We will consider submissions from everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity – what we’re looking for are characters of color. Everyone is encouraged to submit their work!

The stories do not have to focus on the character’s ethnicity, but it must be clear from the content/context of the story that the MC is a character of color. We are not interested in stereotyped, derogatory or racist caricatures. (This does not mean that you can’t address issues like racism and stereotyping in your stories.)

Remember, this is a double-sized issue. We’re looking for about 10 stories for the issue! We’re also interested in articles, comics, artwork, reviews, interviews, etc. so long as they’re about the theme. We have our cover art but otherwise we’re open to almost anything. Tell your friends!

Submissions for Issue 24 will be accepted until 11:59 pm US EST on September 30. Please send in your submissions via the online submission form.

COVER ART

“Asking the Specialists” by Evan Jensen

FICTION
Luck of the Harvest by Tom Barlow

The Red and Green Kerchief by Kater Cheek

The Consequences of Deliberation by Clifford Royal Johns

Vibrations of Battle, Vibrations of Joy by Deirdre M. Murphy

For There You Have Been by V. Edward Gordon

Jennifer Quarantine by Justin Howe

Please read & enjoy! And tell the contributors how you like their work – please leave a comment!

- Download a PDF for $2.50!

- Buy a print copy for just $5! (Add the discount code SZ2TGV3F for the sale price.)

You can also still buy 6 issues of Crossed Genres for just $4 – but the price goes up each day!

The sale lasts through Saturday! Take advantage quickly!

1) We’re very proud to begin the serialization of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate! The first chapter is up, and new chapters will be released biweekly until the entire novel is online, at which point we’ll offer complete versions. This intense and wonderful novel is free to read online!

2) The First Come First Save sale! Right now you can get an entire year of Crossed Genres for just $7.00 (both PDF & EPUB formats for one low price)! The sale lasts until Saturday, but the price goes up each day – the sooner you buy, the cheaper it is!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind.

Martin previously appeared in the short story Lunch Money, which was published in Crossed Genres issue 13 (“Action/Adventure”).

Chapter One of Broken Slate is free to read on the site. New chapters will be posted every two weeks until the entire novel is published: at which point, Crossed Genres will publish Broken Slate in its entirety.

Raised in New Orleans, Kelly Jennings teaches writing at the University of Fort Smith-Arkansas, where she uses way too many office hours working on a five book series about Martin Eduardo and the contract labor revolution on Julian. You can follow Kelly’s blog at http://delagar.blogspot.com.

Please read, enjoy, and comment. Thank you!

Here’s the deal. There are two new bundles of CG issues for sale in the store:

Issues 10-15 (Both PDF & .EPUB files included): $3.00
Issue 10: Child Fiction
Issue 11: Horror
Issue 12 (Double-sized): LGBTQ
Issue 13: Action/Adventure
Issue 14: Folklore
Issue 15: Any Previous Genre

Issues 16-21 (Both PDF & .EPUB files included): $3.00
Issue 16: Steampunk
Issue 17: Antihero
Issue 18: Eastern
Issue 19: Gadgets & Artifacts
Issue 20: Lies
Issue 21: Invasion

Usually, 6 issues in digital format would run $9.54. For the sale, each bundle starts on Tuesday at just $3 total for 6 issues! The price will increase each day by $0.50, ending at $5 on Saturday.

When you make your purchase, you’ll be emailed a link to download the bundle.

UPDATE: Get Crossed Genres Year One for 50% off! Download a PDF for $2.50, or Buy a print copy for just $5! (Add the discount code SZ2TGV3F for the sale price.)

Please enjoy the inexpensive issues of CG, and go check out GUD’s sale page to see what other zines are participating in the sale!

Subscribers can read the new chapters by logging in on the site. New readers can read the first 3 chapters for free!

We’ll have information on preordering A Festival of Skeletons very soon! The official release date is December 1!

ARTWORK
“A Deafened Plea For Peace” by Ben Greene

FICTION
The Forever Engine by Timothy Miller
Centzon Totochin by Cat Rambo
Charismatic by Therese Arkenberg
The Last Mountie by Jason S. Ridler
Pictographology by Jason R. Richter
Tibet, Or At Least Boise by Patricia McMahon

Please read, view & enjoy! And tell the contributors if you like their work – leave them a comment!

Tomorrow is also the final day we’ll be accepting submissions to Issue 22: BILDUNGSROMAN. Send us your coming-of-age stories!

FICTION
“The Forever Engine” by Timothy Miller
“Centzon Totochin” by Cat Rambo
“Charismatic” by Therese Arkenberg
“The Last Mountie” by Jason S. Ridler
“Pictographology” by Jason R. Richter
“Tibet, Or At Least Boise” by Patricia McMahon

COVER ART
“A Deafened Plea For Peace” by Ben Greene

The winners of the Science in My Fiction contest have been announced! Go here to see the announcement!

Digital downloads: Add what you want to the CG cart, & at checkout use the code “GIVENOQUARTER“.

Print copies: Select the Createspace editions, & add the code “2WLPMYW6” in the Discount Code field.

The sale will last until July 31. Pick up your discounted copies now, and please spread the word!

We just received an in-progress look at the cover art for the eventual publication of Festival, too – it is hilarious, grotesque and wonderful. I can’t wait to see it in print! Look for the publication this winter!

WINNER
“Of Mice And Astronauts” by John Eric Vona

Honorable Mentions
Beth Cato, “Bless This House”
WIlliam T. Vandemark, “Christening the Leviathan”
Celestine Trinidad, “Not Ready Yet”

The winning story is published on the site for everyone to read. Congratulations to the winners, and all the finalists!

ARTWORK:

“I’d like a word with you. In private.” by Lisa Grabenstetter

FICTION:
Yelloween by Sam Cash
Under a Wider Sky by Breanna R. Teintze
A Day in the Life by Ross Willard
Carefully Constructed by Shay Darrach
Immortal by Peter Friend
Knack by Sarah Goslee

Please read & enjoy! And make the contributors’ days by leaving a comment or two!

Other Last Chances of the Day:

• LAST CHANCE to vote on the Flash Fiction contest finalists! There are 10 stories totaling less than 4500 words (an average short story). And they’re good! Go read them and vote! (You have to register on the site to vote, but it’s quick and easy!)

• LAST CHANCE to submit a story to the inaugural issue of The Little Death of Crossed Genres! They’re looking for excellent erotic SFF. Check it out!

• LAST CHANCE to submit to the Crossed Genres Invasion issue! This issue (#21) will be released on August 1. We’re looking for anything SF/F that has an invasion of some type as a theme.

• LAST CHANCE to check out the Anthropomorphism issue! Issue #8 will be going away after midnight tonight. Go have a read/look, and if you like it, consider picking up a copy!

This Wednesday, June 30 is the final day to get your entries in to the Science in My Fiction contest!

Remember, there are $400 in cash prizes to be won, plus more! And the finalists will be read and voted on by an amazing panel of judges. Each of the top 3 stories will be published: the original cover art will be provided by Julie Dillon, and each of the 3 stories will be accompanied by original black-and-white artwork.

- 2,500-10,000 words
- 1 entry per person
- Only unpublished work
- Authors MUST cite the discovery/innovation which inspired their story, and provide relevant URL(s).

We’ve gotten some great entries already. Wow us with SCIENCE!

Submission guidelines
Judges
Entry form

The Social Media Coordinator will create accounts for Crossed Genres on various social media platforms (if they don’t exist already), keep all social media information up-to-date, and coordinate cross-media promotion.

The Promotion Coordinator will handle promotion for Crossed Genres and its various projects, in the form of press releases, reviews and flyers.

These are volunteer positions (None of us get paid, at the moment). However, there are perks: Freebies, access to pretty much everything that Crossed Genres produces, etc. Your name will be included in all staff listings, including the magazine itself.

For more information about both positions, or to apply, please visit this page. If you know someone who might be interested, please point them our way. Thanks!

Wednesday, June 30 is the FINAL DAY to enter the Crossed Genres Science in My Fiction contest!

* 2,500-10,000 words
* SF/F inspired by a recent scientific discovery or innovation (Citation required)
* 1 entry per person
* Only unpublished work

10 finalists will be selected, and the finalists will be voted on by a panel of 6 judges:

• Athena Andreadis – Associate Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; author of To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek.
• Nicola Griffith – Nebula, World Fantasy, Tiptree, and Lambda Literary Award-winning author
• Michael Kabongo – Agent; owner, The Onyxhawke Agency
• Randall Munroe – Creator of the webcomic xkcd; Programmer
• Cat Rambo – Author; Managing Editor of Fantasy Magazine.
• Brett Savory – Editor-in-Chief of Chizine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words and co-Publisher of Chizine Publications.

The winner gets a $250 prize. 2nd Place gets $100, 3rd gets $50. The top 3 stories will be published on the Crossed Genres website, and in limited-run print and digital editions. There will also be 3 Honorable Mentions.

Just one week left! Read the detailed rules, and then get those entries in!

Winners will be announced on or before July 21. The top 3 stories will be published online at the time of official announcement.

NOTE: You must register on the site to read the stories & vote. Don’t worry, it’s free & easy.

Once you’ve read the stories, at the bottom of the page is the voting poll. Select your favorite story and click “Vote”. (If we discover anyone trying to vote more than once, all of that person’s votes will be discarded. We will be checking!)

We received over 90 entries, and there were a lot of great stories, so choosing the finalists was tough. Last year, we only received 80 entries, and that was even while allowing people to enter up to 3 stories! Thanks to everyone who entered!

If you’re not a subscriber, you can read the first three chapters of A Festival of Skeletons for free!

* 100-500 words (FIRM)
* Anything Science Fiction and/or Fantasy
* Unpublished work only (including online)
* 1 entry per person

NOTE: Send your entries via the Flashfic contest entry form. DO NOT send entries via the Crossed Genres submission form!

The ten finalists will be posted on the website on June 23. Everyone will be able to read them and vote for their favorite. (People will have to register on the site to read the finalists and vote. Don’t worry, it’s free and easy!) Voting will close on June 30. The winner and Honorable Mentions will be announced on or before July 3.

The winner will receive $25 and a print copy of Crossed Genres Year One. 3 Honorable Mentions will each receive a print copy of Crossed Genres Year One.

The ten finalists will be posted on the website on or before June 23 for voting (they will only be visible to those who register on the site, therefore keeping their first printing rights). Get your entries in!

Also, there are only 17 days left to enter the Science in My Fiction contest! 2500-10000 words (FIRM), SF/F inspired by a recent scientific discovery or innovation (you must provide the URL for an article about the science). 1 entry per person, unpublished work only. $400 in prizes to the top 3 stories! Finalists will be voted on by an amazing panel of judges. Let’s see some SCIENCE!

This closure is due to our being overwhelmed with projects, and preparing to make some fairly significant changes to CG. We can’t say right now exactly when we’ll be open to these submissions again.

But fear not! The magazine will continue as usual; the Science in My Fiction contest and the Flash Fiction contest are moving along; and we have 2 novel projects already in the works – one already being serialized (read the first 3 chapters!), and one beginning soon! Plus some other things we haven’t announced yet. We’re not slowing down – only redirecting our focus.

The Flash Fiction contest is also approaching the cutoff date for entries: June 15 is the final day! Entries to the flashfic contest have been surprisingly robust – though perhaps not surprising when considering first place gets pro rates or better. 6 more days to go! Voting will begin on the 10 finalists on June 23.

Crossed Genres is currently accepting submissions to the Invasion issue. June 30 is the deadline.

Finally: June is the last month to read Crossed Genres Issue 8: ANTHROPOMORPHISM. This diverse and unusual issue will no longer be available! Please read it if you haven’t, and consider picking up a copy.

First: Crossed Genres issue 19: Gadgets & Artifacts is up!

A great issue with some incredibly strong fiction. Please read, enjoy! And comment – the writers & artists truly appreciate it!
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Next: We’ve opened the 2nd Annual Crossed Genres Flash Fiction contest! We did one last year in June and it was so much fun we decided to do it again! The guidelines are behind the link, but short version: 100-500 words; anything SF/F; one entry per person; 1st place gets Pro rates (at least). Open for entries until June 15 only. Not much time, so better get cracking!
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Thanks to some terrific generosity, the Kickstarter to fund a print edition of the Science in My Fiction contest winners was a rousing success! Not only did we reach our goal, we surpassed it by 60%! Thank you, everyone who’s supported the pledge drive! There’s still one month left to enter the contest – stories must be submitted by the end of June 30. Get your stories in!
______________________________________________________________________________________

June is the FINAL month to read Issue 8: ANTHROPOMORPHISM! It will go away forever after June 30. Please give it a read, and if you like it consider picking up a copy while it’s still available.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Right now we’re reading submissions to the LIES issue, accepting submissions for INVASION, and managing the SiMF and Flashfic contests. Whew! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up, but somehow we manage!

Post title from “Today is gonna be a great day” from Phineas & Ferb

Both stories first appeared in Crossed Genres issue 12: LGBTQ.

The anthology will be out this summer, be sure to check it out. And congratulations to Megan and Tuulia!

Tomorrow – Monday, May 31 – is the final day to get a copy of the Science in My Fiction contest winners!

• The 1st Place winner, 2nd Place winner and 3rd Place winner bound together in print and/or ebook format
• Original cover art by wonderful artist Julie Dillon
• Original art accompanying each story (Artists TBD)

This is the ONLY time these stories will be published together. There won’t be a general release. If you’re entering the contest, and will want more than one copy should you win (the authors whose stories place in the top 3 each get a complimentary copy), now is the one chance to get them!

• A pledge of just $4 gets you a “digital bundle”: the ebook of the winners in 7 different digital formats. These formats will work for iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, B&N Nook, Sony Readers, and more. All formats are DRM-free.

• A pledge of $9 gets you the digital bundle plus a one-year online subscription to Crossed Genres, which gets you digital bundles for a year’s worth of issues. The subscription normally costs $10 on its own.

