Writing Guidelines

Please note that we are NOT accepting submissions at this time. These guidelines are only meant to give writers an idea of what we will be interested in publishing. When we open for submissions, we will work only through e-mail. Any manuscripts or proposals sent to our physical address will be discarded unopened. We apologize for this, but since all submissions have to be shipped to the editor after arriving at the office, it's an additional expense that we can't afford.

Dark fiction covers a broad spectrum of writing, and stories can include elements of fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, and all the myriad forms of horror. (supernatural, psychological, extraterrestrial, etc.) The stories we want will blend themes and defy the conventional genre boundaries established by mainstream fiction.

We feel gore, sex, and violence all have their place in dark fiction, but believe these elements should be used moderately. The same goes with profanity. We're all fans of the word fuck here at ATP, but if every other fucking word in your manuscript is fuck, then fucker, you need to fucking look somewhere else to sell your fucking story.

We will consider most any length of story between 25K and 150K words. It is highly unlikely that we will release anthologies, so anything shorter than 25K will need to find a home with people more qualified to sell short fiction. We may look at stories with word counts up to 200K, but anything above that is likely to make us queasy for the costs. (Well, the accountant and e-book editor will be queasy. The print editor will be dancing a jig for the fat paycheck.) Just bear in mind that we are a small company, and higher word counts are a tough sell due to the costs of editing and printing.

Because the vast majority of our sales are expected to be conducted online, pay rates will be royalty-based. We expect to offer a 25% royalty rate for print sales, and 50% rates for e-book sales. We will be asking for the worldwide distribution rights for the English language version only. The author will retain all rights to look for opportunities with publishers in other languages. Writers will retain the rights to their characters, and they will retain all options for film and other developmental opportunities. (comics, graphic novels, audio-books, etc.) We will be asking for the rights to distribute the work for three years, though authors will be given the opportunity to cancel after the second year if sales are poor. (We will also have a clause allowing a writer to pull work 90 days after a written notice is provided.) We may also ask for one year extensions if sales of a title remain strong.

Update: Due to very low prints sales and a blossoming e-market with regular sales for all ATP titles, we are currently leaning more toward accepting titles first as e-books. If a title can generate enough sales to fund a print run, a separate contract will be issued for print rights.

Some writers may feel this makes us unfit for submissions, but we are a micro-press. As the publisher, we eat the cost of printing review copies and contributor's copies, as well as editing fees, art fees, proofing fees, catalog fees, and fees for a marketing campaign. Even a POD book with no print run produced in this way requires approximately $2500.00, none of which is charged to the writer. So when a print book from a micro-press title is sent out and receives few reviews and only a handful of sales, it devastates the finances of the press and prevents us from being able to produce or promote other titles. (Which is what happened when Redemption Lost shipped. BTW, the e-book sales are MUCH better.)

This is why we would like to earn at least half of these funds through the sales of e-books before we go into production for a print edition. Writers who feel this is an unprofessional manner of publishing are encouraged to seek publishing options elsewhere.

Art Guidelines

Digital samples of artwork or artistic photography can be e-mailed for review at any time, but please be aware that we will prefer to commission custom art for each cover, and samples will only be used as an evaluation of your skills.

This being the case, we will want to see your best work from any genre you prefer, as well as a short introduction in the body of your email. Because we plan to publish fantasy as well as horror and dark science fiction, the themes of your samples are up to you. In your introduction, we want to know what styles of art or photography you prefer to work with. CVs will be accepted as well, but we are concerned more with your skills than with your training or experience.

When we have a book ready for a cover, we will solicit bids for sketches and photographs from the artists who have sent samples, and we will select the cover from the materials we receive. Our rates for artwork will vary depending on the complexity of the cover and on the materials needed by the artist to complete the assignment, but we plan to pay within a range of $75-$150 per cover. (More complex covers may receive up to $200)