Submission Guidelines
How you incorporate the quarterly theme in your story is up to you. We do ask that you make sure the theme idea is not an afterthought, but an integral part of the story. We want truly want stories depicting underdogs rising to the occasion when it seems all hope is lost.
We are looking for polished manuscripts of about 3,500 - 12,000 words (not hard cut-offs, but not too much under/over please) in standard Shunn format. Please include your contact information, including full name and email address and any social media links you may have as well as any prior publications.
We're currently open for submissions for three anthologies.
The Underdogs Rise Vol. 2 (Working Title) This is a sequel to our Current highly reviewed collection. All stories must have science fiction or fantasy elements. We had many amazing authors including Marianne Xenos in our first anthology and can't wait to see what you bring to the table. Please no stories dealing with space exploration or colonization in this anthology. We want stories about underdogs that take fantastical worlds or places but want characters to be the focus. Closes 11:59 pm 08/31/2023.
The Way of Worlds is an anthology focused on space exploration and colonization (see, we have you covered). We want aliens, solar systems, spaceships, alternate universes, and to go somewhere beyond imagination. The focus of this anthology is space but it doesn't have to be hard science fiction. Show us what is happening in the galaxy next door. Closes 11:59 pm 12/31/2023.
Nightmares Before Bed is exactly what you think it is. This will be our first horror anthology and we want to be clear, no sexual violence, abuse of children, overly disturbing images and ideas, or gore will be published. We want horror, we want to be scared, but let's do it in a way that is respectful. We'd love to see fantasy horror or sci-fi horror here. Closes 11:59 pm 01/31/2024.
If your story is nobledark, noblebright, grimdark, or grimbright or something in the middle of all of those that's okay. Let us take a look.
Submissions should be sent to submissions@theunderdogpress.com as an attached Word doc or docx.
Please format the email subject line and your submitted file name as “The Underdogs Rise – [Story Title] by [Author Name] for [Anthology Name]”.
Accepted authors will be paid $.03/word and receive a contributor copy of the standard mass market paperback.
We are purchasing first world-wide print rights for three years from publication (reprints in “best of” yearly anthologies will be allowed).
We plan to notify all authors on the outcome of submissions by mid-December.
Reprints are not accepted for this anthology. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. Multiple submissions are accepted, but limited to three per author.
The Underdogs Rise Vol. 2 will be published in June 2024 (Currently we are a little behind in responses due to the number of submissions we received. We'll will begin sending out notifications by the middle of March.)
The Way of Worlds will be published in August, 2024 (Currently we are a little behind in responses due to the number of submissions we received. We'll will begin sending out notifications by the middle of April.)
Nightmares Before Bed will be published in October, 2025