ABADDON BOOKS OPEN SUBMISSIONS MONTH 2017
23rd March 2017
We did it in 2012 and again in 2015 and had a blast, so here we are again: Abaddon is looking for new authors! For the month of May 2017, we will be opening our doors to public submissions. Hooray!
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We’re after novellas (ca. 30,000 words) and full-length novels (ca. 90,000 words), for publication on a Work For Hire basis in 2018 and 2019. We don’t need a finished manuscript right away! Submission details are below.
WHAT GENRES DO WE ACCEPT?
Anything, really! Historically, we’ve preferred submissions to our existing shared worlds – that’s our model, after all – but since we’ve always received many more original worlds submissions than submissions to existing worlds, we’ve decided this time to throw open the doors for new stories. Take note of the Work For Hire terms, though!
We’ve published space opera, historical fantasy, steampunk, post-apocalypse, urban fantasy, zombie fiction and more. Our favourite things are unexpected or subversive, challenging the assumptions of existing genres and asking difficult questions.
And we’re really, really interested in wider representation. We’d love stories about women, POC, LGBTQ+ and disabled characters, especially told by writers with those backgrounds and experiences.
WHAT’S WORK FOR HIRE?
Work For Hire is a publishing model in which we buy out your work – publication, adaptation and licensing rights, for characters, setting and story – for a single upfront payment. You get a professional paycheque without waiting to earn out, and all rights in the work reside solely with Rebellion, sequels and all.
We do this for a number of reasons, but the main one is so we can use the setting further down the line, inviting other writers to play in the sandbox. It’s given us some of our favourite stories: Al Ewing’s El Sombra books, for instance, and Cassandra Khaw’s Rupert Wong stories.
WHAT DO WE NEED FROM YOU?
Please send an email to submissions@rebellion.co.uk including:
· Your name and contact details,
· 50-100 words introducing yourself, and
· a 50-100-word “elevator pitch.”
Attach a single .doc or .rtf file including:
· a bullet-pointed summary of the story (around 1000 words for a novella, 2000 words for a full-length novel), and
· the first few pages of your submission (again, 1000 words for a novella, 2000 words for a full-length novel).
Submissions are open from May 1 and close on May 31. Anything arriving past this deadline will not be accepted, so don’t miss it!
WHAT HAPPENS THEN?
Then we spend most of June looking at a pile of manuscripts, and gradually work our way through them to find the candidates we want to publish. Then we’ll contact you to talk contracts and, if it’s not yet written, discuss a delivery date that works around your schedule.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Get writing, and keep an eye on the Abaddon blog for updates, how-to blogs from authors, and insights from our editorial team. Good luck!