3 new erotica anthology calls for submissions

Good news: I'm editing three new Cleis Press erotica anthologies! Here are my erotic short story calls for submissions, with May 1 and June 1, 2022 deadlines, and payments of $100 for Couples Erotica and Sexy Strangers and $225 for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9, which has a theme of temptation.



The first two for Couples Erotica and Sexy Strangers are open to all writers, and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9 is open to authors who themselves are women, gender nonconforming, genderqueer and/or nonbinary who have not been published or scheduled to be published in the first eight Best Women’s Erotica of the Year volumes edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel; all volumes have this stipulation around authors' identity and I don't repeat authors in the series to make room for as many writers as possible. The first 8 volumes have included work by 146 authors. Everything I'm looking for is listed in the guidelines, but if you have any questions I don't answer in the guidelines, please email me at the address listed with the call. That's the only way you should be contacting me with questions about these anthologies.

Please spread the word! I've worked with over 700 authors in my anthologies so far and my goal is to get to 1,000 authors, so I'm hoping to fill these books with as many authors I haven't worked with before as possible. That's one of my favorite aspects of being an anthology editor.

Enter now to get Best Women's Erotica of the Year 4 before it's in stores

I'll never forget the acceptance from editor Marcy Sheiner I received for my story "Doing the Dishes" for Best Women's Erotica 2004. I was so thrilled to finally be published in this major series in the erotica world. And now I get to edit that same series. One thing I promised myself is that I would push myself to be the best editor I could be, to both apply everything I've learned since my own first co-edited anthology was published in 2004 and to push myself to be better, to dig deeper as an editor, to publish more diverse authors than I did when I started and to try to reach as many readers as possible.

I'm so proud of what the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series has become and can't wait to see what you think about Volume 4, which has totally hot, sexy stories as well as heartfelt, also arousing love stories. There's torrid affairs, kinky sex, forbidden passion and much more. Since it's Election Day, I'll share that my inspiration for the outsiders theme (the other theme is risk) was Donald Trump's scary and dangerous rhetoric about outsiders, not just immigrants, but anyone who isn't like him.



I'm giving away 10 signed copies of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 at Goodreads. Enter to win by November 9 (U.S. only; for giveaways open internationally, subscribe to my monthly newsletter - and yes, after this month's deadline mania is over, my website is getting a much-needed overhaul on Squarespace.) The photo above features galleys from an earlier giveaway, but this is to win finished copies, which will be in my hands and then in the mail very, very soon. And if you have a spare moment, I'd love if you'd add the book to your Amazon wishlist. Entering and adding it help the book reach more people before it's published on December 11, which helps it sell more copies, which helps me get to keep editing this series (yes, if nobody buys it, I'm sure I will be given the heave ho as the editor). But I don't think that will happen.

Stay tuned because I'm working on booking readings for this volume and there will be some fun promos and giveaways, especially on our Instagram, where I'm posting everything from sex toys to sexy women to hot Friday reads. Thank you for reading and supporting this series. I didn't start it and am humbled to be its third editor and honored to publish so many writers from around the world. My dream is to get to edit 10 volumes. I'm wrapping up my initial round of edits on Volume 5 now, for publication next December.

Without you reading, reviewing, following and spreading the word (and, of course, all the amazing bookstores and libraries who stock it!), I wouldn't get to do this, so THANK YOU. I don't take that lightly, and I edit every anthology like it's going to be my last and I need to go out with a bang, because that could be the case. But I hope it's not, and today, on a day when I hope for positive changes in the world, I'm also hoping that the powers that be like my work enough to keep believing in me as editor. In return, I vow to work on this series every day, to make it a little more visible, to bring in more authors from around the world, to have these stories reach the people who need them.

Ask me anything about anthology editing

I'm preparing an online class I hope to launch in October on How to Edit An Anthology, based on the numerous questions I've received over the 13 years I've been editing them (I'm up to over 60 anthologies, with more on the way, so I've learned a lot via trial and error). While I will give my insights into erotica anthologies, I'll be covering both fiction and nonfiction anthologies of all kinds and will be getting input from other editors, both self-published and traditionally published, so I can give as many options and answers as possible. Which brings me to you: What questions do you have about the anthology editing process? Please feel free to ask me anything in September and I will do my best to answer in the class. I don't have a registration page up yet as I'm still creating the class's content (this is a new one for me), but as soon as I do, I'll post it here. You can comment or email me by September 30 at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "Anthology class" in the subject line.



