The first submissions have come in for the first round of In fabula-divinos. On April 8, Nicole Murphy will be choosing one story to work with extensively for three weeks before it is published on this website May 1.
The story will also be published in an anthology later this year and for the all that, the lucky author will be paid Aus$100, a professional pay rate.
So what are you waiting for? If you’ve never sold a novel to a publisher or sold a short story to a professional market, then you qualify to submit.
PLEASE FOLLOW THESE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Failure to do so will have your story disqualified from consideration.
So you want to workshop a story with Nicole, for publication first online and then in an anthology? Great. Here’s how to go about it.
DOT POINTS:
- In fabula-divinos is for up-and-coming authors only – if you have made a professional sale, you are not eligible
- submissions open first of each month, close seventh of each month
- one story chosen to be workshopped for the rest of the month, story published online first of the following month
- Stories no more than 2000 words and must be speculative
- Payment – $100
- Submit to infabuladivinos@gmail.com via .doc or .rtf attachment
THE DETAILS
Submissions open on the first of each month and close at midnight on the seventh (Australian eastern standard time). Your story must be no longer than 2000 words and speculative in nature (that is, science fiction, fantasy or horror). If it’s a meld of genres eg fantasy romance, science fiction crime, Nicole doesn’t mind.
On the eighth day of the month, Nicole will choose a story to work with. That person will be notified and will be expected to work hard on developing their story with Nicole for the next three weeks. Nicole will edit using track changes – you’ll need to be able to use it.
The story will be published online on the first of the following month and be visible until the last day of the month, when it will be removed from view. At the end of the year, the twelve stories will be collected and along with a story by Nicole and some guest authors will be published in an anthology that will be available electronically and through Print on Demand.
Payment will be $100 for first international electronic rights and first international anthology rights. Authors may receive extra payments via royalties should profits on the sales of the anthology be greater than $2500 (the amount needed to fund the next years crop of stories).
For the rest of submitters, you will get one of two standard rejections. If you didn’t follow these guidelines, you’ll be told that your story was disqualified. You can submit again, but follow the guidelines if you want to be considered. If you did follow the guidelines but weren’t chosen, Nicole will thank you for submitting and wish you better luck next time. She will NOT offer feedback on stories she doesn’t choose.
FORMATTING
- Courier or Times New Roman, 12 pt, double line spacing, one inch margins
- All paragraph indenting must be done via settings. Do NOT use the tab key.
- Submit to infabuladivinos@gmail.com with either a .doc or .rtf attachment. Put a brief cover letter in the email, covering your publication history to date.
For the purposes of this exercise, a professional sale equates to either being paid more than 5c per word for a short story sale, or having sold a novel to a publisher. Size of publisher doesn’t matter. Self-publishing does not equal a professional sale. We welcome and encourage writers who are yet to be paid for their writing to submit.
WHAT IS NICOLE LOOKING FOR?
An idea. Great characterisation. It doesn’t matter if the writing or storytelling isn’t quite up to scratch – that’s what the workshopping is for. But there must be an idea that captivates and intrigues.
Nicole’s taste is quite eclectic – her list of favourite books includes Lord of the Rings, Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels, NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Kaaron Warren’s Slights and pretty much anything written by Trudi Canavan or Sean Williams.
She herself writes urban fantasy, paranormal and fantasy romance, social-based science fiction and the occasional ghost story.
She’s not that keen on hard science fiction, simply because she doesn’t understand the science enough, but that said she’s published it in the past and would do so again for the right story.
Nicole is upfront in the fact that this will very much be a subjective choice – she’s going to chose a story that she likes, not necessarily the best story of the crop. If you don’t like that idea, then you’d best not submit. But note – all publishers have some level of subjectiveness in their choice of stories.
If your story isn’t chosen one month, then you can submit it again. But don’t submit it too many times – eventually Nicole will get sick of seeing it and then it definitely WON’T be chosen.
Over the course of the three weeks, Nicole will work with you to polish the story and make it shine. You may need to do major re-writing to deal with some of the thoughts and concerns she voices about the work so make sure you’ve got the time to do the work concerned. During the three weeks, Nicole will also be welcome to answer any questions you have about the industry. Think of this as an intense, quick mentorship that YOU are being paid to take part in.
The aim is for you to walk away from the experience a better writer, with a greater skill level and a clear idea of where you need to go next in terms of honing the craft.
The aim for Nicole is the warm feeling inside you get from helping someone to learn.
If you have any questions, email infabuladivinos@gmail.com
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For inquiries: infabuladivinos@gmail.com
For submissions: infabuladivinos@gmail.com
Website: http://thetaletellers.wordpress.com/
