ANTHOLOGY GUIDELINES

Less Than Three Press is currently accepting submissions for our That Famous Happy End anthology. Submissions are open until March 31, 2010. We challenge you—using the following summary, write us a short story and see it published on our website and as part of the That Famous Happy End ebook and print book.

That Famous Happy End

Nothing is sweeter than following a story and its characters through all the ups and downs, the trials, the pains, and seeing them finally reach that moment, that day, that place they worked so hard to gain. Be it by way of murder, magic, misunderstanding, mischief, or mayhem, we like to see them suffer. We want the struggle, the grief, the fight. We want to see them angry, confused, hurt, battered, and on the verge of giving up.

But most of all we want to see all that toil and strife worth something. We want to see them get what they earned.

So put your characters through the wringer, make them suffer and work for it, and then give us that famous happy end.

Submission Guidelines

To submit a story for consideration in the That Famous Happy End anthology, email submissions@lessthanthreepress.com. Include the following in your email:

Put ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSIONS in the subject line! Emails without this subject line or sent to another email address (for example, the administrator email address) run the risk of not being seen or read, so please, do not forget this!
Your contact name and preferred email address.
The approximate total length of the completed story.
A brief summary of the story, not to exceed approximately 300 words in length.
Attach the story to the email in .doc or .docx format.

Please keep the following in mind when submitting That Famous Happy End anthology stories:

Anthology stories must be complete when submitted. Incomplete stories will be immediately rejected.
Stories must be a minimum of approximately 15,000 words and should not exceed approximately 25,000 words (roughly 30-55 pages).
All genres are welcome—fantasy, contemporary, sci-fi, historical, etc. They must be self-contained and complete, and all stories must have a happy ending.
See the Content section for general story content guidelines; please read this section carefully before submitting your story.

If you have any questions or concerns, please send them to editor@lessthanthreepress.com.

GENERAL SUBMISSIONS

Less Than Three Press publishes gay romance in a wide spectrum of genres, including but not limited to fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, regency, and contemporary. Stories may be published as serialized works (either on a monthly or bi-monthly schedule) or as completed ebooks. Less Than Three Press also publishes submitted stories as print books at our discretion.

Submission Guidelines

To submit a story for consideration, email submissions@lessthanthreepress.com. Include the following in your email:

Put SUBMISSIONS in the subject line! Emails without this subject line or sent to another email address (for example, the administrator email address) run the risk of not being seen or read, so please, do not forget this!
Your contact name and preferred email address.
The approximate total length of the completed story.
Whether or not your story is complete.
If your story is not complete, how much longer it will take to complete the story.
A brief summary of the story, not to exceed approximately 300 words in length.
Attach the first three chapters or the first 15,000 words of the story in .doc or .docx format.

Please note the following:

Stories should be a minimum of 35,000 words and should not exceed 200,000 words. At present, we are looking primarily for stories in the 35,000-60,000 range, but we will not discount longer works out of hand.
Your manuscript does not need to be complete at the time of submission to be considered, but if accepted, the story will not be published until Less Than Three Press has a completed manuscript.

Please do not send queries, outlines, or proposals for stories that you have not yet written.

Less Than Three Press will not consider anonymous writings or manuscripts currently under submission to another publisher.

If you have any questions or concerns, please send them to editor@lessthanthreepress.com.

If Your Story is Accepted

You must additionally complete the following requirements:

Editing. Your completed manuscript should include editing and revisions. Editing includes grammatical and contextual corrections.
Chapters. Your completed manuscript needs to be broken down into sections ranging from 5,000-6,500 words (10-15 pages). However, if the story absolutely requires something else, Less Than Three Press is willing to work with the author to determine the proper way to proceed.

Content

Your story must follow these general guidelines to be accepted:

Romance. Less Than Three Press is looking for romance stories. Setting, environment, period is wholly up to the author, LT3 only requires a good, solid romance.
1. We want to see the relationship develop throughout the course of the story. We do not want to see the characters fall instantly and forever in love in the first thirty pages, and the rest of story be gratuitous sex and zero content. We want a solid plot, with solid characters. Lots of sex is not a romantic substitute.
2. There is nothing to be ashamed of in romances novels. We like the angst, the fluff, the sex, the cheesiness, the fun, the characters, all of it. We want to read romance stories, and any story that hints at being ashamed of that, or seems to throw it in just to meet a requirement, will be immediately rejected. We want stories from people proud and happy with what they write.
M/M. We're primarily looking for M/M fiction. Please do not submit stories that feature M/F, M/M/F, or characters that change gender (male-to-female or vice versa). F/F is also acceptable.
SEX. In no way do we require the inclusion of explicit content in your stories. Including explicit content does not increase the chances of your story being accepted; bad sex scenes will most certainly decrease the chances.
Creativity. Old school is usually best school, and we're all familiar with the standard tropes, but that's no excuse not to remix it or try something new. Things to steer clear from:
1. Vampires, werewolves, etc. We've seen these done the exact same way five thousand times. No angsting vampires, no lone wolves hated by angry packs, etc. Offer something different in a supernatural setting.
2. Weepy men who are little more than women with dicks. We like to see guy on guy, not pseudo-chick on pseudo-chick.
3. Gender substitution. Don't simply take a traditional story, change the female lead to male, and call it done. That's not creativity, that's lazy. Try for a unique spin.
4. Oceans. No Jack Sparrows. No sailors who are secretly in love with each other, one of them gets kidnapped, raped, etc, before they find true love. Every sailor story is exactly like the other. Do something different, or don't bother.
5. In keeping with the longstanding traditions of the genre, tentacle fiction is more than welcome, so long as it suits the story and has a functional place in it, and is not included for reasons of gratuitous sex/rape.
Rape. We want no part of it. Gratuitous rape for the sake of easy hurt/comfort or sexual appeal, is not welcome here. Less Than Three does not regard rape as something to be tolerated and found sexually appealing, nor do we condone it as a cheap and easy way to bring characters together.
Children. Adults engaging in any manner of sexual activity with minors is unacceptable.
Bestiality. We are not interested in people banging animals. PLEASE NOTE this is not the same as anthro. That is more than acceptable. John Doe going out to the barn and doing Barney the Bull is not. In cases of shifting, sex with shifter in animal form is not acceptable.
Male Pregnancy. No.
Tragedy/Ambiguity. We are not interested in depressing endings, or endings that leave readers confused. As well and often stated, we are interested in romances, and we like our romances to end happily.
KINK. BDSM, etc, is welcome, but only if it's necessary to the story. Including it gratuitously, like sex in general, will get a story rejected.
Incest and polyamory. These are acceptable and welcome. However, upon submitting a story for consideration, please state the story contains it, so we are aware and will know that proper warnings need to be posted.

We like to see the classics redone, and redone well. We just don't want to see stories that 'redo' something the same way everyone else has 'redone' them. We like the classic romantic set ups, we like rewritten fairytales. We're up for space operas, dragons, elves, magic, whatever. Just, give us a fun, different, romantic spin on it.

Less Than Three is always willing and eager to be impressed. If you have something you think we will like, regardless of what we list as liking/not liking, submit it. Try to keep the guidelines in mind, because we can be unbending on some matters, but we like when someone manages to take us by surprise. Good writing is good writing and will always speak for itself.