My writing advice for getting your erotica published (plus 3 calls for submissions)

I'm very excited because I did some math and found out that I've published over 600 authors in my 60+ erotica anthologies over the 15 years. Seeing that number inspired me to hit my next goal of 1,000 authors! This means that I NEED NEW AUTHORS in my anthologies, so if you are interested in submitting your work or know someone who might be, now's the time. I'm editing 3 Cleis Press anthologies right now. Over at Frolic, I gave detailed writing tips on how to wow me as an editor (hint: send me a story unlike anything else in my inbox!). So please FILL UP MY INBOXES with your amazing, creative, no-one-can-tell-it-but-you stories! I'm excited about these books and look forward to making them super hot for you to read in 2020 and 2021.



You can find the Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 6 guidelines here (September 30 is the deadline!) and the Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 and women's orgasm erotica guidelines on my website.

All authors, including those I've published before, are welcome to submit where allowed (the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series doesn't repeat authors as part of my effort to include as wide a range of writers as I can), but my top priority is bringing the words of authors I've never worked with onto the page.

Have an erotica or nonfiction sex manuscript, novella, short story, or essay that needs help? I'm available for individual consulting!

I need LOTS more bondage erotica for my new anthology

I almost titled this post, "Where has all the bondage erotica gone?" because save for a handful of short story submissions, the inbox for my Cleis Press anthology Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 call has been quite empty. I'm offering $75 and two copies of the book. The deadline to submit is coming up this Sunday, July 1, 2018. It could be that it's the summer and people are busy or it could be I've failed in my job as an editor to spread the word to enough writing communities. While that's bad news for me as I struggle not to bite my nails over this situation, it's good news for anyone submitting because your chances go way up when I have fewer submissions to choose from. Yes, I could always extend the call if I don't have the stories I need by July 2, but that feels like admitting editorial defeat and is something I avoid if I can help it. If you know of any websites, groups, mailing lists, etc., that might have writers of bondage stories, feel free to pass it on or let me know at bestbondageseries at gmail.com where to submit this call (or the next one, should I get asked to edit another volume).

I'm especially looking for submissions that surprise me with their plotlines and creative types of bondage, stories that feature people of color and stories by authors I've never worked with before, but I'm open to any and all unpublished stories that meet the writing guidelines. So if you know anyone who has a bondage story they've been wanting to get published or can write one in the next few days, please pass along the call for submissions. This graphic is just a way to get people's attention, not a suggestion of the types of bondage I want for this book. Instead, I want people of all genders restrained. I want mental and physical bondage. I want newbies and very experienced bondage players and everything in between. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing that there will be a big influx of submissions over the weekend, but if not, I wanted to spread the word to anyone who might have missed this call or perhaps seeing this post sparks a story idea.



And then August 1, 2018 is the Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 call for submissions deadline. Looking forward to reading all your stories!

If you're wondering why it takes so long to hear back, see my Medium post about the timing. In my forties, I'm trying to work smarter so that I can create better books with less stress and fewer errors. Hence, instead of setting the deadline in October or November, which would give me very minimal time to actually edit and select pieces, I've made these deadlines so I can give my copyeditor more time, consult with authors in case I have revisions, and have a manuscript in to my publisher well before they need catalog copy (the blurb you see on the back cover of the book that's also listed in a publisher's catalog and disseminated to retailers 8-12 months in advance of the book release).

Don't miss your chance to get published in Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 from Cleis Press

The July 1, 2018 deadline for my Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 call for submissions is coming up and I haven't received too many submissions. I hope that's because all you budding writers of kinky bondage stories are brainstorming and writing and self-editing, but if not, I wanted to remind you that I WANT TO READ YOUR STORIES! And I'm especially looking to publish work by writers I've never worked with before, because I think it's good for readers, good for the genre and good for a new series to publish new (to me) writers.

So please spread the word. I'm paying $75 for original, unpublished stories. Everything else you could want to know is in the call, but if you have any questions after reading it, contact me at the email address listed there and I'll get back to you ASAP (might be a little slower in early June when I'll be traveling).

This anthology won't be published until late 2019, but it takes a long time to put together an amazing book that's proofread until it's as close to perfect as possible. If you want to know more about the timeline for my books (although I've since revised it a little to give myself and my copyeditor more time to do our work), read my Erotica Writing 101 post about why it takes so long to hear back from anthologies. Speaking of Erotica Writing 101, I am available to work with private clients on your erotic fiction or sex-related nonfiction projects, although I don't work on any pieces that authors plan to submit to my anthologies, as that would give those authors an unfair advantage. I'll be accepting new clients through June 1, 2018, and then again starting on June 18, 2018.