What is an obscenity?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “obscene” as:
1. Offensively or grossly indecent, lewd; (Law) (of a publication) tending to deprave and corrupt those who are likely to read, see, or hear the contents.
2. Offending against moral principles, repugnant; repulsive, foul, loathsome. Now (also): spec. (of a price, sum of money, etc.) ridiculously or offensively high.
3. Ill-omened, inauspicious. Obs. rare.
This is what we are after please:
Fiction:
The most important thing we are looking for with fiction is well-written horror and erotic horror stories. They must grab us and hold our attention. Horror covers a wide range of subjects: vampires, werewolves, zombies, monsters, ghosts, serial killers, crazed animals, possessed appliances, post-apocalyptic themes etc. but stories can contain any subject matter as long it’s dark. You don’t need to write about those usual subjects, anything that’s dark and creepy also comes under the horror genre. We love stories that are atmospheric and also a little unusual. Be creative and surprise us! Now with erotic horror, our interpretation is that the story must be dark with the main theme being of a sexual nature. The sexual theme should be the main focus of the story and be constant throughout. The sex doesn’t have be overly graphic or strong (although we do like that), but the sexual theme must be constant in your mind as you’re reading the story. The major reason we reject a lot of erotic horror stories is because they don’t follow those guidelines, they are just dark/horror stories with one or two sex scenes thrown in.
Your story can be tame or seriously gory or sexual, but our main requirement is high quality writing please. But absolutely no erotic horror fiction containing anything to do with children.
We are also looking for rare or classic reprints please. We want to give those old, excellent tales from the past, that a lot of readers may not have come across, a new lease of life. (Please Note: We class “rare or classic reprints” as stories that have not been published within the last 10 years, and are also Not currently available for free in print, as an eBook, or on the Internet.)
We are not looking for poetry, fantasy or sci-fi fiction we’re afraid.
No simultaneous submissions please (to other publications). There’s nothing worse than when you receive a story you fall in love with only to have the author pull it because it’s been bought by another publication. Please only submit one story at a time. Wait until you’ve received a reply for your first story before you submit again. Thanks.
Response times vary (usually within a month or two). Please only query if it’s been over 3 months.
Please email your submission as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file only to: [email protected] with “Tales of Obscenity Submission” in the subject line.
For an idea of how we like our submissions formatted please read the Standard Manuscript Format page on the site. We don’t accept postal submissions I’m afraid. These will be recycled unread.
Artwork:
We are always looking for great artwork for our covers and artists to illustrate the stories. Please email samples of your work or links to your work online to [email protected]. Thank you!
Non Fiction:
We are always interested in interviews with established and up-and-coming people in the horror and erotic horror genres (authors, artists, directors, editors, publishers, etc.).
We are also really interested in pieces for our Special Features section about horror and erotic horror subjects from both new and established writers. Please email [email protected] with all of your details and an outline of your Special Features proposal. Regular columnists are also required.
Reviewers are always needed please. We want to publish a lot of book and magazine reviews in each issue to give authors and publishers more chance to get their work reviewed. (We really don’t like reviews that contain spoilers, so please don’t give away any of the important parts of the book, story, etc. when writing your reviews. Thank you!)
Please send a sample review (about 100 words) which includes all the details of the publication you’re reviewing to [email protected].
Authors and publishers wishing to have their work considered for review, please don’t send any books/eBooks/magazines before you query first. Please email Paul Fry at [email protected] with all the details (title, author, publisher, publication date, format available for review, etc.) of the book/eBook/mag that you’d like considered for review. We will then add you to the review list to see if any of our reviewers are interested in reviewing your work. If someone is you will be asked to send the book/eBook/mag directly to the reviewer please. That will save you wasting expensive review copies that may never be reviewed.
Response times vary (usually within a month or two). Please only query if it’s been over 3 months.
Here are the rights we need to ask for please:
Fiction & Non-Fiction:
Worldwide English language print and electronic rights exclusive until date of first publication (except if a reprint), then non-exclusive Worldwide English print and electronic rights for as long as the Publisher classes the magazine as in print.
Your work will automatically be considered for any The Best Tales of Obscenity anthologies or Hardcover Editions of the magazine, therefore we also need to ask for Reprint Rights please.
Reprint Rights:
Worldwide English language non-exclusive print and electronic reprint rights for any The Best Tales of Obscenity anthologies or Hardcover Editions of the magazine for as long as the Publisher classes the publication as in print. (Additional payment will be made by the Publisher for Reprint Rights upon publication. Please see Anthology or Hardcover Editions Reprint Rights payment.)
Artwork:
Worldwide non-exclusive print and electronic rights for as long as the Publisher classes the magazine as in print.
Your work will automatically be considered for any The Best Tales of Obscenity anthologies or Hardcover Editions of the magazine, therefore we also need to ask for Reprint Rights please.
Reprint Rights:
Worldwide non-exclusive print and electronic reprint rights for any The Best Tales of Obscenity anthologies or Hardcover Editions of the magazine for as long as the Publisher classes the publication as in print. (Additional payment will be made by the Publisher for Reprint Rights upon publication. Please see Anthology or Hardcover Editions Reprint Rights payment.)
Here is the starting payment for the magazine:
Payment:
We’ve managed to secure a small amount of funding for each issue of the magazine. The budget per issue is very small but we’ve distributed the funds the best we can. We’ve also tried to think of ways to make sure contributors receive the most actual money for their work. So we’ve come up with 2 payment options. The first option means contributors will receive less actual cash but will also receive a print copy of the magazine. The second option means that contributors will receive more cash for their work but will receive an electronic edition (Mobi & ePub) of the magazine instead of a print copy.
Fiction:
Original:
Option One: £10 per story up to around 6,000 words (flexible). Plus 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £15 per story up to around 6,000 words (flexible). Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Reprints:
Option One: £5 per story up to around 6,000 words (flexible). Plus 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £10 per story up to around 6,000 words (flexible). Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Cover artwork:
Option One: £10. Plus 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £15. Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Interior Artwork:
Option One: £5 per interior full-colour story illustration. Plus 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £10. Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Special features:
Option One: 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £5. Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Interviews: 1 electronic contributor’s copy.
Single Reviews: 1 electronic contributor’s copy.
Multiple Reviews:
Option One: 1 print & electronic contributor’s copy.
Option Two: £5. Plus an electronic contributor’s copy.
Anthologies and Hardcover Editions Reprint Rights Payments:
Fiction:
£10 per story. Plus 1 print (anthology/hardcover edition) and/or electronic (anthology) contributor’s copy.
Non-Fiction:
1 print (anthology/hardcover edition) and/or electronic (anthology) contributor’s copy.
Artwork:
£10 per artist. Plus 1 print (anthology/hardcover edition) and/or electronic (anthology) contributor’s copy.
We want to publish lots of reviews so unfortunately it’s not possible to pay single reviewers a print copy of the magazine. It would cost way too much. Reviewers that write multiple reviews (over 5 reviews) will receive a payment because of the extra time and effort involved. Don’t forget that all reviewers will get to keep the review copy of the title they are reviewing, and in some cases will get chance to read titles before their publication date.
Payment will be made upon receipt of signed contract and PayPal email address. UK payments will be made by cheque. Overseas payments are best made via PayPal as some banks won’t cash, or charge too much to process foreign cheques. But if overseas contributors prefer a cheque, that’s fine. Or if preferred, extra contributor’s copies can replace the value of any monetary payment. All payments will be in British Pounds (GBP).
To begin with, the main thing the magazine will offer is exposure. We will present your work to the highest possible standards we can.
Please visit the web site for more information: talesofobscenity.sstpublications.co.uk
