Legend Press Short Story Competition
It's not too late to sharpen your pencils and come up with that prize winning short story. Legend Press are calling for submissions for next years collection which will be published by the, next Spring.
Below are the details you will need to enter
Call for submissions for 2009 Legend Press short story collection
"We are publishing the fourth in our acclaimed series of short story-collections and are looking for talented, vibrant authors to submit stories for consideration. Our short-fiction series, called ‘
The Short Story Reinvented’, is designed for today’s busy, but discerning, reader. Short fiction is the perfect answer for the modern reader on the move who wants to read easily accessible, sleek contemporary fiction. Through this series we hope to reaffirm the short story’s inimitable place in the mainstream market.
We plan to publish the new collection at the
end of March 2009 and are calling for writers to send in their submissions by
31st October 2008. A summary and full description of the brief are given below. We look forward to reading, and hopefully publishing, your work!"
Guidelines• Short-story of approximately 9,000-12,000 words
• Actions/thoughts to occur/take place in a single room
• Stream-of-consciousness-style
• Non-genre-specific
• Thought-provoking and original. We want to feel moved and inspired by these stories.
Submission procedure• Please submit stories to
Lucy Boguslawski, Publishing Assistant by email to
submissions@legend-paperbooks.co.uk by 31st October 2008. If you would like to organise an alternative method of suubmission please email the same address.
• Any questions or queries, just let us know and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as we can – email submissions@legend-paperbooks.co.uk.
• Visit the books and reviews page of our website --
www.legendpress.co.uk -- for details of the first three collections in the series,
The Remarkable Everyday,
Seven Days and
Eight Hours.
Full description:
Where this collection differs in theme from our previous three short story collections is that there is no limitation on the time-scale of your story. The majority of action/thoughts should take place within one room, and the term ‘room’ is open to individual interpretation.
The constriction of the setting we believe will create a broad collection of stories, each one drawing the reader in from the first sentence. The term ‘room’ can be interpreted in many ways from a standard kitchen, living room, bathroom to a wider setting such as a church or supermarket etc.
We want this book to reveal a mix of powerful snapshots from a range of different lives. The short stories included will be selected in such a way that they will simultaneously complement and contrast each other, combining compellingly to create another of Legend Press’ unique brand of short-fiction collections.
In keeping with the previous three short story collections the 2009 publication will consist of ‘longish’ short stories, of 9,000 – 12,000 words. By using longer-than-usual stories, the collections are the perfect cross over of the novel and the short story – combining a strong element of what modern readers love about the novel, whilst providing the convenience and accessibility of the short story.
We would like each story to draw inspiration from a stream-of-consciousness style of writing and to follow the actions/thoughts of a single main character. You will notice that this is also a feature of the first three short story collection, and we feel it worked well and achieved the sort of opportunity for reflection that we wanted our short stories to encourage. The style also had great reader-feedback.
As with all Legend Press publications, we are looking for fiction that is non-genre-specific (i.e. no fantasy, sci-fi, crime, heavy romance, historical fiction, or thrillers etc) and of an accessible but high-quality writing style.
Aim of this collection:
We want this book to build on the success of its predecessors and to show today’s modern, busy readers that a snatched lunch-hour or daily commute doesn’t have to be time in a busy pressured day spent wasted, bored or uninspired.
High-quality, thought-provoking short fiction can perfectly fill what before may have been an enforced gap of ‘dead-time’ in the daily routine. We believe that dipping into our unique brand of short fiction is not as daunting as delving into a thick novel on the Tube when you know that soon you will be interrupted mid-chapter, yet the subject matter is still weighty and meaningful enough to give the modern reader something new to think about and feel inspired about for the rest of the day, week, month and year.