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Open submissions 2023

theSpirea

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Kelborn Venerable Brother

Kelborn

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

Um, it's been a week, and I haven't yet been contacted with a multi-book contract? Is something wrong? Maybe it got lost in the mail? Getting nervous, fraters...

 

They usually take about 100 days to review all entries. 

 

So, relax, lean back, get some tea and snacks and be surprised when you receive an e-mail one day.

 

Checking regularly will only disappoint you each time.

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Wolf Lord Barak Ironwolf Veteran

Wolf Lord Barak Ironwolf

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, Kelborn said:

 

They usually take about 100 days to review all entries. 

 

So, relax, lean back, get some tea and snacks and be surprised when you receive an e-mail one day.

 

Checking regularly will only disappoint you each time.

Well, this makes me feel better.  I too was beginning to wonder if they were too busy laughing their asses off after reading my entry to reply. 

Patience is a virtue, too bad I don't have any.   Virtues, that is..........

Edited by Wolf Lord Barak Ironwolf
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  • 3 weeks later...
Mazer Rackham Venerable Brother

Mazer Rackham

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hopefully not too much Necro on this thread...

 

The main focus of the Cabal of dead Ink is a focused Writer's Room, developing WH40K fiction, mostly the Badab War era. However, recently we have collaborated to produce several entries for the Black Library Open Submission 2022/23. Our plan is to produce an Anthology containing the entries by forum members that GW declined, so that we can showcase the efforts and creativity of the Bolter and Chainsword.

 

However, in order to fulfil this ambition, we need your submissions. Not only that, but covers, and interior artwork, by someone who's a dab hand with a digital brush. A series of projects is in the works, and so we offer the opportunity to express and challenge yourself with the liveries and bloody glories of different Chapters, to be immortalised in downloads available to all members of the B&C.

 

Due to the nature of both GW's IP and the B&C's copyright stipulations, the artwork must be original (our prose certainly is!) and we are prepared to steer anyone who volunteers, so that our mutual projects can always be available.

 

If you're interested, or think you can help out, please feel free to post below, or if you prefer, you can contact me with a PM and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

FAQ:

Spoiler
  • Will I be required to join the Cabal of Dead Ink?
    • Joining us is not mandatory, and we will soon open our project forums up to the public anyway.
  • What can we submit for the Anthology?
    • We are looking for any 500 word Extracts or Completed Short Stories you have, which are based on that extract, and which are all your own work.
  • Can we submit work for Homebrew Chapters?
    • Not this time. At the moment we are concentrating very narrowly on the BL Submission Criteria for the recent campaign (Successor Space Marines only, no Homebrew, no CSM, etc).
  • Will you take the 100-word Summary?
    • Not on its own. The Summary/Synopsis itself is a teaser for the main event, and including only this would leave our readers disappointed.
  • Will you be reviewing the Excerpt/Story subject to inclusion in the Anthology (i.e proofreading, editing)?
    • We can offer some proofreading and editing, certainly, but it will be fairly minimal. We would expect authors to have done some editing work beforehand (you were submitting to BL, after all!)
  • What if I want to resubmit to BL in another window? Won't publishing it here torpedo that?
    • If you are published in the Anthology, you cannot re-use what you give us, but if you have been declined, there is a good chance that you won't get another opportunity to re-present that particular piece of work.
  • There are submissions using my Chapter! You're stealing my ideas!
    • I assure you, we're not. The universe of WH40K does not exist in a vacuum. Your Chapter has merely received a bit more attention than you thought. Parallel development is quite common, and just like any good author, we don't need to steal ideas, we have enough of our own we can't get to!

 

Other notices will be made in relevant forums for further opportunities for involvement by writers, artists and folks good with a digital wrench. :cool:

Edited by Mazer Rackham
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  • 2 weeks later...
Lord Marshal Veteran

Lord Marshal

Posted
Posted (edited)

It might be worth keeping in mind that lot of publishers have recently closed their doors to submissions due to the huge influx of people submitting AI-written stories hoping to pass muster. I imagine this time around the wait will be even longer for people given that BL probably wasn't immune to this.

