Tor Open Submissions for Novellas - May 2018 and July 2018

[The Bluestocking]

Tor.com Publishing will soon be reopening to unsolicited novella submissions! Starting May 1, 2018, Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen will be reading and evaluating original novellas submitted by authors to Moksha. You can find full guidelines here, and we highly recommend you read the guidelines before submitting. We will be open for two weeks beginning on May 1 around 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00) and ending on May 15 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00).

This open period is intended for authors who have completed works ready or close to ready for submission. We will reopen slush a second time in July 2018 for authors who are actively working on (or beginning) something that would fit our list. In other words, don’t panic if you’re not ready to submit in May! We would rather see a polished novella in July than a rushed one in May.

Until the end of this open period, Tor.com Publishing will be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words in both the science fiction and fantasy genres. If it’s speculative and fits the bill, we want to take a look at it.

Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen all actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that.

Full announcement here: https://www.tor.com/2018/04/17/tor-com-publishing-opening-to-novella-submissions-on-may-1/

 

[unbusy thing]

Is anyone submitting to this? I might have an idea egg I can hatch for the July submission period. But god knows what'll come out. I can never tell these days...

 

[The Bluestocking]

Is anyone submitting to this? I might have an idea egg I can hatch for the July submission period. But god knows what'll come out. I can never tell these days...

I'm probably submitting my first novella for the July intake. Almost done with the first draft and need to work on edits and rewrites after that. Hopefully I'll be done on time.

 

[Dan Jones]

I'll probably give it a bash, but whether it'll be May or July depends on how much time I get for editing and the like, but I think I have something that's worth tossing into the ring.

 

[The Big Peat]

Hmm. If I went at this all NaNoWriMo style, I could totally do the first draft in a month, have a month to polish, then hit July and who knows? Its one way to start sending off submissions.

edit: Of course, for this, I need an idea...

 

[Gareth Lewis]

I've got one ready to submit tomorrow, and an idea for another that I'll try to get ready for July (if I hear back about this one by then).

 

[unbusy thing]

I'm probably submitting my first novella for the July intake. Almost done with the first draft and need to work on edits and rewrites after that. Hopefully I'll be done on time.

Best of luck, Bluestocking ! Novella isn't my natural length and I haven't read many for a while, so I'm probably not up-to-date with any changes to the form. Would you say chapters are OK, and pov changes, or is it best to stick to one character? I have something I may be able to tweak, but it's in 1st person present and I know that brings some folks out in hives, so I was considering 3rd personning it up...

I'll probably give it a bash, but whether it'll be May or July depends on how much time I get for editing and the like, but I think I have something that's worth tossing into the ring.

Good luck!

I've got one ready to submit tomorrow, and an idea for another that I'll try to get ready for July (if I hear back about this one by then).

Holy moly, Gareth, now that's just showing off

 

[Dan Jones]

Best of luck, Bluestocking ! Novella isn't my natural length and I haven't read many for a while, so I'm probably not up-to-date with any changes to the form. Would you say chapters are OK, and pov changes, or is it best to stick to one character? I have something I may be able to tweak, but it's in 1st person present and I know that brings some folks out in hives, so I was considering 3rd personning it up...

My personal preference for writing novellas is in the 1st person (whereas my novels tend to be in close 3rd), and I've written in 1st person past and present. FWIW the novella I'm most likely to submit to this call is written in the 1st person past. I tend to stick with one POV character in novellas to allow for sufficient time to explore them, though I don't see why you couldn't do two or even three if your writing is tight enough.

You could always put up a piece in Critiques once you've hit 30 posts and see what people make of it.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’ve about three I could chose from to send but I’m not even sure I have the energy to do all the polish whilst I’m also trying to finish my wip by December.

pH

 

[unbusy thing]

[QUOTE="The Big Peat, post: 2241335, member: 39067"
edit: Of course, for this, I need an idea...[/QUOTE]

I invented a book I had no intention of writing for the last course of my degree. A sf thriller. Tutor had no feel for SF at all. Then I thought, Hmm, this idea actually has legs - and then promptly lost mine (metaphorically) to illness. I thought about resurrecting it for The Staunch Prize but the research involved grew too many legs and got a bit overwhelming. Good luck with Nano-ing it

 

[unbusy thing]

. I tend to stick with one POV character in novellas to allow for sufficient time to explore them

That's what I was thinking. I guess if the word count goes towards the upper limit, it'd allow for more POVs. Thanks for the input!

 

[The Bluestocking]

Best of luck, Bluestocking ! Novella isn't my natural length and I haven't read many for a while, so I'm probably not up-to-date with any changes to the form. Would you say chapters are OK, and pov changes, or is it best to stick to one character? I have something I may be able to tweak, but it's in 1st person present and I know that brings some folks out in hives, so I was considering 3rd personning it up...

Well, Tor is asking for novellas of between 20,000 - 40,000 words in length, so chapters are just fine.

My novella grew out of my rather long short story that ended up being about 14,400 words (which is neither here nor there) and given that one of my writing group buddies said he felt the story still felt unfinished (though my other two writing group buddies said it finished on a perfect note), I decided to expand it to 20,000 words to make it a short novella. I also stuck with a single POV (I write in close 3rd) because it's still a relatively short format.

And I certainly will have chapters. Even now, the story is already told in segments.

 

[Dan Jones]

Yes mine has chapters, too (11, since you ask...) and I reckon most people would struggle to read at least 20,000 words of text without it being broken up in some way.

 

[DrMclony]

I have something suitable I wrote a few years ago in need of some attention, which might be doable for a July submission.

 

[unbusy thing]

Yeah, I had a bit of a brainfart re. the chapters... Even some of my long-ish short stories have chapters.

I brainstormed options with my SO last night: write something new or re-jig something else. Like The Bluestocking, I also have a rather long short story of about 12,000 words which could be usefully expanded. The story itself is there, but by restructuring it I could deepen the world and themes. I have a new first line and scene (always exciting) and I know how it ends. Although that might change.

 

[The Bluestocking]

Okay, everybody - Tor's just announced the start date of their July open submission period.

It's July 30th so any of us aiming to get our manuscripts in have a month to 6 weeks to get 'em ready to be subbed!

Tor.com Publishing Opening to Novella Submissions on July 30

I am going: "PHEW!" because it means I can finish writing the final bits of mine and have about 3 to 4 weeks to revise and polish it before I send my little kitsune out into the Big Bad World!

 

[Dan Jones]

Oh that's amazeballs, I was thinking it would be the 1st to 15th, and am trying like a Dave to try and squeeze everything in right now.

Should easily make the 30th ; thanks BS!

 

[The Bluestocking]

Oh that's amazeballs, I was thinking it would be the 1st to 15th, and am trying like a Dave to try and squeeze everything in right now.

Should easily make the 30th ; thanks BS!

I swear my eyes haven't stopped going bloodshot the last 2 weeks (thanks to staying up late to write and staring at the computer screen all day on Saturdays) until the news that the opening date is 30 July was announced. I really thought it would be 1st - 15th July.

Now to make sure I make it somewhere between 30 July - 14 August...

 

[Gareth Lewis]

The second submission period is now open.

 

[Serendipity]

And submitted... not that I consider I have much of a chance given who they have recently published... but hey, if you don't submit, you can't dream!