Call for Submissions–Send Us Your Smut!
I said I had exciting news, and here it is!
My friend Pasi and I, after a bout of griping about poorly written smut (specifically, we’d just come out of a day-long Skype convo about the Bad Sex in Fiction “winners”), decided to do something about it. Between Pasi’s background in fanfiction and fandom culture, and my ties to the small press and self-publishing, we agreed one thing: there area lot of underappreciated writers who could do much, much better if just given the chance.
Thus, the New Smut Project. Our goal: to bring the best aspects of porny fanfiction and small press work—character-relevant sex, thoughtfulness, wordplay, and passion—in a collection of original erotica for publication.
Pasi is not only a prolific smut writer and our HTML wrangler but also has a Master’s in psychology, and she wants to see more intelligently-written and deeply-characterized fiction. She wants motive and reaction and building a relationship, no matter if it’s the love of a lifetime or an unforgettable one-night-stand (or mortal enemies hatefucking. Oh, god, why don’t we get more of that in original fiction? Some of my favorite fanfiction is about mortal enemies hatefucking). Whatever they are, we’ll have no more of what she so eloquently refers to as “emotionless fuckbots.”
I’m a sex positive feminist who wants to see more representation of “consent culture” in erotica. In fact, a bit over a year ago, I first balanced the idea of a collection of erotic shorts that each featured a character saying “No.” Because real people sometimes have boundaries in the bedroom! And that doesn’t make their sex lives any less interesting or hot, or so I firmly believe. Now the time has come: I’m looking for the best polished, heartfelt, passionate stories that prove it.
The guidelines for our anthologies—Characterization and “Fifty Shades of Negotiation–are up on The New Smut Project’s website, and are also on Duotrope. Submissions are open until June 1st.
The part of being an editor that I look forward to most–besides ensuring these writers and stories see the light of day–is reading all the fiction we’re going to get. So trust me, your submission* is eagerly awaited.
*I’d say pun intended, but there really is no other word we can use, and after a week of planning we’re almost snickered out. Almost. Heh-heh.
