#{~status: guidelines}

[newsmutproject]

Call for Submissions: Erato II

Send us your most seductive flash fiction and prose poetry*!

We’re seeking super short writing in any subgenre, featuring characters of any and every orientation and gender, so long as they’re 18+ and express their consent to all erotic activities. Whether they find pleasure through BDSM, fetish, or vanilla encounters; in long-term romances or one-night stands; with one person, a roomful of people, or just themselves, it’s all good.

How explicitly you want to portray the sex, and what counts as sex, is up to you - but leave the reader in some way breathless.

Vivid writing, clever and original plots, and stylistic or structural experimentation are particularly welcome. We want stories that are sex positive, body positive, and inclusive. Usually at least half the stories in our anthologies feature characters who are LGBTQIA+, including the ace spectrum.

BIPOC writers, trans and nonbinary writers, disabled writers, working-class writers, and writers of other marginalized and underrepresented identities are warmly encouraged to submit. We’re thrilled to work with writers from around the world at any stage of their careers, including those who have never been published before.

*Please note, prose poetry, not verse poetry. We share some inspiring verse poetry on our blog, but don’t publish it—yet.

We’re also interested in excerpts from longer works, including sex scenes from stories in a genre other than erotica. 

Payment & Length:

We’ll pay $25 for the first 500 words and 2 cents per word thereafter, up to $45 for 1,500 words. 

Please include wordcount with your submission. We’re willing to look at slightly longer stories, so long as they still fit the spirit of ‘flash fiction’ (e.g., if you’re at 1,575 words and can’t find more to trim), but payment is capped at $45.

Accepted pieces shorter than 500 words will receive $25.

All contributors will also receive an ebook copy of the anthology and a discount on paperback copies.

For a taste of our tastes, check out our first flash anthology, Erato, and our blog – but we love to be surprised by new concepts, and we actively want to expand the range of identities and perspectives we publish with each book.

You can also read two of the pieces from Erato for free online - both award winners!  

“A Study in Circuits and Charcoal” by jem zero won the Best Feminist Sex category of the Good Sex Awards.

“Touch” by D. Fostalove was a runner-up in the Best Sexy Talk category.

More details and tips below the cut:

Submissions open: April 2 – August 31, 2023 (Extensions can be made upon request.)

We’ll send a confirmation email (manually) within a week of receiving your story. Please query or resend if you don’t see this confirmation in <7 days. 

Acceptances won’t be sent until the submissions period ends and all stories have been considered. Some rejections may be sent out sooner.

Publication date: Early 2024

Some tips to save you time --

Our hard-ons:

All stories will be copyedited before going to print, but well-polished submissions have some advantage. Here’s a guide to dialogue punctuation - getting it right can save lots of editing time (it also shows you paid attention to these guidelines).

We strongly prefer 1 character’s POV per scene unless you’re doing something incredible with an omniscient narrator. Use scene breaks to change POV rather than ‘head hopping’.

We don’t require, but do enjoy, stories that feature realistic sexuality, including safer sex.

Throughout our blog, we share lots of stuff we find interesting about sexuality and would love to see reflected in submissions! For instance: do you know how excited we’d be to publish a story about a character with vaginismus? (Hint: very!)

We’re eager to see sympathetic and sensual depictions of people who are often poorly represented in mainstream smut. Just to start with, this includes Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color, trans women (as well as trans men and nonbinary people, but we want to especially recognize the impact of transmisogyny), disabled people, and fat people, as well as the many people who belong to more than one marginalized group. Writers of these backgrounds are warmly encouraged to submit. 

Some of our favorite erotic flash fiction opens in the middle of sex. However you do it (and there are many ways to do it), grab the reader’s attention from the first lines.

However short the flash, there’s always room for the ingredients that take a sex scene from a list of mechanical actions to an interaction between multidimensional characters. Some writers get creative by choosing to omit one of those tools, like dialogue - this can work too! We certainly don’t mandate dialogue, or descriptions of textures and scents, or whatnot. But if you’re looking at your story and feel it might be missing something, the Sex Writing 101 list can be useful.

We’re interested in erotic narratives that build or explore a consent culture.  We want to see affirmative consent, whether expressed through a verbal “yes” (or a “maybe, let’s try” or “yes for now”), through action & collaboration (returning their partner’s kiss, guiding their hands to where they want them, etc.), or telepathy. “Enthusiastic consent” can be a fuzzy target (who decides what counts as ‘enthusiasm’? does it leave room for more cautious experimentation or other nuances?), but we’re never going to reject a story because its characters seem too eager and excited to have sex with each other.