• A pledge of $15 gets you the digital bundle, the Crossed Genres subscription, and a print copy of the book – the only run of print copies there’ll be.

There are other rewards, like extra copies, and even a cartoon portrait of you (With SCIENCE!) included in the print edition. Go here to make a pledge. You have until tomorrow night!

1) LAST CHANCE to reserve a copy of the Science in My Fiction contest winners! A pledge of just $4 gets you a digital copy, or as low as $15 for a print copy (and then some). Copies will have original cover art by artist Julie Dillon (known to CG people for her incredible cover to our LGBTQ issue). Plus, if we reach $1000 in pledges (we’re very close!) we’re going to commission additional artwork to accompany each story! Pledges can also get you cheap discounted subscriptions to Crossed Genres, signed copies of the contest winners, and even a cartoon portrait of you (with SCIENCE!) included in the print edition!

2) LAST CHANCE to read Crossed Genres issue 7: URBAN! This is a terrific issue and goes away for good after the 31st! You can also pick up a print or digital copy.

3) LAST CHANCE to submit a story for the LIES issue! Submissions have been strong, and the cover will be done by Lisa Grabenstetter. It should be an excellent issue!

For those in the U.S., remember that May 29-31 is Memorial Day Weekend – which means it’ll be easy to forget that you meant to do one (or more) of the above until it’s too late! Don’t put it off until the last minute!

In case you’re not on Twitter, or missed our mad excited tweeting last night: WE MADE IT! The Crossed Genres “Science in My Fiction” contest reached 100% of our goal last night!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s pledged so far. We were confident from the beginning that we’d make it, but it’s a huge worry behind us now that we’re there, and we can concentrate on having the contest results turn out brilliantly.

Of course, there are still 18 days left to the pledge drive! And the more pledges we get the better each copy will be! We know we’ll never get anywhere near these guys (and we say kudos to them, we were one of their earlier supporters), we’d love to reach the point where we can add artwork to the print copies! If you’d like to see the final versions even more impressive, please keep spreading the word. And thanks again to everyone who’s supported the contest so far!

FICTION:
“Last Tango in Gamma Sector” by Michael R. Underwood
“Conflicts” by Timothy T. Murphy
“The Crate” by Daniel José Older
“Peace Signs” by Wendy N. Wagner
“Combat Stress Reaction” by Don Pizarro

ARTICLE:
“Science Fiction, Fantasy, Artifacts & Gadgets: Just the Basics” by Craig Allen

COVER ART:
“Artefacts” by Lisa Grabenstetter and Evan Jensen

Issue 19 comes out on June 1.
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We’re gearing up for a BUSY summer for CG. There’s SiMF and the contest, new issues, we’re prepping for our oversized “Characters of Color” issue (Submissions: September. Release: November 1). AND! We’re doing our FLASH FICTION CONTEST again! We had so much fun with it last year that we’re doing it again in June! So prep your stories – submissions will be open the first 2 weeks of June ONLY!

We are SO CLOSE on the Science in My Fiction contest Kickstarter drive!

Just $25 shy of our goal – so close we can taste it! Please consider making a pledge and pushing us over the top. Remember, the more pledges we get, the better the print edition will be!

We also announced that artist Julie Dillon, who created the applauded cover to our LGBTQ issue, will be providing the cover art for the SiMF contest print edition! Yay!

SiMF has gotten some nice attention lately. Author Jay Lake recently linked to one of Kay’s posts, saying “I am really digging this new-to-me site”. Author Steven Gould said SiMF “is turning into a must-read site for SF writers”. SiMF also has 4 new bloggers whose first posts will be appearing soon.

Remember! This is the LAST MONTH to check out Issue 7: URBAN! This was a terrific issue, and featured the widely acknowledged (and unintentionally controversial) cover art from Jamaican artist Paul Davey:

Speaking of issue 7: Congratulations to Nathan Crowder, whose story Deacon Carter’s Last Dime from issue 7 was featured on BestScienceFictionStories.com! Please read the issue for free, and consider picking up a copy before it goes away forever!

Duotrope, one of the best resources for short story markets, has introduced an Editor Interview feature that they’re beta-testing right now. And I did one! Go read my 12-question interview.

Back to the grind, so to speak. Working on finishing up issue 19, and prepping for all the above awesomeness. As soon as the SiMF contest hits its goal I’ll start on the print edition in earnest.

We’re thrilled to announce that artist Julie Dillon has agreed to create artwork for the cover of the print edition of the Science in My fiction contest winners!

Julie provided the artwork for the cover of Crossed Genres’ special LGBTQ issue which was released in November:

Julie’s done work for Wizards of the Coast, Paizo Publishing, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Fantasy Flight Games, and Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, amongst others. She was my first choice to do the cover for the SiMF contest and I’m ecstatic she has time and is enthusiastic about it.

Remember, the print edition won’t be made unless we make our pledge goal! As of this writing we’re just $65 shy of our goal. Please help spread the word and push us over the top! Thanks!

ARTWORK

The New Enlightenment by Padibut Preeyawongsakul

FICTION
I Will Come Home by Chris Fletcher
The Only Motion is Returning by Del Dryden
Goddess by Lavanya Karthik
The Last Rickshaw by Stephanie Lai
When the Earth and Sea Swapped Places by Kaolin Fire

ARTICLE
Growing Up by Joyce Chng

This is a beautiful issue that we’re immensely proud of. Please read and enjoy! If you like something, please leave a comment letting the author or artist know!

We’re getting down to the wire for submissions to the Gadgets & Artifacts issue. Tomorrow (Friday) is the deadline! We’ve got a fair number of submissions but we always want more!

Saturday is the release of issue 18, the Eastern issue. We’re extremely pleased with how this issue turned out. We did encounter a problem, though: We got the proof copy back and the cover was FAR too dark, to the point you could hardly see what was going on. We had to lighten it up and order a new proof. I shelled out the $ for extra-fast delivery, but it’s unlikely to arrive before release day. That means the print edition won’t be available until probably around May 3rd or so. I apologize for this: it was the result of illness, first our son’s, and then mine, that caused us to fall behind. I’ve been taking steps to keep it from happening again, even in the case of illness.

A big part of those steps I’ve been taking has been getting ahead – FAR ahead – in my CG work. I had some time this past week free, and I’ve been using it to get advance work done on every CG and SiMF project I can think of. The result is that I’ve advanced some projects so far, I’m literally months ahead of where I thought I’d be at the end of this month. I actually feel very discombobulated, because I keep thinking “ONO I FORGOT SOMETHING!”, but I really didn’t.

Part of this advance work was improving our preparation for future issues. I’ve reached the point where every issue through the end of our second year (issue 24) is as done as they can possibly be without having the actual content. This means that the actual building of each issue when we’ve chosen the content will be less time-consuming, which means a far lower chance of any delays.

I’ve also been working ahead on some other projects, including the eventual publication of RJ Astruc’s A Festival of Skeletons. We’re talking to an artist about the cover, and the layout/formatting is mostly done. The expected publication date is December 1, but we’ve got to have it finished well in advance so we can get it into the hands of reviewers. Kay’s done a wonderful job working with Astruc to edit the novel. I’m also working ahead on Crossed Genres Year Two, our second anthology. That one’s really jumping the gun though, since we won’t even know what’s going in the last issue (#24) until the beginning of October.

Speaking of issue 24: I just want to remind everyone, we’re doing another double-sized special to end our second year. This year’s theme will be Characters of Color, where the main character must be a CoC. We’re expecting high submissions for that issue but we’re also accepting twice as many for publication, so be sure to get yours in for that! Submissions for issue #24 will be accepted in September.

The Science in My Fiction blog has been chugging along. Exciting news – we were contacted by io9, the giant science/SF site. They asked if they could reprint an occasional SiMF post! We made arrangements, and the first reprint went up yesterday. We’re flattered that io9 thought so highly of SiMF’s work!

As you can see, we’re over 80% of the way to our Kickstarter goal for the Science in My Fiction contest! The contest only runs until the end of May – this is your ONLY chance to get a copy of the contest winners! Please help us get that last bit of the way – if for no other reason than so we can stop worrying about whether we’ll get there!

Finally, I want to mention that M-Brane SF #16 just came out. There’s a story by Kay in it! Go check it out!

Post title from “Hotel California” by the Eagles

Earth Day is special for Crossed Genres, not only because we’re environmentalists. It was on Earth Day last year that we had a little sale and got our first-ever online subscribers! It was important to us, in terms of feeling we had a real connection and commitment to the community we were building.

We wanted to do something again this year, but we’ve been swamped and haven’t had time… plus e-subscriptions are already discounted if you get them by pledging to our Kickstarter drive.

However, we’re not letting today go by with nothing, so here’s the deal: Pledge at least $9 to our Kickstarter drive by midnight tonight, and if the Kickstarter is successful you’ll get something special. Something that people who pledge later don’t get. We don’t know what it will be, exactly, but we’ll think of something cool. In acknowledgment of Earth Day, it’ll probably be something digital.

So please spread the word! A “Special Something” if you pledge by tonight! Plus all the other cool rewards you get from pledging!

The Kickstarter drive to fund the Science in My Fiction contest surged over 50% today! We only need $324 more in the next 41 days! We’re very confident that we’ll get there. Remember, if you EVER want a print copy, you have to preorder with a pledge to Kickstarter – the contest winners will never be printed again! Only one shot!

The contest itself is moving right along; submissions are still slow, understandably… entries will be accepted through the end of June, so we expect to get 60% or more of the total entries in the last month.

And Science in My Fiction has been fun recently too! Check out some of the latest fascinating posts, including my post from yesterday about divergent evolution.

The latest chapter of A Festival of Skeletons has been released! A Festival of Skeletons is a remarkable novel by New Zealand author RJ Astruc, being serialized on our website exclusively for subscribers! If you’re not a subscriber, now’s the time – get a subscription for 10% off by pledging to the SiMF Kickstarter drive! Only $0.75 per month, plus you get an e-book of the SiMF contest winners!

Reminder: This is the last month to read and/or purchase Issue 6, our WESTERN issue! Terrific issue, with great stories and some AWESOME art:

Next month, exactly one year after the Western issue was published, we’ll be publishing issue 18: our EASTERN issue. It’s got an absolutely breathtaking cover by Thai artist Narm; an article by Singapore writer Joyce Chng (whose story A Matter of Possession appeared in our Alternate History issue); and 5 excellent and diverse stories:
“I Will Come Home” by Chris Fletcher
“The Only Motion is Returning” by Del Dryden
“Goddess” by Lavanya Karthik
“The Last Rickshaw” by Stephanie Lai
“When the Earth and Sea Swapped Places” by Kaolin Fire

We’re currently accepting submissions to # 19, our Gadgets & Artifacts issue. Submissions have been pretty steady, to our relief – we didn’t want a repeat of last month when we had terribly low submission number until the final 5 days of the month.

Two nights ago Kay and I sat down and hashed out a tentative schedule for monthly themes in Year 3 of Crossed Genres. It’s always exciting looking ahead to what we’ll be doing next! Even after setting the schedule we have over 90 genres/themes left, so we’re well set for many years to come. We have some classic genres in the immediate future, as well as some interesting surprises!

Speaking of surprises – hoo boy is our schedule full! I have a project I really want to do, but I can’t see any time in my schedule until Fall 2011! Working on freeing things up a bit to hopefully get to it this year.

Post title from “Wondering Where the Lions Are” by Bruce Cockburn

Those who aren’t already subscribers – Get a subscription for 10% off right now! For a limited time, a pledge of $9 to our Kickstarter drive gets you a one-year subscription PLUS digital copies of the Science in My Fiction contest winners! Please watch the silly video, and then pledge to get your subscription (plus more) for only $0.75 per month! (Pledging can also get you print copies of the contest winners!)

I decided a compilation of some of the most common, and the most outlandish/surprising, errors would serve two purposes: First, it would be an entertaining, with plenty of laugh and cringe-inducing examples. And second, it could be very useful for aspiring writers – cautionary tales of what not to do.

(Of course every market, and for that matter every editor, is different, so there will be some difference of opinion. No matter what, always read the guidelines thoroughly before submitting.)

So if there are any editors out there from small-market magazines or small presses who would like to share a few of their “favorite” examples of submission mistakes, please email me! cg-at-crossedgenres-dot-com. Include the following:

• A short list (up to 10) of what you consider the most common mistakes you see in submissions. If you’d like you can include short “Why you shouldn’t do that” explanations.
• A short list (up to 10) of the most jaw-dropping, “I-can’t-believe-they-DID-that!” things you’ve seen. If you’d like you can include short “Why you shouldn’t do that” explanations.

Please include your name and email address, and let me know if you want to be anonymous, or if you would like to be listed as a contributor. (NOTE: I’m looking specifically for mistakes in submissions – not queries!)

This compilation will be free. I’m putting it together as a resource, and don’t intend to make money off it. I’ll make it into various digital formats and make them all free to distribute under a Creative Commons license.

Thanks!

Deacon Carter’s Last Dime first appeared in Crossed Genres Issue 7 (URBAN).

ETA: Nathan is reading “Deacon Carter’s Last Dime” on Friday, April 2 at 12:30pm at Norwescon! If you’re there, go!

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Congratulations also to Barbara Ann Wright, whose short story “Damaged On Every Level” made the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List of 2009!

Damaged On Every Level first appeared in Crossed Genres Issue 11 (HORROR).

First, as I posted late last night, Issue 17: ANTIHERO has been released! This issue is amazing; please read, view and enjoy!

Today we are also officially accepting entries to the Science in My Fiction contest! You can now submit your entry via the simple online form. Entries will be accepted until June 30.

Also! Please preorder your copy of the contest winners! If you aren’t a subscriber, this is the only way you’ll get to read them, and the only time you’ll have the chance to get them in print! After the contest is over we won’t be selling any more copies! Preorders will only be open until May 31!

