Tor.com Publishing will soon be reopening to unsolicited novella submissions! Starting October 12, Lee Harris and Carl Engle-Laird will be reading and evaluating original novellas submitted by hopeful authors to https://tor.moksha.io/publication/tornovellas. You can find full guidelines here, and we highly recommend you read the guidelines before submitting. We will be open for three months, beginning on October 12th around 9:00 AM EDT (UTC-4:00) and ending on January 12th around 9:00 AM EST (UTC-5:00). We may extend this period depending on how many submissions we receive over the course of the open period.
Until the end of this open period, Tor.com will only be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words that fit the epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, high fantasy, or quest fantasy genres, whether set on Earth or on an original fantasy world. However, we will only be considering novellas that inhabit worlds that are not modeled on European cultures. We are seeking worlds that take their influences from African, Asian, indigenous American, or Pacific cultures, or any diasporic culture from one of those sources. To qualify, novellas should center the experiences of characters from non-European-inspired cultures.
Both Lee Harris and Carl Engle-Laird actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that.
If you have a novella you want to submit that doesn’t fit these parameters, don’t give up hope. Our plan is to rotate which genre we’re soliciting periodically, so check back here and on our submissions guideline page regularly. Once we’ve worked our way through these submissions, we’ll re-open for a different genre. Please don’t ask us what genre we’ll be moving to—we’ll be deciding that closer to the time.
So, just out of curiosity, just how are authors aspiring to be published under this imprint expected to prove that they are indeed from “underrepresented populations”?
@1 Authors who wish to self-identify are free to do so in their cover letter.
What about fantasy worlds that deliberately avoid tracking closely to any Earth-based cultures? Not European, Asian, African, or indigenous?
@3 A successful submission doesn’t need to track closely to an Earth-based culture, but it’s very difficult to craft a world that doesn’t take any inspiration from existing cultural models. In order to avoid the European models that are deeply-embedded in the fantasy genre, we recommend looking elsewhere for inspiration. However, please keep in mind that every encounter between an author and a submissions reader involves a large number of judgment calls on the part of the reader. We’ll have to use our best judgment to determine whether each novella is in line with our guidelines.
Would this in any way affect, or be affected by, an in-progress submission for original short fiction that was submitted when slush was open?
@5 No, this is unrelated to in-progress short fiction submissions.
Will you accept a self-published novel instead of a file? If so, where can I mail my submission to?
@7 We don’t accept unsolicited novels or previously self-published works, as set out in our guidelines.
Do you consider Romania/Ukraine/Czech Republic/Turkey to be non-European countries? Some people have told me they are, and others told me they are not. I wanted to be certain what falls within your guidelines before deciding what to submit. Thank you!
@9 We would consider Eastern Europe, including Romania, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic to be European, but would consider Turkey to be non-European.
Is urban fantasy eligible? Is fantasy set in the contemporary world eligible?
@11 We’re only looking for Sword & Sorcery/Epic/Quest/High fantasy at the moment, so urban fantasy wouldn’t be eligible. If you write one of those sub-genres with a contemporary technology level and a societal model that isn’t Western Civilization-dominated, that may be acceptable. It’ll present a judgment call for our readers, so please also exercise your own best judgment before submitting.
I’ll add one more question.
I write historical fantasy–does that fit within the Sword & Sorcery/Epic/Quest/High fantasy box, as you all see it? Or are we talking about a wholly separate secondary world here?
To be more specific, I’ve been, lately, wanting to produce fantasy set within the framework of displaced African culture during the American Civil War. Would something like that count? From what you’ve said, I feel like it doesn’t, but I’d just like to make sure.
I saw you don’t accept previously self-published work. But is this for English work only? What if it’s a story published previously in other language? Portuguese, for example?
@13 If it has the adventuresome spirit of the band of fantasy we’re discussing here, then historical fantasy could fit our genre requirements.
@14 I believe we could look at work previously published in another language.
Will you accept work that characters different features depending on where they are from black African, Pacific Islander, Hispanic,and Caucasian but set in a fantasy world like N.K. Jemisen’s work? (Also, LGBTQ characters.)
@16 That’s exactly what we’re looking for.
Not Pacific cultures?
@18 We’d love to see fiction inspired by Pacific cultures. I’ve edited the post to reflect this. Thank you, I’m happy to have covered that gap.
I have a piece set in an alternate magic-rich version of the golden age of Islamic Al-Andalus – the characters are a mix of Middle-eastern Arab & North African Berber Muslims with a couple of Iberian Jews and Christians. Technically, however, it is set within what today constitutes “Europe.” Yay or nay?
@22 I’d classify Islamic Al-Andalus as non-European for our purposes, as it was a cultural model that existed in opposition to the European cultural models of the time.
I have a fantasy story set in a world called Eomartha that was once a place called Ethiopia after it became a fantasy world thanks to an obelisk during the axel period though the characters are Ethiopian they were cowhide and plated armour would you still accept that or not? Aswell as some witches but one is a half human half horse half witch. Good? There is quests and war aswell.
@24 This sounds like a fantasy set in a non-European inspired world, so it fits our guidelines perfectly.
