WE DID IT! CG Magazine will pay pro rates in 2013!!! WOO! *Freaking Out*

Thank you all SO MUCH for all the support – backers, cheerleaders, contributors: so many people helped make this happen!

We’ll use posts to keep everyone informed as to how things are going during the process of setting up the zine again, as well as our other publications.

There’s a bit less than 10 hours left to the Kickstarter. Until then anyone who pledges $25 or more gets a year of a pro-rate zine FREE! Still a great deal! Additional funds beyond the $10,000 will be used for security, i.e. to cover any unexpected expenses that inevitably crop up. (Or should we do another stretch goal? *DIES*)

Thank you again, we can’t say it enough! We’re going to go pass out now!

I realized after posting this that it probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense out of context. Considering the incredible success of our Crossed Genres Kickstarter, and how close we are to maybe-if-we’re-really-lucky reaching our goal of pro rates for CG Magazine, I figure it deserves a bit of explanation.

Since I started high school, I’ve wanted to be a writer. I entered college planning a Creative Writing major; some years later I went as far as to apply for graduate programs in Creative Writing. Kay and I are both 2-time NaNoWriMo winners, and I have a finished first draft of a novel sitting in a folder (along with several partial first drafts. I’ve even published a couple of stories, and I still write nonfiction (mostly for Wired’s GeekDad now).

Over the past few years, as Crossed Genres has grown and gotten more complex, my writing time has dwindled. Recently I’ve had almost no time at all for writing. I’ve told myself that I’d make time, but it’s difficult, and that’s depressed me.

As the Kickstarter’s passed 75% and then 80% and now sits at 85.5%, it’s seemed more and more possible that we might actually somehow make this crazy goal. It’s good in so many obvious ways: It was one of our big dreams back when we first founded CG Magazine; we get to help new authors get that huge, confidence-boosting first pro sale; we’ll draw more authors, publish even better work, gain greater recognition, etc. etc… It’s just good all around. Right?

Well there’s been a tiny fear at the back of my mind that the rise of the pro-rate CG Magazine means the death of my desire to be a writer. If I can’t find time to write now, how could I possibly find time when I’m managing a pro-rate magazine on top of the rest of CG?

Earlier this evening I was chatting online with Daniel José Older. We’re about to publish Daniel’s collection Salsa Nocturna in July.

At one point the conversation turned to how busy we both are – Daniel’s working on his MFA in Creative Writing, and I mentioned how it made me kind of jealous: “At this point I’m not sure when I’ll ever have the chance to write again!” I said it tongue-in-cheek, but knew as I said it that it was true.

But surprisingly, it didn’t bother me the way I expected it to. Because the thing that was preventing me from writing – the work I do as publisher and editor for CG – is a great thing.

And that’s when I realized why I was so unbelievably excited about the chance to pay pro rates. It’s because so many other people are excited that we might get the chance too. There are a LOT of people – those who’ve backed the Kickstarter, or helped spread the word, or supported us in other ways – who want us to do it. Every pledge and tweet and show of support is a vote of confidence in me and Kay and what we’re doing.

And that means that Kay and I have made the right decision to pursue this. It means that even if we don’t make the pro-rate goal, we’ve still accomplished and will accomplish incredible things, through shared respect and admiration with the people who support us.

I’ll write again – writers go on hiatus but they never stop. But right now, we’ve taken what started as a wisp of an idea (and no clue what we were doing) to the brink of what some would’ve called a pipe dream.

How can I be unhappy about what I’m not doing, when what I am doing is so special?

We still need another $4,180 to reach the goal. And the Kickstarter ends this Friday, June 22 at 5pm EDT! So we have less than 5 days to get there!

Now’s the time for a big push, everyone! Please tell a friend, a family member, that random person you see on the street reading LeGuin or Gaiman or Delaney! We’ve come this far and we’re so close – let’s make this happen!

(Reposted from Kickstarter)

Jean is also offering the naming/describing of a character in her forthcoming novel for a generously low $110 pledge! (And it comes with over 1 million words of fiction from CG too!)

And remember, Any pledge of $25 or more – including either of the above pledges – gets you a free year of CG Magazine… which will be pro rate if we reach our stretch goal!

We asked people to comment on what they thought the next stretch goal should be. The consensus was that we should aim for a goal that will most help us achieve true sustainability, so CG can keep going long after the KS is over. There was some debate as to what goal would best achieve that, but the overwhelming majority thought – and we agree – that we should reach for paying professional rates to writers.