Remember how, for most of March, I was imploring people to spread the word about the Eastern issue, since submissions were incredibly thin? Well thank you to everyone who did, because it WORKED. To our utter delight, we were absolutely slammed with submissions right at the end of the month! We received 60% of the month’s submissions in the last three days! The boost was so enormous that it got us all the way up to our average! Our valiant slush readers have been working their butts off, but there’s still some unread stories. Amazing. One of these days I’ll actually accept that early numbers don’t mean anything. At any rate, we’ll be reading manically over the next few days.

We also got a look at the almost-completed cover art for the Eastern issue. It is beautiful! An incredible contrast to the Antihero cover art. The artist is from Thailand and has done a wonderful job of capturing both the Eastern theme and the essence of CG and SFF. Lovely.

Now we’re on to accepting submissions for our next issue! The Gadgets & Artifacts issue wants stories in which some SF or F object is integral to the story. Beyond that, be as creative as you want! Submissions open until April 30.

This month is your last chance to read and/or buy the Western issue! With some terrific stories, a great article about the first ever science fiction western, and the first cover of ours done by Nicc Balce! Nicc’s done a couple more covers for us since, including the cover of the Year One anthology. Check out Issue 6, and consider picking up a copy before it’s too late!

Finally, one last item I want to draw attention to: We have the Upcoming Genres for the next 5 issues posted every month, and right now that takes us through the end of our 2nd year (!). As with the end of our first year, we’ve decided to do an oversized special edition to mark the end of the 2nd year. For a theme, we’ve chosen Characters of Color. For this issue, the main character(s) of every story and every piece of artwork must be a character of color. We’ve chosen this theme to encourage more broad inclusion of CoC’s, which are distinctly underrepresented in SFF.

Post title from Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman

ARTWORK (Fair Warning: This artwork is more graphic than our usual covers!)

“Our Hell” by Tânia Sousa Ribeiro

FICTION

High School 3000 by Timothy Miller
Monsters by Ross Willard
The Third Cosmic Crisis, As I Recall it by Collin Blair Grabarek
Three Little Pigs by Jo Thomas
Fame & Blowing Bubbles by K.S. Riggin

ARTICLE

We Are Mighty by Jaym Gates

This issue is simply mindblowing. Go. Read. See. Enjoy!

Wednesday is also the LAST day to read the Humor issue! Some great stories and a terrific article by Piers Anthony on writing Humor! Go read it and/or buy it while you still can!

Issue 17 is pretty much wrapped up. I meant to finish the PDF today, but realized I didn’t properly size the cover art. D’oh. So I’ll do that tonight and finish it tomorrow. The new issue (ANTIHERO) goes live on Thursday!

Thursday is also the day we begin accepting entries to the Science in My Fiction contest! All over we’re seeing boisterous posts by excited writers – almost every one of which mentions the research they’re doing or the story they’ve started writing. Going to be a kicking contest!

Speaking of kicking: If you want to read the contest winners and aren’t a subscriber, go pledge at least $4 to the contest Kickstarter drive. We’re raising funds to put the contest winners in print; we’re already over one-third of the way there! Only subscribers or people who pledge to the kickstarter drive will get to read the contest winners! There are great rewards for pledging, like cheap CG subscriptions, signed print copies of the contest winners, and even a cartoon drawing of YOU, drawn by my co-editor Kay, printed in the print edition of the contest winners! The rewards which enable you to read the contest winners start as low as $4. The pledge drive only lasts until May 31, so go watch our silly video about the contest, and pledge today!

There’s some talk about the Outer Alliance possibly having a dealer table and/or group reading at Dragoncon in September! If so, Kay and I will do our damnedest to be there!

Post title from The Sneetches by Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel

“From lovers whose needs suck away others’ life forces to the foibles of superheroes past their prime, Crossed Genres makes a tasty break from ordinary speculative fiction. This twisted group of stories both inflames and amuses. At ten bucks a pop, it is hard not to recommend its purchase.”

- Reviewer: KJ Hannah Greenberg

The Science in My Fiction contest has been very well received. It looks like there will be plenty of entries! The winning entries will be published in the Subscribers Area of the website – if you’re not a subscriber, you can get a discounted subscription, as well as preorder print copies of the winning stories (get them signed by the writers!) over at our Kickstarter fundraising drive. pledging to the drive is the ONLY way to get copies, digital or otherwise, of the winners! (Subscribers will be able to read them temporarily but not download them, and we’re only doing one print run!) Please support our efforts to get the winners in print! If we don’t make our fundraising goal then no print edition will be made – fundraising is off to a good start but there’s still a ways to go!

Issue 18: EASTERN STILL NEEDS SUBMISSIONS! I’m frankly stunned at how few we’ve received. We want to do justice to the Eastern theme, so please get your submissions in; better than average odds this month, apparently!

The issue 17 (Antihero) proof has been approved. Wow, it turned out even better than I’d hoped! I was a little worried that too much would be cropped from the bottom, but not at all. I’m most of the way done with the online stuff for the issue too.

Today Kay nailed down the last cover art she was looking for; now, we have cover artists set all the way through issue 23! Woo, go Kay! As a result, we’ll be closed to cover art submissions for a while.

Post title from the poem “Disobedience” by A.A. Milne

And now’s the part where we ask for your help. Obviously, we want people to enter stories in the contest (beginning on April 1). And with the prizes being offered, we’re confident there’ll be a good number of entries.

Well, we also really want to put the winning entries in print! But after taking the costs of the contest directly out of our pockets (in addition to regular CG expenses), the additional costs of producing a quality print edition is a bit too much for us.

So we’ve started a Kickstarter drive to fund the print edition! It’s simple: Go visit the Kickstarter page. Watch the funny video Kay made, with us and our son Baz being silly, and some absurd animations we made.

Then, check out the various rewards you can get by pledging to the drive, including copies of the print edition of the contest winners. We’re only aiming to do a single print run, which means pledging to the drive is the only way to get a copy of the stories! The stories will be published in the Subscribers Area of the Crossed Genres site, so if you’re not a subscriber and want to read the stories, pledge something!

There are several different levels of rewards, but you can pledge any amount you want. You can get the stories (in digital formats) with a pledge as low as $4.

There are also some awesome other rewards: cheap online subscriptions to CG, SIGNED copies of the contest winning stories, and more. One of the pledge levels is the first and only time we have ever offered a LIFETIME online subscription to CG! For those who love Kay’s art: Get a cartoon version of you drawn by her and printed right in the print edition of the contest winners!

If we don’t reach the pledge goal, there won’t be a print edition of the winners… it’s that simple. But here’s the thing: you only pay your pledge IF we reach the goal! So if we get there, you get your awesome reward(s), and if not, you’ve lost nothing! It’s win-win!

Please check out the Kickstarter drive, watch the video, check out the rewards, and consider making a pledge. Get your copy of the print edition the only way possible!

“Here’s how it works: Authors write a science fiction or fantasy short story which is inspired by a scientific discovery or innovation made or announced within the past year. It can’t be peripherally added: the science must be integral to the story. Writers must include a link to a relevant article or study of the applied science when they submit their stories.”

A panel of 6 amazing judges will vote on the finalists. There’s $400 of cash prizes to be won, plus subscriptions, books, etc.

Please visit the contest page, read the entry guidelines, see who the judges are, and read about our Kickstarter drive to put the winning stories in print!

Then, enter your story! The contest will be open for entries from April 1 through June 30. Winners will be announced on July 21.

Show us there’s still room for real Science in fiction! Huge thanks to everyone who helped us make the contest happen!

We still need EASTERN SUBMISSIONS! We’ve gotten some submissions that match the genre now, but we’re still looking at the lowest submission rate we’ve had in almost a year. Please send in your submissions!

I’ve got most of the digital editions of Issue 17 finished. I still need to do the PDF – it’s a bit different so it has to be done separately. And I spent some time today working on the online stuff… it’s not finished but I made some good progress.

This weekend Kay and I will be attending Vericon! It’s our third Vericon and we expect to have a blast. If you come to the con and mention you read about the con here in our blog, we just might dig out a free copy of Crossed Genres Year One for you!

Also, this Sunday we’ll be making our super-awesome announcement that I’ve been hinting at for months now. Yay! It almost seems unreal that something we’ve been planning for so long is finally coming to fruition. I will give another (useless) hint: today, I spent some time in downtown Boston hunting for test tubes. It was one of the strangest things I’ve ever had to hunt for, and was not made easy by the fact that I was in the legal district. However, I was successful.

Post title from “American Tune” by Paul Simon

So what do you think? Want the chance to ask me questions? (I suspect Kay will be willing to answer a few too).

I got the photos I’d been waiting on, and submitted issue 17 for approval. Just a few minutes ago ordered the proof copy. Woo! (I love how this issue looks. Love it!)

I also spent a good part of the weekend (and this morning) working on last-minute stuff before our big announcement this Sunday! So excited! Want to spill the beans now. Must… resist…!

Hey, this month is your last chance to enjoy our Humor issue! After March it goes away forever! Go have a read, or pick up a copy!

I got a very nice compliment about the design/layout work I did on the CG anthology! Not knowing I’d done the work myself, the person said it “looks very nice–seemingly economically printed but very nice cover production and good inside layout” and asked me of I could “recommend resources for putting out a paper book at that level?” It’s always nice to have the quality of your hard work validated. =)

Post title from “King of Spain” by Moxy Früvous

Now some happier news: Barbara Ann Wright’s short story Damaged On Every Level, which first appeared in Crossed Genres issue 11, was included in the Tangent Online 2009 Recommended Reading list! Congratulations to Barbara for the well-deserved recognition.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, Kay and I decided to turn over the operation of our erotic SFF zine The Little Death of Crossed Genres. With all the various projects we have, there just wasn’t any way we could give it the attention it needed and deserved. Fortunately, Jaym Gates and Chris Fletcher agreed to take over as co-editors! We’re very thrilled to have Jaym and Chris aboard, and we expect they’ll have Little Death chugging along in no time.

The print edition of Issue 17 is just about complete. I’m just waiting on a couple of print-ready photos that we’re including with the non-fiction article in the issue. After that I’ll be able to finalize it and submit it to the publisher immediately. The digital editions are in a similar place – I need the photos before I can get them any further along. Still, we’re in a good place with the issue.

And it’s a good thing, because the 2nd half of March is going to be mad – MAD I say! Why? Well I can’t tell you yet, but the big announcement is coming next Sunday the 21st. We’ll be at Vericon in Cambridge, MA that weekend – anyone who’s around should come, it’s a really fun convention! Any con that has Timothy Zahn and Randall Munroe as their two main speakers has gotta be good! (We’ve been the previous two years, so we know for a fact that it’s a fun con.) Find us at Vericon and mention that you saw this post, and we might just give you a free copy of the Crossed Genres anthology!

WE NEED SUBMISSIONS! The Eastern issue has received frighteningly few submissions… and for some reason a number of them have not been set in Eastern cultures like the guidelines say. Please send in your Eastern submissions, and spread the word that we’re in real need!

Meanwhile our latest endeavor, the Science in My Fiction blog, has been developing well. There are four posts up so far, which have spurred some great discussions – everything from dolphins-as-persons to quantum mechanics to the significance of water in spec-fic writing. Go take a read, and join the fun!

Post title is from “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by John Denver

Due to time constraints from their other responsibilities, Bart Leib and K.T. Holt are turning over the operation of “Little Death” to two colleagues:

Jaym Gates is an intern and writer with Fantasy Magazine. She also writes horror and the occasional LGBTQ romance and is a proud member of Outer Alliance. She can be found at her website or her blog.

Chris Fletcher is the editor of M-Brane SF Magazine and works tirelessly to fight fascism. He recently moved from the buckle of the Bible Belt with his boyfriend and his two cats. He is also a member of Outer Alliance. Find Chris on Twitter.

Jaym and Chris were slush readers for “Little Death” prior to agreeing to become editors; each brings valuable experience (and an open mind!) to their new role. We’re ecstatic that they’ve agreed to take over running “Little Death”!

*********************

Part 2 of this announcement!

Previously, “Little Death” had compensation for accepted submissions lower than that of Crossed Genres. Starting immediately, compensation has been raised to match Crossed Genres’ compensation. For more information visit the submission guidelines.

The release of Issue 16: STEAMPUNK has been very well received. Go, read, enjoy!

But the new issue has been somewhat overshadowed by the very successful opening of Science in My Fiction! SiMF is our new blog intended to “get science fiction and fantasy writers and fans thinking ahead of science again. Playful bloggers will take a look at recent scientific developments and extrapolate potential futures from them.” The first couple posts are up and have already sparked some lively and fun speculation. Apparently SiMF has made a good impression, because it got a short write-up on io9! w00t! In fact, as of this writing it’s still on the front page of io9… awesome!

We’ve made our choices for acceptance to the Antihero issue! We’ll be sending out emails tonight. Also OMG the cover is incredible!

We’re now accepting submissions for our EASTERN issue. We’re looking for stories set in Eastern cultures. Submissions have been slow so far… please get your subs in! We really want this one to be impressive. (Anyone can submit, by the way – the setting and preferably the characters will be from Eastern cultures, but the writer doesn’t have to be.)

This month is your LAST CHANCE to read our Humor issue! Enjoy it before it’s gone! It includes an article about writing humor by Piers Anthony! And if you like, pick up a copy!

Most of the past couple of days have been spent troubleshooting some last details on the SiMF site, and prepping for another Surprise we have coming. Said surprise will be announced in just about two weeks! But it’s mostly ready. I also spent some time getting some of the early work done on Issue 17.

One last thing I want to mention: some very generous people have created 100 Stories For Haiti. It’s an anthology of 100 short stories, created to help raise funds for relief efforts in Haiti. All proceeds go to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal. It’s very similar to Post a Story For Haiti, except you get a wonderful printed book out of it! Please consider purchasing a copy to help with the ongoing Haiti relief.

Post title is from “American Pie” by Don McLean

ANNOUNCEMENT # 1

Issue 16: STEAMPUNK is now live on the website!

