UFO2 Kickstarter Campaign Ending Soon

May 2, 2013

Just over four hours remaining in the UFO2 Kickstarter campaign. We raised nearly $6500 so far, with $1500 to go! Over 200 people backed this project already, and if you haven’t yet, please do, and help us reach our goal.

I added my short story ebooks as an extra reward for everyone who pledges $25 or more. So, on top of the signed copy of UFO2 (or whatever else you select), you will get $5+ worth of eBooks (everything I release in 2013). This is the preview of the cover for the ebook version of “A Shard Glows in Brooklyn,” which I will release as an e-book along with “Requiem for a Druid” in early June:

shard

I should also add that we received around 100 submissions in the last 36 hours! Associate editors and I are reading furiously and will begin sending out responses in another day or two.

So please pledge to the UFO2 campaign and spread the word of it to others!

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO2 Submissions Open Tonight

April 30, 2013

ufo2

The submissions are opening tonight for the UFO2 anthology and will remain open throughout the month of May. Please read the guidelines here and feel free to submit when ready (yes, a few hours early is OK.)

I would also like to remind everyone that the UFO2 Kickstarter campaign has entered its final 48-hour stretch. At this point we still need to raise nearly $3,000 in order to be funded. The anthology will be published regardless, but our level of success on Kickstarter will determine the overall volume of fiction I can buy for this book, whether I can afford to buy additional content for the web site, whether I can afford to pay for the highest-quality copy-editing and book design services…  In short, I need the extra funds to make UFO the best possible book I can produce.

Please consider pre-ordering your copy via Kickstarter as well as spreading the word about it to anyone who might possibly be interested in the next two days. Thank you!

Click here to view the UFO2 Kickstarter page.

 

 

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How to Get a Free Copy of UFO

April 23, 2013

Heads up! There is less than 48 hours remaining in the Goodreads giveaway for a signed trade paperback copy of Unidentified Funny Objects. All you have to do is follow this link and click on the giveaway. It’s 100% free. They won’t try to sell you a condo or sign your dog up for a credit card. Honest.

The only downside to the Goodreads giveaway is that you are competing with hundreds of readers who want the book as much as you do. Last time I ran a giveaway, over 1500 people signed up. Right now there are already over 800 people signed up. Still, it’s free.

Want better odds than that? UFO Associate Editor and contributor Nathaniel Lee is running his own UFO giveaway on his blog. Just post  a joke in the comments to enter, and if you’re one of the super-nice people who backed UFO2 on Kickstarter, you get an extra entree! And, I bet, if you are really nice to Nat, he might even sign the book for you.

As for UFO2 — it is possible to get a free copy of that as well. It’s called a contributor copy. All you have to do is sell us a story! Remember — submissions will open on May 1, and there are convenient guidelines posted here.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO Can Haz Funny Cartoon

April 19, 2013

I’ve been cheating on this blog with all the other blogs.

While I’ve been egregiously ignoring my blogging duties here, my interviews have popped up at the W1S1 site and Emma Larkin’s blog this week.  I even cavorted with several podcasts, appearing on The Gamer’s Dome (which, incidentally, is what actually lies beyond Thunderdome) and having an awesome disagreement about the merits of Babylon 5 on an episode of the DJ Grandpa podcast which is scheduled to air this coming Monday.

All of this, of course, is in the effort to raise awareness of the ongoing UFO2 Kickstarter campaign. I’m willing to dispense my cheap jokes elsewhere, dance in front of SF conventions wearing a zombear suit, and even allow my my voice to be heard on podcasts, in order to raise awareness of this book. Because it is scientifically proven (aka I read the list of referring links on the Kickstarter page) that doing such things helps bring new backers to the project.