I promise, my anthology editing skills are infinitely better than my Canva art skills. Those are abysmal because I'm a word person, not an art person, but thankfully I rarely have to rely on them.

My two paying calls for submissions and why perfect grammar is so important

If you want to head directly to my two Cleis Press calls for submissions, visit Erotic Teasers (October 1, 2017 deadline, pays $100/story) and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 (November 1, 2017 deadline, pays $200/story).

I'm looking forward to October and November, when I'll be selecting the stories I want to include in those manuscripts (then my publisher has final approval, which can take several months; see my post about the timing of the publishing process here), doing so earlier than I have in the past so I can put every ounce of my creative energy into promoting my back-to-back releases, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 and The Big Book of Submission, Volume 2. Having two books come out in two months is not for the faint of heart, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I can handle it, and most of my time and money will have to go into BWE because that's the more popular type of book, but I will do my best to make both big sellers because I owe that to myself, my business, my publisher and my authors.

Right now I'm doing my second least favorite task that comes with the job of anthology editing: copyedits. Even though a large part of my 7.5 year full time magazine editing job involved copyediting, and I do a lot of it in my current copywriting job, being in charge of the words of other authors' is not a responsibility I take lightly. I live in fear that one of their edits won't make it into the final book, and I will look like the worst editor who ever lived. Okay, that's hyperbole, but I have an all or nothing brain and if that were to happen, no matter how proud I am of the rest of my book, I would feel awful, because once a book's in print, it's in stores and that's it.

So I've actually been dragging my feet on putting together the edits of the copyeditor I hired (something I wish I'd done for all my books and well worth every penny) and the ones my authors sent me. Then my publisher incorporates those edits into the manuscript before galleys and final books get printed.

The part about me being beyond nervous is my own issue to deal with, though trust me, if I ever quit anthology editing, I will not miss waking up in a panic with worry about this, or holding my breath when I send books out to authors, hoping their story has come out perfect.

That brings me to my calls listed above and why they're so detailed. Some of that is because I often receive an influx of stories that are similar either in setup or subject, which means I can't use them all in my books, because the two biggest things I provide to my readers is variety and sexiness. That's not something I can predict when writing a call, so I try to emphasize creativity and uniqueness.

But what I do emphasize in my calls, or at least, what I hope I impress upon those who might submit, is the importance of perfect grammar and proofreading. You might think, But Rachel, aren't you going to edit the story, and then two copyeditors as well? Yes, I am and they are, but here's the thing: If a story comes in that is riddled with grammatical errors, that vastly increases the likelihood that out of the four people proofing it (author, anthology editor and two copyeditors), someone will miss some of them. Who loses out? Well, everyone. The reader, first and foremost, because they will be distracted when reading your story. I know this as a reader who got distracted several times recently reading a novel I otherwise enjoyed. My publisher will lose out because their reputation will go down in the eyes of that reader. I will lose out for the same reason, and that directly impacts my income and potential opportunities to edit more books. And it impacts the author, because I don't think anyone out there wants their name next to words that are less than the very best they can be.

So while I accept complete and total responsibility for any errors that wind up in my final books, I do tend to gravitate toward submissions whose writing I enjoy that are grammatically correct and typo free, because I know that they will improve the quality of my anthology. Also, the above is the process with my anthologies, but if you are submitting your work other places, or self-publishing, there may be fewer people going over your words, so the onus is on you to make them readable. Ultimately, that's, to my mind, the whole point of grammar: to make words more readable, to make them flow better, to make the reader's job easier so they can enjoy the story more. Now I must return to doing that very thing, and then crossing my fingers and hoping with all my might that I've done my job well.