Professional rates mean:

• More submissions. A bigger pool of stories to choose from means better quality writing to publish!
• SFWA qualification. If we pay professional rates we can eventually become a qualifying market for Science Fiction Writers of America, which is extremely good for…
• Higher visibility. Pro-rate markets, and especially SFWA-qualifying markets, get much greater attention within the SFF community. More visibility means even more submissions, and potential submissions from well-known writers; all that leads to higher sales, which is what we need to achieve sustainability.

Even more, reaching professional rates would mean that CG is growing and developing, rather than remaining unchanged. This has been a problem we’ve struggled to address in the past, and now we hope that reaching this new goal will bring the growth we’ve been working toward for years.

So here’s our new goal!

If the Kickstarter reaches $14,000 total, Crossed Genres Magazine will re-launch in 2013 as a professional-rate market!

When we hit our first stretch goal, we guaranteed that everyone who pledges at least $25 to the Kickstarter will get ebooks of the entire 2013 year of CG Magazine, free, in addition to their backer reward. And that’s still true. But if we reach this new goal, everyone who pledges at least $25 will get not just a year of a zine, but a year of a pro-rate zine! As always this is in addition to the backer reward you choose when pledging!

We’re sure you have questions, so we’ve tried to answer some of them:

What about new writers? You’ll never publish them any more!

CG has always prided itself on how many new/undiscovered writers we publish. We don’t want that to change, but there’s a legitimate fear that if we offer pro rates, newer writers will get squeezed out in favor of more practiced or established writers.

In order to ensure that CG Magazine continues to welcome and nurture newer writers, we’ve decided to reserve one story slot every month for a “New Author Spotlight”. A new writer (qualifications TBD) will not only have their story published, but will be featured in a Spotlight on the website, with a short interview, and perhaps some other features we’re considering. This way we guarantee that each month at least one new writer not only gets their first professional-rate sale, but also gets extra publicity for their work!

Also, we may select more than one new writer for publication in a month – this is primarily to guarantee that new writers are never shut out of Crossed Genres Magazine. And because we love the idea of the reactions we’ll create by giving writers their first pro sales.

But you’re trying to nearly double what you’ve made so far! Why are you setting the goal so high?

Because pro rates are expensive! The (currently) recognized rate for pro pay is $0.05 per word. That means that a 4000-word story (a reasonable average) costs $200. We’re talking about funding at least a few of those every month for an entire year; and even with this goal we’d have to publish a smaller total number of stories than in the past.

Who actually benefits if you make it?

Everyone!

• Writers benefit because they’ll be paid better.
• New writers benefit by having the chance at their first pro-rate sales, and the chance to get extra publicity if we decide to Spotlight them.
• Readers benefit by getting to read even better-quality fiction – as free ebooks, if they pledge to the Kickstarter.
• We benefit because we get to offer pro rates, which has been a dream of ours since CG was founded!
• And everyone benefits because pro rates offer us the best chance at long-term sustainability, meaning all this can continue!

But… can you actually make this goal?

Why not? We made it halfway in the first 19 days, and we still have 11 days to go. Is it a stretch? Sure! But we think this is a worthwhile goal that’s good for everyone. We’re excited about the possibility – we’ve been dreaming of paying pro rates since we founded the magazine in 2008! – and we hope all of you are excited too!

Okay then – how do we make this happen?

We were hoping you would ask that!

The first, most obvious way to help is to pledge to the Kickstarter, or if you already have you can raise your pledge. You can also help by spreading the word! Tell people, in person, via email, in social media, any way you can! Make sure they know that they benefit as well if they pledge: Would you pay $25 for a year of ebooks from a pro-rate zine? We would! $25 is a pretty good deal for a year of a pro-rate zine, and that’s not even counting the backer rewards you get!

If you have any additional questions about the goal, please ask! And please join us on this quest to level up CG Magazine!

• Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo
• The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting by Jennifer Brozek
• Rogue Mage series: Bloodring, Seraphs & Host by Faith Hunter
• Jane Yellowrock series: Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade & Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter
• Theirs Not To Reason Why ARC bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & an Advance Reading Copy of An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson
• Theirs Not To Reason Why bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson (5 available!)
• The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Bites of Passion: Erotic Vampire Stories (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• When in Rio by Del Dryden ♥
• Cobalt City package: Cobalt City Blues (novel) by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City: Dark Carnival (anthology) Edited by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited (Parsec Award-winning podcast script, signed by cast & producers)

(All books are SIGNED.)
(♥ = erotica)

To win a book/books, all you have to do is pledge at least $10 to the Crossed Genres Kickstarter by the end of today! That puts your name in the (real or metaphorical) hat. Each $10 pledged puts your name in again, so the more you pledge, the better your chances of winning a signed book! Of course, this is in addition to the reward you’re promised from pledging.

And if you pledge $25 or more you get a free year of CG Magazine ebooks too!

• Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo
• The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting by Jennifer Brozek
• Rogue Mage series: Bloodring, Seraphs & Host by Faith Hunter
• Jane Yellowrock series: Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade & Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter
• Theirs Not To Reason Why ARC bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & an Advance Reading Copy of An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson
• Theirs Not To Reason Why bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson (5 available!)
• The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Bites of Passion: Erotic Vampire Stories (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• When in Rio by Del Dryden ♥
• Cobalt City package: Cobalt City Blues (novel) by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City: Dark Carnival (anthology) Edited by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited (Parsec Award-winning podcast script, signed by cast & producers)

(All books are SIGNED.)
(♥ = erotica)

To win a book/books, all you have to do is pledge at least $10 to the Kickstarter by tomorrow, Friday, June 8! That puts your name in the metaphorical hat. Each $10 pledged puts your name in again, so the more you pledge, the better your chances of winning a signed book! Of course, this is in addition to the reward you’re promised from pledging.

And if you pledge $25 or more you can still get in on a free year of CG Magazine ebooks too!

Today is the halfway point of the Crossed Genres Kickstarter! As of this post, we’ve raised $6,693 for our $4,000 goal, or about 167%!

We’ve successfully raised the funds to pay for all of CG’s titles through 2013, AND we reached our stretch goal which will enable us to resurrect Crossed Genres Magazine! We’ve been pondering what to do during the second half of the Kickstarter, and decided we want the opinions of our readers and KS backers. So we posted a KS update asking what our next stretch goal should be.

The responses to the post have been interesting and it’s sparked a discussion of what, exactly, would best help CG’s long-term sustainability. Some of the options include offering professional rates, and funding the 2014 year. It’s complicated; even some of the largest publishers are having trouble making ends meet, so it’s extra tricky for a small/independent press to figure out how to remain viable long-term.

We would still very much like to hear your thoughts! Please check out the post and comments, and let us know what you think would be best for us AND for you!

As we approach the halfway point of our Kickstarter, we’ve been thinking hard about how best to proceed. There’s so much we’d love to do, so many projects we could push to fund with new stretch goals. We’ve already accomplished so much, our heads are spinning!

Mainly we want to make sure that whatever goal we aim for is something that our readers want – it would be pointless otherwise! You’re the people making this possible, so whatever extra goal(s) the Kickstarter pursues, we want them to excite you!

So we thought we’d put it to you: What should our next stretch goal be? We’ve already funded a full load of titles through 2013 AND resurrecting CG Magazine for 2013 – what’s next? Is there anything you’d jump at the opportunity to help make a reality?

Some ideas we’ve considered:

1) The 2014 year! Stretch the KS to fund our publications even further into the future, guaranteeing even longer-term stability and awesomeness.

2) Professional-rate titles! If we could afford to offer pro rates to authors it would draw many more submissions, giving us a much deeper pool of work from which to select our stories – this almost always means higher quality writing! There are several ways we could do pro rates:

• One or more pro-rate anthologies
• Pro-rate online flash fiction
• We could even shoot for the moon & aim to make every 2013 title pro-rate!

What are your thoughts? Would any of the above ideas thrill you? Is there something else we haven’t considered that we should? Please comment or message us and tell us – we really want to know!

Thanks,
Bart & Kay

• Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo
• The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting by Jennifer Brozek
• Rogue Mage series: Bloodring, Seraphs & Host by Faith Hunter
• Jane Yellowrock series: Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade & Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter
• Theirs Not To Reason Why ARC bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & an Advance Reading Copy of An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson
• Theirs Not To Reason Why bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson (5 available!)
• The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Bites of Passion: Erotic Vampire Stories (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• When in Rio by Del Dryden ♥
• Cobalt City package: Cobalt City Blues (novel) by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City: Dark Carnival (anthology) Edited by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited (Parsec Award-winning podcast script, signed by cast & producers)

(All books are SIGNED.)
(♥ = erotica)

To win a book/books, all you have to do is pledge at least $10 to the Kickstarter by Friday, June 8! That puts your name in the metaphorical hat. Each $10 pledged puts your name in again, so the more you pledge, the better your chances of winning a signed book! Of course, this is in addition to the reward you’re promised from pledging.