You and I know that the readers of this blog are the smartest, wittiest, and most interesting SF fans anywhere. FDA won’t let me claim this outright as a fact, so I’m insinuating it instead. And now, you have an opportunity to prove it. Click on this link and pledge to the UFO2 Kickstarter campaign.  Not only will you get an awesome collection of humorous short stories, but you will also help prove beyond doubt how awesome you all are. Because I will be able to click on the Dashboard of the Kickstarter account and see how much support is coming from *this site*. And then I will be inclined — nay, morally obligated — to blog a lot more often.

Think about that.

And while you think, I shall leave you with this awesome cartoon, courtesy of writer and illustrator Douglas Sterling:

alien

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UFO2 Submission Guidelines Are Posted

April 5, 2013

We are going to have an open submission period in May.  SFWA and Codex members have an “early pass” and can submit now. The guidelines are posted here:

UFO Series

There are some changes from the last year’s guidelines, so please read carefully. So far, more than 50% of the handful of submissions we already received either failed to remove the identifying information from their document (annoying, since I have to then do it before forwarding the story to associate editors) or failed to include the info I asked for in the subject line (much less annoying, but still indicates inattention to guidelines), or both!

A minor guideline infraction like that won’t hurt anyone’s chances — after all, the editors who are reading the submission won’t even be aware of it — but it doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it here 🙂

Meanwhile, the Kickstarter campaign is in full swing. We raised $1500 in the first 48 hours and are up to 60 backers as of the writing of this post. Now that we got past the initial rush, the tough slog begins. We must raise an average of $250 per day in order to meet our funding goals. So please consider pre-ordering your copy of UFO2 via Kickstarter sooner, rather than later, and help us spread the word of this project to others:

 

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Guest Post: Beyond the Sun by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

September 24, 2012

 

I’m the editor of a Kickstarter anthology project called Beyond The Sun, which has four multi-award winning headliners–Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick and Krisine Kathryn Rusch–and many successful midlist writers as well. Bestselling novelist Jean Johnson, novelist Erin Hoffman, Hugo/Nebula nominee & Analog regular Brad R. Torgersen, Analog regular Jamie Todd Rubin, Interzone regulars Jason Sanford and Matthew Cook, fellow editors Cat Rambo and Jennifer Brozek–do any of these names sound familiar? All of them are attached to write new space colonists stories for this project. The fact that they’re all also friends of mine just makes it better.

I love helping writers. And I’m a big believer that networking matters. And when you have a track record and a good network, you don’t have to wait for opportunity to come to you, you can create it. With NASA downsized and scientific exploration being downplayed, there’s a need for the kind of inspiration those shuttle launches and moon landings once provided. For imagining the world beyond that which we know and the possibilities that exist “out there” somewhere.  Beyond The Sun is an attempt to fill that gap while, at the same time, giving writers work that pays fair rates and allows up and coming writers the opportunity to reach a larger audience both, by appearing alongside big name headliners, and by being involved in something aimed at a larger audience.

Beyond The Sun is not intended to be academic, but it is intended to be academic friendly and family friendly–writers are free to explore a variety of subjects but graphic violence, language and sex should not be employed to do so. Neither should heavy-handed politics or religion. We have stories that touch on both, just not in a prosletyzing manner. For example, Bob Silverberg’s “The Dybbok Of Mazel Tov IV” is about what happens when Jewish settlers, tired of fighing over Israel, instead immigrate to a planet to start a new homeland. When a spirit (Dybbok) appears in a native alien of the planet which speaks with the voice of one of their own, they find themselves asking can aliens be Jews? What does it mean that things their modern sect gave up for old fashioneed have occurred in their midst? It’s an interesting story and the only one in which Silverberg touches on his Jewish heritage.

Mike Resnick’s Africa tales have won numerous awards. And he’s writing a new one for this project. Nancy Kress’ work has explored colonization in many forms, from her Hugo-winning “Beggars Of Spain” to her short stories and she’ll explore it again here. And Kris Rusch’s work is so diverse yet powerful, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with. The easiest part of the project has been recruiting writers. The SFF crew love this concept. It’s a theme everyone loves to explore. The hard part is the Kickstarter, and that’s where you come in.