Hear me talk about erotica writing and editing on the Sex Gets Real podcast

I had a fabulous talk with Dawn Serra (officially, it was an interview, but I consider it more of a discussion) on her Sex Gets Real podcast, all about the power of writing erotica, what I look for as an editor, how erotica can affect our sex lives, the larger cultural observations and political messages we can send with erotica and the Best Women's Erotica series. Plus I read a little excerpt of Comic-Con erotica story "Starstruck" by Lazuli Jones. I hope you'll check it out, and you can subscribe to Sex Gets Real on iTunes and/or listen directly on the show's website. Here's a few quotes (and with the George Constanza/5'3" quote, I believe we were specifically talking about men; I don't think it's that unusual to find short women starring in erotica, but it is unusual in my experience to find men on the shorter, or fatter, or balder side). The hour or so we chatted flew by and I had a wonderful time talking to Dawn and hope you enjoy it too and that perhaps it sparks your imagination and gets you writing, whether that's one sentence or a hundred pages.









We also discussed my erotica classes, and I have two coming up: live in person Sunday, January 29th from 4-6 at The Ripped Bodice in Culver City (LA), and February 7-March 7 will be my online LitReactor erotica writing class Between the Sheets. The Ripped Bodice class is limited to 20 people and the LitReactor one is limited to 16 people.

Lastly, the deadlines for my two upcoming Cleis Press anthologies are coming up soon! Click on the book titles for guidelines. December 1 is the deadline to submit to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 and January 10 is the deadline for The Big Book of Submission, Volume 2. Happy writing!

Why I love editing the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series

I'm in the midst of working on three volumes of the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series at once, promoting Volume 1, which is out in print, ebook and audiobook, finalizing the table of contents for Volume 2, which will be published in December, and doing some early promotions and brainstorming, and spreading the word as wide and far as I can about the call for submissions for Volume 3 so I can meet my goal if receiving 500 submissions.



It's a lot to juggle, especially with two part-time jobs that combine to make a six-day-a-week full-time job, but I'm happy to do it because I'm incredibly honored to be at the helm of the series. For me, editing a series is different than editing a one-off title, because I know that each book does not stand alone. They stand as sequels to all the ones that came before them (in this case, starting with Best Women's Erotica edited by Marcy Sheiner in 2000 through Best Women's Erotica 2015 edited by Violet Blue, before the series changed to using volume numbers and I became editor).

As I'm editing, I also envision the same readers reading all of the volumes I'm editing, and I keep that in mind when I'm selecting stories. I try not to repeat scenarios or pick anything too similar to what's come before; I think of it as wanting the stories to echo and complement each other, to speak to each other but not duplicate. So one thing I'd love to see in Volume 3 is another outstanding pop culture reference erotica story, similar to what Lazuli Jones did with "Starstruck" in Volume 1, but outside the comics/superhero world. I also have subjects that for whatever reason, didn't yield many submissions for Volume 2, so I am definitely on the hunt for the perfect trans woman erotica story or stories for Volume 3, and some stories about older female characters. I know I may not get everything on my wish list into every given volume, and I don't know for sure that I will get to edit more, but that's why I'm putting my heart and soul into promotions, so that I can hopefully keep on editing the series for a long time to come. That being said, it's fiction, and part of the beauty of any writing is that everyone will approach it with their own ideas and experiences and angles, what writer Todd Henry calls your authentic voice.

It also helps me on a personal level when I have to do my least favorite task, sending rejection letters. I just sent out over 200 rejection letters for Volume 2, and that is such a hellish experience it deserves its own post. Suffice it to say, it makes me feel like a terrible person and never want to go through the process again, but what gets me through it every time is knowing that I will most likely have new anthologies on the horizon and a rejection today might mean an acceptance on another story next year, or the next or the next.

This mindset helps me get through sending rejections but on a more positive note, it also helps me conceptualize what I want my role to be as editor. I am taking a more pro-active approach to Volume 3, reaching out to groups and websites and authors I think might appreciate the call, and doing my best to spread the word while there's still 5+ months left before the deadline. I'm not against one-off anthologies, but I feel extra excited about the possibilities for the series, and maybe even doing some joint readings from multiple volumes, if I'm lucky.

To conclude, if you know anyone who might be eligible and interested in submitting their erotic fiction to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, please pass along the writing guidelines to them. If you want to help me get a head start in spreading the word about the amazingness that will be Volume 2, please add it to your Goodreads want to read list.

My Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 authors are excited, or why I keep editing anthologies even though they are always a lot of work

I'll be posting more about the anthology editing process, including my number one pet peeve and some advice for writers. It's exciting to have two new calls for submissions and I'm working on spreading the word because I've set a goal of getting 500 submissions for each book to have as much variety as possible in the final volumes (so please spread the word if you know any writers!). In the meantime, acceptances for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 recently went out. (The book pubs in December and is available for pre-order now.) If you're excited to read the book, please add it to your Goodreads "want to read" list and stay tuned to my next few monthly newsletters for a chance to get a review copy!

And I was going to do a separate cover reveal post but I'm too excited about this one to share it. This series is a giant honor to get to edit and every bit of support you can give the book enables me to keep on editing it and keep on publishing new authors each time.



Not only was it very special to me to be working with a book almost entirely comprised of authors I've never published before (one of my goals for the series and my anthologies generally is to publish new writers), their responses helped remind me why I do this in the first place. Yes, it's part of my income stream, but after 63 anthologies, I know I've started to lose steam. I very carefully consider every time whether I've put enough anthologies out into the world and whether there's a real purpose and meaning to my adding yet another one, and these authors have helped remind me that one of the reasons I keep on doing it is the joy of knowing I've helped someone achieve a career goal or get their first erotica byline or simply tell a wonderful story and showcase it alongside their peers.







And Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 contributor Jade A. Waters tweeted about how happy she was to have her Shakespeare-themed short story "Ophelia the Second" read on Rose Caraway's podcast. All 22 stories in the book are read by Rose on the bestselling Audible audiobook!

Why I love publishing spanking erotica stories like "Restitution" by Ria Restrepo

I'm planning to detail on this blog why I picked each and every one of the 22 stories in Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, for the benefit of those who've read them and want to know my reasoning, for the intrigue of those who are considering reading it, and for intel for those considering submitting to Volume 2 (the deadline is April 1st!).



Over at Lady Smut, I wrote "How to have an orgasm from being spanked", which is about what happens in Ria Restrepo's story "Restitution," in which pop star Ella Lopez is spanked by a police offer while being watched through a two-way mirror after she's caught shoplifting. It's a very sexy story on several levels, and I interviewed Ria about the psychology of spanking, her thoughts on her tagline "strong women who desire stronger men," BDSM and submission and more. I hope you'll check it out! You can also get more insight into her writing process in our Tumblr Q&A about "Restitution."

And of course, you can read "Restitution" in full in Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1. I don't only want to publish spanking stories (unless I'm editing an entire book of them), but I do want stories that push buttons—characters’ and readers’. I want stories that surprise me, that take a topic that may have been done thousands of times in different ways, like spanking, and still manage to say something new and unique and hot.

Get the book now at:

Amazon (print)

Kindle

Barnes & Noble (print)

Nook

Powells

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your nearest local bookstore)

Cleis Press

Amazon UK (print)

Amazon UK Kindle

Amazon Canada (print)

Amazon Canada Kindle

Why Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 is the most important book I've ever edited

While I’m busy promoting this month’s release of Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, I’m also looking ahead to January and the release of what I consider the most important book I’ve ever edited: Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1.



I’ve been reading the Best Women’s Erotica series since the very first volume edited by Marcy Sheiner, and have had the honor of having several stories of mine published in the series, including some of my favorites, most notably my dishwashing fetish story “Doing the Dishes” and my oral sex restaurant story "Secret Service," inspired by a former restaurant where I used to live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With this new volume, Cleis Press has shifted from using calendar years in the title to volumes, so that the books are not automatically returned by bookstores at the end of the year. This means that readers will have more opportunities to discover the book.

I put everything I’ve learned from my last decade plus of anthology editing into this book. My vision was for an anthology of varied erotica by and about women, and while of course no single book will speak to every aspect of female sexuality, I am incredibly proud of the result. There’s a story set in the past and a story set in the future. There’s a fictional superhero and a pop star. There's kink and tenderness, love, lust and flirtation. There's real life drama and plenty of fantasies.