Artwork

Rotterdam Bay by Shaun Lindow

FICTION

Dead’s End to Middleton by Natania Barron
Whirligig Fingers and Globular Thumbs by Polenth Blake
The Vostrasovitch Clockwork Animal and Traveling Forest Show at the End of the World by Jessica Reisman
Twentieth Century by Michael Glenn Farquhar
The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue by Dawn Vogel

ARTICLE

Doctor Tsoundpounder’s Euterpean Soliliquizer by J.C. Hay

This is a fun, intriguing and eclectic issue! Please read and enjoy. And please make the writers/artists very happy and leave them a comment with what you thought!

ANNOUNCEMENT # 2

We’re excited to announce

Science in My Fiction is a new blog we’re launching to get science fiction and fantasy writers and fans thinking ahead of science again. Playful bloggers will take a look at recent scientific developments and extrapolate potential futures from them.

Science in My Fiction (or “SiMF”) will update Mondays and Fridays (to start – possibly more frequently as it develops and more contributors are added). The first post by Kay Holt is up. Please join the discussion! As Kay likes to say: It’s time to seize culture and do science to it!

Read issue 4: CRIME before it’s gone forever! It disappears tomorrow night! It was a damned good issue, too! (You can also buy it – only $5, free shipping from Amazon!)

Monday we’re releasing Issue 16: STEAMPUNK. I’m so very pleased with how this issue came out. It’s a very specific genre and some people find it limiting, but this is truly one of our most diverse issues yet.

Today I’ve mostly spent doing touch-up work to make sure everything is ready for the release, as well as for our super-seekrit announcement! Speaking of which, Kay posted an amusing piece of art which is half homage to our youths, half teaser for the upcoming announcement. Either way it’s damn funny.

I’m also doing some more research into the viability of a CG print subscription. We’ve considered it in the past but were never sure it it could be done without bankrupting us; that’s what I’m researching now. I’ll have more info soon. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, please fill out our survey about print subscriptions to Crossed Genres. It’s only 5 questions, it’ll take barely any time.

I mentioned this on Twitter earlier today: We currently have a list of genres/themes for future issues that, even if never expanded, would take us halfway through our ninth year of existence. So worry not, we’ve got you covered!

Post title from “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe

1) Sunday is the LAST DAY to submit to the ANTIHERO issue! Thus far subs have been pretty solid – we’re well over last month’s totals – but we need more! We always need more!

2) Also, this is your LAST CHANCE to read Issue 4 – CRIME! It was a terrific issue, and after Sunday it’s gone for good! Go read it while you can, and consider buying it – only $5!

3) Have a Crossed Genres story you particularly like? Nominate it for the 2010 Million Writers Award! Nominations close on Sunday!

4) We’ve seen the almost-completed cover for the Antihero issue. Wow, it is amazing, and definitely the most risque-slash-disturbing cover we’ve had yet! I think it may be the best we’ve had at really telling a fascinating story all on its own.

5) Those of you with iPhones can take advantage of a new development to our site that our brilliant web guru Matt clued me into – the site is now optimized for viewing on the iPhone thanks to an amazing WordPress plugin called WPTouch. Check out the site via iPhone, it’s incredible how sharp it looks and functions. Anyone who uses WP, I strongly recommend this plugin for your site!

6) We have so much fun stuff coming up soon, we’re itching to tell you now! We’ll be making one announcement on March 1 – brace yourselves!

Post title is from the theme music to the 1980′s animated tv show “Gummi Bears”

Beginning with Issue 15, you can now purchase a zip file containing 7 digital file types: EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF & PRC. Every major ebook reader and smartphone will read at least one of these files, including Kindle, B&N Nook, Sony Readers, Microsoft Reader, iPhone, Palm, Blackberry and more. All formats are DRM-free. The Issue 15 bundle is now available for $1.59 as a download from our store.

We decided to begin offering the bundles because we feel that no one should have to repurchase our issues or books if they decide to switch to a new ebook reader. This way, if you do ever switch, you should still have at least one file type which will work on your new reader. The bundle also enables you to easily have copies of the book on your mobile device as well as on your PC at home.

The Issue 15 bundle is also available to subscribers at no extra cost. Download it in the Subscribers area.

All future issues will be sold as a bundle. We will also be releasing a similar bundle soon for our anthology, Crossed Genres Year One; the price will remain $4.99.

Over the last few days I’ve been communicating with several people who are testing out various new versions of the magazine. I’m working on making the magazine available in as many as seven digital formats, which will cover just about all of the various ebook readers and smartphones. (Formats I’m working on are EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF & PRC.)

BUT, the many different formats will not be available for individual sale – starting with issue 16 on March 1, all seven different file types will be sold together as a digital bundle for no extra cost. That’s right, we will begin selling a zipped file that includes all the digital formats, for the same $1.59 we’ve been charging for PDFs and PRCs. All versions will be DRM-free.

Why are we doing this? Frankly, because we don’t think it’s fair that you’d have to buy the issue again if you wanted to switch to a new reader. This way, you get to keep the issue (or book; we’ll be doing this with our book releases too, although the prices may vary) even if you switch from PC to iPhone to Nook and back to PC.

And before any of our subscribers ask: YES, the bundles will be available for free download in the Subscribers Area as well.

Most likely we will not be going back and redoing previous issues in bundles, mainly because we don’t really have time. We may do the most recent few, though. If anyone would really like to have a particular issue offered this way, let us know and we’ll consider it.
_________________________________

I mentioned on Twitter last night that the % of submissions we receive from women has dropped rather sharply. During our first year (the first 12 issues), 47.94% of submissions were from women. So far in our second year (issues 13-16), that number is 39.34%. This month (Antihero) is even lower, at 28.57%. It does vary a bit from month to month, which could be small-sample-size random variation. But the overall trend is kind of surprising.

Although, this doesn’t have any effect on our acceptances. We do NOT accept stories based on the gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. of the writer (most of the time we don’t know these things anyway) – we accept the best stories we get each month, regardless of who wrote them. Interestingly, despite the trend in submissions, over issues 13-16 we’ve published 9 stories from men and 12 from women.
_________________________________

• Other than some adjustments I need to make to the digital editions for the bundle, Issue 16 is pretty much done. We’re still waiting on the proof copy to arrive, but it should get to us any time.
• We’re still accepting submissions for Issue 17: ANTIHERO! We’re only a couple submissions away from matching last month, so we should end up comfortably ahead in total submissions.
• Remember, this is the LAST MONTH that Issue 4: CRIME will be available! Go read it, and consider buying it as well – only $5!
• And lest we forget (Hah!), Issue 15: ANY PREVIOUS GENRE is brilliant. Please read, & if you like, buy it!

Post title from “I’m Gonna Be An Engineer” by Peggy Seeger; performed by Pete Seeger.

Yesterday I met Justine Graykin in person for the first time. Justine’s story Archimedes Nesselrode appeared in our Humor issue back in April. And today I met Scott Andrews, whose story Keeli’s Ordeal is in the current issue: Scott is Editor-In-Chief of the terrific ezine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. We also got to say hi again to Walter Hunt; Walter contributed to the Alternate History issue (and his daughter Aline had a review in issue 10).

There were some great panels, too: ib>Technology T/o/d/a/y Tomorrow, Global Events, Local Effects?: Climate Change, SF/F/H Sites to See (Before You Die): E Publishing and Online Media, and Believable Relationships stick out. (One big problem throughout Boskone was a lack of microphones, or mics that just didn’t work; we walked out of a couple panels because we couldn’t hear a word they were saying.)

The dealer area was pretty neat; the M.I.T. Science Fiction Society was selling old issues of Asimov’s, F&SF, Analog, Galaxy, etc., for 25 cents each! Kay and I each found issues from the month we were born. We happened to walk by the Bruce Coville table as Coville himself was there; Kay’s loved his books for a long time, and went a bit fangirl when he signed copies of Goblins in the Castle and My Teacher Is an Alien to our son Baz.

Also, the Con suite had a ton of delicious breads that had been donated, and they were begging people to take some home because there was no way they’d use it all. So we have a bunch of tasty bread to eat!

————
CG business:

A new chapter of A Festival of Skeletons is up! If you have a subscription you can go here to read it; if not, subscribe now! Only 83 cents a month!

The issue 16 proof has been shipped; we’ll hopefully get it by the end of next week. the other editions are pretty well in hand; I still need to have the .LIT, .LRF and .PDB versions tested! If you have an ereader that can read one of these formats and you want a free e-copy of issue 15, please email me!

We’ve had more submissions to the Antihero issue, coming in at a nice steady rate. We love it! Keep ‘em coming! And remember to look ahead to our Upcoming Genres – we now have the next FIVE upcoming genres listed!

There’s some awesome stuff coming up with CG soon, and I so wish I could share now, but…. eeeeegh, no. You’ll have to wait 2 more weeks for 1 announcement, and another few for the next one. [/tease]

Post title is a line from the film Alice In Wonderland, based on the book Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

However, we’ve been keeping up! In fact, we’re a little ahead: the print edition of Issue 16 (Steampunk) is submitted to the printer already! I’ve also made a ton of progress on the various other versions; we’re probably a good 10 days ahead of where we usually are. Awesome!

Speaking of “other versions”: anyone out there have an e-reader (or a smartphone they read on) that would like to test out Crossed Genres? I’m working on getting CG into some new formats: Currently I have test versions of issue 15 in .EPUB, .LIT, .LRF, .MOBI and .PDB formats. If you have a device that reads one of these and would be willing to test it out, please email me. Hey, free copy of the current issue!

We’re accepting submissions for our Antihero issue! Submissions have been pretty strong thus far: at least, we’re about 60% of the way to January’s total and it’s only the 12th. Keep ‘em coming! I can’t wait to see the completed cover of this one: the black-and-whites we’ve seen have been… impressive and disturbing.

We’re going to be at Boskone this weekend! If you’re going to be there and want to meet up, drop us a line! We’re meeting a few friends there too, including Mike Kabongo, an agent and all-around great guy. We’re also planning visits to Vericon and possibly PAX East, both in March.

A new chapter of A Festival of Skeletons will be out in the Subscribers Area on Sunday! If you’re not subscribed – do so now!

We have much in the works, as always, and we’ll be rolling out something new at the beginning of March. Because we just can’t stop thinking of awesome new projects to deliver to you!

Post title comes from a line in the recent film version of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

• As I posted about last night, Issue 15 has been released! The Any Previous Genre issue came out brilliantly. It’s all free on the site, please enjoy!
• As I also posted about last night, today is also the release day for Crossed Genres Year One, our first anthology! Thus far response has been excellent. If you have a copy, please consider blogging about it, or leaving a review on Amazon – it would really help us out!
• Another very easy way to help out would be to please fill out our short survey about print subscriptions to Crossed Genres. A number of people have asked us about them and we’d like to gauge interest.
• We ended up with a decent number of submissions for the Steampunk issue, thanks to a large rush right near the end. For some reason this month saw more submissions with disqualifying errors than we’ve ever seen before – lots of subs that were too long, too short, not the right genre, or mediums we don’t publish. Kay and I will be doing some heavy reading the next few days.
• Also, for some reason people seem to think that long titles are required for Steampunk: we received 18 submissions with 4 or more words in the title, 12 with 5 or more, and 6 with 6 or more. The longest had 14 words. We don’t object to long titles, but this collection was rather startling.
• We are now accepting submissions for stories with AntiHeroes! Also, we’ve extended the number of Upcoming Genres we reveal through the next FIVE issues. Hopefully this will give some of you more time to plan and work on your submissions.
• February will be the last chance to read or purchase Issue 4: CRIME. Those of you who’ve discovered CG recently might not know it, but when we started out we couldn’t afford to compensate our contributors except with copies of the magazine. Issue 4 was the first month for which we began offering token payments (and coincidentally, saw us double the number of submissions we received). Crime was a really terrific issue with some great fiction. Please take a look while you still can.
• Finally: There are now more than 120 contributions to Post a Story For Haiti. It’s all free to read, but please consider donating to the relief efforts! The initial emergency may be faded, but Haiti is stil suffering, and will be for a very long time.

Post title from the poem “Blackbird, Fly” by E.J. Graff
carved into the brick ground in the subway station in Davis Square, Somerville, MA

Crossed Genres is immensely proud to announce the official release of our first yearly anthology, Crossed Genres Year One!

CGY1 is a collection of stories selected by the editors – one from each of the first twelve issues.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 (SciFi & Fantasy) – The Time of Tales by C.L. Rossman
02 (Dystopian) – Back To the Beginning by Marilou Goodwin
03 (Romance) – A Crazy Kind of Love by Jeremy Zimmerman
04 (Crime) – The Near-Sighted Sentinel by Adam King
05 (Humor) – Condiment Wars by Jill Afzelius
06 (Western) – Red Dust by Amanda Lord
07 (Urban) – Deacon Carter’s Last Dime by Nathan Crowder
08 (Anthropomorphism) – The Strangler Fig by Jennifer D. Munro
09 (Alternate History) – The Bat And the Blitz by Erika Tracy
10 (Child Fiction) – The Good Old-Fashioned Kind of Water by Camille Alexa
11 (Horror) – The Drain by M. Palmer
12 (LGBTQ) – Cold by Melissa S. Green

The beautiful cover art is titled “Broomstick Aviation” and was provided by Nicc Balce.

“From lovers whose needs suck away others’ life forces to the foibles of superheroes past their prime, Crossed Genres makes a tasty break from ordinary speculative fiction. This twisted group of stories both inflames and amuses. At ten bucks a pop, it is hard not to recommend its purchase.”
- Tangent Online

Crossed Genres Year One is available in print from Amazon and Createspace for $9.99. It’s also available for download directly from us as a PDF.

ARTWORK

Cover: So Much For the Fourth Wall by Nicc Balce

FICTION
The Turk in the Basement by Jason S. Ridler
The Seder Guest by Barbara Krasnoff
Keeli’s Ordeal by Scott H Andrews
Caretaker by Marilou Goodwin
The Prince of Artemis V by Jennifer Brozek

ARTICLE
Writing Our Own (Alternate) Histories: Fanwork As Folklore by C.A. Young

We’re thrilled with how this wonderful and eclectic issue came out! Please go, read and view, and enjoy!