All sex that takes place in the action of the story must be consensual. However, stories about characters who have survived sexual coercion or trauma will certainly be considered.

At the New Smut Project, we’re looking for thoughtful stories that explore sex as a positive force in people’s lives. The overall tone of our anthologies tends toward the optimistic, although there’s definitely room for stories that are nuanced, bittersweet, and even gently tragic (both our Good Sex Award winners, linked above, are strong examples of stories that are bittersweet, mixing challenges with reason for hope - and have we mentioned scorching-hot sexiness?). Hope and defiance are very sexy. 

References to other literature, art, music, and more are awesome. Brainy is sexy. Nerdy is sexy. Do keep in mind we can’t publish outright fanfiction unless it’s of a work in the public domain. But we are all about erotic retellings of Shakespeare, or the Epic of Gilgamesh, or what have you.

Right now for Erato II, we’d love to fit in more super-short pieces (500 words and shorter) with intense feeling and imagery - prose with the impact of poetry.

Hard sells and hard nos: 

Our upper limit of 1,500 words isn’t firm because we want to make writers’ lives easier: we know there are times when you aimed for flash, overshot, but trying to trim more words could remove something significant or take more time than it’s worth. Remember, though, this is still a flash fiction anthology, so we can’t include stories that exceed the limit by more than a few hundred words. (The reason we’re not saying how exactly how many more is because that would become a new upper limit that’s not necessarily firm...ad infinitum. If you need a hard limit, aim for <1,500.) 

No coercion as part of the action of the story (as mentioned, it might form part of a character’s history, sensitively handled and not for titillation). This means no characters badgering each other into an activity or characters being “obligated” by circumstances. We’d also prefer not to see sex between teachers and students or doctors/therapists and patients. Especially gross and deliberate violations of the consent guideline may result in your email address being blocked without notice. Don’t troll us. (If you’re not a troll, don’t worry; the kinds of things we block for are not written or sent by accident.) 

No sexually active characters under the age of 18. 

Stories about deception (including infidelity) are very hard sells. Like many of our hard sells, these ideas are worth exploring in literature but often aren’t a good fit with our focus on sex as a positive force in people’s lives.

We appreciate bittersweet stories, but aren’t fans of when tragedy seems like a “punishment” inflicted on the characters for having sex. If characters have contempt for each other in place of sexual tension or the story ends with a death, it’s likely too grim for us (at the same time, stories about desire mingled with grief, pleasure in the face of impending loss, or ghosts with vibrant sex after-lives can be a great fit and are of personal interest to editor T.C. Mill). 

Stories about a character being seduced by someone who turns out to be a vampire, demon, or serial killer and then - surprise! - gets killed/eaten/tortured/dragged to Hell are not a good fit. Cryptid boyfriends (and lovers of other genders) are great, we just don’t want to see them tricking and preying on their partners; that’s not exactly sex positive consent culture in action. 

Other concepts we’re not thrilled to see: stories where characters have sex while very intoxicated/high, stories about sex robots (vs robots who happen to have sex; it’s a key distinction!), and stories where characters have sex because they are hired to (our focus is on different motives for sex; we welcome pieces about sex worker protagonists in their personal lives). Stories with other premises will be much more competitive in the submissions pile. 

Don’t send stories based in transphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, and other asshole moves (but it’s fine to send stories acknowledging these prejudices as part of a character’s lived experience).

We can’t accept writing or characters you don’t hold the copyright to (this has been a particular issue with quoted song lyrics. Please only quote lyrics you have written yourself or know to be in the public domain. It also now includes AI-generated text). As mentioned, intertextuality with public domain works is wonderful, though, so bring on the erotic Great Gatsby retellings!

Unlike many publishers, we’re willing to consider stories we rejected from previous calls. It’s best to be upfront about what you’re re-sending and why you believe it might be a fit for us this time around (if the story has been substantially revised, if it received a personal rejection lamenting that we just couldn't fit it in a prior anthology, etc.). Also, be upfront with yourself about whether you have other ideas for stories to submit and if you’re certain you understand the kinds of stories we publish. 

Multiple submissions: We’ll look at 1 or 2 stories per author. You don’t need to send both stories at the same time, but if you are submitting 2 stories at once, feel free to do so as 2 attachments to a single email (easier for us to keep track of).

