Jun 26 2010
Submission Guidelines for the Pain/Pleasure Anthology
I confess that when Berkley asked me to put this together, I thought I would have to strong arm some people (20 of them) into writing me a short story but there is quite a bit of interest in contributing to this collection.
I am looking for stories of 5,000 word length (you can go slightly over but you won’t be paid more) about the concept of the twin emotions of pain and pleasure. The submissions must be full (the story complete) and turned in to me litte. jane at gmail dot com by October 1 as an MS Word Attachment with the subject line: Pain/Pleasure Anthology Submission.
The submission can be, generally, anything with a strong erotic content. There is no limitation on genre. I definitely want a lot of variety such as m/m, femdom, diversity in characters. The work can have been published on your website but it cannot have been sold in publication.
I will be paying $500 for each contracted submission with .25% royalty in exchange for world digital, audio and print rights.
Let me know if you have any questions either by emailing me or leaving a comment.
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Jun 26, 2010 @ 11:08:43
Did you mean .25% royalty or 25% royalty? 0.25% seems a bit mean!
ETA: Oh, multiplied by 20 it seems more reasonable! Sorry for my dim moment.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 11:15:20
This sounds very exciting and just the sort of anthology I’d love to submit a story to.
I bet you get *hundreds* of submissions! :)
Jun 26, 2010 @ 11:15:37
@Ros: I was thinking the same thing. ^^ I didn’t know people got royalties for short stories – I assumed they were upfront fees unless it was something of a novella length. Good to know for the future, though!
I wish I could submit a story, but erotica is not within my jurisdiction. @_@ Good to see you’re putting in m/m. Yay for the gay!
Now to wait for the day when I can actually submit something *grabs Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins* Comfort food.
Tweets that mention Submission Guidelines for the Pain/Pleasure Anthology | Dear Author -- Topsy.com
Jun 26, 2010 @ 11:20:53
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by VictoriaDahl, PortiaDaCosta, jillmyles, eileenandrews, dee_carney and others. dee_carney said: RT @dearauthor: New post: Submission Guidelines for the Pain/Pleasure Anthology http://bit.ly/9jy8nf [...]
Jun 26, 2010 @ 11:35:20
@ros and @John – I think royalty for shorts are rare and I I’ve no idea whether there will be any but figured if there was I would offer up one
Jun 26, 2010 @ 12:00:00
Jane: I hate to think of the amount of reading you’re going to have. Good luck with this. Hope no gingerbread men come knocking.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 12:10:07
@Jane: change the way you wrote the email address, you are going to get a crapload of spam in it! “Spambots” scour for the @ and your blog is high traffic.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 12:12:37
I think this is fascinating. What a neat crossover between publisher/reviewer/author. I can’t wait to see what else forward thinkers in publishing come up with. It has seemed like there has been such a divide between the reader and the publishing model that this excites me.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 13:10:23
I agree. This is very interesting!
Jane, for what I understood, this is a Berkley's Submission call of a Pain/Pleasure Anthology for which you will be the editor, right?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, I want to forward the opportunity to others, and I would like to have all the correct information.
Thanks.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 13:51:02
Can this be any genre such as paranormal, urban fantasy or historical?
Jun 26, 2010 @ 16:16:11
This is very cool.
Can you blog about the process/status generally as you go along or do you have to be super secret? Anyway, I hope you can at least share numbers: x number received, x number accepted.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 16:29:57
@MaryK I think I can probably blog about the process/status as I go along. Why not? Although I don’t know how interesting it will be.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 16:32:20
@katiebabs Nope. As I said in the post, there is no limitation on genre.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 16:33:06
@Joanna Terrero This collection will be published by Berkley Heat for an unnamed erotic/erotica anthology for which I will be the editor.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 17:02:58
Coolness! I will keep this in mind.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 17:36:34
@Jane:
I can picture the first report post: Day 1 – I received 8.3 million submissions … thank God they were all received via e-mail …
*giggles*
Jun 26, 2010 @ 20:31:42
@Jane: :D
I was mostly thinking about how Angela James tweets about stuff. “Can you believe somebody sent me such-and-such?” Though I’m also interested in your choosing strategy – will they be your favorite stories or the ones that best fit together and with the theme – that kind of thing.
It’s the closest I’ll get to having loads of people send me stories to pick my favorites from so I hope to enjoy it vicariously. ;)
Jun 26, 2010 @ 21:06:08
re: I will be paying $500 for each submission
I think you meant:
I will be paying $500 for each contracted submission!
