Submissions open May 15, 2023.
Anthology Submission Guidelines
Qualifications:
To submit to the anthology, you must be a current member in good standing of Sisters in Crime (national) and of Sisters in Crime – Canada West, both at the time you submit and when the anthology is published.
There is no fee to submit. The anthology editors will select the best stories from all entries to be included in the anthology.
Department of First Stories
We encourage members whose fiction has not yet been published anywhere to submit to our anthologies.
Theme and Content:
This year’s theme is Dangerous Games, which could encompass everything from the schoolyard to cyberspace to industry to a sporting event in the neighbor’s backyard. Put your own spin on it! The story must include a crime. NO horror, gore, or erotica, please.
Original Work:
Do not submit reprints or previously published work (whether in print or electronically). For our purposes, previously published includes self-published stories and those published on a blog or public forum.
Submissions:
Multiple submissions are fine.
Simultaneous submissions are fine as well, however please notify us promptly if your story is accepted elsewhere, so that we can withdraw it from consideration.
Submissions will be judged blind. Do not put your name or contact information anywhere on your manuscript.
Length: no minimum; 6,000 word maximum.
Format:
Double spaced; Times New Roman 12 or other standard and similar font; Word doc or docx only.
Indent each paragraph; Do not insert an extra line between paragraphs. Use symbols to indicate section breaks (such as *** or ###).
To help our judges keep track of the story pages if they print them out, please insert a header on pages 2 onward: your manuscript title (left margin) and page number (right margin), for example:
What a Fabulous Story 2
Deadline: 12:01 a.m. Pacific time November 1, 2023.
Process:
Reading period is November 1 – December 1, 2023.
Story selection is December 1 – 31, 2023.
Writers will be notified of our selections the week of January 2, 2024. Everyone who submits will receive our committee members’ review notes and scores.
Contract and Compensation:
If your entry is selected for inclusion in the anthology, we will send you a contract (and you must withdraw your story from any other venues to which you may have submitted it). For each selected story, we ask for exclusive first world English anthology rights for three months after publication and for non-exclusive world English anthology rights in print and electronic formats. This permits us to publish your story first (and in subsequent versions of the anthology). You will retain all other rights to your story and will be free to submit it for reprint three months after the publication date.
Author compensation per story included in the anthology is $25 Canadian. Authors will also receive one complimentary copy of the anthology, and be able to purchase up to ten author copies at cost.
How to Submit:
Submit your entry by emailing it (as a .doc or .docx attachment) to submissions (at) sinc-cw.ca. Please make every effort to ensure there are no viruses in your attachment.
In your submission email, please use the following subject line to help us track communications: “Crime Wave Submission; [your last name]; [Title of your story]”
and provide the following in the text of your email:
- your contact information (at least an email address and telephone number)
- the following confirmation: “I confirm this story has not previously been published, electronically or in print.”
- if your story is being submitted for the anthology’s First Stories Section, please let us know that in your email and confirm you have never had a work of fiction published anywhere.
We will acknowledge receipt of your submission by email.