Simultaneous submissions: Please let us know in your cover email if your story is also under consideration elsewhere. Keep in mind that we’ll hold stories we’re considering at least until September 1, 2023 (and likely later, as it can take some time to make final decisions about which stories we’ll publish).

Reprints: Happily considered! So are translations of stories into English and excerpts from longer pieces. We especially enjoy republishing older stories (reviving those which have gone out of print) and love to look at sexy scenes excerpted from longer stories in genres that aren’t erotica. In your cover email, please give us the details and confirm that you can offer us reprint rights. 

How to submit: Send your story to newsmutproject(at)gmail.com as a .doc/.docx or .rtf file, a Google Drive link, or in the body of the email. In the subject line, include the story’s title and “Erato Submission” to keep your email safe from the spam filter.

We’re not picky about format, but anything resembling Shunn’s Modern Manuscript Format works especially well. However you do it, please include wordcount somewhere on the first page. This info helps us organize the stories we’re considering.

Provide your cover letter in the body of the email, not as an additional attachment. If you’re unsure what to put in your cover letter, no sweat. We don’t need much, but Strange Horizons’s tips are excellent. If authors are comfortable declaring marginalized identities that have informed their writing in their cover letters, we appreciate knowing this and will not disclose the information to others (it’s up to you what you feel safe and comfortable sharing in your published author biography and promotional interviews - and in your cover letter; all this is optional).  

Also, we appreciate hearing in your cover letter about where you learned of this call for submissions! Big thanks to everyone who’s done this so far - it helps us know where to promote future anthology calls.

Submissions will be read by T.C. Mill (she/her) and Guinevere Chase (she/her). 

Questions, updates, and more information: Contact us with questions and suggestions at newsmutproject(at)gmail.com. Answers to frequently asked questions are posted in the q&a tag on this blog. For updates and more info, you can sign up for our newsletter through MailChimp, follow us here on Tumblr, and/or follow us on Twitter (much less active).

[pixlerelish]

Disrespectfully... 👀👀👀

[caterpillarinacave]

Can not exspress how happy it makes me that Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbell have paired up, even if only for show preformances.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

thinking about Mac's scars for the AU and what his face ends up like. two different kinds of fucked up. Aesthetically I prefer the one on the right and might go for that one... I think it's a little more accurate to how i describe him grabbing his face when he bonds with Red anyway. Left is gnarly fun though.

bonus carnorpion sketch:

tfw you get your ass kicked by a guy with metal octopus arms and then accidentally give life to and bond with a symbiote clone bud and also your jaw has been destroyed and the symbiotic being you've bonded with is not in a state to properly heal you, et cetera.

suffice to say, symbiosis goes differently for mac than it did for peter or trish. lmao.

[literallycait]

Opening to Queries

I reopen to queries tomorrow! I'll be open for one week to start, then will reopen again when I've responded to all queries in that first batch. I've updated my submission guidelines page so be sure to read through in advance if you'd like to query. Looking forward to seeing everyone's work!

[fayes-fics]

Hi all

Just a gentle reminder, I’m closed to new fic requests at the moment. I got two overnight that I will not be able to fulfill. Before sending them, please do check my pinned post or the Requests link on my blog header. 🫶

I’m still working on asks i got in February. Yes I’m aware it’s now July. Sorry, I’m a slow writer. I have a pile of 31 requests I need to make a dent into before I can even think about reopening to new requests.

Thanks for your understanding and apologies 🧡🧡

[deepsixsquid]

Time for another poll, because I'm genuinely curious!

And, while I'm on the subject, pick an OC of yours and ramble about'em in the tags~!!

[kutana]

the idea that ki.tana has the kind of haughty personality you'd expect from someone of her status and while she's changing for the better you can still experience it with slip ups is so.. important to me.

[reginrokkr]

Blog update. From now on, this blog will be moved to be on semi-hiatus and highly selective. That means that I won’t be posting more starter or plotting calls and the writing by itself will also have one major change that is staple to this blog which is writing length. By default it’ll shrink considerably, only to be displayed otherwise depending on our discussions as muns between our muses for dynamics or plots. While I won’t be on the active side to actually post plotting calls, rest assured that if you come to my IMs for that, I’ll gladly partake in it. That’s all there is to know, truly. Under cut a longer version for this:

With two weeks in and the fact that I already have two partials next week, I realized that my plans for writing here via the small weekly schedule I prepared aren’t realistic in the slightest. During the first weeks I’ve been feeling a bit tired because I had to get used to this new schedule that I haven’t had in a long time, I’m realizing that I’m doing better and better each day which technically should make easier to write even during weekdays.

