Submissions & Guidelines

SUBMISSIONS:

There are no open submissions at this time.

Stories submitted without querying first will be DELETED UNREAD. Sorry.

WRITER'S GUIDELINES:

If you have been asked to submit a story, know that your chances of being accepted increase if you use a professional format. Writer William Shunn has provided the definitive guideline to the Standard Manuscript Format here. And check out some of William's excellent fiction too.

STYLE GUIDELINES:

Big Time Books publishes genre fiction. At this time there are no plans for non-fiction or art/picture books. Horror and Science Fiction are our main focus though we love Noir and Pulp and other genres too.

For legal reasons, avoid using real people's names, companies, and brand name products, especially in a bad light. While we both might think it is cool to have write about a real celebrity bashing her husband's brains out with a name-brand whiskey bottle in a story, our lawyers don't think it's cool at all. And neither will theirs.

We do not accept any song lyrics in stories. Period. Even referring to a song title is a tough sell, so try to avoid music references entirely.

If you want to use a quote or an excerpt from another book or story, please get permission from the author first.

Violence in the context of a story or characters is acceptable and gleefully encouraged-we do publish horror after all. However, we do not publish "torture porn". It's the level of detail basically. You should be writing a story, not a dissection manual (hopefully). If in doubt, just ask.

As with violence, we do not accept pornographic sex in our books. Sexually deviant acts are okay in context, as is "normal" sex (whatever that is) that comes out of story or character, but again, we will not publish every detail.

Gratuitous racism, sexism and associated epithets (you know, the "n" word and similar) are generally off limits. If your story is just an excuse to promote hate against another race, sex, sexual orientation, or religion (or lack thereof), we don't want to see it.

However, we do recognize there are such people and situations in the world, and they sometimes show up in fiction. As with violence and sex, we will consider these stories on a case by case basis (Apt Pupil by Stephen King is an example of something we would happily publish), but in general it is best to avoid such situations entirely.

FYI, we love our friends and colleagues who write and film the sickest things you can imagine, and we have made some ourselves. But that type of material is just not what we want for this particular venture at this time, that's all.

On a lighter note, we personally despise the word "exited" when describing a person leaving a room. Just sayin'.