And if you pledge $25 or more you can still get in on a free year of CG Magazine ebooks too!

You can also check out the Kickstarter’s writeup on Wired’s GeekDad!

As a result, we’ve raised the pay scale from $2.50 per 1000 words to $4.00 per 1000 words. We believe this brings it in line with our usual pay scale for anthologies.

(As a result of this higher rate, our costs will be higher than usual for an anthology. However, better author pay and more overall work published are exactly the sort of things which our current Kickstarter project is supposed to facilitate! And now it is! =)

All other WINTER WELL guidelines remain the same. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2012. For all submission guidelines, please visit the website.

I may not be hopeful by nature, but I am stubborn. And in good company. Our ship was sinking, but were we rats or were we pirates? When the time came, we didn’t shout, “ARR!” Instead, we raised our colors and cried, “Are you with us?!”

YES!

It’s a good read, and ends on a significant upbeat! Please read!

To win a book/books, all you have to do is pledge at least $10 to the Kickstarter by Friday, June 8! That puts your name in the metaphorical hat. Each $10 pledged puts your name in again, so the more you pledge, the better your chances of winning a signed book! Of course, this is in addition to the reward you’re promised from pledging.

NOTE: This is retroactive! If you’ve already pledged $10 or more, your name is already in!

Here are the books you could win. Remember, these are all SIGNED:

• Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo
• The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting by Jennifer Brozek
• Rogue Mage series: Bloodring, Seraphs & Host by Faith Hunter
• Jane Yellowrock series: Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade & Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter
• Theirs Not To Reason Why ARC bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & an Advance Reading Copy of An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson
• Theirs Not To Reason Why bundle: A Soldier’s Duty & An Officer’s Duty (coming 7/2012) by Jean Johnson (5 available!)
• The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• Bites of Passion: Erotic Vampire Stories (anthology) Edited by Cecilia Tan ♥
• When in Rio by Del Dryden ♥
• Cobalt City package: Cobalt City Blues (novel) by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City: Dark Carnival (anthology) Edited by Nathan Crowder / Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited (Parsec Award-winning podcast script, signed by cast & producers)

(♥ = erotica)

Pledge at least $10 in the next two weeks and one of these books could be yours! (And if you pledge $25 or more you can still get in on a free year of CG Magazine ebooks too!)

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

We decided to extend the deadline largely because of the surprising success of our Kickstarter, which saved Menial (and the rest of our 2013 projects) in one day! We want to ensure that as many people as possible can get their submissions in, so Menial turns out even more awesome! =)

Submission guidelines for Menial are here. If you have a story idea but didn’t think you had time, now you have no excuse! Send us your stories!

Now that we’ve reached our initial $4000 goal – in less than a day, yowza! – It’s time for a stretch goal. We thought up this goal at the beginning, but weren’t sure we’d get the chance to go for it – we thought $4k was ambitious! But here we are!

Crossed Genres Magazine, the genre-twisting zine that started it all, was retired at the end of 2011 after 36 issues. The zine, which was published free on the CG website (and as quarterly print/ebooks), had a different genre or theme each month, which writers had to combine with science fiction and/or fantasy. We covered everything from classic genres like Romance and Mystery; to archetypes (like a trio of issues: Heroes & Heroines, Sidekicks & Minions, and Villains); to more nebulous concepts like Anthropomorphism or Luck.

CG Magazine was our most effective way of continuously pushing progressive speculative fiction. During its run we dedicated issues to LGBTQ characters, characters of color, serious tales starring children… the final issue’s theme was Different – “who and what decides or defines our differences, and why; what sets us apart and how can differences bring us together.”

We were sad to see CG Magazine go, but the combination of lost money and time commitment was too much for us at the time. Since then, after much consideration and lamenting its loss, we’ve decided that if we can eliminate paying for the zine out-of-pocket, we’ll make time for it. We didn’t actually want to close the zine, and a lot of people were upset that it was gone – we received many emails that were flat-out furious – so we’re hopeful that we may be able to resurrect it.

