GENERAL
The annual anthology is restricted to current members of The Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers. Membership in GLAHW is no guarantee of acceptance in this anthology.
FICTION
For this anthology, our sixteenth, Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers is looking for your Sweet Sixteen stories.
These stories should be well-written, character-driven, and with a Michigan or Great Lakes connection. As members of GLAHW, this is your moment to shine, and we look forward to seeing what you have to offer.
All stories need to be Horror, Dark Sci-Fi, or Dark Fantasy. Please don’t send us sword & sorcery or space opera stories. Tolkien and Lucas have their place, but not here. Also, we don’t accept “fan fiction” which includes anything based on a video game, book, movie, or any other creator’s work. If you don’t own the copyright to the characters in your story, we cannot and will not publish your story.
By submitting to GLAHW you, as the author of the work, accept responsibility for any possible copyright infringement. Please don’t send us “Slash” or Erotica or anything graphically describing sex. Sex is okay, as long as it’s integral to the story, but don’t over-do it. Don’t use gore for gore’s sake. There are anthologies and digests that would love to read your torture porn, but ERIE TALES is not one of them. Gore is okay as long as it’s integral to the story. Though we cringe at the thought of violence toward children or animals, please make sure it’s necessary. Any story that so much as insinuates an act of sexual violence between an adult and a child will be automatically rejected. While we’re also not virgin schoolmarms with limited access to cable television, we are writers with the whole of the English Language open to us. You may think dropping the ‘F’ and ‘M-F’ bomb is keeping it real, but it’s not dialogue when it’s your “only” dialogue. Please use spell check and proof your work before submitting.
Self-editing should be a matter of course, and despite the “Editor” title some of us carry here at Great Lakes, we are not your personal editors and it is not our responsibility to make sure you wrote “there” instead of “they’re”. Mistakes happen and things can be corrected, but a great story will be rejected if basic grammatical and spelling mistakes are rampant. Learn how your word processing machine works and embrace the technological marvels it reveals.
Please no multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions are also okay as long as you let us know if you sell your story elsewhere. We would prefer virgin tales, but space allowing we may have room for a reprint. Let us know where it previously appeared so we can give props where due.
FORMATTING
Stories should be between 2,000 – 5,500 words.
Your story can stray outside the word count, please query for stories above this word limit and be prepared to defend.
Please follow proper manuscript format. If you don’t know what proper manuscript format is, please follow this link https://www.shunn.net/format/story/ and select Modern. Stories not in proper manuscript format will be returned unread.
Let me say it again for the folks in the back:
Please follow proper manuscript format. If you don’t know what proper manuscript format is, please follow this link: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/ and select Modern.
Stories should be submitted as an attachment in either MS Word (.doc, .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf).
Stories submitted in the body of an email will be deleted unread. Stories not following proper formatting will be deleted unread.
POETRY
Poetry submissions are being considered. Please attach them to the email as .doc, .docx or .rft file. Poems can be up to fifty lines each. Please do not submit poetry inside of an object such as a photo or drawing. If you have a problem with this, please do not submit to us.
Please be aware that we reserve the right to reformat your story or poem as necessary to fit the specific format for our anthology. We will not rewrite your story or poem, but we may have to alter line placement. We will ask if the special formatting is key to the understanding of your piece, but we may not. If you have a problem with this, please do not submit to us.
Poems sent in the body of an email will be deleted unread.
RIGHTS
We are asking for non-exclusive First North American Print and Digital Rights for six months from the Date of Publication. We reserve the right to reprint them your story in a subsequent volume of Erie Tales, but we will ask first.
PAYMENT
All acceptances will receive a payment of $25.00 upon publication. In addition, one (1) digital Contributor’s Copy and our humble thanks. Accepted members will be able to purchase more copies at a greatly discounted price to sell or give away.
SUBMISSION
With all submissions, please include a short 100-150 word bio either in your email or at the end of your story. INCLUDE THIS BIO WITH YOUR SUBMISSION OR YOU WILL HAVE NO BIO.
Stories must be attached to the email, not within the body. It bears repeating, but no multiple submissions for fiction. We are permitting up to three poetry submissions but please send them under a separate email. Simultaneous submissions are also okay as long as you let us know if you sell your story elsewhere. Please put Submission: Erie Tales XVI in the subject line.
GLAHW will not consider any submissions written, developed, or assisted by the use of AI, Artificial Intelligence, tools. If you submit any these works, you run the risk of being banned from submitting works in the future.
Send all submissions and/or inquiries to submissions@glahw.com. We will not accept snail mail submissions.
The submission deadline is July 31, 2024.
RETURN TIME
The reading period will begin at the close of the submission period, however, time permitting, some may be read sooner. You will hear from our editors one way or the other. If you are accepted, you may be asked to perform edits for clarity. These will need to be returned in a week so we can begin final formatting.
Erie Tales XVI has an expected published date of October 2024.
We look forward to reading your work and thank you for giving us the honor.