February 1 will see the official release of Crossed Genres Year One, our anthology of collected work from the first year of the magazine! The anthology will be available through Amazon and Createspace, as well as for digital download from the CG website. In case you missed it before, here’s what the cover looks like:

Other stuff:

Post title from the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

Raised in New Orleans, Kelly Jennings teaches writing and literature at the University of Fort Smith-Arkansas. She is partway through a five-book series about Martin Eduardo and the contract labor revolution on Julian. The first book, Martin’s War, is due out with Verb Noire press early in 2010. A short story set in the same universe, Lunch Money, was published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres.

A prequel to Martin’s War, Broken Slate explores a time before the revolution, when Martin was a contract – little better than a slave. In this tense and personal story, Martin is forced to confront the reality that he has greater responsibilities than to himself.

Broken Slate will be serialized for subscribers on the Crossed Genres website beginning in July 2010. After the serialization is complete, Crossed Genres will publish Broken Slate in its entirety.

Except for the online stuff, issue 15 is pretty much finished. I have a couple little things to finalize for the .prc (mobi pocket) edition, but the print and .pdf are set. And we’ve decided not to issue Kindle editions for the foreseeable future.

We’re still lagging with Steampunk submissions! You have 9 days left to get your stories to us!

A ton more writers have contributed stories to Post a Story For Haiti, bringing the total to 113 contributions! That’s all FREE stories, poetry and artwork! Please go enjoy some of the contributions, and thank the contributors by donating to the Haitian relief efforts. This disaster will take decades to recover from, and help is needed just as much now as it was when the first earthquake struck.

Other than the above, we’ve primarily been working on future planning, specifically something we’ll be announcing in mid-March. Kay’s also been communicating with artists and writers for future issues, and we’ve both been working on promotion. We’re also gearing up for February 1, which is a double release day: Issue 15 (Any Previous Genre) and our anthology, Crossed Genres Year One!

One last reminder: In 9 days, Issue 3 (Romance) will disappear forever! Go read it before it’s too late, and consider buying a copy (only $5!).

Post title from “Star Trekkin” by The Firm

First, understand that Kindle has been kind of a pain in the ass for us. The actual creation process is generally fairly simple, but we’ve had some larger problems, including:

• A long time ago (maybe 9 or 10 months), I tried to contact Kindle about setting up customer subscriptions to the Crossed Genres Kindle edition. They never responded. So I tried again. Still nothing. I could only conclude that Kindle isn’t interested in making “small fry” subscriptions available.
• Back on January 2 I posted about Amazon’s absurd email regarding our right to publish CG content. Go read that post for details.

These things didn’t leave us with the best feelings regarding Kindle, but on their own weren’t quite enough to make us abandon the format altogether.

What really has been frustrating us, especially over the last few months, is Amazon’s insistence that they are licensing books to customers – not selling them. Cory Doctorow gives a good summation of the problem here. This, coupled with the fact that we are firmly anti-DRM, means that we can’t in good conscience continue to publish our content with them. We don’t want to support digital publishing methods we don’t believe in.

Crossed Genres will continue to be available on .pdf and .prc (mobi pocket) for download, as well as in print. We’re also going to explore possibly publishing through Fictionwise (if they start accepting new publishers again) or Smashwords. If Amazon ever pulls its collective head out of whatever dark crevasse it’s in, then we’ll reconsider this decision.

Just a few quick things tonight:

Post title from the poem “Casey At the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
First published in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888

That’s 100 copies of the anthology! We’re so very excited to have them in hand. They look absolutely perfect. Here’s a close-up of the cover:

We’ll be packing them for shipment this weekend; Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and all post offices are closed, so we’ll be shipping them out first thing on Tuesday.

Post a Story For Haiti has 59 listings now! Even better, we’ve gotten a number of confirmations for some donations made to charities helping Haiti. Huge, HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed in any way, and to those who helped the Haitian people through other means. Help will still be needed as time goes on, so let’s do our part to keep donations from lagging.

We still need STEAMPUNK submissions! We are FAR behind on submissions this month! Please get your stories in, and if you know people or writing groups who may have something to submit, please tell them about us!

One final thing: We have decided that, beginning immediately, Crossed Genres magazine will no longer be published on Kindle. We have various reasons for this, which I’ll go into in greater detail in a future post when it’s not 1 in the morning.

Because we’re a magazine, the first idea we had was to involve writers and artists. So we’ve started Post a Story For Haiti. We’ve asked anyone who wants to help to post fiction and art to their blogs, sites, etc. for free, with big DONATE buttons at the top and/or bottom that links to Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross and Rainbow Fund, or any of the organizations participating in the relief efforts. That way even writers/artists who struggle financially as we do can lend a hand.

We’ve created a page on the CG website, http://crossedgenres.com/haiti/, where we’re keeping a growing list of participants with links to their stories and art. There’s already a number of great stories there. Please go read and enjoy them. And afterwards, if you’d like to show appreciation and help a huge humanitarian effort at the same time, donate to one of the charities or organizations.

If you’d like to participate by adding a story or artwork, please check out the page and join in. Any questions, please email us at haiti@crossedgenres.com. We hope that this will become a large group effort which offers a way to help the Haitian relief efforts for many people who wanted to, but didn’t think they could.

Thanks,
Bart & Kay

P.S. – this is voluntary on everyone’s part, including our own. The authors, Crossed Genres, and the two of us, won’t touch a single cent from this. We just want to help.

Ebeneezer Sink knows when people will die. It’s a useful talent for a mortician, but when someone starts raising the dead, Sink must hoist his fishnets, find a serial killer, and save the city from a crazed necromancer (really, is there any other kind?).

If only it were that simple…

RJ Astruc’s darkly comic novel will be serialized exclusively for subscribers on the Crossed Genres website. At the end of its serialization, A Festival of Skeletons will be published in its entirety by Crossed Genres.

Subscribers can follow this link to begin reading A Festival of Skeletons. If you wish to subscribe to gain access, please go here.

For more information please contact Crossed Genres (questions@crossedgenres.com).

Today the print edition of Issue 15 was finalized submitted and approved, the proof was ordered and shipped. Yup, all in one day. Awesome. I’m very excited to see this one. It’s really a magnificent issue; we had such an amazing pool of work to choose from, and the cover is just vibrant and killer.

Still haven’t gotten the copies of the anthology. But it’s only been 6 days, and we ordered 100. Patience! (That was a reminder for me, not you.)

Submissions to STEAMPUNK have been slow! Let’s pick it up! Make it hot! More strange euphemisms!

A Festival of Skeletons begins its serialization on Friday! I just this morning made the final website changes pre-release. I may do an overhaul for it before February’s chapter release, but it’s pretty nice as is. Remember, only subscribers get to read Festival – so this sounds like a great time to subscribe, doesn’t it? only $0.83 per month!

Speaking of subscribers, we’re shortly going to do a test run of another benefit we may be offering regularly, depending on how well the test is received. I’d meant to have it about ready now, but I got hit with a migraine last night and it killed my productivity. I’ll try to get it sorted in the next few days. Subscribers, make note: there will be prizes!

Is anyone going to be at Boskone (2/12-2/14) or PAX East (3/26-3/28)? We’ll definitely be at Boskone, and we’re at least meeting up with a friend at PAX. Natania Barron, one of our lovely slush readers, will be in town for PAX with her family; she and her husband will be there, and will(ETA: hopefully) be doing a couple panels. Go see them!

Last night we approved the final version of the anthology, and ordered 100 (!) copies. Yikes! Early next week I’m going to prep the labels and mailers so we can send out the preorders and contributor copies as soon as we get them. The anthology is brilliant, let me tell you; tonight I may post a first look at the cover. Remember, the release date is February 1.

And speaking of covers, we’ve got the final version of the issue 15 cover art in hand. It’s by the talented Nicc Balce, whose work also graces the anthology cover, and is titled “So Much for the 4th Wall”. I can tell you that the title is quite appropriate. Also, this cover makes me VERY glad that we do wraparound covers, maybe moreso than any previous cover. Although the front is stunning and exciting on its own, this piece really couldn’t be fully captured without the landscape layout.

Issue 15 is chugging along. Everyone who submitted something to us should have received an email by now. If you haven’t, please send a query! Kelly has been doing fabulous work with the editing again. We also got a terrific article for the issue from C.A. Young, whose story Finished was in our LGBTQ issue.

Submissions to the Steampunk issue have been a bit slow. Help us get the word out: we want steampunk!

Aleta Johansen’s In the Image And Likeness, which appears in our anthropomorphism issue, was chosen as a Featured Story on Lit Drift! Congrats, Aleta!

The website is just about ready for the beginning of our serialization of RJ Astruc’s A Festival of Skeletons. Only one more week!

Post title from “Shadow Stalker” by Heather Alexander, based on Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series

Things are coming along nicely. We have so many things going on it’s hard to track them all, but that’s what lists are for. Lists, and schedules, and long planning discussions.

We have made our final choices for issue 15. Most people have been emailed, but not all… there were SO MANY submissions that it’s taking us a while to respond to everyone. Hopefully everyone will have heard from us by tomorrow night.

The proof copy of the anthology came yesterday, and it is beautiful! Unsurprisingly, there were a few tweaks to be made (though only to the cover – we couldn’t find a single thing wrong with the inside! Awesome!), so we made the corrections and resubmitted it. Another proof was shipped this morning at 4:09 am, so hopefully we’ll get a perfect proof in hand by Friday or Saturday… and if so, we’ll place an order for all the copies we’ll need to fill all preorders and contributor copies! Woo! We haven’t had that many copies in hand since issue 1; I can’t wait!

Submissions for the Steampunk issue are coming in; not at the same rate as last month, but that would have been astounding. We want more! Steampunk yay!

I have a couple additions to Things Not To Do When Submitting:

Only 10 days until we begin serializing RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons in the Subscriber’s Area! We’re really excited!

Post title is from Ani DiFranco’s “Overlap”

After passing through our slush reading process, a little less than half of the stories were passed to me and Kay, and we just now (at about 1 am) finished reading them all. We narrowed it down to about 20, and from there narrowed it down again, all the way to 12… from which we will select 5. Tomorrow will involve a vicious, no-hold-barred battle between Kay and I for those 5 spots.

Meanwhile:

The Folklore issue has come out;
we’re now accepting submissions to the Steampunk issue;
still haven’t gotten the proof of the anthology, but I’m expecting it on Monday;
Earlier I blogged about standing up to the Man (Amazon);
I’m going to bed.

Post title from “Dig A Hole In the Ground” by Fred Small

On December 27, I created the new Kindle release in the online “Shelf”, as they call it. I entered all the information and uploaded the file and cover.

At the time, I noted that Amazon had added an additional step that hadn’t been there when I’d created the issue 13 Kindle. The new step, titled “Confirm Content Rights”, has 2 steps:

A. Enter the territories for which you have all rights necessary to make the content available for marketing, distribution and sale [2 choices: 'Worldwide rights - all territories' and 'Individual territories - select territories']

B. I confirm that I have all rights necessary to make the content available for marketing, distribution and sale: [has a tick-box which says "I confirm that I have the right to upload this content"]

I noted this new step but didn’t have a problem with it: after all, we DO have all necessary rights to distribute the content of Crossed Genres issues, so I had no compunctions about indicating that. I completed the upload and selected “Publish”. A note appeared in My Shelf saying the title would be reviewed and I should check back in 48-72 hours. This review period is also a relatively new addition to the process – items used to go through immediately. But even so, I’d seen the review period the past couple of issues, and since each issue had eventually been published without problems, I didn’t think much of it.

On December 28, I received the following email from Amazon, reproduced exactly except for email addresses and Title information (and I bolded the section that caused the most consternation):

Alert from Amazon DTP

From: Amazon.com Customer Service ([EMAIL REMOVED])
Sent: Mon 12/28/09 1:27 PM
To: [EMAIL REMOVED] ([EMAIL REMOVED])
Cc: [EMAIL REMOVED] ([EMAIL REMOVED])

Dear Publisher,

We are contacting you regarding the following title(s) you have uploaded for sale through the Kindle store:

Crossed Genres Issue 14 by [TITLE INFORMATION REMOVED

We are interested in making your title(s) available for customers to purchase in the Kindle Store, but we would like to first confirm that you are certain you are authorized to sell the title(s), and if you are certain that you are, receive documentation from you confirming your authorization. Please reply to [EMAIL REMOVED] within 10 days, with your confirmation and with appropriate documentation of your e-book rights for your title(s).

Specifically if you are not the author of the title, please confirm that you have all rights necessary to distribute the title in eBook format, and provide any written documentation you have from the author or other copyright owner of the title (such as a contract or other written authorization) which gives you all rights necessary to distribute the title in eBook format, or any other documentation or evidence you have of your copyright ownership (such as a copyright registration number).

If you are the author of the title(s) and you have retained the eBook rights to the title(s), please confirm that you are the author of the title and that you have retained the eBook rights to the title, and provide any documentation or other evidence you may have of your ownership (such as a copyright registration number).

If the title is also published in physical format, and you are affiliated with or otherwise have a relationship with the publisher of the physical book, please explain your relationship with the publisher of the physical book and provide any documentation you may have of your relationship.

We look forward to making the title available to Kindle customers as quickly as possible.

Thank you,
Amazon.com

I had two initial reactions to this: One, why would they have added the “Confirm Content Rights” section to the creation process if they were going to do this? and Two: They expect us to send them copies of our private, signed contracts?

I have no idea if other companies do this, or try to. But the second I read this, I knew there was no way we would ever send them the copies. Those contracts are private legal documents between us and our contributors, and frankly none of their damned business. Showing Amazon those documents would do absolutely nothing to further indemnify them from responsibility if we did publish something without legal right. I talked with Kay about this and we agreed on all points.