Good luck. I will be tweeting this for you.
Jun 26, 2010 @ 22:06:02
Jane, thanks a lot, I will tell the authors I know.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 02:33:42
Hello Jane\
do you accept submissions from other countries?
thanks
Jun 27, 2010 @ 08:54:22
Sounds exciting, Jane!!
Jun 27, 2010 @ 10:18:14
Royalties from short stories are not uncommon, esp. in the digital publishing world. They tend to run 35-40% for e-books. When it’s an anthology, that percentage gets split between the authors.
I’ll get something your way, Jane. This is my speciality area.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 11:12:48
@Angelia Sparrow Ah, I had heard for those “Best paranormal books of 2010″ or “Best SCIFI” etc. collections that royalties are a rarity.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 13:05:36
Is there a level of graphic detail you’re looking for, or a certain restraint in what you hope to publish?
Jun 27, 2010 @ 13:33:33
Count me in! I will make my submission by the end of the week.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 20:27:52
@Jane, it really varies with anthologies. Ellora pays royalties. Kerlak pays flat fee. (With collections, you only have one author involved) I have no idea how Berkely operates.
Torquere did flat fee for a long time, because anthologies just weren’t earning out for the authors. Now they’ve gone to royalties for certain anths, specifically the Toybox line.
And most shorts published as stand-alones earn royalties too.
Jun 30, 2010 @ 19:19:15
@Jane: How much is “slightly” over? I have a 6k story that I’d like to submit, but I’m not sure where I can pull the wordage without hurting the story. Should I try to pare it down anyway, or submit it as-is?
Jun 30, 2010 @ 20:55:09
@Nonny Morgan submit as is.
Jul 03, 2010 @ 00:56:33
Thanks, Jane! :)
Aug 07, 2010 @ 09:46:04
It seems silly to ask, but I’ve learned from experience that diversity that includes M/M often does not include F/F. Are you okay with a range of LGBTQ themes?
Aug 07, 2010 @ 09:47:30
@Sacchi Green: Yes a range of LGBTQ themes will be considered.
Aug 10, 2010 @ 20:40:51
Sacchi I am so glad you asked that. I had the same thought. So many places now will take m/m but still won’t accept lesbian erotic stories.
This project sounds great. I’ll see if i can get a story together in time. ^_^
Aug 11, 2010 @ 21:47:00
Can one author submit two stories? I have two ideas and don’t want to have to pick!
Aug 11, 2010 @ 21:52:30
@Kyle: Yes, you can submit more than one story.
Aug 12, 2010 @ 16:48:03
Will the final decision about each story be made after October 1st or will you be letting authors know sooner than that whether their story is suitable or unsuitable for the anthology?
Sep 03, 2010 @ 22:07:54
This is probably a dumb question, but everyone has different rules, so I figured I should ask. :) What do you need in the e-mail accompanying the submission? Just a brief “attached is my submission…” or summary, publication history, etc?
Dear Author Business Update | Dear Author
Sep 04, 2010 @ 12:00:16
[...] The deadline for submitting to the Pain and Pleasure (the name of the book will actually be Agony and Ecstasy) collection is less than 30 days away.  To recap, this is a collection of around 20 stories that are erotic in nature and explore the concepts of pain and pleasure in a sexual nature and will be published as Berkley Heat title in November 2011.  The submissions can be of any genre and do not have to have a romantic concept.  The submissions are due October 1. Email the submissions to  litte. jane at gmail dot com by October 1as an MS Word Attachment with the subject line: Pain/Pleasure Anthology Submission. You can read more here. [...]
Sep 23, 2010 @ 18:03:07
@Mary G: Sorry I didn’t answer this previously, but I am letting people know in october.
@Lori W.: Just a brief summary of the story and your name and contact information on the submission itself.
Sep 26, 2010 @ 19:56:38
Hi Jane, other than .doc format, how do you want the mss formatted? Each of my publishers has different requirements that’s why I ask.
Sep 26, 2010 @ 19:59:07
Oops, another question. Are you so on overwhelm by now that you don’t want any more submissions?
Sep 26, 2010 @ 20:05:45
@Savanna Kougar: I prefer italics to underlining but I am not a hard ass about this. As long as it is readable, I will read it and consider it for the collection.
Sep 27, 2010 @ 16:13:46
Jane, thanks.
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