As I discovered upon my recent copyedit, as befitting my turning 40, there wound up being several women in their forties. There are two trans men (and if I have the honor of editing another volume, I will make sure trans women are included). There are lesbian and heterosexual pairings; there are bisexual stories; there are single ladies and ones in committed relationships, as well as ones in relationships that could use a little improvement. And much more!

I think this is one of the most diverse collections I’ve edited, in terms of race, age, sexual orientation and types of story settings and storytelling. I had to turn down many amazing stories due to space, which is always gut-wrenching to me, but one of the rougher aspects of anthology editing. However, my hope is that this volume reaches readers around the world, as it contains stories written by authors in the United States, Canada, the UK and Japan.

It’s become my new favorite amongst my titles. When people ask me which anthology of mine they should try, I will say Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, because I think it’s both modern and timeless. And yes, these stories are by and about women, but I truly believe anyone interested in varied, well written erotica, will appreciate them. I just reread them and even though I already knew what would happen, I got a kick out of it. My story "Flying Solo," written in the second person, made me want to write more in second person because it's fun (if challenging, but a good challenge).

The other reason I’m so proud of this book has to do with me stepping up as a businesswoman in a way I never have before. When I was asked to edit this anthology, I hired a publishing lawyer to help me with my contract, and then I got on the phone with my publisher and negotiated a better deal for myself than I would have gotten otherwise. I got some terms that I hadn’t even asked for, and all of that makes me even more committed to devoting 100% of my energy in the first half of 2016 to spreading the word about this book wide and far.

Right now I’m working on arranging readings that I hope will take place in San Francisco and Chicago and possibly a few more cities. As a general rule, I only travel for paid speaking events, because that’s what I can afford and what’s best for my business, but I’m breaking that rule to invest in this book because I believe in it so much and want to share that passion in the form of live readings. If those pan out, I will be posting about them all over, especially on the social media accounts for the book on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. I hope you will consider pre-ordering the book in print or ebook, or just sharing this link with the cover, table of contents and introduction. I'll be sending postcards to any stores that want them (email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com if you have a store or event where you can put postcards out).

This is the culmination of the work I’ve been doing since I wrote my very first erotica story in 1999, and since I worked on my first anthology in 2004. It’s a huge honor that I do not take lightly. I thank all the authors who’ve allowed me to publish their work, and Cleis Press for believing in me and putting a beautiful cover on this incredibly sexy book. I will be sharing much more about the stories in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, as we approach the January 12 publication date.

What I’ve been learning in recent months is that if you want to achieve big goals, you have to first dream big. So here’s my big dream: that Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 becomes my bestselling anthology. I love all the books with my name on them, of course, but this one I truly believe speaks to modern sexuality in a way that’s, without explicitly using the word in its fiction, feminist. I can’t wait to share these 22 hot stories with you. If you're a blogger or journalist and would like to cover BWE of the Year (for short), email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "BWE" in the subject line and in the body your name, mailing address and publication name.

Below you'll find the links where you can pre-order Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, edited by me, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and published by Cleis Press. I hope you’ll check it out, because these authors are all ones to watch.

Introduction (read it on Tumblr)
A New Canvas Tara Betts
Demimonde Valerie Alexander
Ophelia the Second Jade A. Waters
Revisiting Youth J. Crichton and H. Keyes
Date Night D.R. Slaten
Flying Solo Rachel Kramer Bussel
Drawn by Nic Heidi Champa
The Ropes Elise King
Starstruck Lazuli Jones
The Altar of Lamented Toys Jessica Taylor
Matilda’s Secret L. Marie Adeline
Scents & Sexuality Doriana Chase
Alvin’s Night Elizabeth Coldwell
Enter Me Tabitha Rayne
The Wolf at His Door Deborah Castellano
Out of the Ordinary Rose P. Lethe
Lighting the Pyre Theda Hudson
Restitution Ria Restrepo
The Carnalarium Rose Caraway
Waiting to Pee Amy Butcher
Two Doms for Dinner Dorothy Freed
The Assistant Tiffany Reisz

Get your hands on Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1:

Amazon (print)

Kindle

Barnes & Noble (print)

Nook

Powells

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your nearest local bookstore)

Cleis Press

Amazon UK (print)

Amazon UK Kindle

Amazon Canada (print)

Amazon Canada Kindle