 

Wait- no, don't put me in the cannon! I was trying to be helpful! NOOOOOOoooooooo...!

 

Edited by Lord Marshal
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DukeLeto69 Battle-Brother

DukeLeto69

Posted
Posted
On 3/26/2023 at 6:31 PM, Lord Marshal said:

It might be worth keeping in mind that lot of publishers have recently closed their doors to submissions due to the huge influx of people submitting AI-written stories hoping to pass muster. I imagine this time around the wait will be even longer for people given that BL probably wasn't immune to this.

 

Wait- no, don't put me in the cannon! I was trying to be helpful! NOOOOOOoooooooo...!

 

AI written sounds particularly meta in this instance. A DAoT prologue to a SM story lol!

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Mazer Rackham Venerable Brother

Mazer Rackham

Posted
Posted (edited)

It's for speed and saturation.

 

Clarke's World, a very well paying sci-fi zine has completely closed submissions, due to social media influencers encouraging using pay-for stories as a 'side-hustle'.

 

I can only think a foot in the door mentality exists if they tried it for BL. (As per Lord Marshal, above).

 

I mean, writing's dead easy, no?

Edited by Mazer Rackham
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Xin Ceithan Venerable Brother

Xin Ceithan

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, grailkeeper said:

I wonder why people would bother with chat gpt for this?

Because some people are really  incredibly lazy… or can’t be bothered with focusing their attention span on anything .. while still  looking for instant gratification/ success / fame at the same time ?! :laugh:
 

I was wondering this why there was a need for an anti-cheat software on 40K Darktide, too - when you are playing as a team, with other people, for the same team … but apparently there are people who have to succeed / finish first  at any given opportunity :wacko: 
 

It does open the question WHEN publishers will either cut around the middle thing and go to AI directly or if there simply will be an “Open Category” for AI participators in the future. But that’s another topic altogether…

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Trokair Venerable Brother

Trokair

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I mean, writing's dead easy, no?

 

Some of us must be doing it wrong then.

 

 

I had recently heard about AI written submissions elsewhere and to be honest I can’t quite get my head around how it could produce a actual story, pure word count sure, but plot?

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Mazer Rackham Venerable Brother

Mazer Rackham

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I mean, writing's dead easy, no?

 

32 minutes ago, Trokair said:

Some of us must be doing it wrong then.

 

Apologies, my comment was meant as sarcasm.

 

32 minutes ago, Trokair said:

I had recently heard about AI written submissions elsewhere and to be honest I can’t quite get my head around how it could produce a actual story, pure word count sure, but plot?

 

A lot of that gets sifted - the lazy get rick quick mob just dump excerpts of Tolkien or whatever into the AI, and it comes out as gobbledegook, but they send it hoping for the best, because an influencer says it's sure-fire. :rolleyes:

 

With a bit more work, it can be done better. I have used the 'free' Chat GPT once and only as an aid to produce a synopsis for one of my projects. I hadn't been working on it for a while, so I couldn't remember what happened, but I fed the blurb into the AI and it damn near plotted the whole thing for me, with the beats I'd written. I reworked it of course, because it wasn't perfect, but it was competent. (It also meant my blurb was bang on, :cool: but I digress).

 

Bringing this back on topic a bit - people who will send regurgitated nonsense into e-zines will try their hand to get the gig with GW. They'll be spotted, almost certainly, but it will clog up the system if they've done it. There's no fast-money, which should put them off, and the follow-up process will certainly expose them, but people gonna people.

Edited by Mazer Rackham
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  • 2 months later...
grailkeeper Veteran

grailkeeper

Posted
Posted

Thank you for your application to the Black Library 'Successors' Open Submissions window.

 

After reviewing your pitch and writing sample, we have decided not to take your submission any further.

 

Due to the volume of submissions we are unable to provide individual feedback. Please do not reply to this email, as any responses will be automatically deleted.

 

We appreciate your interest in writing for Black Library and we wish you the best in any future writing endeavours.

 

Kind regards,

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