On Tuesday the 29th, I sent back this reply (Again, exactly as sent except without contact information):

RE: Alert from Amazon DTP

From: Bart Leib ([EMAIL REMOVED])
Sent: Tue 12/29/09 1:09 PM
To: [EMAIL REMOVED]
Cc: Kay Holt ([EMAIL REMOVED])

Hello,

My name is Bart Leib. I am co-owner of Crossed Genres magazine (http://crossedgenres.com). The title your email mentioned is issue # 14 of our monthly magazine.

Crossed Genres is a registered Sole Proprietorship in Massachusetts. We license the rights for all the writing and art we publish from the authors/artists, just as any magazine would.

I must confess I’m somewhat bemused by this email. You actually want us to send you copies of our licensing contracts? Up to this point you’ve published Issues 5 through 13 of our magazine on the Kindle, without needing this, and I’d like to know if something has changed to cause you to make such a request now. Has there been a complaint about us? To our knowledge we have never broken a law or copyright with our publications and know of no reason why anyone would think we had.

Moreover, when I entered the appropriate information for this title on the Kindle site on My Shelf, under section 2 (“Confirm Content Rights”), I was required to indicate and confirm officially that “I have all rights necessary to make the content available for marketing, distribution and sale”. I fail to see how that could be insufficient enough for your company that you would then make this further request: if that indication wasn’t enough, why have it at all?

Crossed Genres will be happy to provide a written statement declaring that we have the legal right to publish any work we upload for publication on Kindle. But we do not intend to provide copies of our signed, private, proprietary business contracts; no one could expect Amazon to disclose its own contracts, so neither should Amazon expect anyone to share documentation of that sort. Crossed Genres has done nothing to warrant any suspicion and we feel the request for our private contracts is inappropriate. If this means Amazon is unwilling to publish our magazine on the Kindle any longer, we will rely on our other avenues of digital publication.

Sincerely,

Bart R. Leib
Co-Owner, Crossed Genres
http:/crossedgenres.com

We were absolutely serious about our willingness to abandon Kindle, by the way. Just in case anyone was wondering. We honestly had no idea how Amazon would respond; on the one hand, we’re small potatoes and they might not care enough to give us more trouble, but on the other hand this could have been some new policy that they were going to be hard-assed about.

We were pleased (and a bit relieved) to have Amazon choose the former. On Thursday the 31st, after not hearing anything, I checked and discovered that, according to My Shelf, the issue had been published. A quick check of Amazon.com found the Kindle edition available to purchase. When I checked my email, I found this waiting:

Alert from Amazon DTP

From: Amazon.com Customer Service ([EMAIL REMOVED])
Sent: Thu 12/31/09 9:17 AM
To: [EMAIL REMOVED] ([EMAIL REMOVED])
Cc: [EMAIL REMOVED] ([EMAIL REMOVED])

Dear Publisher,

We’ve published your Kindle book labeled:

Crossed Genres Issue 14

It’ll be available for sale on our website within 24-48 hours.

Thank you,
Amazon.com

We didn’t want to deal with an argument with Amazon, so we’re happy to have it essentially go away. But I have to wonder: why did they ask in the first place? How did the people who read my email react? Did they drop it because we’re small potatoes, or because it was a fight they didn’t want to to be part of (or some of both)? I have lots of theories and no answers. I’d certainly be curious to hear speculation if you’ve got some.

And now I get to wonder: next month when I submit issue 15, am I going to hear about this again?

ART:
Cover: A Magical Oak by Nicolas Gouny:

FICTION:
Man-Driven Steel by Ryan Kinkor
The Vanishing Sea by Caleb Jordan Schulz
Gaasyendietha by Marie Robertson
The Flute-Maker’s Daughter by Jessica J. Lee
The Tree by C.W. Johnson
Sealskin by Ann Chatham

A beautiful cover and some sharp, strong writing this month! Please read, enjoy, and leave the writers and artist a comment or two!

Submissions to Issue 15 are still pouring in – we’re around 20% over our previous highest total. In hindsight I probably should have expected it considering this is the only time we’ve ever offered 14 monthly themes all at once

I’m also happy to see that we’ve received a fair number of international submissions, from 8 countries outside the US spanning 4 continents. I’m not sure what sort of percentages are usual for other markets – we just like seeing international subs.

The online prep for Issue 14 is coming along. I’ll be dedicating tomorrow exclusively to it, and hopefully get it all done. I don’t usually leave it this late in the month; I hate feeling rushed. I’ll be more on top of it next month.

Today I ordered some padded mailers for shipping the anthology preorders (and contributor copies). Going to have a heck of a post office run in a few weeks!

One last thing: Thursday is the LAST DAY that our Dystopian issue will be available! On the new year it goes away forever! Go take your last chance to read and/or buy it!

Post title from “Life In A Nutshell” by Barenaked Ladies

We saw that all of you seem to have been busy over the weekend too. I thought we’d see a lull in activity, but we received about a dozen submissions over the weekend! We’re currently sitting at about 10% over our previous highest total. (We love it, keep ‘em coming!) Thankfully our wonderful slush readers have kept right on top of it; however, Kay and I have a ton to read.

Speaking of submissions, we still get numerous submissions that are well under 1000 words. When we say “1000-8000 words FIRM”, we really mean FIRM. Along these lines, I have a couple more Things Not To Do When Submitting:

I’d expected to have very little time to work on CG this weekend, and I was right. But I made the most of the time I had, and got a LOT done. The Kindle, PDF and PRC editions of issue 14 are done. Didn’t take as long as I’d feared… hooray for having a system! I’ve got some work left to do for the online version but other than that, the Folklore issue is complete.

The Anthology is just about ready to put to bed – I think I can wrap it up tonight *KNOCKS WOOD* This is thanks to having received the mind-blowing cover art on the 24th – WOW just doesn’t do it justice.

Only a couple more weeks until we begin the serialization of A Festival of Skeletons in the Subscriber’s Area! We’re very excited!

As always we have a ton in the works; we’re not quite ready to reveal any of it yet, but we’re looking to start something new around the beginning of March, and we’re laying the groundwork for a contest starting in May. More on those once we’ve firmed up our plans.

Post title from “The Hannukah Song” by Adam Sandler

A quick note to start: This is the last month to read or purchase our Dystopian issue! Issue 2, originally published on January 1, 2009, is going away forever after December 31! Please go read it before it’s gone, and if you like it, consider picking up a copy before it’s too late (only $5!).

Progress is progressing. We’re in the final stretch with the anthology; barring some horrible disaster *KNOCKS WOOD* we should still be on target time-wise. It’s come together very nicely.

Issue 14 is also shaping up well. The proof arrived an amazing 2 days after we ordered it. Even better, it needs no changes. The cover art turned out to look even better when darkened! Brilliant! I’m still working on the various other editions but they’re coming along.

Submissions to Issue 15 are reaching absurd levels. We are literally 4 submissions shy of matching our highest total ever (during the LGBTQ issue). on the 22nd! I’m sure there’ll be a lull starting anytime now and continuing through the 26th or so, but I expect we’ll get a mini-rush in the last few days. Crazy. The slush readers have done a pretty good job of staying on top of it, but considering the sheer volume of submissions and basic percentages, Kay and I have a LOT of reading to do.

To people submitting to issue 15, the Any Previous Genre issue: Science Fiction is not a previous genre, nor is Fantasy! We’ve received a large number of submissions from people who seem to think that “Any Previous” means “Anything with SF or F in it.” Our first issue had a theme of Science Fiction AND Fantasy – that is, BOTH had to be present in the submissions. We have never accepted submissions for only one or the other (unless they were combined with that month’s genre). Submissions with only SF or F, that don’t also match one of the other previous genres, will be automatically rejected.

We’ve got plenty more in the works, as always – we’re very excited that in just about 3 more weeks, we begin serializing RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons! It’s a wonderful story and we can’t wait to share it! Remember, it’s only in the Subscribers Area, so if you haven’t, now’s a good time to subscribe so you’ll be able to read it!

The next few days will probably see very little in the way of updates as we’ll be preoccupied with other things. Have safe and happy holidays everyone!

Title quote from “Nuttin’ For Christmas” by S. Tepper, R. Bennett (c) 1955, performed by Stan Freberg

A few bullet points to summarize what’s been going on:

• The proof for Issue 14 has been shipped and is on the way. It’s looking pretty nice – I think the cover art is going to be very sharp. Interestingly, Issue 14 became (through necessity) our first ever issue with nothing but fiction: our planned article fell through. But that’s okay, because we received a TON of submissions and were able to pick out 6 very good stories to include. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t see a bit more in the way of Eastern Folklore represented, but otherwise we were very pleased.
• Speaking of submissions, this month is off the charts. The last few days have slowed down a bit, but even at our current pace we’ll eclipse even the LGBTQ month (which was an outlier) by 17%.
• The anthology hit a snag when the cover art we received simply wasn’t right for us. We considered it but ultimately had to turn it down; the artist is talented but the piece he created was just wrong for the anthology. Fortunately we had a contingency plan which seems to be working out (*KNOCK WOOD*) We should still be on target for our release date of Feb. 1, although we may end up shipping out the preorders a week or so later than we’d planned (still within January).
• The announcement of The Little Death of Crossed Genres has been small but positive. The “small” probably comes from us not promoting it after the first day, due to other responsibilities. But Little Death has no set time frame, so we’re in no hurry. We have started to receive submissions, which is awesome.
• Remember that this month is the FINAL MONTH to read and/or purchase Issue 2! as of January 1 it’ll be removed from the site and that’s the last it’ll ever be made available!

At this point you can pretty much always assume that we have stuff going on that we’re just not ready to announce yet. This may very well be our perpetual state of being; by the time we’re ready to announce something we’ve started another something that we have to wait to talk about, rinse lather repeat. I’ll do my best not to tease you too much (but I make no promises).

The Little Death of Crossed Genres is a quarterly magazine of erotic science Fiction and Fantasy. It is the second magazine Kay and I are founding and editing!

Each issue will contain 6-9 short stories and 1-3 pieces of art. We’re open to stories of all forms of sexual orientation/preference, and will be reserving space in each issue for queer fiction, as well as UST fiction (That’s Unrelated Sexual Tension). Issues will be released exclusively in digital formats for download.

Chris Fletcher and Jaym Gates have agreed to be slush readers for Little Death – we’ll bring in more help if needed. Kay and I will be handling the editing (for now, anyway, unless we get swamped with submissions!) Please follow Little Death on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cg_littledeath

Submissions are now open! There are details on the submissions page, and more info in the FAQ.

We’re incredibly excited about Little Death; we’re looking forward to seeing just how creative all of you writers and artists can be! Bring us your most wild, wacky and wicked creations!

Thank you, everyone who’s kept this under wraps until now, and thanks to everyone who’s helped us reach the point where we feel confident enough to take this leap in starting Little Death!

(Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…)

I’ll make time for a proper progress-meter post tomorrow night. For now, enjoy Issue 13 (Action/Adventure!), and take a last gander at Issue 2 (Dystopian) (last month!)

Also, we have a surprise announcement coming up on Thursday (my birthday, not coincidentally). I’ll tantalize you with obscure hints in tomorrow’s post. (BTW, if anyone in New Jersey wants to get me a present on my birthday, I want a yes vote on S1967, the “Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act”. And a pony.)

And someone take these damn Doritos away from me.

Post title from Tom Smith’s “Talk Like A Pirate Day“

• Switched from 100-copy limit to Print-On-Demand with no limit
• Switched from paying copy to token cash payments
• Began offering digital editions
• Had simultaneous heart attacks when Piers Anthony agreed to write an article
• Built a completely new website from the ground up (Thanks Matt!)
• Held our first Flash Fiction contest in June
• Had one of our covers BoingBoinged
• Had a bit of controversy
• Brought aboard slush readers to help us save time
• Released an oversized 12th issue
• Releasing our first Anthology (ongoing)
• Serializing our first novel online (coming in January)
• Passed 150,000 pageviews in our first year!!!

Whew! And that’s just the “major” points!

Another thing that is absolutely worth noting is that we reached our financial goal in November!

Now, that doesn’t mean we didn’t lose money – we did, and quite a lot of it. But we had hoped to raise enough money from sales of issue 12 and preorders of the anthology to cover our expenses above and beyond the magazine itself – in other words, we wanted to reach the point where we only had to pay for the magazine itself out-of-pocket, not our various other projects that are in the works. We just barely made it, but we did! Thank you so much, everyone who helped; whether it was with a purchase, a donation, or simply spreading the word, we needed every bit of help we got (really, we JUST made it), and we’re deeply grateful to everyone.

What this means is that all our current projects are ON, as well as the continuation of the magazine of course. And more projects… well, we won’t be starting any more until we have the funds to cover them ahead-of-time. It’s a shame because we have SO MUCH we’d like to do, so many ideas, but it is the smart and practical thing to do. This doesn’t mean we won’t be bringing you new stuff – it just means that the new stuff will happen depending on how much you all want it! We may do fundraising drives for specific projects in the future too. We’ll see how it goes. For the next few months we’ve got plenty on our plate anyway!

And because we have plenty on our plate already, We’ve finally surrendered to the reality that we need to defer more CG responsibilities to others. Letting go of our “baby” is tough, but we really need the time. The slush readers have definitely saved us time, so it makes sense to seek similar aid.

With this in mind, we’ve asked Kelly Jennings to come aboard and help with Fiction editing. Kelly is the author of Lunch Money, which appears in the just-released Action/Adventure issue. She’s Associate Professor (English) at University of Arkansas Fort Smith, and holds a PhD in English. She’s also written multiple novels, one of which will be published by Verb Noire in early 2010.

Kelly will be responsible for editing the fiction pieces we select for inclusion in the magazine; she’ll work with the writers to complete final drafts. She’s remarkably fast and efficient with revisions, and a pleasure to work with on top of that, so she’s very well-suited to what we need. Kelly will be added to the About page as soon as we have her bio; please welcome her aboard!