Therefore: If the Kickstarter surpasses $5500 in total pledges, we will bring back Crossed Genres Magazine starting at the beginning of 2013!

Moreover, we wanted to make sure our pledgers get to reap the benefits of the resurrection. SO: If we do reach $5500, and re-launch the zine – everyone who pledges at least $25 will receive ebooks of the first year of the resurrected zine, for no extra, in addition to your pledge rewards! (YES this is retroactive. If you’ve already pledged, you’ll still benefit!)

We’re excited at the opportunity to throw ourselves back into the zine – we have over seven YEARS worth of monthly genres/themes we didn’t get to! So let’s bring it back & bring it on!

-Kay & Bart

The Million Writers Award is given each year to the best online short stories. Both “The Fire in Your Sky” and “Black Betty” were originally published in Crossed Genres Magazine.

The top ten stories of the year from within the Notables will be released in June, and voting will be open to the publich. Here’s hoping both of these excellent stories make the final list!

Congratulations to Ibi and Nisi for this deserved recognition!

Everyone, we hardly know what to say! It’s been just 20 hours since we launched our Kickstarter, and we’re already at $3,363 – that’s 84% of our goal! Unbelievable! This is far beyond anything we’d have expected at this point.

With only $637 to go, we were even wondering if we’d make the goal within 24 hours! That would be incredible!

We had an idea for a stretch goal – a secondary goal we’d shoot for if we ever reached the first one. But we feared that $4000 was ambitious enough on its own, so we didn’t know if we’d ever get to really try for the stretch goal. Now, it sure looks like we will!

It’ll benefit pledgers, too. We have a couple of things we’re planning to thank our supporters, beyond the rewards already listed.

For now though, we’re just thrilled to be so close to our goal – reaching that $4000 and guaranteeing the continuation of Crossed Genres will be a such an incredible relief! Let’s keep it up, and push it over the top!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

-Bart and Kay

P.S. – when we hit our goal, we’ll post a few outtakes of our son Baz from the KS video!

100% of the $4000 fundraising goal will be used for publishing new books. Over half will go directly to authors and artists for fiction and cover art. The rest will pay for editorial, production and distribution costs, as well as some advertising/publicity. (None of it will go into our pockets. We’ll be very happy to simply not lose money any more.)

WHAT WILL THE KICKSTARTER PAY FOR?

Projects in 2013 will include:

• Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction

  Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

  We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

• Winter Well, speculative novellas about older women

  We’re looking for speculative stories featuring women of advancing age (late middle age and older). They’re smart, they’re tough, and they have wills of their own.

  They may be warriors, politicians, adventurers, etc. Even if they are also wives, mothers, wise women or healers, those archetypes must not be their defining characteristics. Their motivations, their driving force, must be their own. Whatever was in their past, they’re not interested in being in the background now.

  We want stories about women breaking free of suppression; we also want stories of women who’ve been empowered all their lives.

• Plus at LEAST two additional titles released in the 2nd half of 2013. We may add 1-2 additional projects depending on how successful the Kickstarter is. These titles haven’t been decided yet – and some of the rewards for pledging give you the chance to influence what we publish!

REWARDS

Some of the rewards for pledging to the Kickstarter include:

• Signed, ARC and limited-print copies of CG titles
• Ebook bundles – every one of our current titles, everything through 2013 – even every title we’ll ever publish.
• 8″ x 10″ photo prints of some of our most popular covers!
• Short story writing critiques from authors Cat Rambo & Jean Johnson, and from the CG editors!
• Help us choose the theme for an upcoming anthology, & get credited when it’s published!
• A custom-designed LEGO set based on the CG Magazine genre of your choice!
• Name & describe a character in NY Times bestselling author Jean Johnson‘s upcoming novel Theirs Not To Reason Why: Damnation!
• An ebook reader loaded with many books, and physically signed by many various authors!
• SOME SURPRISES! Stay tuned, but supporters of the Kickstarter may end up getting more than they pledged for!

We’ve been extraordinarily proud to bring new voices to appreciative readers through CGP. There’s nothing quite like accepting a story and having the author excitedly tell us that it’s their first sale (which has happened to us too many times to count). Over the 3 1/2 years since we founded CGP we’ve produced some excellent and unique reading experiences. But unfortunately, we’re quite serious when we say that’s now at risk. We simply can’t afford to lose money on the small press any longer.

