Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions 2015 – Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 3.

Each volume of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction will feature a different Guest Editor. Laird Barron guest-edited Vol. 1, and Kathe Koja was guest editor for Vol. 2. Our Guest Editor for Vol. 3 will be announced on March 1.

This is a reprint fiction anthology, to be published in 2016. Series Editor Michael Kelly is seeking material first published this year only, 2015. To be clear, only weird fiction published in 2015 is eligible for inclusion in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 3.

This is for 2015 only!

My remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and featuring a helping of the outré. Weird fiction, at its best, is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the laws of Nature. It counts among its proponents older and newer writers alike: Robert Aickman, Laird Barron, Charles Beaumont, Ambrose Bierce, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, Angela Carter, Neil Gaiman, Shirley Jackson, Kathe Koja, John Langan, Thomas Ligotti, Kelly Link, H. P. Lovecraft, Simon Strantzas, and many others.

Electronic and digital files are greatly preferred – text files(Word), Mobi, PDF, or ePub. Publishers and editors are encouraged to send their books to:

bestweirdfiction@gmail.com

Deadline for all material is December 31, 2015, but sooner (much sooner) is better. Late submissions may not receive proper consideration, especially if we receive a majority of the material at deadline.

Writers: Please do not send unsolicited material. Urge your publisher or editor to send in any relevant work. Feel free to query with any questions or recommendations.

Please note: Only writers whose work is selected for the volume will be contacted.

I am afraid I am not considering any self-published work. There are certainly a number of reasons an author may consider self-publishing—rights, control, etc. The sheer number of self-published books is staggering, and is outpacing traditionally published work. My opinion, though, is that, overall, there is a distinct lack of quality in most self-published fiction as compared to legacy publishing. The gulf is huge, in fact. Your work may be the exception. And that is not to say that there isn’t bad fiction being published by traditional houses, because there certainly is. But, due to the fact I receive a high number of quality submissions from traditional publishers, and I really can’t afford the time to wade through an ever-expanding slush pile—in short, for my own sanity, I have to draw a line somewhere—I am not considering self-published work.

Thank you!

Michael Kelly

Series Editor, Year’s Best Weird Fiction