Failed Flash Fiction
Have you ever entered a flash-fiction contest (maybe even paid a submission fee to do so) but – although you worked really hard on your entry and were/are really proud of it – failed to win the prize (perhaps not even getting an honourable mention)?
Or submitted your piece (ditto ditto with hard work and pride) to a flash-fiction anthology, only not to be included?
What did you do with your passed-over masterpiece? Have you turned it into the core of a 120,000-word novel? Is it languishing in a drawer, your hard drive, or an external memory device? Have you sent it to “the cloud” for storage?
Have you ever thought of building up a collection of such rejected efforts and paying to self-publish them… or hope that they’ll be published posthumously, when your genius is finally (belatedly) recognised?
Well… why not let La Gr@not@ publish it/them for you? La Gr@not@ Press has long been aware that there are simply SCADS of good-quality flash-fiction which has never seen the light of day (nor the inside of a book).
We propose to publish a digital anthology – to be entitled “Failed Flash Fiction” – of these overlooked gems.
Advantages:
1) We pay for publication, not you. In fact, you pay nothing, as there’s no submission fee.
2) You don’t have to wait until you’re dead to be published – nor even until you’ve gathered together 20x 500 words for your own, slim volume! Your only-once flash-fiction effort may appear alone, or you may submit multiple entries.
3) Readers who have never been aware of you nor of your writing talents could discover you through this anthology.
4) You’ll have a chance to add a link to your own writing website, blog, and/or market-place page (Barnes & Noble, Good Reads, Amazon, etc.). See point f, below.
Further considerations:
a) You won’t be paid royalties if your effort(s) is/are accepted, it’s true. But neither will La Gr@not@ Press be making any money off you. 100% of the profits from sales of the anthology will go to ActionAid. (See https://actionaid.org/ for an idea of the good work that it does.)
b) However, any writer who has 6 or more entries accepted will get a free copy of the anthology, in addition to a 23% discount on extra copies for use as presents for friends and family and/or bribes for the prison guards.
c) No misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, Anti-LGBTQ+, nor Anti-Choice entries will be accepted.
d) Submission does not guarantee publication. We have standards too. But if you’re genuinely proud of your work, there’s at least a chance that we’ll like it, as well.
e) As per usual with La Gr@not@ Press anthologies, there is no set deadline (YET). When we feel that we have enough material for a value-for-money anthology, we’ll give a 2-week warning that entries will be closed.
f) Single entries may be accompanied by 1 URL link (see point 4, above). 4 entries may include 2 links. 6 entries: 3 links + a mini-CV, naming up to 3 published works and/or WIP(s).
How to enter:
Entries should be sent to fff(DELETE)@la-granota.com [delete the (DELETE) from that address, i.e. the address starts fff@la- Sorry about that, but it’s a precaution against robot trawlers connected to spam senders.]
The text of the entry should be pasted into the MAIN body of the e-mail, i.e. no attachments. Italics, boldface, and underlinings should be indicated by <i>word(s) to be in italics</i>, <b>word…</b>, and <u>word…</u>.
More than 1 entry may be included in the same e-mail.
You should include your name, the prompt for each entry (with – if possible – the identity of the organiser), its word count and the word limit of the original competition/anthology, and any mini-CV and link according to point f, above.
We’ll accept WINNERS of competitions and flash fiction included in anthologies… as long as you have permission to have them published here. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you have such permission. Please give details of prize won / anthology where your entry can be found.
Any other questions? Send an e-mail to fff@la-, or stop me in the street and ask.
Have fun digging through those old folders! (Or your drawers: pardon the pun!)
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Don’t forget that our dragon invasions anthology (“And Then The Dragons Came”) is still accepting entries!