Because a lot of anthologies today just stick with cover art, we’re hoping to raise money to have interior b&w illustrations, like the one shown for Silverberg’s tale. It adds a visual connection to the story that aids thee imagination for readers and we writers love to see how artists interpret our vision as well. Special art prizes are in the rewards as well because award-winning digital artist Mitchell Bentley has come up with a great cover (currently in mockup.) And I get the chance to nurture and encourage writers, which is what I love, but also to do it around a subject I’m passionate about. I got the chance to do it before with Space Battles, which I edited in 2011 and was published in April 2012 and as a freelance book editor. But I want to do more, so I created the opportunity.

It’s also an opportunity for you to see some great artwork and stories from both established and up and coming artists and writers. And a chance to revisit the part of your childhood and mind that still wants to know what’s out there and longs to see it for yourself one day. Just writing those words gets me excited. I’m hoping many of you feel the same. Thanks for supporting us!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/601968027/beyond-the-sun-anthology

 

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Lost In A Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012.  His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, both forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

 

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Unidentified Funny Objects Table of Contents Revealed

September 21, 2012

 

Table of Contents for the book is now posted at the UFO Publishing web site!

Also announced are the FREE stories we’ll post on UFO Web Site every month for the next six months.  It’s very exciting! Click on the above link and check it out.

 

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Anthology Submissions Update – The Fourth Hundred

July 19, 2012

 

It took approximately nine days to review 100 more submissions. The overall volume has come down a little and we’re averaging just over 10 subs per day. Of the 100 stories responded to, 43 were form rejections. All others had at least some additional comments from me or the other readers.

Only nine stories out of 100 advanced past the first round (this made the Space Chicken very cranky indeed!) Of those nine stories, I bought one and advanced one more into the third round. The other seven have been rejected by the “death panel.” I also received back a requested rewrite and bought that story, too.

As it stands right now, there are twelve stories accepted into the anthology, totaling approximately 38,000 words. There are 13 stories in round 3, totaling just over 24,000 words.  So there’s still plenty of space, but there’s also around 40 days remaining and I predict a Darwinian struggle among the round 3 stories for a few remaining spots in September.

Duotrope is showing 122 out of the 407 submissions we received to date.

We’re seeing too many:

* Zombie stories, Vampire stories, Demon/Hell stories, Alien Gray stories.

Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but your Zombie story submission will have to be better than all the OTHER zombie story submissions we’re seeing, because we don’t plan to dedicate the book to any one trope. If you have several stories in your inventory, the metagame choice would be to send one that revolves around a less-tired concept.

* Stories that are longer/shorter than what the guidelines ask for.

I don’t mind reading a 4200 word story very much. But when a writer sends it in without asking, that means they either didn’t bother to read the guidelines, or didn’t care. In either case, I’m already predisposed against their story before I begin to read it. Unless its downright brilliant, it will end up in a form rejection pile.
We’re not seeing enough of:

* Flash fiction

Only two of the stories I bought so far are 1000 words or less in length. Only two more flash stories are in round 3 at the moment.  I’d like to see more quality flash, but remember that a flash story should optimally still have a good plot arc.

* Humor

You would think that submitting humor to a humor anthology is a no-brainer. You would be wrong. A great many submissions we get are either mildly humorous or merely upbeat. I want stories that stand a chance of making the reader laugh out loud. Not every story in the anthology is going to be laugh-out-loud funny, but you will have a *far* easier time advancing past the ‘slush’ stage  if yours manages this feat.
Please keep submitting. It will keep the Space Chicken happy, accelerate the next Anthology Submission Update blog post, which you’ve now grown to love and crave, and might possibly net you a rejection like this one.

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Two Books, Two Sales

July 10, 2012

It’s been a busy week for me, to be sure. In addition to all the anthology work, I managed to sell two stories and also had two anthologies (available in real, physical dead-tree format!) come out that include my stories.

