Guidelines: The Way of the Wizard
Story Guidelines
(a) The story should be about a wizard, witch, sorcerer, sorceress, of some kind (basically, any sort of user of magic).
(b) The fact that the story has wizards in it should be vital to the story, i.e., magic should be an important factor in the resolution of the plot.
(c) The wizards should be literal, in that they do actual magic, not like a pinball wizard or something like that.
(d) I’m interested in all types of wizard tales, but am especially interested in seeing some stories that explore the idea of wizardry from a non-traditional viewpoint–i.e., something based on the Chilean Kalku or on the supernatural practices of other cultures.
(e) The story may be set in a secondary world, the real world, the present, or in a historical time period…let your imagination run wild.
Genres: Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror. Obviously wizard stories tend to be fantasy, but some sort of SFnal take on the theme would be acceptable.
Reprints/Originals: Original fiction strongly preferred. The anthology will include some reprints, but I will be very selective in my choices given I have all of sf/fantasy history to choose from. If you want to submit a reprint or submit a recommendation for a reprint, instructions for that are here.
Payment: 5 cents per word ($250 max), plus a pro-rata share of 50% of the anthology’s earnings and 1 contributor copy.
Word limit: 5000 words. (Stories may exceed 5000 words, but $250 is the maximum payment per story, and stories 5000 words or less are strongly preferred.)
Rights: First world English rights, non-exclusive world anthology rights, and non-exclusive audio anthology rights. See my boilerplate author-anthologist contract, which spells out the rights in detail.
Reading Period: July 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010.
Response Time: I will be making all of my final decisions in April and May 2010, so if you submit early, your story might be held for consideration for a long time. Most rejections will be sent out quickly, however, so I’ll only hold onto a story if I’m seriously considering it, and if that happens, I’ll notify you.
Publication date: November 2010
Publisher: Prime Books
Submission Instructions: Email your story in .doc Microsoft Word format (preferred) or .rtf rich-text format to jjadams.anthology@gmail.com. Include the words “Wizards Submission” and the title of the story and your byline in the subject line of the email (i.e., Re: Wizards Submission: “The Wizard’s Revenge” by Slushy P. Slusherton). ETA: There is no need to query first. Submissions should be made in standard manuscript format.
About the Editor
John Joseph Adams is the editor of the anthologies Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Seeds of Change, The Living Dead, and Federations. Forthcoming work includes By Blood We Live (August 2009), The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (September 2009), and The Living Dead 2 (Fall 2010). He is also the assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. For more information, visit his website, www.johnjosephadams.com.
J. P. Wickwire
6:49 pm Jun-11-2009Wow! Looks like a very cool anthology– I’ll definately be submitting :D
One quick question– will you be accepting simultaneous submissions?
John Joseph Adams
6:45 pm Jun-12-2009No sim-subs, I’m afraid.
Garrett Cook
8:15 pm Jun-12-2009Where do you stand on flash fiction and multiple submissions (as the two often go hand in hand)?
John Joseph Adams
4:09 pm Jun-18-2009Flash fiction is fine, though I’d rather not see multiple submissions; however, if you submit a story, if I reject it, you can still submit something else during the reading period.
Manny Frishberg
4:43 pm Jun-19-2009What about stories you’ve passed on at F&SF?
John Joseph Adams
5:28 pm Jun-19-2009If I rejected a story at F&SF, please don’t submit it to me for an anthology I’m editing.
laughingwolf
12:52 pm Jun-25-2009sounds great… will see what i can do
Aubrie
8:11 pm Jun-27-2009How would you like us to format our submissions?
John Russo
1:58 pm Jun-28-2009Can I send my story as an attachment?
Freya Williams
1:51 am Jun-30-2009Can this use characters and a world that I have already created in my own novel?
John Joseph Adams
6:12 am Jun-30-2009John Russo –
Yes, send it as an attachment in Word or RTF format (Word preferred).
Freya Williams –
Yes, that’s fine.
Naomi
1:14 pm Jun-30-2009Where do you stand on necromancy as a type of magic? :)
John Joseph Adams
10:36 pm Jun-30-2009Necromancy is fine.
Jenny
9:33 am Jul-13-2009Do I need to be of a certain nationality to submit?
John Joseph Adams
11:08 am Jul-13-2009Any nationality is fine, though citizens of Middle Earth may find the currency exchange a bit problematic.
Martha
11:24 am Jul-27-2009Does the story have to be (very) serious – or can it be funny – at least in parts?
John Joseph Adams
11:26 am Jul-27-2009It can be funny, either entirely or just in parts.
Heddy Johannesen
1:22 pm Jul-31-2009I can’t wait to enter this anthology! I have one question: Does the character have to be a wizard or sorceress or witch? The guidelines keep referring to a wizard throughout the rest of the anthology.