If the fundraising goal isn’t reached, then CGP will stop producing new books. We’ll cancel the submission calls for Menial: Skilled Labor in SF and Winter Well, and after we release Daniel José Older’s Salsa Nocturna in July and Sabrina Vourvoulias’ INK in October, there will be no more new titles.

We don’t want this to happen. And we hope that you don’t either. We love discovering brilliant new stories and authors. Please help us keep doing so, and we’ll continue to share them with you!

Thanks,
Kay & Bart, co-publishers

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women main characters, etc.!

2000-8000 words (firm), Science Fiction (no Fantasy). For complete guidelines & to submit, go here.

You have until the end of May! Send us your stories!

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

2000-8000 words (firm), Science Fiction (no Fantasy). For complete guidelines & to submit, go here.

You have until the end of May! Send us your stories!

Crossed Genres will release Salsa Nocturna in print and ebook on Friday, July 13, 2012. TODAY is the LAST CHANCE to win a free ARC!

The giveaways end today! Put your name in for a copy now!

Crossed Genres will release Salsa Nocturna in print and ebook on Friday, July 13, 2012. But right now, there are 2 days left to win a free ARC!

The giveaways end on April 30! put your name in for a copy now!

TFF is running a Peerbacker campaign for an awesome-sounding project: We See A Different Frontier, “an anthology of colonialism-themed speculative fiction from outside the first-world viewpoint, co-edited by Fabio Fernandes“.

Colonialism is still a thorn on the side of humankind. Many of the problems of the Third World, for instance, are due to the social-political-economic matrix imposed on its countries by the First World countries since the 17th century (e.g. the manufacture by European powers of arbitrary borders and tribal conflicts in Africa, and then the creation of Arab countries to defeat the Ottoman Empire in WWI). The balance of power is changing in the 21st Century, but it’s still essential to look back if we want to truly understand the forces at play in the political and cultural panoramas of Third World countries—and even in countries that hardly can be labeled as Third World, like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).

Much widely distributed science fiction and fantasy is written by American and other Anglophone authors, and treats subjects close to the hearts of straight, white, English-speaking men. There’s nothing wrong with this sci-fi itself—we love lots of it—but there’s clearly something missing. Having white Anglo cis/hetero/males as (the only) role models is not an option any more. We aim to redress this balance, not only by publishing speculative stories by people with different viewpoints and addressing concerns from outside of the usual area (see World SF), but also by explicitly including fiction that addresses the profound socio-political issues around colonisation and colonialism (see Race in SF). We want to see political stories: not partisan-political, but writing that recognizes the implications for real people and cultures of the events and actions that make up science fictional or fantastic histories, as well as our own history.

For this anthology we will be looking for stories from the perspective of people and places that are colonized under regimes not of their choosing (in the past, present or even future).

TFF is looking to raise enough funds to pay pro rates to writers for We See a Different Frontier. Amongst the various backer rewards are ebook and print copies (when the anthology is finished), signed copies, t-shirts, the original cover artwork and more.

As additional incentive to contribute to the Peerbacker campaign, TFF is offering a giveaway: anyone who contributes at least $5 will be automatically entered in a drawing to win one of five signed books. One of those books is Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate, published by CGP!

As of now the Peerbacker campaign is about 58% funded with 39 days to go! Please support a worthy project, back We See a Different Frontier, and enter to win a signed book!

Crossed Genres will release Salsa Nocturna in print and ebook on Friday, July 13, 2012. But right now, there are 12 days left to get a free ARC!

The giveaways end on April 30! put your name in for a copy now!

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

2000-8000 words (firm), Science Fiction (no Fantasy). For complete guidelines & to submit, go here. You have until the end of May!

Crossed Genres will release Salsa Nocturna in print and ebook on Friday, July 13, 2012. But we’re giving away ARC copies right now!

Request a copy of Salsa Nocturna months ahead of its release!

We’re looking for speculative stories featuring women of advancing age (late middle age and older). They’re smart, they’re tough, and they have wills of their own.

They may be warriors, politicians, adventurers, etc. Even if they are also wives, mothers, wise women or healers, those archetypes must not be their defining characteristics. Their motivations, their driving force, must be their own. Whatever was in their past, they’re not interested in being in the background now.

