Submissions




ATTENTION!

Submissions for BBT Issue 5 are now open!

Please read these guidelines thoroughly before submitting.

 

What we are seeking:

Stories- of speculative fiction and satire 1,000 word minimum and 7,000 word maximum.  Ideally we would like to see six stories in the speculative fiction and satire vein and six stories in hard core speculative fiction.  (This will not be true for all issues, only for the June/July/August [summer] issue, return to this page often to see updated guidelines.)

Essays- on the world of speculative fiction, writing, movies, media etc. up to 5,000 words.  As of this moment we prefer essays on the joys of geekdom/how speculative fiction/movies changed/shaped your life; however, anything related to speculative fiction will do.

Poetry- (no more than two pages please, and must relate to issue topic/BBT/speculative fiction somehow)

Since this publication is online, standard manuscript format is not required.  Please send entries in using Arial 12pt. font and two hard carriage returns between paragraphs (poetry is the exception to this rule, aside from the font.)  Also, entries should be sent as an .rtf file ATTATCHED to your email.  Please put something to the effect of "SUBMISSION for Issue Five" in the subject line.

Reprints- Please inquire first.

Artwork- we need a cover piece and five content pieces.  Full color is preferred, and we prefer equality as well, i.e. if your female character is wearing iron nipple shields and a chain mail thong, your male character should be wearing a chain mail jock strap and a slave collar.  Likewise, if your male is fully clothed, so should your female.  We understand that it is indeed about fantasy, but being a staff of mostly women we have some standards.  Women can be strong and sexy in full clothing and real armor just as well as in scant metal underwear.  We are not as likely to take a piece of art if it features only a scantily clad female.  Besides, we like to look at fantasy men as well, and there are not that many around. hinthinthinthinthint… ;)

Art should be 96 dpi, no more than 300 kb. per image.  This being an online magazine we would like it to load fairly quickly.  Send these as an attachment. JPEG and GIF files preferred.

 

Payment- as of this moment we are not a paying publication, but would like to be in the future.  For now contributors receive bragging rights, another story/article/piece of art on their publishing resume, and accolades from us.

We ask for first internet (text) rights and no simultaneous submissions please.  

If your piece is accepted you will be notified by email and sent a contract that we ask be read through and signed.  Also, we will ask for a small biography from you, including your website/space if interested.

 

For stories, all spelling and grammar rules apply.  If your characters are speaking in a manner that requires the use of misspelling, said misspellings should be uniform.  On that note, if you have a made up language, make certain it is uniform as well.

Make quite certain your piece is polished and at a place where you like it.  Just because we mainly publish satire fiction does not mean the pieces can be sloppy.

Be original.  As all publications note, there is nothing new under the large yellow star that makes us writhe when we go out for our overly priced coffee, but that does not mean we should make complete carbon copies of other stories and label them as our own.  Still, we believe this quote from C. S. Lewis to be of some use in this area:

 "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."

Also, just because we think it’s too cool and should be read by all writers: A Comprehensive and Totally Universal Listing of Every Problem a Story Has Ever Had by Douglas A. Van Belle over at ASIM.

DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS IS AUGUST 9th 2009!

 

Send all submissions to submissionsbbt@gmail.com