But considering the amount of lessons we’re expected to learn, the demanding projects and the partials before exams (the real deal will be already during the second week of November) and also the fact that it’s been an even longer time (we’re talking about +7 years if not more) since I didn’t do maths, there are things that I find difficulties in. For this I need to spend more time studying and practising and obviously, that will take time from RPing which I love to do, but it has to be done and I won’t have it any other way.

I’m aware that one of the things that characterize my RP style is the large lengths of writing and to some extent it’s frustrating to me to tone that down. But I have to admit that these days when I did feel like I could write, I couldn’t help but feel like I can’t because I didn’t see myself capable of offering the same quality length to everyone. I’m also aware that this is not entirely my fault, because in order to write lengthy plotting should be a must for sure. But most of the times I can’t help this feeling of guilt for writing a lot with a few friends, but then being unable to do so with others for that exact reason. I want to write with everyone still, I truly do, but unfortunately I have to give up something and that has to be the length for me to be able to do so. Surely there will be times in which I’ll only feel like writing more and more often with friends or those who I’ve plotted with the most and that can’t be changed, it’s something that I’m certain many experience. But... yeah.

It’s hard not to feel like I’ll be letting down people who are looking forward to write with me, but this is the situation on my end and no matter how much I wish I could change it, I can’t. Hope all of this makes sense and that you peeps are understanding.

[nightshadeowl]

I'm gonna finish the other stimboard request I've got and then go catch up on Hermit videos while playing viddy gaem.

[llycaons]

the only rolesswap for wx I feel really interested in is. what islf lwj was poor

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

so we are finally able to post titty....

[thethief1996]

I can't stop thinking about the news out of Palestine. Israel is sieging al Shifa hospital. Videos of people's limbs being severed off are haunting (graphic video tw). The hospital has ran out of fuel and 39 babies in incubators are fending for their lives by themselves, because Israel has stationed snipers around the hospital and is shooting all medical crew that walks into their sight.

First, the narrative was Israel would never bomb hospitals. Now, the hospitals are Hamas bases. Then, we respect journalists. Now, we have a fucking kill list of journalists because they are Hamas collaborators. First, we are not letting fuel in until the hostages are released. Now, we are not accepting the hostages back because that would stop our ground invasion and let Hamas win. And I could go on about every single lie they're making up. If you look up "Hamas rape" on google, the first link leads to Times of Israel saying Israel has found no forensic evidence of sexual violence, and only one eyewitness testimony out of 3.5k people attending the rave. If you Google "Hamas beheaded babies" the top links say they have no evidence for the claim besides word of mouth from extremist soldiers. Israeli extremists think about the ugliest goriest scene they can make out in their sick heads, tell that to a international journalist and they run away with it like it's gospel.

And children are being killed in the name of these lies. Thousands are being displaced in images that remind me of the pictures of Tantura 75 years ago, with their hands up so the tanks don't shoot them. Amputees are leaving the hospitals in wheelchairs hours after their surgeries because they are being shot at. Elders who survived the Nakba on 48 are having to walk towards Southern Gaza on foot (imagine walking from one end of your city to the other on foot), displaced again. People are cheering for the haunting images of white phosphorus bombs being dropped over Gaza. Gazan workers who were arrested in the West Bank are being thrust back into the bombings wearing numbered labels.

This is not normal. We are seeing the early stages of the settler colonial genocide of an indigenous population. Native leaders who have visited Gaza say its refugee camps look eerily like reservations. We can stop this. For the first time we are able to see wide scale accounts from the hands of the people suffering the genocide, and Israel is so scared of it they have cut all communications in Gaza.

This is our litmus test. I think we have never seen more clearly, with Palestine, Armenia, Congo and Sudan how colonialism has made our world a rotten place to live in.

The South African apartheid collapsed due to boycotts. We have to do everything in our power to stop Israel's hegemony. Even talking to a group of friends about Palestine changes the status quo. There's no world where we can live peacefully if Israel accomplishes their goals.

Keep yourself updated and share Palestinian voices. Muna El-Kurd said every tweet is like a treasure to them, because their voices are repressed on social media and even on this very app. Make it your action item to share something about the Palestinian plight everyday. Here are some resources:

Al Jazeera, Anadolu Agency, Mondoweiss

Boycott Divest Sanction Movement

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing protests and direct action against weapons factories across the US

Mohammed El-Kurd (twitter / instagram)

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Motaz Azaiza (instagram) - reporting directly from Gaza.

