Notorious Press

All posts about the “submission” phase of the “Hardboiled Horror” anthology will be moved to a new page soon after the close of the submission window to open space on the main page of this site for newer projects.

Hardboiled Horror closes to submissions Sunday, September 30. There will be no extensions to this deadline as the editor had well over 300 submissions before the final two weeks, which will likely see another flurry. If you submitted but did not get any response, let us know a.s.a.p.

What next? Editor James Van Pelt has been “shortlisting” some of the submitted stories, and will likely have 30-40 final candidates left in the “hold folder” when submissions close. He’ll then take 3 to 4 weeks to make the final, painful cuts to get down to the final selections for inclusion in the book. Sadly, some fine stories that have been in the “hold folder” for up to several months may not survive that last hurdle. We’re looking at a goal of somewhere between 15 and 20 stories for the final table of contents, so about half of the “hold folder” gets that unkindest cut.

Major Thanks to all authors who submitted. If your work isn’t taken for Hardboiled Horror, please consider subbing to our other open anthology, HOW’D THEY DO THAT? That tome has about a month left in the reading window, and only has about 120 submissions so far. (Did I really say only 120? Must be because I don’t read them all.) Editor Jenifer Nightingale-Ethier is quite open to cross-genre stories, although the target market for that one is the standard mystery/crime reader.

We do not have any problem with you submitting to both anthologies, even with the same story. In the event that your tale is cut late from “Hardboiled Horror”, you’ll still have time to get seen at “How’d They Do That?”

Lastly, sorry that we had to turn off the “public comments” feature of this site. Commercial spammers have now perfected ways of submitting pseudo-comments that are really just links to their retail partners.  And since I already have plenty of Rolex watches, designer handbags, romantic interlude technology, and West African million-dollar windfall checks sitting around here now, and assume you do as well, we can all skip those comments together.  When the final table of contents is announced we will turn on the “comment” feature again for a while.

Thanks for your interest in Notorious Press!

Doug Wood,    the pub

As they say in literary bars at closing time, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t conjugate here.”

Submission windows are closing soon for the two new anthologies, so send like fiends.  Both editors have plenty of submissions - well over 400 total stories between the two books.  But we just know with absolute  metaphysical certainty that some of the late subs will be keepers.

Sorry in advance to any authors whose work we couldn’t take for these projects, but you can see the kind of volume involved.  Watch for future anthologies and projects from these editors and other contributors.

- the pub -