CALL FOR STORIES: THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: VOLUME FIVE

I edit THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR anthology series for Night Shade Books. The fourth volume in the series will be published in March 2010, and the fifth should appear in March 2011.

I am currently reading for the 2010 volume of THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: VOLUME FIVE, and am looking for stories from all branches of science fiction and fantasy: space opera to cyberpunk, fairy tales to the slipstream, or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, please send it. Please note: This is a reprint anthology, so I am only reading material published between 1 January and 31 December 2010.

I work on a tight deadline, and need to see work as early as possible. With that in mind, the submission deadline for this year’s book is 1 October 2010. Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late. If a magazine, anthology, or collection you are in or you edit is coming out before 31 December 2010 you can send galleys or manuscripts so that I can consider the stories in time.

I prefer to receive book-length submissions in print.  Anything else can be sent to me via email.  Where possible I prefer .rtf or .doc files. PDFs are acceptable, but are usually very inconvenient. I strongly suggest that authors check with their publishers that they are sending review copies out to me, as I don’t have the resources to follow-up every publisher to get material.

When sending material please put THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: VOLUME FIVE on the envelope.

Jonathan Strahan
PO Box 544
Mt Lawley WA 6929
Australia

Email submissions, recommendations or information on publications via email. The contact address is jonathan.strahan (at) gmail (dot) com.

NOTE TO PUBLISHERS

I am eager to see and be able to consider the work you are publishing. If you are producing a magazine, a chapbook, a collection or anthology with any original stories in it please let me know. While I prefer not to accept email submissions for book length works as a rule, I am happy to talk to publishers about making exceptions where necessary. The important thing, for me, is to make sure that I get to consider the best science fiction and fantasy published during 2010.

* I do not need to receive manuscripts from authors of stories from venues that it’s likely I already receive regularly (I get Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Postscripts etc, but not many of the smaller ‘zines and publications).

** If you are publishing online, you need only email me (jstrahan (at) iinet (dot) net (dot) au) to let me know. I don’t require print-outs of online publications (I regularly read Tor.com, IGMS, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Fantasy etc online).

*** Please do not send an SASE. This is not a submission per se, and I’m not able to return manuscripts or respond directly to stories sent to me.

And we’re back!

So it’s been six days since I last posted. My apologies for that. What’s happened?  Well, as per my last post, I went to see a doctor on Monday because I had flu symptoms. I’d been in a swine flu area and other people there had had H1N1, so I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t be contagious.  The doctor checked me out and basically quarantined me for a week. This involved feeling sick, wearing a face mask, and staying indoors.

Normally this would have driven me nuts, but it proved to be something of a blessing. When I got back from San Jose I was deeply panicked about how I possibly was going to get through all of the editing I needed to do if I was going to make deadline. I have a book due November 27, another due December 5, and am late or near late on some others.  So, panic.

I spent the week reading and getting things done. A long delayed book proposal is out with editors. (Yay!).  I have a year’s best table of contents. The Locus Recommended Reading short fiction list is well progressed. I’ve also got some work done on some other book projects and its possible I might make it (whew!).

So, apart from a return to the day job what do I need to do by November 30? Let’s see. Write the introduction and story notes for The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 4. Write the introduction and notes for Legends of Australian Fantasy. Edit the stories and get the intro, notes etc done for my young adult SF anthology, Life on Mars. Do the copy-edits for Swords and Dark Magic. Follow up the introduction for The Best of Larry Niven. Complete the story invites for Eclipse Four. Get the manuscript together for The Best of Fritz Leiber, and do the running order for The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. Enough to keep anyone busy!

Oh, and I will release the table of contents for The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 4 in a while. I need to arrange permissions and see if I can get the stories I want.  It’s possible one or two stories may be problematic. However, once things are all legal I’ll post here.