The Crimson Pact

Stories based thematically on the loose frame of "The Crimson Pact". A brief description and guidance for writing a Crimson Pact story are here. We are concerned about quality of the story first, then only secondarily about fitting it in the frame. Our editor has to earn their fame and glory somehow, right?

Three volumes are planned and we're anticipating some story arcs to be continued from one anthology to the next with some recurring characters and worlds. The writers of stories that we love (and those who have written stories that are ripe for a sequel or two) will be asked to write for subsequent anthologies.

These stories may be of any genre. Speculative fiction is preferred. We really would love to see stories in the following genres: urban fantasy, mystery, romance, steampunk, and alternate history. Stories rated "R" or below are acceptable; PG-13 and below is preferred. We believe that explicitness is almost always unnecessary to achieve the desired effect.

You may use your own characters and settings as noted in the Crimson Pact section.

Avoid the standard tropes. As always, you can do it, but it better be damn, damn good.

A quick way to win us over: Pulp stories with a literary sensibility.

Short stories are by invitation only. A good way to get an invitation to a future volume is to bowl us over with an awesome flash story.

We define "short stories" as between 2,500 and 10,000 words. If you have a longer work, query us first.

Payment for short stories, defined as those over 2000 words, will be a pro-rata share of 75% of net proceeds based upon word count. Sunk costs are deliberately kept low and transparent. There will be no advance against royalties.

You will retain audio rights, and will be encouraged to sell your story to audio markets such as Escape Artists podcasts and Starship Sofa.

Flash fiction is by open submission call during our reading period, below. If you wish to be notified when our next reading period is, please contact us and ask to join our mailing list. The framing story, The Failed Crusade is here for reference.

Flash fiction is defined as stories of less than 1,001 words, not including the title. Flash fiction must include a beginning, conflict, and at least a suggestion of resolution. A character study or "slice of life" is not a story.

Flash fiction will be paid a one time flat fee of US$10, regardless of word count. Trust us when we say this is a difficult economic decision to make.

As mentioned above, a flash story that impresses us is a potential in for an invite for future volumes.

We are not currently seeking submissions at this time.

No simultaneous submissions.

Upon acceptance, authors will be asked to provide a "bonus content" essay of 250-1000 words. These essays should be thought of as DVD commentary tracks, and can be about your writing experience, a "behind the story" documentary, or anything else relevant. These essays will be used upon the project website and/or blog.

Authors are encouraged to provide information about other projects, especially if characters from those other projects appear in your Crimson Pact story. For example: "If you would like to read more stories featuring these characters, check out the Awesome Book Trilogy, now out from PublisherAwesumz." Referral or associate links to your own projects are acceptable.

Some works - primarily flash works - may be made available for a limited time on our website. Appropriate headers so that the work is not indefinitely archived will be maintained (that is, when we take it down, you shouldn't be able to find it any more, even on the Internet Archive).

All characters you create (or bring) to a Crimson Pact anthology remain your intellectual property. (This includes derivative organizations based in your world - please contact us if you need this clarified.) The "Crimson Pact" and such entities are indefinitely licensed to be used in all stories that first appear in a Crimson Pact anthology. That is, you can resell your story that talks about the Crimson Pact after it has appeared in a Crimson Pact anthology without resecuring rights.

We prefer paying you via PayPal, but can send you a check.

Submissions should be in standard manuscript format . We prefer stories to be in DOC (not DOCX) format with no tabs in the manuscript (that is, do not use the tab key at any point). Use 0.5" indents for all paragraphs except for the first. Page numbers and headers are NOT required.

Please note that the editor for the Crimson Pact anthologies is Paul Genesse. Direct all editorial questions to Paul Genesse, business questions to Steven Saus.

Send your submissions as an attachment to with the subject line of:

SUBMISSION:  MyTitle - MyLastName

A brief cover letter is appreciated.