Got a story about that sexy barista who keeps putting hearts on your cup? What about the brooding person in the corner that you just know is writing love poetry you’re dying to read?
We want to read it!
Submit your pieces now for Love in the Time of Coffee, a Romance Anthology.
Why You Should Submit
Our payment process rewards you both for being included in the anthology with our flat payment for your work and for helping sell it to your fans & friends through profit-sharing. Additionally, our editors work with you to make your piece the best it can be before publishing, guaranteeing a great quality product for our customers and something you can be proud to include on your resume. It’s a win-win situation for all!
If you’re interested in submitting, please read the guidelines below thoroughly. We look forward to reading your stories!
If you have any questions, please email Submissions{at}FriskyFeminist.com.
Guidelines
Please note: this is a romance anthology, not an erotica anthology. We accept submissions that involve sex, but we want romance with it and a happily ever after ending. Please check out Sylvia Day’s article on the difference between erotic romance and erotica before submitting.
Everyone who wants to write about sex or romance should read Steve Almond’s How to Write Sex Scenes: The 12-Step Program. I also HIGHLY suggest reading this before writing your piece for submission.
Deadline: December 1, 2014
Length: 2,000-4,000 words
Format: Pages, Word or RTF attached to the email, no PDFs, American English only please. Please read Frisky Feminist Press’s Style Guide before submitting!!
Submit to: Submissions{at}FriskyFeminist.com, please title the email “Coffee Shop Romance Anthology Submission” followed by the title of your piece.
Include in your attachment and in the body of the email: Your legal name, your date of birth (please note, we encourage a diversity in age of our authors but are legally required to make sure you are over 18 to submit a piece that involves sex), your email address, the name you would like to have published with your piece, the working title for the piece (titles may be edited, but author will have a say in the editing process), whether this piece has been published before, and if so where and what rights you have to republish it.
Important Note: All pieces must be original works of the author. We prefer original pieces but will make some exceptions for pieces already published elsewhere as long as the author still retains all rights.
To include in your piece:
- Anything related to coffee, including but certainly not limited to: coffee houses, morning coffee-making rituals, barista competitions, La Marzocco’s, coffee plantations, fair-trade organizations that ship coffee, etc.
- Romance, love (of the short or long term variety), emotions, feelings, that squishy stomach excitement butterfly feeling, happily ever after (which means a happy ending for the characters, not necessarily the characters ending up in love forever).
- Sex, if it is appropriate for the scene. Please note: this is a romance anthology with erotic components, NOT erotica. Sex is an option for your piece, romance is mandatory.
- Comedy, awkwardness, realness, depth, geekery.
- Great writing, I want to feel like I’m there in the room with you, I want to get wrapped up in your narrator’s story. Give me details, tell me about the feel of the coffee on your tongue, the color of the barista’s eyes, the heat of your morning cup, I want to fall in love with the situation, yearn to be there, feel like I can smell it.
- Authenticity and diversity. I want stories that represent different races, sexual orientations, ability of bodies, gender identities, relationship dynamics, body sizes, etc.
To avoid:
- Clichés, stereotypes, overused scenarios or phrases, unless you’re mocking them, in which case it should be funny or poignant.
- Incest, bestiality, sex with minors (under 18), nonconsensual sex. While we believe in freedom of expression, we also must avoid obscenity charges, so any submissions with these topics will be discarded. Play special attention to consent. There is a difference between willingly and excitingly letting oneself be dominated, and being coerced (of the emotional or physical kind) into the act – the latter is nonconsensual and will not be included in our anthology.
- Using vulgarity or crudeness, unless it fits the scene. Nothing ruins a gorgeously sensual scene like going from “he touched me lovingly, kissing me delicately and caressing my face in his hand” to “then he rammed his cock into my ass.” There is definitely a place for ramming cocks in asses, but make sure you’re using the right language for the scene you’re creating.
Payment
If your story is selected to be in the anthology, you will be paid $25 and coupons for three free digital copies that you can disperse how you wish. Additionally – because Frisky Feminist Press believes in the power of profit-sharing – each author will receive 5% of the net profits over $500 that the book makes in the first year (to be paid out at the end of the year). Potential distributions after that depend on the book’s financial performance.
More About the Anthology
Love in the Time of Coffee will feature 10-15 of the best romance and erotic romance stories submitted. The final product will be available on FriskyFeminist.com, along with Amazon, Kobo, Nook and iBooks. We hope to be able to make it available through print on demand, but that will depend on a future cost-benefit analysis. Sponsorship of the anthology is available and interested companies can email FriskyFeminist{at}gmail.com for rates and information.
Have any questions? Please email Submissions{at}FriskyFeminist.com or ask them in the comments below.
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