As you all no doubt know, Issue 13 just came out! We’re very pleased with this one: the writing is very strong from start to finish, and the cover art is so much FUN. Plus, it’s our first-ever dragon on any of our covers – about time!

Submissions to Issue 14 were amazing. We ended up getting more subs than any other issue except the LGBTQ issue. We feared that NaNoWriMo might cause a drop in submissions, but it was the opposite. Apparently Folklore really struck a chord with writers! And we may have set ourselves up for a similar December – we’ve already gotten a surprising number of submissions on day 1. Of course, having 14 genres to choose from could have something to do with it.

We’re reading furiously, and we’re almost through everything. We’ll be making our final selections and emailing authors in the next day or two.

- Five exciting tales of fantastic adventure!
- Article Influencing Winter Song by author Colin Harvey
- Playfully thrilling cover art High Sky Piracy by Jenna Vincent

Please enjoy!

Monday is also the LAST day that issue 1 will be available to read! After midnight it will have been available for a full year, and will be removed from the site. Take your last chance to read it today!

And completing this trifecta, tomorrow is the FINAL DAY to get your Folklore submissions in! We’ve reached pre-issue 12 submission numbers, which is very pleasing; not too likely we’ll get all the way up to issue 12 numbers, but who knows?

As I said, Monday is the final day of Crossed Genres’ first year of issues. It’s hard to believe that after this much time and all the effort we can still find running CG as exhilarating and rewarding as we do. It’s exhausting, time-swallowing work – but we love it, so we’ll keep doing it.

Since a number of people have asked: no, we haven’t quite gotten to where we want to be financially. We’re still looking at a bigger loss between now and February 1 than we’d planned for. We’ve gotten very close though, and we’re confident that the rest of what we need will come in over the next few months. If not – well, we’ll suck up and find the money somehow.

Unfortunately that means that a lot of our various plans to offer more will be put on hold until we can afford them. Not to worry, we have a long list that we will get to as time and funding permits.

Tuesday will see the release of issue 13: Action/Adventure! This issue is terrific, with some wonderful fiction, a great article and brilliant and playful cover art. I can’t wait for you all to see! We’ll also start putting together issue 14 on Tuesday (I say “start” but of course we already have the cover art and an article handled).

Sometime this week I’ll do a post with some total numbers from our first year. Amazingly, we’re going to get damned close to 150,000 pageviews, although we won’t quite make it. Still: WOW!

And on December 10 (my birthday, not coincidentally), we will have something of an announcement. There, that should keep you coming back!

For only $9 USD (plus shipping), you get:

• 10% off the first Crossed Genres anthology, containing a story selected from each of our first 12 issues
• Free 1-year online subscription to Crossed Genres! Includes free .pdf/.prc downloads of issues, exclusive content (beginning in January) , and more coming!
• By preordering, you are automatically entered for the chance to win a free copy of the anthology for the library of your choice!

Just 3 days left, including today, to take advantage of this deal! Preorder now!

“There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.”
- From the website

In recognition of this truth, Crossed Genres is participating in BND by shutting down our store for today. On Black Friday, have a fun day of anti-consumerism – instead of buying our wonderful products, read a few stories online!

Also, keep those Folklore submissions coming! Only 3 1/2 days left!

• Issue 13 is completely done, ready to go. Woo! Going to spend any time I have between now and the end of the month working on the anthology and reading.
• Lest anyone be misled by my last post, we have not quite reached that safety point in our finances yet. We need another dozen preorders, or a couple donations, or some individual issue sales… some combination of those anyway. One final push to make it before the end of the month!
• Also, be aware: the Crossed Genres store will be CLOSED on Black Friday, in recognition of International Buy Nothing Day! After which there will be only THREE days remaining to the preorder sale! The last chance is fast approaching. Tell your friends! If you already have, make some new friends and then tell them!
• Yesterday we passed 35,000 pageviews this month. WOW! The end of November will end a full calendar year since we released issue 1. A bit after, I’ll do a post with some Year 01 stats.
• Speaking of: This is your last chance to see (and buy) Issue One! After this month it will be removed from the site! Read it! Buy it! Love it!

You live a pretty normal life. You work a day job you’re at best indifferent about, as does your significant other. You’ve got some debt that (for the moment) is manageable. You’re raising a great kid. Generally your life is good – tiring, but good.

You have this other thing that you and your SO work on together; a small magazine. You started it a little over a year ago, maybe a bit more spontaneously than was wise. But it’s worked out well. The magazine is chugging along nicely, with a growing reputation for quality work and professionalism. Contributors to previous issues freely say things like:

“…they were fantastic. Had great editing suggestions, were a pleasure to work with and put out a high-quality publication.”

and

“…a stellar presence that puts together great fiction and superb art.”

and

“This growing market is a prize. They’re good people and a pleasure to work with.”

It would be impossible not to feel pretty elated knowing that you’d made such a strong positive impression on the people you’ve worked with. Being a writer yourself, one of your biggest hopes for the magazine was that it would help encourage writers (however few or many possible) to pursue their writing with fervor and optimism. The magazine is a ton of work, but it’s immensely satisfying; you can proudly say that writers are proud to be published in it.

Unfortunately, the magazine is also a money pit. You knew you’d lose money on it when you started – you just didn’t think it would be so much money. At the one-year mark of the magazine’s existence, after going over your finances, you conclude that, at its current pace, you won’t be able to afford to keep the magazine going another year.

So you put out a call asking for help. You hate doing this; you don’t like asking for money under any circumstances, and especially not from people who you just want to share this fun work with. Hell, you started the magazine intentionally offering content for free because you knew the economy was very bad and people could really use some free entertainment. But you have no choice – it’s this, or no more magazine – so you do it.

And help comes in. It’s not an onslaught, because let’s face it, the economy’s still lousy and money is scarce all around. But a lot of people help spread the word, and those who can help, do. People even get creative on how they help, which shouldn’t be surprising because a lot of them are writers and artists.

Most amazingly, not one but several writers offer their work to you for free; either tearing up old payment checks they hadn’t cashed (and in one case, framing it), or saying not to send payments for work you’ve already agreed to pay them for – even offering to sign new contracts to that effect. Think about that, just for a moment: Writers, people who want to be widely published and (presumably) would love to make their livings writing, giving away their writing.

Why would they do that? The answer is in the emails you receive from them:

“Hey … if you are having finance issues with CG, you can totally have [my story] for free.”

and

“…I bought a few copies of the magazine sans discount, but I want to do more, so let’s not worry about paying me for the sub, all right? You can give me a penny next time we see each other at a con, so it’s still a sale, but really I think you guys need the bucks more than I do … so it’s not a huge deal for me (whereas being in the issue was, and that’s done, so good job all round).”

and

“You remember that check you sent me, as payment for the story you published. Well, I’m never going to deposit it, so you can take that debt off your books. Consider it a donation or contribution or whatever you prefer. I framed it and it’s hanging on my wall. Sorta like the first dollar for a new business.

I don’t know if that helps the finances much, but it’s the least I can do.”

and

“The greatest reward writing stuff for you guys has just been the honor of being accepted into your publications. Having my first story I submitted get snatched up by you guys right off the bat has given me the confidence to work harder at this whole writing thing. It is something I will be eternally grateful for, and it’s about time I showed it.”

Most of the money’s still lost, and will likely never be recovered; but enough has come back, thanks to the generosity of people who appreciate and respect the work you’ve done, that you can almost see stability on the horizon; you’re not quite there, but you’re close enough to be confident you’ll get there.

And when you read these emails and blog posts, it’s almost impossible to care about the money anyway. You know you should, but you can’t.

This is what success looks like. This is where you find yourself, if you’ve put yourself in our shoes.

I haven’t done a status update in a while; I’ve been sick, and it’s really killed my energy. But there are a few things:

We got the proof copy of issue 13 on Thursday. It looks amazing! The covers always print darker than they appear on the screen, and for this particular art it added depth and vibrancy. It’s gorgeous. Can’t wait to share it with you!

I’ve just about got the online stuff all sorted. I do have a couple little details to handle, but it’s mostly done. I’m trying a new method of uploading the new issue this month; could make the actual night-of process much quicker. Here’s hoping, anyway.

I need to get cracking on the anthology next. It’s in process, but I need to spend the rest of this month really focusing on it. I want to submit for the first proof at the beginning of December (Of course we’re still waiting on the cover art). We’ve got all the contracts in hand too, so this week I’ll be sending out signed copies and communicating with the writers about any last edits they want to make to their stories.

I’m also still only halfway through the novel submission I’ve been reading. The only time I’ve had to read is during my commutes to and from the day job. But I think tomorrow I’m going to find some time to just sit and read for a while. It really is quite a good story.

Submissions for Issue 14 continue to come in pretty consistently. Our slush readers are doing a good job of keeping on top of it. I’m hoping for a nice big rush at the end of the month like usual.

I’m sure there’s more from the past few days, but it’s bedtime. One last thing: a few people has suggested
that I put song titles in these posts to identify where the post titles are from. While I feel that’s kind of cheating, maybe it can be a game; look at the title, try to come up with where it’s from, check the end of the post for the answer. Eh, whatever. It’s easy to do, so I will. This post comes from a quote rather than a song. I only heard today that Utah Phillips died last May, so it’s in honor of him:

“The state can’t give you freedom, and the state can’t take it away. Freedom is something you’re born with, and then one day someone tries to deny it. The extent to which you resist is the extent to which you are free.”
- Utah Phillips (1935-2008)

Since Kay made her post about our need, and I followed up with my post about our finances, an amazing number of people have responded. Dozens of people have posted about our situation in blogs and on their sites. The result has been that we’ve seen an impressive rise in anthology preorders, single-issue sales and straight subscriptions.

Moreover, people have gone even further. We’ve received a number of straight-up donations (at several people’s recommendation I added a Donation button more prominently on the site); several former contributors have made their own offers, like offering to sign copies for anyone near them who buys a copy, and even offering to enter names of people who support us in a drawing to win free hand-knitted gear. A couple of writers have even offered to let us publish their work for free – even when we’d already agreed to pay them for it.

All of this combined has made a huge dent in our losses. Hence the title of this post… our biggest thrill from CG is in seeing how people respond to the work we do. When words like “awesome”, “ambitious” and “fantastic” are used in reference to CG, while readers and contributors rise to the occasion with financial support, it’s a lot easier to swallow the $$ loss.

Below, I’m going to explain where we stand as of now. (I’ll try not to be long-winded, but I think it’s important to explain our rationale for how we’re proceeding.)

A lot of people have asked me or Kay “What do you still need to earn to break even?” We can’t answer this question without being misleading, because, to put it bluntly: we are not going to break even. We were over $1500 in debt on the year as of 2 days ago, and it would probably take a Neil Gaiman webfail (like Kay mentioned) to overcome that deficit. As I’ve said before, we knew when we started that we were going to lose money on Crossed Genres, at least for the first year and probably longer.

Rather than dwelling on past losses, we’ve think that we should focus on minimizing loss in the future. With that in mind, we decided to look at what’s coming between now and the end of February. We chose that span because we have some “extra” projects happening or beginning in that time: the anthology, for example, and beginning the serialization of A Festival of Skeletons for subscribers.

After February, our expenses even out. We will continue to pay for those normal expenses out of pocket, and any new projects we want to take on will have to be financed beforehand. This means we’ll still be funding the monthly CG ourselves, and how much it grows beyond that will depend on how much our readers want it.

I figured out how much money we have as of right now (or will have, once Amazon/Createspace send us what they owe), and what our expenses should be between now and the end of February. Then I added our regular monthly out-of-pocket contributions between now and Feb. 28. Based on all of that, we are currently about $125-150 shy of what we need.

That is not bad at ALL. A couple of days ago that number was… well I’m not exactly sure, to be honest, but it was almost certainly quadruple that or more. The help that we’ve received so far has made a HUGE difference.

But we do still need that $125-150! If we can get that last boost, it’ll get us through the next few extra-expensive months, and from there we can afford to stay afloat even with minimal revenue.

So whaddya say? Want to help us overcome this final hurdle?

However, one thing I haven’t talked about practically at all is the financial side of it. That’s been intentional, as we never wanted to be the sort of business that pesters and annoys our readers while begging for money. We hate it when it’s done to us, so we don’t want to do it to you.

But you can’t really know what it really is to do what we’re doing without hearing some of the rather scary numbers. Now that we’re a good year into CG, we’ve got plenty of numbers to talk about.

First, a bit of context, in the form of traffic numbers. Either today or tomorrow, we’re going to surpass 140,000 pageviews since the day we released issue 1. More than 51,000 unique visitors have checked out our website. That is absolutely astounding; when we started CG, we set what we considered a very optimistic goal of 80,000 pageviews in our first year. to surpass our ambitious goal by 75% is amazing. Even better, people who visit the site are viewing an average of over 2.7 pages per visit, which is again significantly better than we expected.

Sadly, the financial numbers are far less pleasant. Some examples:

• Despite all the attention and praise it’s gotten, Issue 12 hasn’t quite reached 50 copies sold, of all formats combined.
• Issue 12 overall has not even made back half of what we spent on it.
• Our anthology has only gotten 10% of the preorders necessary for us to break even.

And by far the worst one:

• For the calendar year 2009 (so far), we have a net loss of over $1,500 USD.

That is a lot of money to come directly out of the pockets of two working-class stiffs who are also raising a 3-year-old child. Especially when you consider that Kay and I together put in a minimum of 40 hours per week on Crossed Genres, and sometimes far more. (I feel I should point out that we knew going into this that we were going to lose money, at least for the first year. We didn’t think it would be that much, though.)

Kay and I haven’t gotten paid a cent from CG. We’ve lost over 150,000 cents, in fact (and that’s not counting the money we spent between September and December 2008). As Kay pointed out in her own post earlier today, we’ve made back about 1/3 of the money we’ve put in… and as our peer kaolin fire of GUD magazine commented, that’s probably a bit better than GUD has done.