Hind Khudary - reporting directly from Gaza. Her husband and daughter moved South to run from the tanks but she stayed behind to record the genocide. The least we can do is not let her calls fall on deaf ears.

You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don't be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:

Carrefour, HP, Puma, Sabra, Sodastream, Ahava cosmetics, Israeli fruits and vegetables

Push for a cultural boycott - pressure your favorite artist to speak out on Palestine and cancel any upcoming performances on occupied territory (Lorde cancelled her gig in Israel because of this. It works.)

If you can, participate in direct action or donate.

Palestine Action works to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the UK and USA, and have successfully shut down one of their firms in London.Some of the activists are going on trial and are calling for mobilizing on court.

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing direct actions to stop the shipping of wars to Israel. Follow them.

Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can't common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the "disengagement of Gaza", you have to learn more.

Read Decolonize Palestine. They have 15 minute reads that concisely explain the occupation (and its colonial roots) and debunk popular myths, including pinkwashing.

Read on Palestine. Here's an amazing masterpost.

Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe. If you still believe in the two states solution, this book by an Israeli professor debunks it).

Call your representatives. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works, even more if you live in a country that funds genocide.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls, here's a document that autosends emails to your representatives and here's a toolkit by Ceasefire in Gaza NOW!

FOR PEOPLE IN EUROPE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace targeting the European Parliament and one specific for almost all countries in Europe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Austria, Belgium Romania and Ukraine

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA: Here's a toolkit by Stand With Palestine

FOR PEOPLE IN CANADA: Here's a toolkit by Indepent Jewish Voices for Canada

Join a protest. Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Global calendar

Another global calendar (go to the instragram of the organizers to confirm your protest)

USA calendar

Australia calendar

Feel free to add more.

[usadvlottery]

The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery is a program administered by the U.S. Department of State that grants a limited number of immigrant visas to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Once the lottery is conducted, those who have applied can check their status online to see if they have won. Winners are then notified through the Entry Status Check website, and they must carefully follow the guidelines outlined by the U.S. government to proceed with the immigrant visa application process. It is crucial for winners to promptly respond to notifications, provide accurate information, and adhere to all instructions to ensure a smooth and successful processing of their Diversity Visa application.

[lcstandfound]

GENERAL TAGS!! ☄. *. ⋆

[vergess]

Buddy, when racist cunts illegally prevented me from registering to vote by just refusing to accept my papers, I PROMISE YOU shitty guilt trip memes about my inability to vote made everything worse.

You know what ACTUALLY helped?

More than every passive aggressive shit for brains on this website telling me I deserve to me racially harassed for not giving Democrats my soul?

A fucking email from a fucking HERBS AND SPICES STORE that unlike you wretched cunts ACTUALLY HAD VOTER REGISTRATION HELPLINES IN IT.

Every time one of you godforsaken freaks tells me to 'get out and vote' like its cutely trivial and didn't take months of desperate phone calls just to register (IF my registration even WORKED THIS TIME).

If you, like me, are struggling with registration or poll access, try contacting your STATE board of elections.

Request that they send you TWO copies of their registration guidelines. Collect any documents listed in them.

Then, contact your LOCAL board. Tell them you would like to register IN PERSON IF POSSIBLE.

Bring your documents and the two copies of the guideline AND a working cell phone.

If you get ANY trouble AT ALL tell the local person you will call the state board to confirm their registration requirements. Be polite, but do not leave. Put the phone on speaker.

Most of the time, the local person who is doing Actual Serious Federal And State Crimes will give up at that point. If not, the person at the state board will generally outrank and overrule the local one.

Make a note of the names of both the local and state official.

Then, and this is the most important part:

CONFIRM YOUR REGISTRATION WAS FILED.

It may take a day or two for your registration to appear.

Unfortunately, if it's been a week, you're going to have to repeat the process.

Take the names you noted previously, and contact the state board again. Report that these people denied you registration on this day, in spite of you providing these documents, then list all the required papers you collected.

The person at the state SHOULD be able to direct you from there, but the process varies hugely by state.

Good luck to you all.

ETA: I was able to vote eventually, BTW. It took far more work than it should have. Physical injuries were sustained. But I did get to vote!!