Essay Submissions - OPEN
Interstellar Flight Magazine is seeking essays on pop culture, movies, geekery, and scifi/fantasy related topics. Submissions are open year-round. (Please note: We close to submissions briefly at the end of each year from 12/15-1/15 to work on our anthology. Submissions sent during this time will be read after the break.)
We want essays on popular culture, movies, books, video games, SFF culture, conventions, and anything else geeky. We love reviews but believe that the goal of criticism should be to know and understand not to like or dislike. The tone of our essays are conversational and accessible, but we do enjoy a good academic debate. We're always interested in hearing from underrepresented and marginalized voices. How you define that is up to you.
Guidelines:
We want essays on popular culture, movies, books, video games, SFF culture, conventions, and anything else geeky. We love reviews but believe that the goal of criticism should be to know and understand not to like or dislike. The tone of our essays are conversational and accessible, but we do enjoy a good academic debate. We're always interested in hearing from underrepresented and marginalized voices. How you define that is up to you.
Guidelines:
- Essays should be 250-1500 words.
- Please submit in .doc, .docx, or .rtf form.
- Essays should be timely, i.e. that movie you just saw and loved/hated, a book that just came out, or a current topic of discussion online.
- Please include links as hyperlinks in your document. Please do not include images (Tweet embeds are fine).
- You may also submit pitches (max 100 words). Send us several ideas at once if you like.
- We prefer not to publish articles that only work as a series (we are not a "monthly" or "quarterly" publication, so series columns don't really work for us.) Instead focus on one thing and dive deep into it.
- Reprint essays are fine if they are relevant, but we regret that we cannot pay for reprints at this time.
Book Submissions
Call for Nonfiction Proposals - Open
Interstellar Flight Press is accepting submissions of book-length nonfiction manuscripts. We invite scholars of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres to submit proposals via our submission form. Our areas of focus are: Books about SFF genres, writing speculative fiction, poetry, film, comics, pop culture, diverse and marginalized voices, feminism, and disability, as long as these topics intersect with speculative genres. We are very interested in books from researchers outside the U.S. We also welcome collections of essays. Authors should be experienced in the field of SFF research.
Guidelines:
Interstellar Flight Press is accepting submissions of book-length nonfiction manuscripts. We invite scholars of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres to submit proposals via our submission form. Our areas of focus are: Books about SFF genres, writing speculative fiction, poetry, film, comics, pop culture, diverse and marginalized voices, feminism, and disability, as long as these topics intersect with speculative genres. We are very interested in books from researchers outside the U.S. We also welcome collections of essays. Authors should be experienced in the field of SFF research.
Guidelines:
- Full-length books 30,000-125,000 words.
- Please use our Proposal Format to prepare your submission.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- Multiple submissions are allowed.
- If your book is in-progress, please include a delivery schedule in your proposal.
Call for SFF Short Story Collections - Open to Submissions 9/1/21 - 12/31/21
Interstellar Flight Press is seeking submissions of full-length short story collections (books) in the speculative genres. We are focused on publishing up-and-coming authors who have been published regularly in SFF publications. However, we also accept short story collections containing previously unpublished works. For this call, we are also open to translations/and/or collections containing translated short stories. Books from this call will be slotted for 2022-2024 publication dates.
Our guest editor for this call is Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, slush reader and editor from Nigeria, with a background in Law. He won the 2018 Nommo award for best short story by an African, and was longlisted for the 2019 Nommo award. He was awarded the 2020 Horror Writers Association diversity grant and his novella was a finalist in the 2020 British Science Fiction Association and 2021 Nebula awards. He co-edited the Groundbreaking Dominion anthology alongside Zelda Knight, which is a finalist in the This is Horror and Locus award. He is also co-editing the anthology Africa Risen, alongside Zelda Knight and Sheree Renee Thomas, which is scheduled to be published by Tordotcom in 2022. He has two more anthologies scheduled for a 2021 release, the Bridging Worlds non-fiction anthology and the first ever Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthology. He has slush read for Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Podcastle and Strange Horizons. He is a member of the African speculative fiction Society, the HWA, BFA, BSFA and SFWA.
We are looking for:
Interstellar Flight Press is seeking submissions of full-length short story collections (books) in the speculative genres. We are focused on publishing up-and-coming authors who have been published regularly in SFF publications. However, we also accept short story collections containing previously unpublished works. For this call, we are also open to translations/and/or collections containing translated short stories. Books from this call will be slotted for 2022-2024 publication dates.