John Joseph Adams
7:39 pm Jul-31-2009It can be a wizard or a sorceress or witch or whatever sort of magic user you can imagine if it seems wizard-like.
Kimberly
7:15 pm Aug-2-2009The inverse of the question at comment #5 — if the story is rejected for this anthology, should we not send it to F&SF?
John Joseph Adams
7:48 pm Aug-2-2009Kimberly,
I would say no, unless I specifically said that I was rejecting the story because it did not fit the theme closely enough.
R. Michael Burns
7:20 pm Aug-22-2009Does the wizard in question have to be the protagonist? Or is a story with a wizard antagonist also viable?
John Joseph Adams
9:08 am Aug-23-2009The wizard can possibly be the antagonist, but he’d have to be an omnipresent figure in the story most likely, regardless of whether or not he’s the protagonist.
Garrett Cook
9:40 pm Aug-29-2009Where do you stand on Bizarro fiction?
John Joseph Adams
11:17 pm Aug-29-2009I’m not opposed to it. Send the story and we’ll find out.
Joan
5:00 pm Sep-1-2009Would a story where the main characters are not wizards/witches but one other character is, be acceptable?
Elizabeth
8:40 am Sep-2-2009What about a story that is basically innocent in tone (say, about the same tone as Tolkien’s “Farmer Giles of Ham”/ “Smith of Wootten Major”)? That could probably be read by young people or adults?
John Joseph Adams
5:09 pm Sep-2-2009Joan, that might be okay; hard to say without seeing the story. If the main characters are not wizards, but the story is somehow still primarily ABOUT WIZARDS, then that should be okay.
Elizabeth, that’s fine.
James
7:47 am Sep-3-2009How much wriggle room is there on the upper limit of the word count? I mean, obviously 5,000 words or less is best, but does that mean that if you like the story enough you’d accept 7,500? 6,000? 5,500? Or is there a limit above which you wouldn’t go, even if it was by a Neil Gaiman, say.
John Joseph Adams
2:34 pm Sep-3-2009James, there’s no upper limit per se, but the longer it is, the better it has to be.
Anonymous
12:50 pm Sep-9-2009Say you hold onto a story because you are seriously considering it. How long would it be before you send out a notification?
John Joseph Adams
7:30 pm Sep-9-2009Hi Anonymous,
I’m trying to send out such notifications in a timely fashion, after neglecting to do so immediately for some. Currently, everything that I’ve read submitted prior to August 27 should have received a rejection or a note indicating I’m holding onto the manuscript for further consideration. Materials submitted after August 27, I haven’t read everything yet.
Anonymous
8:07 pm Sep-9-2009Thanks for answering so soon. Anyway, I asked because I submitted a story on August 18 called “Goodbye, Halcyon Days” but I haven’t received a response yet. Did you receive the story or should I resend it?
Micah Bauchert
10:34 am Sep-11-2009Would a story in which the MC is dealing with the effects of a wizards curse be fitting? Other magic users will be encountered along the way, but the wizard wouldn’t appear until the end.
John Joseph Adams
1:51 am Sep-12-2009Micah,
That would probably be okay.
Way of the Wizard update | John Joseph Adams
2:03 am Sep-12-2009[...] is just a note to say that I’ve read everything submitted to The Way of the Wizard that was submitted on 9/10/09 or earlier. Submissions made during that period should have either [...]
Emlyn Boyle
6:05 am Sep-18-2009Do you have a prefered font/layout format for all submissions? There seems to be varying levels of standard manuscript format these days, and i just want my story to be presented to you as clearly as possible.
John Joseph Adams
7:46 am Sep-18-2009Please use standard manuscript format:
http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
Cat Hellisen
12:19 am Dec-24-2009I’m getting a delvery failure for that email addy. Says it doesn’t exist.
Is there an alternative email that I can use?
Thanks,
Cat.
John Joseph Adams
11:32 am Dec-24-2009Try it again, Cat. It’s working for everyone else. Did you copy and paste it, or did you type it? If the latter, perhaps you made a typo.
Cat Hellisen
12:59 am Dec-28-2009Thanks, i did try again – copy and paste was doing something weird, so I just clicked on the link in another post and that one worked. Heh. Don’t ask me what was going on there.
Melissah B.
8:13 pm Jan-5-2010Unrelated to comments and questions about the publication, but that part about pinball wizards made me really, actually /snort/ with laughter in real, actual life.
Joshua Madronio
7:05 am Jan-9-2010Hello. I got in your site through a link from a Filipino website. I’m just wondering if I can join this contest(if that’s what it’s called)? I am currently residing here in the Philippines. Thanks!
John Joseph Adams
3:07 pm Jan-9-2010Submissions from anywhere in the world are welcome.
Flora Winters
2:39 pm Jan-26-2010Are you still accepting submissions for this anthology? Also, would you consider a story by a 17-year-old if it was well-written?