Would Byzantine-inspired fiction qualify as non-European? Certainly the bulk of western European historiography did its best for centuries to disavow any relationship and to categorize it as eastern (with all the exoticness and accusations of effeminicity that their view entailed).
Less specifically, what about Mediterranean culture, as opposed to strictly European? It would include an amalgamation of (southern and eastern) European, (middle eastern) Asian, and (northern) African influences.
@26 There’s already a sizable body of Byzantine-inspired Fantasy on the market, so we may not be as excited by a Byzantine submission, but as it’s a toss-up you can feel free to submit.
I see a lot of stress here on high fantasy, so just wanted to clarify – is science fiction out of scope of this particular novella submission? I have ideas for a science fiction story set in a futuristic India, involving Hindu gods, reincarnation, DNA coding, sentient androids, quantum entanglement, genius hackers, viruses and prophecies.
Happy to try my hand at something different if this doesn’t fit the criteria, but just wanted to be sure.
@30 That sounds very interesting, but science fiction is indeed out of scope for this submission period. I expect it might fit some future submission period, though.
Are the submissions supposed to conform to any specific (or broad) age group in terms of target demographic, or will that depend largely on the submission’s tone itself, and not have a bearing on its acceptance/rejection?
@33 We’re looking for adult fiction, and aren’t open to NA, YA, or MG.
How about a submission that fits your guidelines but comes from someone in a well-represented demographic? Less likely to get in? I’d have an Asian setting and characters based on my experiences as a foreigner in Asia.
@35 We’ll consider anything that fits our guidelines, from anyone. We make these explicit calls because we want to see more submissions from authors from underrepresented populations, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want submissions from those who were already going to submit.
Would you classify Wuxia (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to be a sub-genre of Fantasy?
@37 Wuxia inspired stuff could definitely fit what we’re looking for.
Is coauthorship of a story allowed?
@39 Yes.
This may be a silly question, but regarding the word count limit, would you accept a submission that rounds down to 40,000 words (IE 40,400), or would you prefer we pare it down to 40,000?
@41 We’d prefer you keep your submissions within the word count requirements.
May mixed cultures (Portuguese, Spanish, native Brazilians, Africans, and Asians) count as non-european?
@43 Yes.
Is there a chance of an extension on the deadline as of now? I see that the rules say the possibility exists.
@45 It’s too early to say whether we’ll want to extend the deadline. The chance exists, but until we officially extend the deadline I recommend striving for the current date.
Hi, just wondering if an Australian influenced culture would also be acceptable? Thanks
Hi I have a story set in African culture taking inspiration from legends on various creatures, magic gained from trees and a quest starting out with a rather unwilling hero. This should be clearly in scope but it is the first novella in what could become a longer series – would that be acceptable?
@47 Yes, as long as it’s inspired by Aboriginal culture.
@48 It’s fine to submit the first book in what could be a series as long as it stands on its own as a complete story. If it relies on later texts to be satisfying we’re unlikely to want to buy it.
As per the comment for #48 I have one more question. I believe it is a story in its own right but at the same time it is a beginning. Would you then like to have a very very short outline of the full picture in the letter that follows the submission?
Hi,
I was wondering if the deadline is still 12 Jan or whether you will be extending it?
Thanks.
@51 We’ve received enough submissions that we will need to close on January 12th to assess them in a timely fashion. I recommend meeting this deadline, but if that is not possible, there may be a chance for your novella at a later time. We may reopen using these same criteria, and if not there will eventually be an open period that accepts a broad range of genre works.
Is anyone else having trouble with the submissions link?
Thank you for this great opportunity! Can you please let us know what format we should submit our novellas? .doc? .odt?
Hello everyone,
Due to a recent update to the Moksha system we use for submissions, a number of things about the system changed without us realizing. Among these is the link to submissions. The new submission link is https://tor.moksha.io/publication/tornovellas. I’m endeavoring to discover which file formats we can accept, but in the mean time we know that we can receive .doc, and can probably receive .docx.
Please do let us know if there’s a format issue–I submitted in docx but would be happy to change that (i.e. resubmit) if there’s any problem in the submission pipeline.
@56 The system currently accepts doc, docx, rtf, and pdf formats.
Hi
I’ve made a submission of a novella.
Unfortunately, I was forced to use PDF, as it seems that the server is not accepting .docx files.
Even more unfortunately, I’m not too happy with the quality of the PDF (there seems to be some issue with my mac).
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to correct this, or if I can send a word doc of the document I submitted to any email ID. I do hope the PDF wont hamper your reading experience.
@58 Our slush readers should be able to read a PDF, and as long as they can read it your story will be considered properly. If they can’t read the document you will be contacted in due course.
I submitted on 01/12 but never received the email that it was successful.
Hi
Apologies for being impatient, but any timeline by when we might expect the results?
Guys, I just want to say its a bit disappointing that we are i the middle of March and there is still no response on this.
I went to my story submission, which still shows “In Progress”, which leads me to assume that after 2 months we still dont have a winner. I’m sure many apart from myself are waiting for the result.
I submitted on time but did not get any email regarding the submission issue? Can I confirm wether my story was even submitted in the first place?
Any news on the process? I’m running out of fingernails to bite :)
@66, I’m also keen for an update. I submitted on the last day of the submission period and still waiting.