Riptide Publishing Open Calls:
(
http://riptidepublishing.com/call-for-submissions)
Sports Romance
Queer men play sports. Whether they hide their sexuality or not, they are on the field, in the rink, on the court. And we want stories about how they juggle finding love with their commitment to their sport. We’d prefer major league professional settings (American football, basketball, ice hockey, baseball; European soccer/football, rugby, cricket; etc.), but the Olympics would be fabulous, and any sport will be considered (NASCAR/Formula One racing, polo, X Games sports, etc.). Make the competition a major focus of and conflict with the romance, and you’ve got a winner!
Length: 30,000 to 85,000 words
Genres: Contemporary
Heat Levels: Moderate to explicit
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: gay, bisexual, AFAB trans or nonbinary
Submissions Due:
Monday, September 1, 2014
Acceptance Letters Sent By: January 1, 2014
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
Rainbow Families
Rainbow lovers create unique families, and we want romances that explore building those families. Send us your stories about the life-stages of a family, of what happens after the HEA, of the trials and tribulations of creating a family, of becoming and being a parent, of dealing with the joys and pains family can put us through. Send us your romantic comedy about planning a wedding (My Big Fat Rainbow Wedding!); your romance about how a relationship is affected by trying to start a family through pregnancy, adoption, surrogacy, etc. (a Rainbow Baby Boom!); your story about a couple trying to combine their already-existing families (The Rainbow Brady Bunch!). Blended families, new families, desperately wanted families, growing families, step-families, poly families: we want it all.
The story still needs to be a romance between two (or more) rainbow characters in any modern-day setting, but the driving force of the story should be the life-stages of a family (marriage, pregnancy, adoption, surrogacy). Sex is fine (and sometimes necessary!), but these should not be erotic romances.
Length: 45,000 to 85,000 words
Genres: Contemporary
Heat Levels: Mild to Medium
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: Any
Submissions Due:
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Acceptance Letters Sent By: March 1, 2015
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
Shifters and Weres
Whether bound to the lunar cycle or able to shift at will, werewolves or weresquid (and wherever your imagination might take you with all those tentacles!), skinwalkers or humans who can change their faces, we want to get to know your shifter society. Are they out? Hidden? Hated? Revered? Maybe they fight crime, or maybe they cause it. Maybe they just want to be left alone, or maybe they are (or are trying to be) the dominant species.
Our key desire in this call is a mythos that sets your story apart from the thousands of other shifter stories already published. Abandon those tired old A/B/O tropes and bring us something fascinating and fresh.
Romance is necessary, but it need not be the central focus. Frequent erotic content is welcome, as is creative sex (sex in shifted or semi-shifted form is fine as long as your shfiters retain sentience and are
capable of consent, even if consent is not given), but please don’t send us erotica—in other words, the central relationship must not be driven by and explored primarily with sex). If your mythos calls for celibacy, that’s okay too. The mythos is the star of this show, so be sure it wows us.
Length: 50,000 to 110,000 words
Genres: Paranormal
Heat Levels: Any
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: Any
Submissions Due:
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Acceptance Letters Sent By: May 1, 2015
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
Lesbian Novels
Have you written a novel-length lesbian romance? We want it! Any genre, any setting, any focus. Historical lesbians, contemporary lesbians, lesbians in suspense, romantic comedy lesbians, paranormal lesbians, futuristic lesbians. Any and all lesbian romance, send it our way.
This is an open-ended call; you may submit at any time. Earliest potential closing date for this call is March 1, 2015, though we may elect to run it longer.
Length: 50,000 to 110,000 words
Genres: Any
Heat Levels: Moderately to very explicit, but not erotica. That is, focus of narrative and relationship should not solely be sexual exploration, though at least two scenes with at least moderately explicit sex is preferred.
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: Lesbian, bisexual (as long as final resolution is in lesbian relationship). Trans and intersex women are welcome.
Submissions Due:
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Acceptance Letters Sent By: 12 to 16 weeks after submission
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
Shades of the Rainbow
We want to explore all the colors of the rainbow that aren't gay and lesbian: bisexual, trans, queer, nonbinary, ace spectrum, etc. Your characters’ sexual and/or gender identity can either be central to the story or present but not the focus, but otherwise, genre is wide open. Let’s give everyone their happy ever after.
This is an open-ended call; you may submit at any time. Earliest potential closing date for this call is March 1, 2015, though we may elect to run it longer.
Length: 25,000 to 110,000 words
Genres: Any
Heat Levels: Any
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: Any queer orientation EXCEPT cis gay and cis lesbian
Submissions Due:
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Acceptance Letters Sent By: 12 to 16 weeks after submission
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
Sweet Romance
We’re seeking sweet romances: any orientation, any topic, any genre . . . zero explicit sex. Fade to black is fine, as is no sex at all. We want teen-appropriate stories, even if the stories themselves are not actually YA or NA.
This is an open-ended call; you may submit at any time. Earliest potential closing date for this call is March 1, 2015, though we may elect to run it longer.
Length: 25,000 to 110,000 words
Genres: Any
Heat Levels: No explicit sex
Ending: HEA or strong HFN
Orientation: Any
Submissions Due:
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Acceptance Letters Sent By: 12 to 16 weeks after submission
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance
*punk
Steampunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, cyberpunk, even nanopunk and nowpunk. Give us your dystopias, your body mods, your corsets and goggles, your clockwork Westerns and airship wars with bioengineered pilots. In this call, the world is key. Build it brick by brick—or cog by gear—and immerse us in it. Show us how love blooms among the steam and gaslight.
We’re seeking romances or erotic romances, but not erotica. Brilliant plots and worlds with romantic elements rather than full-blown romances may also catch our eye. Any heat level is fine, but if sex happens, make absolutely certain it fits well within and contributes to the world you’ve created.
Length: 45,000 to 115,000 words
Genres: steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dieselpunk, any other *punk you can imagine
Heat Levels: Any
Ending: HEA or strong HFN for romance, any for romantic elements
Orientation: Any
Submissions Due:
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Acceptance Letters Sent By: July 1, 2015
Anticipated Release Date: Nine months to a year after acceptance