Call for Adult Fiction Submissions: Fishnet

I have a new gig! Starting pretty much now, I am the new editor of Fishnet, the online erotic fiction magazine of Blowfish. I'm also the old editor of Fishnet -- I was actually the nagazine's first editor, way back in the mists of time when dinosaurs ruled the earth -- and I'm thrilled to be back in the saddle.

So if you're a writer of erotic fiction, please read over this call to submissions, and send me your work! And if you're not a writer of erotic fiction but you know people who are, please feel free to post this call for submissions and pass it along. This is an open call for submissions, and I'm happy for it to be sent and posted anywhere that it's legal.

A quick note to my blog readers: Due to this gig and its demands on my time, I may be blogging slightly less often than I used to. More likely, I'll be pulling a bit more stuff out of the archive than usual. But not to worry -- I'm still passionately devoted to this blog, and will still be here almost every day with wisdom and rants about atheism, sex, politics, dreams, and whatever. And you'll be getting my picks of erotic fiction... so on the days that I'm not here, that should help give you the strength to carry on. :-) (And yes, I will occasionally be publishing my own work there.)


FISHNET MAGAZINE:
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR EROTIC FICTION

Fishnet, the online erotic fiction magazine of Blowfish, is seeking submissions. We are looking for adult fiction that is both literate and hot: fiction that explores the human experience of sexuality, while at the same time working as fun and exciting stroke material. We want hot fiction that goes beyond a mere sex scene -- give us a good story, get us inside the skin of your protagonists and show us what they find exciting about the sex they're having. Good writing is important, as is originality. Tender or melancholy stories are fine, but we're also not afraid of stories that push boundaries, that blur the lines of gender, propriety or even consent. Challenge our assumptions, but make our toes curl while you do it.

Payment: Fishnet pays 5 cents per word, paid on acceptance. We will need your real name, address, and a US social security number (if you have one) before we can pay you. We are happy to run pieces under pseudonyms, if you prefer.

Rights: We take first perpetual web rights, exclusive for 6 months; a non-exclusive print anthology reprint right; and non-exclusive, perpetual audio performance rights (i.e., we can podcast it). The author retains copyright and all other rights.

Length: We are ideally looking for pieces longer than 1000 words and shorter than 4,000. Shorter and longer pieces will be considered, but are less likely to be accepted. Absolute upper limit: 6,000 words. (Long pieces may be split and published in two parts.)

(Addendum on length: Please note: We can only publish a handful of longer stories, and are much more likely to say "Yes" to pieces that are 2,500 words or less.)

Content: We are open to stories about any and all genders, activities, and sexual orientations. Stories about non-consent are acceptable, but will be prefaced as such. We cannot accept stories about explicitly underage characters.

Reprints: We are strongly focused on original material. We will consider reprints if they are exceptional. Reprints will be paid less than original work.

Submission method: Send submissions and inquiries to [email protected]. Please send submissions by email, as text in the body of the email -- no attachments, please, they will be rejected unread. Please include a short bio (100 words or less) with your submission. Bios may include a link to your blog or website. Please include Fiction Sub: (STORY TITLE) in the subject line, replacing (STORY TITLE) with the title of your story. Please also make sure that your submission does not contain "curly quotes" or other special characters. Please mark paragraph breaks with double line breaks, not with tabs.

Please also send a short cover letter that mentions the word count of the story enclosed and a couple of any relevant fiction sales (we also welcome first-time authors). We encourage you to send the cover letter as a separate email in case our spam filter catches the story by mistake; if we get just the cover letter, we know something happened and can contact you to fix it.

Multiple submissions: Please, no more than three submissions per author at one time. Multiple submissions should each be sent in a separate email.

If you have questions or want to submit work, please email [email protected]. We look forward to seeing your work.

Comments

[lunalelle]

This sounds awesome and makes me wish I wrote erotica that's based in reality. :)

[Greta Christina]

This sounds awesome and makes me wish I wrote erotica that's based in reality. :)

Erotica for Fishnet doesn't have to be based in reality. I'll happily look at science fiction/ fantasy/ horror/ etc. erotica. No problem. Please don't let that stop you from submitting your work.

[Tommy]

Oh, geez, now I gotta dig up that Hardy Boys fanfic I wrote a decade ago.

[Infophile]

Is this available to writers outside the US? If so, I might consider writing an original piece up. I'd have to work on cutting it down a lot though, I don't think any of my sex scenes so far have been less than 8,000 words or so...

[EllaRegina]

Glad you're back in business!

[Greta Christina]

Is this available to writers outside the US?

Yes. Definitely. Go for it.

[The Beautiful Kind]

Submitted mine this morning! It starts:

"We are lying side by side in bed. It’s dark and late, well after midnight. I’m tired, but my body prickles with a sixth sense, as if detecting energy from an unknown source, like an arriving summer storm..."

[Claire B]

Greta, you'll have to forgive my ignorance, but what are "curly quotes"? Are they what I would call proper quote marks, ie, those that are shaped like commas instead of just straight lines?

If so, how does one keep them out? Is there a particular font you have to write in? Because I normally use the default Times New Roman, and that has "curly quotes"/proper quote marks in.

Also, if proper quote marks do count as "special characters", are there any other frequently-used symbols that might count as such, that a person ignorant of such things might not think of?

Sorry, I realise I should probably know all of this!

[Greta Christina]

Claire B: Yes that's what "curly quotes" are. To keep them out, you don't have to change fonts -- you have to change the preferences on your word processing program.

Other special characters include curly apostrophes, long dashes (use two short hyphens instead, and if your word processing program automatically converts that to a long dash then set your preferences to make it stop), and diacritical marks not found in standard English. Essentially, anything that can bollox up a Web browser. You know how sometimes you see gobbledegook where there's clearly supposed to be punctuation? That's what we're trying to avoid. And we're trying to avoid making me do a "search and replace" to get rid of them in every piece we publish.

[Claire B]

Thank you!

[J. J. Ramsey]

I know nothing about writing erotic fiction, but I do know a thing or two about text editors. If you want plain text only, then I suggest that you forgo using a word processor at all and just use a plain text editor. Notepad will probably work, but there are other freeware and shareware text editors if you don't like Notepad or have a file that's too big for Notepad. If you have a Mac, Textedit should do just fine; just make sure to click the "Format Plain Text" menu item (or is it "Make Plain Text"?) beforehand.

And if you have a masochistic streak, there's Vim. :)