SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR MONSTER CORRAL
(For the submission format, please scan all the way to the end of this page.)
WHO WE ARE: Monster Corral is an online fiction magazine, publishing between five and ten original fiction stories per month, and a “Best Of” anthology at the end of the year. We love the short story, especially the very short story. We want to see good stories published, and their authors paid. We are a professional publishing outlet for new and established writers. We care about writers. We try to answer every submission personally, letting authors know why we did or did not choose their piece.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: We publish very short original fiction (generally under 1,000 words) and original graphic products. For 2013, we want stories that focus on the “extreme antagonist,” or, as we like to call them, “monsters.” You monster can be human, non-human, traditional or something completely unexpected. Our only requirement is that they must not be a two-dimensional mustache-twisting caricature. Great protagonists are always helpful, but for this series, the antagonist gets the spotlight.
Submissions must be an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) to an email sent to mustangsmonstercorral@gmail.com. We accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you let us know if you are submitting to other markets, and notify us if a story you submitted to us sells elsewhere before we get back to you. (This is fairly unlikely, since we typically respond within 72 hours, but if it happens, please let us know.) We pay 1 cent/word for fiction and non-fiction (articles, reviews, etc.) Note: We hope to increase our rates to pro level in the near future, but for now, this gets our feet in the proverbial door as a paying market. Our goal is to qualify as an approved market with SFWA and HWA early in 2014. Fiction submissions should be around 1,000 words (preferably less) and non-fiction should be around 500 words. We pay $5 (US) for original graphics (any photo, modified photo, scanned artwork, or other digitized graphic) that represents a scene or character from, or otherwise acts as a companion to, your story. We will pay for stand-alone original artwork (graphics that stand on their own merit and not associated with a story) fee to be negotiated on a case-by case basis, but will not be less than $25.
WHAT WE ARE BUYING: When we purchase your creative product, we are buying exclusive rights to your product for one calendar year, beginning on the date of initial publication. After that year, we give up exclusivity, which means you may sell it as a re-print to any source for any purpose in any form, including online, print, or audio. We are also purchasing teh right to use your story in our annual anthology, for which you will be paid an additional 2 cents (USD) for each book sold after the first 100 books. We will retain the right of continued use of your product for advertising and other purposes online, but we will not use it in any print form without your permission, and additional payments as agreed upon by both parties at that time.
GENRE: We are willing to look at nearly any genre, but we are particularly fond of science fiction, horror/gothic, classic or contemporary/urban fantasy, and hard-boiled “noir” mystery. Note: If you want to write about real-world religion or politics, we suggest you try other markets. Humor is always a plus, but if you get cheesy, you’ll probably turn us off.
FORMAT: An example of a properly formatted submission follows at the end of this document. Short fiction, articles, and reviews all follow the same submission format. Use a standard font, 10-12 point, black. In other words, no visual distinctives. Let your story speak for itself. If you try to catch our attention with a visual gimmick, we will assume that you did not read this document and we probably will not read your submission. The submission (emailed to mustangsmostercorral.com) should consist of:
1. Title
2. Author’s name
3. Author’s email address
4. Length (exact count as given in MS Word or similar word processor, if possible)
5. Date of SUBMISSION
6. This is/is not a simultaneous submission (will not affect the likelihood of selection or response time)
7. Body of the story
8. Description of graphic, if applicable
9. Author’s biography
10. Graphic creator’s biography, if applicable
11. Where did you hear about Mustang’s Monster Corral?
SUBMIT: Submit your word or plain text document (.doc, .docx,. .rtf) as an email attachment to: mustangsmonstercorral@gmail.com using the format described above and following the example at the end of this document. If you have an original graphic (digital photo, drawing, or other digital visual construction) to accompany your story, you may paste it into the document, or attach it as a separate JPG file. If we choose to use your graphic, we will pay you $5 (U.S.) for its use. If you would like to associate a public domain (previously published and not original to you) graphic with your piece, follow the procedure for an original graphic. We cannot pay for non-original work, but if it is public domain (not copyright protected) we are happy to include it if it enhances your piece. The graphic and story/review/article do not need to be created by the same person (separate credits will be given for each, if appropriate) however, only one payment will be made for both the story/review/article and the graphic. It’s up to you to figure out how to split the dough. All payments are in U.S. Dollars, and all fractions of a cent are rounded up (we’re cheap, but not THAT cheap.)
