Submissions are now CLOSED for "After Death..."

Submissions are now closed for the anthology, "After Death..." Thank you so much to all who took the time to submit to this book!
I've tried to keep up on reading throughout the open call period, but it will still take me several weeks to get through everything. Acceptances and rejections will be sent throughout July-August and a final Table of Contents posted September-October.

I learned a new term that was shared with me in a rejection I recently received, and I think it's appropriate for me to share here. For my anthology, I received an "embarrassment of riches." Meaning, I received SO many fantastic stories from SO many fantastic authors that it is truly embarrassing to have tell many of you that I can't accept your writing for this book. This includes friends, peers, and authors whose strength of writing and accomplishments far surpass my own.

Including those authors I prearranged with for an extension and those who were invited (extended deadlines), I expect to have about 350 submissions total. I received 42 subs just yesterday alone and 20 the day before that - Whew!

I just finished logging in all submissions and sending confirmations. The average word count is much lower than my last anthology. 3,780 words is the average (Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations averaged about 4,500 words per sub). That totals to over 1.3 million words for me to review, the equivalent of about thirteen full-length (300+ page) novels.

I will be accepting in the range of 100,000 - 110,000 words for "After Death..." which means about 26 - 29 stories, based on the average word count. Percentage-wise, that is about the top 7% to 8% of submissions will be accepted. Stories will be accepted not only on their merit, but also by their uniqueness and how they interrelate with each other. This means I am striving to maintain a proper "flow" or consistency in tone amongst stories, the way that you listen to songs in order on an album of music, though also with an emphasis on variety of beliefs and stories.

Anyway, that's just a few thoughts from me.

Thank you again to all submitters and I will be in contact with each of you. I'll continue to post updates on Facebook and this blog.

Keep writing!