Our guest editor for this call is Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, slush reader and editor from Nigeria, with a background in Law. He won the 2018 Nommo award for best short story by an African, and was longlisted for the 2019 Nommo award. He was awarded the 2020 Horror Writers Association diversity grant and his novella was a finalist in the 2020 British Science Fiction Association and 2021 Nebula awards. He co-edited the Groundbreaking Dominion anthology alongside Zelda Knight, which is a finalist in the This is Horror and Locus award. He is also co-editing the anthology Africa Risen, alongside Zelda Knight and Sheree Renee Thomas, which is scheduled to be published by Tordotcom in 2022. He has two more anthologies scheduled for a 2021 release, the Bridging Worlds non-fiction anthology and the first ever Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthology. He has slush read for Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Podcastle and Strange Horizons. He is a member of the African speculative fiction Society, the HWA, BFA, BSFA and SFWA.
We are looking for:
- Short story collections 30,000-100,000 words (The amount of individual stories in the collection may vary. We have no specific guidelines on how many words each individual story should be, but we are unlikely to accept collections with longer works included.) If your work falls outside this word count but you feel it might be a good fit, please send it.
- We strongly encourage authors who have a track record of previous publication to submit.
- Speculative genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Weird, Mystery/Thrillers or any combination of the above. Hybrids or difficult to categorize collections are welcome. (Not all stories in the collection have to be speculative, but most of them should be.)
- Translations: We accept translations from authors or translators working on behalf of authors. In the case of collaborative projects, royalties are split based upon agreement between the parties involved.
- Please send complete manuscripts (your entire collection) in .doc or .docx formats, formatted in Standard Manuscript Format with no identifying information in the document. This means:
- 12-point font.
- Times New Roman, Courier, or similar font.
- Double spaced.
- Numbered pages.
- Your name should not appear anywhere in the manuscript or in the title of the document. If your name appears in the manuscript, we will remove it before sending it to our readers.
- Please include a synopsis/summary on the first page of your manuscript, max 500 words. The summary is meant to provide any additional information on the collection as a whole, such as your decision making in selecting stories and themes for the collection. The summary should be for the entire collection, not individual stories.
- We require a cover letter with bio. Be sure to include links to your website and social media so we can get to know you.
- Simultaneous and multiple submissions are fine, just let us know if you need to withdraw. The book as a whole should be previously unpublished, although individual stories within can have been published before. You must hold the rights to previously published work.
- Agented submissions are welcome. If you're an agent, please send us an email or submit via the form.
We are keen to publish new authors as well as to hear from more established authors. As always, we love hearing from authors from underrepresented backgrounds and marginalized communities.
All of our books receive a full marketing plan and are printed in hardcover and paperback formats, as well as distribution as eBook. We consider publishing a collaboration and pay 30-40% of all Publisher’s Net Receipts to the author as royalties. Depending on the project, we may also offer an advance. We ask for exclusive world English rights, audio rights, and some subsidiary rights. We believe in transparency. If you would like to see a sample of our contract, please email us at contact (at) interstellarflightpress (dot) com.
Our turnaround time around three months. Please query if you haven't heard from us after 90 days.
All of our books receive a full marketing plan and are printed in hardcover and paperback formats, as well as distribution as eBook. We consider publishing a collaboration and pay 30-40% of all Publisher’s Net Receipts to the author as royalties. Depending on the project, we may also offer an advance. We ask for exclusive world English rights, audio rights, and some subsidiary rights. We believe in transparency. If you would like to see a sample of our contract, please email us at contact (at) interstellarflightpress (dot) com.
Our turnaround time around three months. Please query if you haven't heard from us after 90 days.
Call for BIPOC Novellas - Closed
This submission call is now closed. We are in the process of reviewing submissions. Our guest editor for this call was Premee Mohamed.
This submission call is now closed. We are in the process of reviewing submissions. Our guest editor for this call was Premee Mohamed.
Call for Flash Fiction from BIPOC - Closed
Our 2020 Alternate Endings Submission call has closed. You can read the accepted pieces for this call on our website. Our Guest Editor for this call was Jamileh Jemison.
Our 2020 Alternate Endings Submission call has closed. You can read the accepted pieces for this call on our website. Our Guest Editor for this call was Jamileh Jemison.
Chapbooks & Poetry Collections - Closed
Interstellar Flight Press is currently closed to poetry book submissions. Our Guest Editor for this call was Saba Razvi. All submissions from our 2019 call have been responded to.
Interstellar Flight Press is currently closed to poetry book submissions. Our Guest Editor for this call was Saba Razvi. All submissions from our 2019 call have been responded to.
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