ACCEPTANCE: If we accept your story for publication, we will send your contract as an email attachment. Sign, scan, and return the contract as an email attachment. We will make the appropriate payment to your PayPal account as soon as we receive your signed contract. Our contract says that you will be paid within 10 working days of publication, but we always pay prior to the day a story first appears on MonsterCorral.com. In our own work as writers, we have been burned by publishers who promised payment and didn’t deliver. We will NOT be “one of those guys.” Note: We cannot publish your story without a signed contract on file. PayPal is the only means of payment we are using at this time. If you do not already have an account, you can sign up here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_registration-run
ANTHOLOGY: We will publish 1-3 fiction stories online each week, and produce an anthology of selected stories at the end of the year. The anthology will be published as an e-book, and possibly also as a print-on-demand book. Authors whose stories are selected will receive royalties (2 cents USD per story included in the anthology) for each book sold after the first 100.
EXAMPLE SUBMISSION:
[Please note – this bit of a story was jotted out solely to demonstrate the submission format. If it entertains, amuses, or inspires you, that effect was entirely accidental. I would also like to offer my sincere apologies to any real-life person named Germaine Snodgrass who reads this. Our use of the name is entirely as a fictional author, and any similarity to a living person is entirely coincidental.]
___
In Very Poor Taste
by Germaine Snodgrass
gsnodgrass@gothwerworlds.com
1,010 words
December 29th, 2012
This is a simultaneous submission.
Missy was a particularly bad girl. She told terrifying stories to younger children just to frighten them and watch them cry. She lied frequently, especially to adults. She took pencils from her classmates’ desks, and only returned them after they were broken. She made up preposterous excuses for her tardiness in turning in her perpetually late assignments.
Missy’s only redeeming quality was in being pretty. She had large, brown eyes in her oval face with its delightfully pointy little chin. Her lips were pink, plump, pouty, and perfect. Everyone agreed that she was an awfully pretty girl.
One day, as she walked from school all alone (no one ever walked with her, which she believed was because they didn’t want to appear ugly in comparison) she stopped by a little pond. A girl from her class suggested they meet there when Missy asked to copy her math homework. As Missy was waiting, she decided to catch a frog and cut it up with the pen-knife she’d taken from the teacher’s desk.
“Hello, Missy, I’m glad you found my pond. Isn’t it lovely?”
Missy turned, not quite startled enough to lose her condescending sneer.
Minnie Wallaby, Missy thought, a perfect recipient for a condescending sneer.
Minnie was a very plain little girl, with a thick body and skinny legs. One ear stuck straight out and on the other side she had no ear at all. Her nose was flat and very wide. Her bulgy eyes were perpetually red around the rims as if she’d been crying, even when she hadn’t. Her hair was thin and stringy. Her face, overlarge even for her thick body, was covered with ugly little spots. She had short arms and big, knobby knuckles. She limped, because one leg (the longer one) bent outward, rather than straight as her shorter one did. Minnie had strengths, too. She possessed a wickedly sharp mind. She always turned her work in on time, and never made other children cry. The adults loved her, and often remarked what a wonderfully good child she was, even though they sometimes snickered at her appearance (Missy sometimes heard them when she snuck into the teacher’s lounge and hid behind the sofa to steal cigarettes and money from their purses.)
If Missy had caught a frog, she would have thrown the guts into Minnie’s hair, which would have been great fun, but she didn’t have a frog. She had planned on being nice to Minnie, in hopes of securing tomorrow’s math homework, but suddenly didn’t care about it, so she decided to lure Minnie closer to the silty bank of the pond in order to push her in the mud. It wouldn’t be as much fun as frog guts, but a fine entertainment, nonetheless.
“What are you doing, Missy?” Minnie asked in her croaky little voice.
