We are currently CLOSED to submissions until Fall 2013 .  

Novellas/Novels

What we want:

Graveside Tales seeks chilling, character-driven stories, a fresh premise that can be stated in  2 – 3 sentences, and credible world building dealing with lycanthropic or shape-shifting beings.  Cross-genre blends (Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, YA fiction, or Dark Fiction containing SciFi, Historical and/or Fantasy elements) are welcome provided the subject matter is original and the focus remains on horror. Gore, sex, or controversial content is okay as long as its inclusion is essential to the story and not incorporated solely for shock value.  

By definition lycanthropic beings - those that change from human to animal forms based on moon phases or other external factors. The term "lycanthrope" technically refers solely to werewolves, but its accepted modern usage includes a variety of animal transformations.  If humans can change into animal forms than the opposite is also possible - wolfwere a creature of legend and a deadly hunter able to assume human form to stalk his favorite prey: humans.

Tell us a great story - Great examples of what we want is Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon, Wolf's Trap by W.D. Gagliani, or Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Universe, Anthologies - The Beast Within, Beast Within 2: Predator & Prey, Beast Within 3: Oceans Unleashed, and Beast Within 4: Gears & Growls (both forthcoming).

We will also consider publishing backlisted material.  If you are an author with backlisted titles you would like to see republished, please query us at submissions@gravesidetales.com with "Backlist" and the title of the book in the subject line. 

 
What we don’t want:

Senseless splatter, action/adventure pieces with little character development, and experimental prose will not do well here. Manuscripts containing clichéd paranormal romance themes will likely be rejected.  Also, we no longer consider unsolicited short story collections.  Future SSC's will be invitation only. 

 
Manuscripts Lengths:

• Novella: 20,000 – 35, 000 words
• Short Novel: 35,000 – 60,000 words - novel will be broken down to novella form and released as individual titles
• Novel: 60,000 – 100,000 words - novel will be broken down to novella form and released as individual titles
  
• Epic Novel: 100,000 words plus - novel will be broken down to novella form and released as individual titles

Please query for pieces longer than 100,000 words.

 
**Submissions:

Please email a synopsis and the first chapter of your work as a .rtf attachment. No other formats will be accepted. Include a brief bio and publishing history in the body of the email.

Name, address, phone number, word count, and contact e-mail should be on the title page. Headers of subsequent pages should contain the title and author’s name.

While we do accept well-written first person/present tense pieces, the preferred narrative form is third person/past tense. Manuscripts written in second person—regardless of tense—will be rejected outright.

Please use standard manuscript formatting: double-spaced with 1? margins; two spaces after colons and sentence-ending punctuation. Font must be Courier New, size twelve. Set first line indents to .3 and do not insert hard breaks between paragraphs. Scene changes and shifts in point of view should be separated using three asterisks (centered) between paragraphs.

Do not send complete manuscripts unless specifically requested.

No simultaneous submissions.

Form letters will be issued for all rejected manuscripts. The constraints of time simply do not allow for individual responses. Please do not contact the editor requesting a reason for rejection; your query will go unanswered.

Send submissions to: submissions@gravesidetales.com

 
**Please note: failure to adhere to the above-mentioned guidelines will result in your submission being deleted unread.