Angry Robot Open Door Month

Figured I'd post this up here for people who might be interested:

Link - http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor

Details:

Following a successful Open Door period in 2011 (we signed 3 debut authors from it!), we’ve decided to do it again! This time around, we’re looking for classic fantasy (for Angry Robot) and all sf/fantasy flavours of YA (for Strange Chemistry).

If you have completed a novel, and are unagented, between April 16th and 30th this year, we’ll happily read it for possible publication. If you are agented, this isn’t for you – submit via the usual route.

If your title is a Young Adult title, go here.

Still here? Good.

This page is full of things you Need To Know. You spent months – or possibly years – perfecting your novel, so make sure you take twenty minutes or so to read the guidelines on this page. And by guidelines, we of course mean: instructions carved in stone. Last year we rejected far too many submissions simply because the author did not follow the submission guidelines.

What we’re not looking for:

• Anything other than classic fantasy – swords, magic, kingdoms, castles. You might describe it as high fantasy, epic, magical, low, classic, medieval, or whatever. If you’ve written an urban fantasy or supernatural modern day chiller, that’s great, but not what we’re wanting this time around.
• Book 2 or later in an existing series.
• Books that have already been published elsewhere (including podcast, self-published as eBooks or print-on-demand).
• Books that have not yet been completed.
• Children’s books.
• Anything shorter than novel length (approx 95,000 to 140,000 words, but there is some flexibility in this).
• Books submitted in last year’s Open Door Month (even those that have been redrafted).

So, you have until the end of April to polish your manuscript, and to get it in the right format for us.

You’ll need to send us a single file containing your submission. Do not send multiple files.

We prefer RTF files. Word files are OK, as are PDFs. If you don’t know what these terms mean, ask a tech-savvie friend.

Your file should contain the following:

• Page 1: Your name, your contact details (email address is essential, snail mail address is handy, too), the name of the novel and its wordcount. Feel free to include a brief biography here, if you feel it is relevant.
• Pages 2-3: A full synopsis of the novel, including brief descriptions of the major characters. You must include details of the novel’s ending – no keeping us in suspense until we buy the book off you! Feel free to include a paragraph or two of your intentions/inspiration if you wish (this last bit is not essential). We will also smile on you if you can include a one-sentence summary of your novel, here. Yep – you read that right. One sentence.
• Pages 4 onwards: The first 5 chapters of your novel. If your chapters are very short, or very, very long, send us no less than 10,000 words, no more than 15,000.

Notes on formatting.

• Single-spaced entries are preferred.
• If your manuscript contains italics, use italics. Do not use underline instead.
• Start a fresh page for new chapters.

If you have not followed the guidelines, above, your submission might be rejected without even being read, so give yourself the best chance of success.

The notes above will tell you everything you need to know about submitting your manuscript. IF IT’S NOT MENTIONED ON THIS PAGE, IT’S NOT WORTH WORRYING ABOUT, SO DON’T FEEL YOU NEED TO QUERY THE SMALLEST DETAIL. For instance, if you telephone us to ask what font to use (this has happened) we’re probably not going to want to take your manuscript further.

How to submit.

Come back to this page on April 16th – there will be a special upload thingie here (it’s all very technical, you know).

Do NOT submit anything before April 16th. Anything that comes in early, goes in the bin early…
______________

What we will be looking for:

We’re publishing novels, either standalone or as part of greater series. We’re not looking to publish your novellas, short stories (individually or collected in book form) or non-fiction at this time. Our novels are for adult readers; we’re not currently looking for work aimed at children (although of course, you should submit via Strange Chemistry‘s Open Door page, if your work is intended for Young Adults).

All our books are “genre” fiction in one way or another — specifically fantasy, science fiction, horror, and that new catch-all urban or modern fantasy. For this Open Door period, however, we are looking for Classic Fantasy only. It should be easy to decide whether or not your book is classic fantasy. If in doubt, do the following:

Ask yourself “Is my book a classic fantasy?”

If you can truthfully say “yes” without thinking too much about it, we’ll be delighted to take a look. If it has castles, kingdoms, magic, swords, dragons, you’re on the right track. If your answer is “well, I’m not quite sure”, then our answer would probably be the same as yours, so save yourself (and us) the time, and find somewhere more appropriate for it.

If your answer is “no”, then it’s not for us, but here are some pretty unicorn pictures to make you feel less sad.

Our books will be published in all English-language territories — notably the UK, US and Australia — so we’ll be buying rights to cover all those. If you are only offering rights in one territory, we will not be able to deal with you.

We will be able to offer e-book and audio versions as standard too, plus limited edition and multiple physical formats where appropriate. We are not contracting any work-for-hire titles; we offer advances and royalties.

Beyond all of this, what we’re really looking for in your writing is this:

• A “voice”, that comes from…
. . . . ~ Confident writing
. . . . ~ Pacy writing
. . . . ~ Characters that live, have real relationships and emotions, even in extreme situations
• A sense of vision, a rounded world that lives and breathes
• Clever construction, good plotting, a couple of surprises even for us jaded old read-it-alls
• Heightened experience – an intensity, extremity or just a way of treating plot or situation in a way we’ve not come across before. “Goes up to 11″, if you know what that means.

We require a brief (two pages) summary of characters, plot and your intentions/inspiration, in that order — plus the opening five chapters. No more, no less. DO NOT send us the opening chapters of an unfinished manuscript – we’re only interested in novels that have been completed.

Send us the right file, first time. Please, please, please do not send us a submission and then follow it up a few days later with an improved version that you have since edited. Improve it before sending, and send it once.

Your opening chapters will be read by one of our editors. If we like what we read, we’ll ask you for the rest of it.

Moving to Helpful Resources