 

 

First up is In Situ, a collection of short stories featuring alien archaeology.  My humor story “The Field Trip” closes out the book. Here’s a little preview:

The planet in question had been populated by tool using bipedal mammals who learned to split the atom a little too soon for their own good and went boom. The scenario was so common in this part of the galaxy that there are entire digital storage units full of examples, and they are all filed under “Boring.”

You can read more about this story in my interview on Dagan Books web site over here.

To purchase the book click here.

The second anthology out this week is The Memory Eater. All stories collected in this book are inspired by the technology that allows its user to selectively erase memories. The first story I wrote for this book titled “The Take” didn’t make the cut there, but was published at Daily Science Fiction. My second story was “Seven Conversations in Locked Rooms” and I’m rather pleased with it. Click here to buy a copy.

 

 

I should add that both of these fine books were published by small businesses and every dollar really counts. So if you like my stories, and those of the other contributors, and can afford it, consider supporting them by purchasing these books.

On to new business:

My humor flash story “Those Who Can’t Do” was accepted at Every Day Fiction. This will be my fourth appearance at EDF, the first magazine to ever publish one of my stories. “Those Who Can’t Do”  should be released sometime in August or September.

And yet another humor flash story, “How To Locate and Capture Time Travelers: a Memo” was picked up by Third Flatiron publishing and will be released on December 1 in their “Origins” themed issue.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Anthology Update – June 11

June 12, 2012

I enjoy writing humor. Many of my stories are the kind of fluffy, light fare that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And I run out of markets to submit them to all too quickly.

“There aren’t enough humor markets” is the complaint commonly heard at conventions, on writing forums, and any other place where two or more writers happen to be at the time. There are great magazines that accept humorous stories, but when you compare their number to those looking to publish dark fantasy or horror, it isn’t close. I’ve grumbled about this enough times myself, until I realized that I can actually do something about it. And thus, an anthology of humor SF/F was born.

One of my goals in setting up this project was to avoid some of the frustrating issues that plague many of the fledgling markets. To that end, I’m doing the following:

* Full disclosure. My credentials, staff list, rights sought and all other details are spelled out in the submissions guidelines.  I will post regular updates here and on my Twitter account (@AShvartsman)

* High quality cover, professional typesetting and copy-editing. I want the final product to look as good as anything released by one of the big New York publishers.

* Treat the writers right. I’m paying $0.05 per word, and I’m paying it on acceptance so the authors don’t have to wait until winter to get their money.  I’ll strive to respond to submissions and queries quickly and keep authors abreast of what’s going on with their stories as they advance — or don’t — through three rounds of consideration (explained in the guidelines). Each contributor will get both an e-copy and a physical printed copy of the book upon release.

Thank you for the many awesome title suggestions. Ultimately I went with “Unidentified Funny Objects,” courtesy of Nathaniel Lee.  Things have been progressing nicely. Submission guidelines are posted and I’m getting ready to read your stories. In fact, I’ve been reading submissions already. I reached out to a number of excellent authors directly asking them to submit something. I also opened submissions early to members of SFWA and Codex Writers and have been reading furiously for over a week.

Sending out rejections is the worst part of the job. Having to reject friends, colleagues, people with whom I’ve been commiserating about other markets’ rejections and response times is especially brutal. But I’ve been doing it. So far I managed to get back to almost everyone within 24 hours with either a rejection or a note advancing their story to the second round. I also managed to provide at least some feedback with most rejections — a luxury I may not be able to afford once the general submissions open and the volume increases exponentially. But it’s all been worth it because of the stories I’m not rejecting.

There are several stories that I like a lot and am strongly considering for inclusion. I asked those authors for permission to hold on to their stories until the end of the submission period, to see if I can fit them into the Table of Contents.

There are also a couple of stories I absolutely loved and know I want to buy, right away. I’ll be sending those authors acceptance letters and contracts soon, and will be announcing their names here soon.

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