Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements (SOAR) - Information
As many of you who have seen the birth of Goal Publications know, we began with a webzine called "A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature" (GoAL), where we accepted 1-2k word stories, reviews of published furry literature, and articles relating to furry writing. While the webzine didn't make it past its third issue, the print form of those three issues still is one of our staples, nearly five years later, as one of the best gateways to furry literature on the market.
Now we'd like to pay a bit of homage to that, and begin our branded anthologies, entitled "Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements" (SOAR). While the concept is more that of a traditional anthology, we're putting our own twist on it.
We'll be looking to do one per year, alternating between the Goal Publications (YA-friendly) imprint on odd-numbered volumes, and the Fanged Fiction (16-18+) imprint on even-numbered volumes. With each volume, we'll be looking for a different lead editor. Within these applications, editors must also have a theme in mind, as well as who the target audience for that theme will be. We're going to try and keep the themes a bit more open to broader interpretations, in order to get a variety of stories that will appeal to the largest crowd.
We will be exclusively looking for editors who are both actively involved in the furry writing community, and have anthology editing (or possibly other editing) experience.
While the release date of these anthologies will vary, our general anthology guidelines will remain fairly untouched:
Word Count: 1,000 – 8,000 words. This is a fairly hard limit, and stories outside of this limit will have a very low chance of being accepted. If your story goes off the rails and ends up over 10k words, we have a separate, standalone market for that (see our submission guidelines page for more information on that market, and if it's open or not). Don't submit that to our anthologies, as it won't get read.
Payment: $0.04 per word (maximum of $100 for a story) for original stories, or $0.01 per word (maximum of $25 for a story) for a reprint. You will also receive a copy of the finished book.
Rights: We are asking for first rights on all original stories, exclusive for six months from the publication date, and then non-exclusive after that as long as the anthology remains for sale. For reprints, non-exclusive rights as long as the anthology remains for sale.
Multiple Submissions: Maximum two submitted stories per author. We will only be accepting a maximum of one story per author.
Simultaneous Submissions: Never, for any of our markets.
Response Time: Initial responses will be sent out by Sean within 48 hours of submission (please note that if you don't receive a response in this time frame that your response may either be in your junk mail box, or your email has blocked our reply, so get in touch with @goalpublication on Twitter). Final responses should be sent out within four weeks of the submission closing.
Content Requirements: Stories must fit with a "furry" theme, meaning that the main character(s) in your story must be anthropomorphic animals, having both traits of humans and animals. Feral-style animals with a human-level of intelligence (like Watership Down or our own Beyond Acacia Ridge) are acceptable (though only in non-erotic volumes, which will be specified in the submission call). As with the other stories in our catalog, we require your furry characters' animal attributes to mean something. They can be humans with fur/ears/tails, but think of things like:
We do not allow the following items in any way, shape, or form:
Now we'd like to pay a bit of homage to that, and begin our branded anthologies, entitled "Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements" (SOAR). While the concept is more that of a traditional anthology, we're putting our own twist on it.
We'll be looking to do one per year, alternating between the Goal Publications (YA-friendly) imprint on odd-numbered volumes, and the Fanged Fiction (16-18+) imprint on even-numbered volumes. With each volume, we'll be looking for a different lead editor. Within these applications, editors must also have a theme in mind, as well as who the target audience for that theme will be. We're going to try and keep the themes a bit more open to broader interpretations, in order to get a variety of stories that will appeal to the largest crowd.
We will be exclusively looking for editors who are both actively involved in the furry writing community, and have anthology editing (or possibly other editing) experience.
While the release date of these anthologies will vary, our general anthology guidelines will remain fairly untouched:
Word Count: 1,000 – 8,000 words. This is a fairly hard limit, and stories outside of this limit will have a very low chance of being accepted. If your story goes off the rails and ends up over 10k words, we have a separate, standalone market for that (see our submission guidelines page for more information on that market, and if it's open or not). Don't submit that to our anthologies, as it won't get read.
Payment: $0.04 per word (maximum of $100 for a story) for original stories, or $0.01 per word (maximum of $25 for a story) for a reprint. You will also receive a copy of the finished book.
Rights: We are asking for first rights on all original stories, exclusive for six months from the publication date, and then non-exclusive after that as long as the anthology remains for sale. For reprints, non-exclusive rights as long as the anthology remains for sale.
Multiple Submissions: Maximum two submitted stories per author. We will only be accepting a maximum of one story per author.
Simultaneous Submissions: Never, for any of our markets.
Response Time: Initial responses will be sent out by Sean within 48 hours of submission (please note that if you don't receive a response in this time frame that your response may either be in your junk mail box, or your email has blocked our reply, so get in touch with @goalpublication on Twitter). Final responses should be sent out within four weeks of the submission closing.
Content Requirements: Stories must fit with a "furry" theme, meaning that the main character(s) in your story must be anthropomorphic animals, having both traits of humans and animals. Feral-style animals with a human-level of intelligence (like Watership Down or our own Beyond Acacia Ridge) are acceptable (though only in non-erotic volumes, which will be specified in the submission call). As with the other stories in our catalog, we require your furry characters' animal attributes to mean something. They can be humans with fur/ears/tails, but think of things like:
- How do social customs change? Do dogs sniff each other in greeting? Is that impolite in some cases and correct in others?
- Would certain species struggle in certain climates?
- Do prey species intermingle with predator species? Have they found a way around that part of the food chain?
We do not allow the following items in any way, shape, or form:
- Pedophilia, or any characters under the age of 18/age of maturity for their race to be portrayed in an erotic setting
- NC (Non-consensual) elements (which includes bestiality and necrophilia, and any other types of beings that cannot consent). Please don't even use them as plot points or a reason for someone's past trauma. Just no.
- Sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or any other discrimination presented in a positive light (or at all, if possible)
- Hardcore kinks (we're going to leave this one vague on purpose, to encourage you to query us for what's acceptable). We can describe it best this way: if too high of a percentage of readers would not just say "it's not for me" but could physically not deal with it, the answer will probably be no.