Guest Writer: Peter DiChellis

Katharine Hepcat is pleased to share this call for submissions.

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“Should I Submit?”
by Peter DiChellis

Here’s a submission call I just found. I’d love to hear what other writers think about it. I also hope it gives readers an inside look at the glamorous world of getting stories published. I cut and pasted it below, exactly as it appears:

This submission call is for 8,000 to 12,000 word stories on the theme Vegetarian Zombie Cops Farming the Minnesota Prairie.

You may interpret the theme as broadly or narrowly as you wish.

We are a new market.

No electronic submissions. Please print your manuscript on yellow paper, roll it up, and send it in tubular packaging via Fedex. We do not accept manuscripts sent via UPS or the US Postal Service. We do not accept flat envelopes. We do not return submitted manuscripts.

Reverse indent paragraphs, i.e., the first line in all paragraphs should be flush left, the remaining lines indented. Use single spacing with three blank lines between paragraphs.

Our preferred font is 11-point Plantagenet Cherokee but we also accept 11-point Hoefler Text.

Insert four spaces after periods, three after colons, and two after commas. Do not use semi-colons or ellipses.

Indicate italics by using 12-point Monotype Corsiva font. Do not use underlining or bold facing anywhere in the manuscript.

Do not use quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Indicate dialogue with clear speaker attributions and by using 10-point Futura font for the dialogue portion only. Indicate quotations within quotations by using an additional clear attribution and either 9-point Plantagenet Cherokee or 9-point Hoefler Text within the 10-point Futura portion indicating the outer quotation.

Include a short author bio, under 35 words, with a recent high-resolution b&w photograph that was taken indoors. Please note that we will not publish the photo.

Submissions that do not meet our guidelines will be discarded without being read.

We require the following worldwide rights for five years: Print, electronic, reprint, foreign language, audio, video, and film.

No simultaneous submissions. No reprints. No titles that begin with vowels.

Due to the heavy volume of submissions we receive, we cannot respond to all submissions or to author inquiries. The submission call is open until filled. If you do not hear from us after two years, you may assume your story has been rejected or lost.

Unfortunately we cannot pay writers. We are a ‘4 the love’ market. Exposure only.

Well, whaddya think? Submit?

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Peter DiChellis is a new mystery-suspense writer. His sinister tales appear in a handful of publications, most recently at YELLOW MAMA, Near to the Knuckle, and in The Shamus Sampler private eye anthology. For links to his published stories, visit his WordPress site Murder and Fries

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—Walter Conley

Heh.