We want stories about women breaking free of suppression; we also want stories of women who’ve been empowered all their lives.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, etc.!

Submissions close September 30, 2012. For more information and to submit, visit the WINTER WELL submission page.

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

2000-8000 words (firm), Science Fiction (no Fantasy). For complete guidelines & to submit, GO HERE. You have until the end of May!

Best Novel
Broken Slate by Kelly Jennings

Best Short Story
All stories in:
Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm (16 stories)
Crossed Genres Magazine issues 26 – 36 (51 stories)

Best Fan Artist
Tânia Sousa Ribeiro – cover, Broken Slate
Brittany Jackson – cover, Subversion
Lisa Grabenstetter – cover, Crossed Genres Quarterly 1
Rodolfo Reyes – cover, Crossed Genres Quarterly 2
J. Edwin Stevens – cover, Crossed Genres Quarterly 3
Minna Sundberg – cover, Crossed Genres Quarterly 4

Best Editor (Long Form)
Kay T. Holt – Broken Slate by Kelly Jennings

Best Editor (Short Form)
Bart R. Leib – Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm, Crossed Genres Magazine issues 26 – 36 (51 stories)
Kay T. Holt – Crossed Genres Magazine issues 26 – 36 (51 stories)
Kelly Jennings – Crossed Genres Magazine issues 26 – 36 (51 stories)

Best Semiprozine
Crossed Genres Magazine issues 26 – 36 (Quarterly 1-4) (LAST year!)

If you’re eligible, please GO HERE to nominate! Thanks!

Fat Girl in a Strange Land

Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm

Broken Slate by Kelly Jennings

A Festival of Skeletons by RJ Astruc

Crossed Genres Year Two

All titles are available in DRM-free .ePub, PDF and MOBI.

Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

Go here for detailed submission guidelines and to submit your stories.

For every supermodel, there are thousands of women who have heard “Why don’t you just eat less?” far too often. Except as comic relief or the unattractive single BFF, those women’s stories are never told.

Crossed Genres Publications presents Fat Girl in a Strange Land, an anthology of fourteen stories of fat women protagonists traveling distant and undiscovered realms.

From Guatemala, where a woman dreams of becoming La Gorda, the first female luchador, before discovering a greater calling in “La Gorda and the City of Silver”; to the big city in the US, where superhero Flux refuses to don spandex in order to join her new team in “Nemesis”; to the remote planet Sidquiel in “Survivor”, where student Wen survives a crash landing, only to face death from the rising sun. Fat Girl in a Strange Land takes its characters – and its readers – places they’ve never been.

Fat Girl in a Strange Land is available in ebook and paperback from various places. Please pick up a copy & help us celebrate the release!

Crossed Genres is offering a giveaway of 3 copies of Fat Girl in a Strange Land through GoodReads! The giveaway is open through Thursday – enter to win a free copy!

Also, read an interview with Bart Leib, co-publisher of Crossed Genres, in which he discusses Fat Girl, MENIAL: Skilled Labor in SF, and more!

We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.

We welcome and strongly encourage submissions with underrepresented main characters: characters of color, LGBTQ characters, women characters, etc.!

Submissions to the anthology will be open through May 31. Go here to Read the guidelines and submit.

* 9 titles
* Over 710,000 words
* 2 novels and 114 short stories

That’s over 1,900 words of fiction every day for a year, for less than $0.06 per day!

You’ll receive all titles in 3 DRM-free formats (PDF, ePub and Mobi), which cover pretty much every ebook reader, computer and smartphone out there!

Tomorrow (Tuesday, 1/31) is the last day to request a free print copy of RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons via GoodReads! You can request one of 3 copies here!

Tomorrow is also the last day that Crossed Genres Year One will be in print! CGP’s first anthology, with editors’ selections from the first year of Crossed Genres Magazine, is being discontinued after two years! Grab a copy before it’s gone forever!

* 9 titles
* Over 710,000 words
* 2 novels and 114 short stories

That’s over 1,900 words of fiction every day for a year, for less than $0.06 per day!

You’ll receive all titles in 3 DRM-free formats (PDF, ePub and Mobi), which cover pretty much every ebook reader, computer and smartphone out there!

The giveaway is through Tuesday the 31st! Go here to enter to win a copy!

January 31 will be the last day to get ebooks of all of Crossed Genres’ current titles for just $20 – that’s over 1,900 words of fiction per day (for less than $0.06 per day) for a year!