript format that you can link to, do it here. That could be Shunn format, or a page on your web site that gives details on the format, or whatever. You should also tell what file type you want to see when someone submits a manuscript. The most popular formats by far are Microsoft Word (docx) or Rich Text Format (RTF).
RIGHTS tells us what kind of rights you are asking us for, and for how long. Keep it short. You’ll spell that out in more detail in your contract, but we want to know if you’re asking for rights for a year, for translation, etc.
RESTRICTIONS tells us what you don’t want. Most common are things like “No reprints” and “No simultaneous submissions”. Note that both of those are about the story itself, not the story contents! If you don’t want a certain type of story, put that in the description.
PAYMENT is where we talk compensation. Is there a flat payment per story, or are you paying per word? Is there a maximum payment? Are authors going to share royalties via PubShare or the like? Are you going to provide authors with copies? Inquiring minds want to know!
Up to this point, all of this information is to help me decide if I’m going to pass on this opportunity you’re offering me. Are you asking for genre I don’t write in? Are you looking for stories shorter or longer than I’m comfortable with? Are you paying too little, or is the deadline coming up too fast? Any of those may cause me to (regretfully, of course) go on to see if there’s another open call that’s more my speed.
However, if we make it past all these details and think, “Man, I have just the story for these guys!” - well. We need a few more pieces of information, please!
SUBMISSION tells us how to get the story to you. Is it by email address, web site, or a submission service like Submittable or Moska? Let us know! Whatever you’re using, put it in here and make it a link that lets people click on it. Yes, you can do that with email! There are web pages that will teach you how. Here’s an example that you can use to start playing with this, if you’d like:
mailto:foo@example.com?subject=SUBMISSION:%20My%20Amazing%20Anthology
Finally, we have the DESCRIPTION. If someone’s made it this far, they are definitely interested in your anthology! So this is where you can get into the weeds. Describe exactly what kind of story you’re looking for. Tell us about any special restrictions you have (“… no elves, dwarves, or lagomorphs”). Tell us how we should format things. Tell us about your vision for the anthology. This is your free space to describe all the things that you were gnashing to the bit to tell us earlier!
OK, so you’ve crafted the perfect open call. You’re ready to put it out there! So you hop on to Facebook and…
… hoooold on there, pardner. Don’t be That Guy.
Some people don’t use Facebook, or Twitter, or InstaTokSocial, or whatever social media platform it is that you’re posting on. Some of those platforms don’t make content available to people unless they are users. Others can make it difficult to find something you just saw, let alone a post from a week ago that you vaguely remember.
You know what is accessible to everyone online, though? And has the added benfit of being easy to share everywhere, including with all my author buddies?
A web page.
So go ahead an put together a web page dedicated to your open call. Then publish it on your web site when you’re ready. Wait - you don’t have a web site? No problem! Set up a free Google Site. Or a free Wix site. Or a free whatever site, but please, please, please put your open call up on it’s own web page somewhere so we can share it around and make you wildly successful, OK?
When you create that web page, keep this in mind:
Give it a unique URL - ex, http://domain/my_amazing_anthology works really well. It’s easy to find, and easy to remember.
Do not delete that page! Links float around forever, and guaranteed, someone will come looking for it later.
Make sure you put all the details (see above!) at the top of the page!
When your open call starts, add the link to your web site front page, open call list, or whatever. That is the time to post the link to the web page on all your favorite social media sites.
As time progresses, edit and update the web page to reflect new information on the project. How many submissions you’ve gotten, “No more were-vampires, please”, that sort of thing.
When the open call closes, put a big ‘ol “CLOSED!” at the top of the page.
When the anthology is published, update the page to give people links to where they can buy the book.
There you go. That’s it. Simple as pie, right?
Now go forth, and list open calls that will not only make you proud, but make authors want to submit to you!
Preach it Sam! One other thing for my publisher wish list is approximately when I will be accepted or rejected: could be as specific as December 1, 2024 or an approximate "within six months after the deadline". Limbo is hell...
And we definitely need to know the file format (RTF, Word, etc.) as was discussed on the Discord. 😁