Small science fiction/fantasy magazines do not make money. Heck, even the bigger ones have been losing subscriptions for years now. And for little mags like CG, GUD, M-Brane SF, etc. that don’t have anything near that level of resources, it’s a thousand times harder.

The summation of this post is, as Kay said: “Crossed Genres is in trouble. It’s not ‘end of the world’ trouble, but it’s building to that.” With the expenses of the anthology coming up, plus the expense involved in serializing a novel in the Subscribers Area (possible more than one), the financial future of CG looks bad. It’s safe to say that, with the same level of revenue, we probably won’t survive our second year.

In Kay’s post, she asks for people to play a version of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” to help spread word about CG. Please read her post, and then maybe write up a quick blog post or fire off a tweet.

And please, consider spending just 9 bucks (plus shipping)to preorder the anthology; get a copy of the book, a free 1-year digital subscription, digital copies of the magazine, and be entered to win a free copy of the anthology for your local library. All that for nine bucks. And then, see if you can convince someone else to get one too. Keep us around a while longer.

We love running Crossed Genres, and we want to do it for years to come. We don’t care about making money – we just want to produce a great magazine, and more, and not drive ourselves to the poorhouse while we’re doing it.

Yesterday I finalized the print, pdf, Kindle and prc editions of Issue 13. Who’s awesome? That’s right.

Actually we have to wait for the proof of the print edition to arrive before we can give final approval. But yesterday I did take the print ed. from submitted to approved to proof ordered to proof shipped in 7 hours and 23 minutes. This has happened for several issues in a row; I’m still wary of allowing myself to expect it, because as soon as I do it won’t happen. Still, it’s nice to see such a fast turnaround.

We got the final of the issue 14 cover in a couple days ago! It’s very cool, and very different from any of our previous covers. I’m really happy with it.

Slush reading is still chugging along. Folklore submissions are on pace to just about match our best month (not counting the LGBTQ issue). Interestingly, the submissions are really spaced out, too: over the first 16 days of the month, only 3 days did we not receive at least 1 submission (and for all 3 of those days, there was a submission after 10pm the night before…) Yay! Let’s keep that rolling!

We also passed a new milestone: Yesterday we hit 30,000 pageviews this month (yes, in 16 days). Wow!

We are still well behind the number of preorders necessary to publish our first anthology. Please help us reach our goal by preordering! It’s a great deal: a discounted copy, a free one-year online subscription, and be entered for the chance to win a free copy of the anthology for your local library! For $9! Offer is good through the end of November.

One final thing: Remember that Issue 1 is going away at the end of this month! Please take this final opportunity to read our inaugural issue, and maybe pick up one of the last remaining copies of the limited print edition.

I also got caught up on submissions to Issue 14 (Folklore). They’ve been coming at a surprisingly steady clip, and the slush pile had actually gotten backed up a bit. But I contacted our slush readers, who leapt into action (i.e. sat and read) and we’re just about caught up again (except we just got another submission as I’ve been typing this!). This is not in any way a complaint, you understand… the submissions were well down for Action/Adventure and we’re pleased to see them trending back up.

We’re also seriously considering another novel submission for serialization (I think I mentioned this before?). We requested a bit of a rewrite from the author, and have just gotten it back, so we need to reread the novel. If we do accept it, it wouldn’t be ready for some time, since it would need to be edited and we’re swamped.

I also got an invite to Google Wave today, courtesy of Natania Barron (thanks!) I haven’t had the chance to play around with it yet, but I have a ton of ideas for reworking the way it’s used. Some of those ways might make for some creative CG events. It’ll take some planning, but I’ll see about laying some of it out as I develop it.

First, because I keep forgetting: Crossed Genres passed a couple of pretty amazing milestones this month. We’ve now surpassed 50,000 unique visitors to the site, and 135,000 pageviews, since the day Issue 1 came out. We’ll probably end up between 140k and 145k for our first year. (anyone want to help push that to 150k?) Considering that we initially aimed high for 80,000 pageviews in our first year, we are simply stunned by this. THANK YOU, everyone who’s visited, read, submitted, purchased(!) and helped spread the word.

Speaking of Issue one: we have almost reached the point where issue 1 will no longer be available. Issues stay available for 1 year, and #1 will have been out for a year as of November 30. Now is your last chance to read or purchase Issue 1! After this month it’ll be gone for good!

This afternoon, I proved my mastery of Microsoft Word. The template I use for the print edition of the issues has had a recurring problem – it’s recurred in every single version. Without going into to much detail, it was a problem with section breaks, and it messed with the formatting, page numbers… argh, it was so frustrating. I wasted time on every single issue because of it, tweaking over and over to get it to look right. But today – I eliminated it! Completely! The thing looks absolutely perfect, without weird issues that go all wonky each time I make a tiny adjustment. I was so excited that I emailed the template to both Kay and myself, just so I could be sure it wouldn’t get corrupted or lost. I think it will save me many hours, literally, in the long run. w00t!

Obviously, I got a lot of work done on the print edition of issue 13. It’s coming along nicely – I may be able to wrap it up tomorrow, and if not then definitely by Friday. Then I’ll get to work on the digital editions.

Speaking of which, today I also submitted to publish on Fictionwise. Fictionwise is one of the biggest sellers of ebooks out there. They reach an enormous number of readers, so we’re hopeful they’ll accept us as a publisher so we can have CG (as well as the anthology and any other publications) available in many more mobile formats.

We have a couple new projects in the works – because we need more, right? But they’re proving to be quite fun actually, and we think you’ll like them. More when we have something definite.

Next I’ll be putting together the print edition. The cover is ready actually, so it’s the inside I have to do. We’re still waiting to hear back from a couple of the writers about the edits, but that shouldn’t take too long *knocks wood*. All I can say is, thanks ghod we don’t have as much to deal with as last month! Once a year will be plenty, thanks! (Was that a hint that we intend to do another oversized issue at the end of our second year? I do believe it was!)

Kay is still plugging away at editing A Festival of Skeletons. She’s also keeping up with the various artists and contributors we’re talking to about future issues.

In addition to putting together issue 13, I’ll be finding time (somewhere) in the next few weeks to check in with the contributors to the anthology, and work on finalizing the layout. We want to have the proof copy in hand before Christmas, so time’s dwindling away. Fortunately a lot of progress has already been made.

We’re 1/3 of the way through November and we’re FAR behind on our goal of 150 preorders for the anthology. If we don’t reach 150 preorders we’ll have to postpone the anthology! Please help us hit 150 preorders!

Folklore submissions are still coming in at a solid clip. Yay! Keep ‘em coming, we wouldn’t want the slush readers to think they can slack off!

Dear [AUTHOR'S NAME],

Thank you for submitting your story, “[TITLE]“, to Crossed Genres. At this time we’ve decided that it doesn’t fit our needs.

Please do not take this as a reflection on the quality of your work. We receive far more submissions than we can possibly use, and have to make tough decisions on which to accept. And because of the nature of the magazine’s changing monthly genre, we usually can’t hold submissions to be used in future issues. We would happily welcome submissions from you in the future.

We wish you good luck in placing your story elsewhere. Sincerely,

Bart Leib & K.T. Holt,
Editors, Crossed Genres

While we know it can be frustrating to receive rejection letters, and even more so if they don’t give you specifics as to why, it’s a pretty common practice. We hope that everyone at least takes us seriously when we say not to take it as a reflection of the quality of your work (For more about why it doesn’t, please read my old post about what rejections really mean.)

Today, in response to our recent round of rejections, we received two different responses from two different writers. These two people received exactly the same form letter, only names and titles being changed. They are an interesting study in contrasts. I’m not going to pick them apart bit by bit – I’m just going to post them both here in their entirety (minus names & titles), all spelling and punctuation as we received them, for you to compare:

RESPONSE # 1:

I have difficulty understanding the term “Meet Our Needs”

It’s as if I must guess what your needs are. I thought publishers were interested in the crearivity and imagination of writers, not, “Guess what story I have in my mind and I’ll publish it”.

What a way to kill creativity. I have sent a number of stories that I believe have a good deal of merit and all I get is, ” It doesen’t meet our needs.”, which is just another way of saying, “We don’t know what the hell we are doing.” I won’t be sending in any more stories because frankly, You Don’t meet My Needs.

Dissapointed in Your evalation practices,

[NAME WITHHELD]

RESPONSE # 2:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit.

If I might ask a boon, this is the 2nd story that I’ve submitted that fit exactly into your theme (the previous was westerns.) I’m not upset, but more curious where this story fell short, if you have the time to tell me. I know how busy putting a magazine is. If you could tell me how I could improve this story that I believe in, I’d like to find a home for it elsewhere.

Thank you for your consideration.

[NAME WITHHELD]

…see the difference there?

Editing is under way. Kay’s taken care of some of it, and I’ve done a bit too; tomorrow I’m busting my butt to finish it. Everyone who submitted to the A/A issue should have received an email by now; if you haven’t please send a query.

Submissions to the Folklore issue are coming in at a steady clip. It’s almost as though people were waiting for it… go figure, right? We’re thrilled to see that, of course, and hope it keeps up. At the current rate we’d get right back up to the numbers we were seeing for issues 10 & 11, which would be terrific. (More is even better!)

Last thing: Please help us reach our goal of 150 anthology preorders! I know we’ve been pushing it, but with good reason: If we don’t reach the 150 mark on preorders, we may be forced to postpone the anthology! It’s a very expensive process to release this collection, and it comes directly on the heels of the oversized Issue 12. We’re still paying for CG mostly out of our pockets, but the anthology pushes beyond our financial limits. The preorder only costs ($9 plus shipping), and gets you a print copy of the anthology (shipped in January) and a free online subscription to CG, where you can download digital editions of issues and, starting in January, will have exclusive content just for subscribers.

Here’s some extra incentive to preorder the anthology: If we reach our goal of 150 preorders, we will randomly select 3 people who purchased a preorder, and will donate 1 copy of the anthology to the library of each of those people’s choice! Plus, for every 25 preorders beyond that, we’ll select another person at random for the same thing! (NOTE: The library giveaway is for ALL preorders, including those already purchased. If you’ve placed your order already, your name will be in the drawing!)

So get a copy for yourself, and maybe win a free copy for your local library! And please, help spread the word! Thanks!

M-Brane SF is a very cool SF magazine. They recently released Things We Are Not, a collection of queer speculative fiction. I have it, and can attest to its quality – it’s a very good collection. They’re doing a special right now: a print copy of TWAN and a subscription to the magazine (pdf) for $17. Not sure how long the deal will last! Please consider helping them out and picking up a copy.

When we announced that we’d be accepting submissions to Any Previous Genre next month, someone commented on Livejournal that they wondered if anyone could incorporate all 14 genres. Well, someone did; please read the (very rough and tongue-in-cheek) 14-genre short.

I don’t usually throw out random links, but any SF fan should read and fall in love with the webcomic Dresden Codak. It’s a challenging comic in so many ways: story, layout, complexity of content. really messes with your mind sometimes, too. I say in all honesty that it’s as rich as almost any novel I’ve ever read. (Read from the beginning, though, or a lot of it won’t make sense.) Also, I wish they had their I will do science to it t-shirt in child sizes, because I would immediately get one for my son.

And lastly, remember to send us your Folklore stories, and please PLEASE help us reach the necessary 150 preorders we need to publish our first anthology!

- 112,000 to 160,000 words of fiction (depending on which issues you pick)
- Plus, all the articles, interviews, reviews and artwork
- 37% off the cost of buying them separately
- One zip file to download (a link will be emailed to you)

When you make your purchase, be sure to specify which 5 issues you want in the comments section on the purchase page. We’ll make a zip file of those 5 issues, upload it to a secure place and email you a link. We have to do it this way – there are 6,720 different combinations of 5 issues to be made from the 8 available (and that number will increase significantly when each subsequent issue comes out)!

(NOTE: Issues 1, 2, 3 & 4 were never available in digital formats because of the agreements we have with the contributors. Because of this, those four issues aren’t available for this offer.)

Go here to get your issues!

But we are clawing our way back to production. We got back the story rewrite we were waiting for, and the results are excellent, so we’ve decided on our selections for Issue 13. I drew up contracts for all the issue 13 content (except for the cover art, which we sorted out a couple of weeks ago), and have sent a few emails. Still more to send.

Last night I did a bit of work on formatting the cover art; I cropped it down a bit to fit the print edition, and added the title info. Looks brilliant! Still need to drop it into the template and convert it to PDF, and then I’ll have to go back to the original art and do it again for the PDF edition, and then format the image for online too.

We also did some editing today: specifically, the article that’s going in the issue. And when I say “we”, I mean that Kay went through it, sent it back to the writer, he sent it back to her, she forwarded it to me, I went through it and made some additional changes/suggestions and returned it to Kay, who sent it back to the writer. Whew! But it should be about done now.

We also have spent a good deal of time talking yesterday and today talking about various sales we want to offer. We’ve got a few in the works, but there’s one that’ll be available within a day or so, as soon as I sort out the items in the store: Any 5 issues (in PDF or PRC format) for $5. That’s more than 35% off the cost of buying them separately! Get anywhere from 112,000 to 160,000 words of fiction (depending on which issues you select), plus all the articles, interviews and artwork, for only $5! Not bad, right? I’ll do an announcement post as soon as I have it set up. (This offer will exclude issues 1-4, as our contracts don’t allow for digital editions of those issues.)

While figuring out the wordcount numbers in the previous paragraph, I discovered that we published 311,000 words of fiction, and 355,000 words overall, in or first year of issues. That’s a LOT of writing… my editing brain hurts just thinking of it. Hey, over three hundred fifty thousand words we’ve provided for all of you for free, with more to come! If you appreciate it, how about showing your support by preordering our anthology or buying the current issue?

Tomorrow we’ll send out the rest of the emails for Issue 13 submissions, and start editing the fiction. In the meantime, please enjoy the LGBTQ issue, and send us your SFF/Folklore submissions!