“I was just…looking at the tadpoles. There are lots down here, all different shades of green. Come look.” Missy smiled and crinkled her eyes at the corners in her most fetching fashion.
“There are no tadpoles this time of year.”
“Oh, but there are!” Missy gestured grandly toward the water. “Maybe they’re magic tadpoles, and that’s why they shimmer with such lovely colors.”
“You said they were green.”
“Yes, lovely shades of green. All different, and…and shimmery.”
Minnie cocked her head, blinked her buggy eyes, then took a step down the bank. Missy held her hand out, but Minnie stopped.
“I’m not supposed to go to near the water,” Minnie said. “This is a new uniform. I mustn’t get it dirty.”
“Oh, these awful things!” Missy shook her head with a disgust that was more real than put on, for she truly hated the school uniforms. “Who cares if they get dirty? They’re awful either way. Besides, you won’t get dirty. Just stand on the rocks with me, so we can watch the lovely tadpoles.”
Just then a gigantic frog-creature, twice the height of a man, rose up from the pond. His tongue shot out like a flash of pink lightning and encircled Minnie, snatching her to his open left hand, even as he grabbed Missy in his right.
Missy was terrified. She looked to Minnie for help, but the girl just stared blankly at the monstrous amphibian (although in Missy’s head she said lizard, because she wasn’t good at biology.)
“Hmmm,” the monster’s voice rumbled and echoed in his massive chest, “which of you shall I eat?”
Missy felt like crying. Surely she was a much more tempting treat than the scrabbly Minnie, but it would be horribly unfair for her to die; she had far too much to live for. She was pretty. She had great fun. And she was firmly convinced that someday a wealthy man with ravenous eyes and poor taste in character would make her his bride so she could divorce him and live off half his income for the rest of her life. Or else kill him and have it all. She hadn’t worked out the particulars yet.
She had to act. “Minnie,” Missy’s voice quavered, “my only friend. Could you really let me end this way?”
Minnie’s thick, cracked lower lip began to quiver, and her eyes lowered. Her droopy left lid closed first and then her right. “Dear sir frog,” she began, “I am sure you are tempted to devour sweetness, but I implore you, take the simple meal first, so as not to bother your stomach.”
“Sound advice indeed,” came the great throbbing voice of the giant frog as he lifted Minnie toward his enormous mouth.
Missy thrilled at Minnie’s willing sacrifice, even though she was a little sad as Minnie stretched her head toward the frog.
Then she was confused.
Minnie giggled, pursed her lips and kissed the creature. “See you later, Daddy,” Minnie said, as the frog-creature gently lowered her to the water’s edge.
“Kiss your mother for me,” he called, then added, “thanks for the snack!”
Missy heard her own screams muffle into slimy, burbling blops as she felt the great, wet mouth close around her head.
___
[I have attached a rendering of the Frogman as a “photoshopped” composite photo created by my cellmate, Auffrey Guddenhemmert, which I think would be a good companion to this story.]
Germaine Snodgrass is a completely fictional author, previously published in Smith and Wesson Quarterly, Mother Earth News, and The Journal of Inspirational Singing, among other places. He lives in a small town in Montana, where he watches birds with his one good eye and tries to snatch them when they fly close to his cell window.
Auffrey Guddenhemmert is an amateur photo designer. This is his first paid publication. Actually, his first publication of any kind, except on his own website.
MMC – I heard about your website from Darkmarkets.com [or Duotropes, word-of-mouth, fan of the site, another blog, etc., as applicable for you]
[Some Notes: This story is 1010 words, according to MS Word. That’s close enough to 1,000, but 1,100 might be getting into shaky territory. Shorter is better. Also, please make your biography real and representative of you, unlike the fictional Mr. Snodgrass. Self-defacing humor is generally good. Your bio must be short, and may include a link to your blog or website if you have one. If your biography is too long, we will slice and dice it without mercy. Finally, concerning the story itself: you might be thinking,”That frog-creature wasn’t a very interesting or unique monster.” Indeed, he was not. But Minnie, I think, was…and therein lies a monster tale…]