Editor Seeking Writer

Today we’ll be talking about my needs. Here they are, in a nutshell: I need a book.

 

Which is to say that I, Nicole Kimberling, editor of Blind Eye Books, need to acquire a manuscript for publication in 2012. This manuscript must be between 70 and 120K words long, be science fiction, fantasy or paranormal romance and have a gay or lesbian protagonist. It must also contain a positive overall message. In addition to that, this mysterious book needs to be absolutely complete by January 1, 2012.

 

Where, I wondered, will I find such a book?

 

I thought here might be a good place to start looking, since any writers following this blog are already familiar with our line.

 

And because I am notoriously picky about stories I just thought I’d include some hints and tips about stuff that I’m interested in seeing and stuff that I’m not.

 

The kind of stuff I’m not interested in at the moment:

 

Vampires/Werewolves--I think that the market reached saturation on these guys a while back.

 

Sex Magic—I prefer almost any other form of magic.

 

Irish Fairies and Greek or Egyptian Mythology—Again, these have been kind of played out at the moment.

 

Single Gender Societies: It would be hard to beat Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite for this one. And male single-gender societies always involve mpreg which I’m just not a fan of at all.

 

Urban Fantasy set in North America or London—I don’t actually have anything against this, but I’ve just acquired a different book about that very same thing, so for the diversity of the line, I shouldn’t really buy another one.

 

The kind of stuff I really want to see:

 

Urban Fantasy set anywhere else in the world BUT North America and London: Beijing? Rio de Janeiro? Oslo? Heck, what about the United Arab Emirates? (How weird would it be to have an urban fantasy set in Dubai?) I really loved Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch series, partially because it’s set in Russia and deals with Russian mythology. How fresh! How new! Howzabout some of that?

 

Space Opera: I really don’t think there’s enough space opera in the world. I would seriously consider purchasing a story that could be described as “Gay Star Wars” so long as it wasn’t just thinly disguised fan fiction. (I don’t want George Lucas’ lawyers to come looking for me.)

 

High Fantasy: While I could do without elves and dwarves or anything resembling an orc (especially all in the same story) I really do like Sword & Sorcery stories. I mean, that’s why I bought Ginn Hale’s Lord of the White Hell.

 

Genuine Cyberpunk & Future Dystopia: Oh, how I love Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer wins my vote for best death scene speech ever. “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” Wow! Gives me shivers every single time.

 

Secondary World Stories of all kinds: this just means “Not Earth.” Not future Earth, not past Earth. Not Earth At All. Hardly anybody ever sends me these. But when they do, I almost always find them worth a read.

 

A couple of other things to keep in mind if this call for submissions interests you:

 

I cannot acquire any MS that has previously appeared online in any form, ever. The publisher just simply does not allow me to do this, period. And it’s too bad, because there have been things that I was interested in that authors have posted sequentially on their websites as they were being written. But previously released material is a dealbreaker for us, I’m afraid.

 

This last part is a little confession: I am a very demanding editor. There! I’ve said it. I ask for things like complete scene rewrites. I request the summary deletion of whole pages of text—sometimes even into the double digits. I have asked authors to change the whole beginning of a story and other authors to change the entire ending. (Though never both.) If the idea of revision of this sort makes you want to barf with anxiety, then we might not be a good match for each other. That said, most authors who work with me still like me (I think) and once their books were finished, and they could once again happily engage solid food, they seemed pleased with the end result.

 

So after that fair warning, here’s what Blind Eye Books offers: a nationally distributed offset print book that looks pretty enough to be suitably displayed by your mom. We pay 10% of cover on print and 50% of net on digital sales.

 

And because I have recently decided that I care about trees, I am now allowing electronic submissions, which I’ve avoided in the past. So, if you would like to submit a story, please send me an email containing salient information about yourself, including previous publication history, and a short synopsis of your manuscript. Then attach your manuscript to this same email and send it to me. (Keep in mind that I use a mac so you’ll need to send an .rtf file or I won’t be able to read it.) My address: editor@blindeyebooks.com