Publishing with Eerie River
2024 SEASON NOW CLOSED
HORROR & DARK ROMANCE
Novel & Novella Stand Alone +
Novel & Novella Series Submission
Eerie is and has always been an inclusive publishing house. We would love to read manuscripts from all walks of life including BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA and marginalized humans.
If you have a horror story, we want to read it.
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Eerie River Publishing only publishes a handful of novels a year. Regrettably, this means we will have to pass on some fantastic writing. We wish we could publish them all but the truth is we wouldn't be able to put the resources needed behind each project to make them a success. And that is what we are here to do.
We are an inclusive company that accepts submission from anyone regardless of race, gender or sexuality. We accept agented and non-agented submissions during our submission window.
What are we looking for?
HORROR & DARK FANTASY
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We are seeking high-quality, novel and novella series in horror and dark fantasy. The series should be two or more books within the same world or following the same characters throughout. At this time we are not interested in short story collections, erotica, strictly religious fiction, YA Fiction, or poetry.
We want unique, well-crafted stories with compelling plots, terrifying twists, and entertaining characters, for mature audiences.
Give us your grim, heart-wrenching twist. The perfect story would balance the light and the dark pieces of the storyline with humour, alongside the emotional twists and turns. In essence, if you can evoke a gambit of emotion throughout the story then we will be hard-pressed to say no.
Manuscripts should be written in good taste, and be aimed for a mature audience. As this is horror we expect the scary and horrible, and we encourage a step toward darker, more horrific tones within the storyline. We won't shy away from some use of violence and gore. However, we will not be accepting any manuscripts with detailed rape scenes, pedophilia, sexual torture, or untoward behaviours regarding animals of any kind (you know exactly what we mean).
Novel submissions should be under 100,000 words.
Novella submissions should be approximately 25,000 - 60,000 words.
Please ensure that you are sending us the best version of your story to be reviewed. For novel novella and series, the first of the series should be completed in full, have already undergone beta readings, editings and revisions, and an outline of the next books should be in place and ready to discuss.
Submission Guidelines
We will be moving towards a form submission for these initial submissions.
SUBMISSION FORM DETAILS:
This is a list of all the fields and questions on the form.
Tell us who you are! Legal name, pen name, where you are published (if you are), and let us get to know you a bit. Please include your social media links.
A brief outline & word count. Give us the rundown of the story, main plot arcs, twists and ending. Please include the word count in this section.
Upload section:
Full Manuscript - The manuscrip in full in a Word document. Please title your sample manuscript as "(Your Book Title) - Chapters ".
Please send only doc, .docx, or .rtf format.
We will not be reading any other format.
PDF's will not be read.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Manuscripts must be completed in the Shunn style format, so please review the hyperlink for details on acceptable formatting.
We will only be reading and considering unpublished and original works. This does include works published on websites, author pages, Reddit, and any other forum or site found on the internet.
How to submit: Complete the form once the submission window has opened.
If you have issues with the form you may send your information to: Publishing.Eerie@gmail.com, and for clarity please title your email as "Novel (Novella) - Title - Author Name"
COMPENSATION
We will be offering a competitive royalty rate and a decisive marketing plan. We are looking for Worldwide English rights for paperback, hardcover, eBook, merchandise and audio. Authors will be paid 40% royalties for net eBook sales with a chance to increase to 50% should a specific threshold of sales be met. Details of the exact contract will be discussed between the author and the publishing house.
As an indie publishing house we want to work alongside authors who are focused, and who are ready to sell their novels and novellas with us. Just like the "Big Five" publishing companies, we will work with you to market your book to the best of our ability. We will also help create a list of recommendations, as well as a schedule for you to make sure that you are grabbing the attention of potential readers during the pre-launch. We believe creating a street team to spread the word is vital, especially in this age of social media. Readers want to know about the authors they are reading, so a social media presence is paramount.
Getting your print books into the big box stores is nearly impossible without first proving you can generate sales, so our aim is to focus on eBook, local book stores and potentially audiobooks until we can approach the larger corporations.
FAQ
How long will it take for a response?
Our goal is to respond to every query within 60 days of the initial submission.
Should we request a full manuscript for review, please note this will take between 3 - 6 months after the submission window has closed.
What if my manuscript is picked up somewhere else?
Congratulations! We know this happens, but please realize that we are devoting a lot of time to reading and reviewing. Please tell us immediately so we can take it out of consideration.
What about other genres?
They will be coming, trust us. We want to be able to do all of the dark genres right now as well, but we have realized the only way we can service our authors the best way is to start with one step at a time.
What about short story collections for single authors?
At this time we are not looking to expand the story collection series past our open submission call-outs. That being said, we do have an existing contract with some authors that we have an agreement with and will be publishing those.
Do you want my work professionally edited?
No, but we do expect a finely-tuned manuscript with minimal errors so we recommend having someone beta read for errors and inconsistencies. A beta reader can be a friend, family member or fellow author, as long as they're someone who will read your manuscript and provide feedback. The goal of having a beta reader is to have them find some inconsistencies with plots, missing or extra words, and give impressions of characters and the overall story. You don't have to hire someone to do this, but it is highly recommended that you do not miss this step.
What gives me the best chances to get published?
Here is a very simple list of what makes a good story great, and what we are looking for when we read your manuscripts:
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an original concept
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characters who are relatable, who are interesting and have believable behaviours, motives, and relationships with other characters
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strong and fluid dialogue that sounds believable when read
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multiple strong plot points throughout
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horror - We want to be scared
Are you a vanity press?
No. There is never a fee for submitting to us (for this, or any, of our anthology calls). If your manuscript is selected for publication there is no cost. We take on all the financial responsibility of putting the book together, such as editing, creating the cover, formatting, marketing, etc.
If you have any other questions feel free to send us an email,
or you can contact us on Facebook or Twitter.