Dig Out Your Fiction, (if you would, please) Options

[knasser]

Hi,

Following some discussions that have come up in several other threads, I'm volunteering to put together an anthology of our fiction. This isn't an official project. This is something that would be a "book", downloadable. If you've been around Dumpshock for a bit, you probably know me and my site (link in sig if there's anyone who hasn't visited). We make a lot of Shadowrun material of *ahem* not bad quality I'm told with a couple of hundred materials downloaded every week.

This is not a tiny project. I mean to make a proper job of this and may even get some artwork done for a cover. But I stress it is a fan project: you're only getting the pleasure of knowing that your work is included in a body of other awesome work and will be read by many around the world.

I've discussed compiling people's work with a number of authors privately, and I know that there's an enthusiastic army of writers out there. I can't offer your work to appear on Amazon or on a site called Shadowrun4.com. I don't have a license to do that (believe me, I would love to get one). However, you do get some editorial input on your work, compiled in a printable format with some very good people and displayed on a well-trafficed Shadowrun site.

I'm doing this in a two stage approach. To get this off-the ground and provide an immediate fiction fix, I'm going to do a preliminary anthology of pre-written work. These will be things formerly published here or elsewhere (so long as the author retains rights to re-publish), or else stuff that's just sitting on people's hard drive. This will stimulate interest and give me a chance to gather feedback on the format of the book, see what people like, etc. This will still be a pretty swish piece of work, mind you. It's just that some of the stories will have been read by some people before.

The second stage, assuming the first stage gathers interest, would be to gather material written specifically for an anthology. I've seen the energy put into things like the Vignette thread, tisoz's excellent fiction competitions and I know from private conversations that there is material out there being written just for the sheer joy of writing it (the best kind in my experience). Now to write a full short story takes a lot more effort than a quick vignette, but its within most people's reach whilst still being fun. I have written two in the Shadowrun setting and if we go ahead with Stage 2, then I shall hopefully write a piece for this as well (I'll be looking for an editor for myself in that case).

I'm pencilling out a format of 8 - 10 pieces of work of length 3,000 to 7,000 words each (Preference is for pieces of 4,500 words upwards). That will give us the equivalent of a slim, but respectable paper-back fiction book.

If you are an author I haven't spoken to, and you have a story lying around on your hard drive that you think would be suitable, please email me at K@knasser.me.uk, attaching the story in some suitable format, ideally RTF, but whatever I can extract text from for formatting is fine. it doesn't matter if you have previously published the work here on Dumpshock or wherever, so long as you are the owner and you haven't given publishing rights over to any other party. But please let me know where it has been previously published.

Criteria for stories are as follows: Obviously taking place in the Shadowrun setting. Mature themes and content are fine. Explicit content if present should have a reason to be present. Length 3,000 - 7,000 words but somewhere around the middle is the aim unless the story really requires an extreme end of this. Authors of course retain copyright and rights to republish anywhere they like, but not to withdraw their pieces once published because you'll be inflicting a real headache on me (though if you really want me to withdraw a post-publication, I could look at doing that). I wont definitely accept a piece if I don't think it's appropriate to the volume, but please don't let that stop you submitting a piece.

Don't get waylaid into writing something new for this. Save that for the fancier second volume. For this, dig out existing work that you're proud of and would like to see brought to a new, wide audience.

I'll be going through some old stuff and asking some authors for specific pieces directly, but I don't have time to do this comprehensively and who knows what gems I might miss, hence this public plea.

Time scales for Stage 1 are as soon as I get sufficient material together and can produce this.

Thanks very much for all this. I think this project will be enormous fun.

Khadim Nasser.