Branching Stories: Call for Submissions

I'm Looking For a Few Great Stories

Hello, friends. It's been a while since I've pursued any passion projects. What with work being busy and all. But now, I'm back and I'm looking for Romance! Well, Romance Stories, anyway. And Mystery stories. It's for a line of digital stories I'll be releasing under our brand new Komikasi Eclipse imprint. I'll post more details about the imprint and its launch in a few months. For now, we need stories.

Read on for the Submission Guidelines.

Submission Guidelines:

Have you played those Choose Your Own Adventure stories when you were younger? I loved them. And I'm looking into publishing those kinds of branching stories. Those are the kinds of books Eclipse will be publishing, but targeting a particular demographic. I'm looking for stories with 3-4 endings in total, and 8-12 decisions per reading.

Genre

At the moment, we only accept Romance and Mystery. I'm not particular about what timeline or subgenre. But I'm looking for something feely. Something that feels good. 

Demographics

Women. Particularly, women in the 30-50 age range. These women either work or run a household. Books sometimes provide some respite or momentary escape for them from the hectic schedule they keep.

Word Count

25,000 - 50,000 words. Total for all branches already. Make each reading about the same length. And one-shot stories, please. We're not looking for series stories yet.

POV

While I'm not closed to any, I'd like to see more stories written in the first person and second person (Yes. You.) points of view. Be careful when writing in second person, though. Talk to your reader. Make sure it doesn't sound like an instructional manual. 

Endings

For Romance stories, make sure you have a good ending, a better ending, and a best ending. No bad endings, please. You can have 'okay' endings, but no bad endings. You can have dramatic and heart-wrenching endings, but they have to be satisfying. For Mystery, make sure all endings end with the mystery being solved. Please don't kill off your main character without letting your reader know who the killer is. Thank you!

Other Details

I like dialogues. And monologues. A lot of talk, but a lot of talk with feels. This is just a preference, but if you can pull off an emotionally (and mentally) satisfying story with less talk, I'm not closing my doors. Since I'm looking for stories for an older demographic, I'm looking for more sensual stories than 'kilig.' No explicit sex scenes at the moment, though. And while I enjoy a bit of gore in my mystery stories, try not to go overboard, alright?

Format

8.5" x 11" document, 1" border on all sides, keep to Courier or Times New Roman, size 12, RTF format. Please include a one-page summary of the entire story, plus a diagram of the branching if you can. Once you're ready to submit, send me your one-page summary on the body of your email with your full name, pen name, address, and contact information. Attach the RTF. And please indicate [ECLIPSE SUBMISSION] in your email subject. Email this to me @ lizlu.com.

Deadline

November 1, 2013 for the first batch. Extended

Money Matters

We give royalty. We'll discuss the rates once we've decided to publish your work.

If you have questions, email me @ lizlu.com. I look forward to your stories!