Blue Quill Anthology Series

Good news, Blue Quill members! We have an anthology series planned from 2019-2024. Here’s everything you need to know:

MISSION: The Blue Quill chapter seeks to assist all its members in becoming successful authors. The anthology process is to assist all authors in understanding a formalized submission, editing and publishing process, and all the structures held within.

WRITING PROMPTS:

2019 – Tell us about an overheard conversation

2020 – Tell us about making eye contact with an important person

2021 – Tell us about a touch changing someone’s life

2022 – Tell us about a smell connected to the past

2023 – Tell us about a meal changing someone’s perspective or world view

2024 – Tell us about a sixth sense

Pick up copies of our past anthologies here:

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

• You must be a current paying member of the Blue Quill chapter (for the duration of the process until publication) in order to submit to the anthology. Being a member or submitting a story is not a guarantee of acceptance into the anthology. Not a member of the chapter? Sign up now!
• Only one submission per person will be allowed.
• Submissions are to be no longer than 7,500 words or 200 lines of poetry.
• Submissions must have a clear connection to the prompt in the work itself with no explanation of the connection needed in order to be considered “on theme” for the anthology.
• We are not looking for stories which include graphic rape and/or sexual assault, or which promote ableism, racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia.
• All submissions must be the original work belonging to the author. No submitted work can have been published a minimum of six months prior to submission and cannot be submitted to another publication for six months after acceptance.
• Work must be submitted to the form by the deadline.
• Submissions will be uploaded by the chapter president to the chapter Google Drive and shared with authors via the email collected in the form.
• If you submit to the anthology, you are committing to edit at least three other submissions or you will be removed from the anthology. Each round of edits should be responded to in a week or less. The more time you have to work with editors, the better. You are also agreeing to have other members contact you via email to check in on your edits!

DEVELOPMENTAL and THEME EDITING:

All edits will be done in Google Docs in the chapter’s Google Drive. Everyone submitting to the anthology (and anyone else willing to help) will be called upon to help with developmental edits using our standard critique guidelines (using suggesting mode so they can see all your edits). Many rounds of edits should take place (12-20 is normal), so be prepared to put the work in. Don’t know how to use Google Docs? Watch this tutorial!

YOU WILL BE REJECTED FOR THE FOLLOWING (these are a few examples):

• Not working with editors
• Not writing to theme
• Lack of willingness to make changes to your story
• Having a bad attitude about edits
• Not meeting deadlines
• Improper formatting

TIMELINE for 2024:

• Work must be submitted to this form by April 15, 2024
• April-May 31: peer developmental edits will take place (the sooner you upload your work to the form, the longer you will get to work with peer editors!)
• June 6: contributors will polish their stories and mark as COMPLETE. This piece will be considered your final submission and will be scored by your peers.
• June 7-15: each piece will be scored using an anonymous score sheet that will judge on Hook, Voice, Character, Writing Mechanics, Story, Plot, Formatting, and Overall Impression.
• June 20: scores and feedback will be shared with contributors. Pieces that scored a mean of 48 or higher will be offered a contract to be published in the anthology.
• June 27: contributors mark their stories as UPDATED after adding any feedback from peer scoring
• June 30: signed contracts are due.
• July 1: final documents will be shared with a freelance editor, who will do our Copy Edits.
• August 15-22: all contributors need to do a post copy edit proofread of their story and submit changes in suggesting mode in Google docs
• August 30: book will be formatted
• September 7-15: all contributors need to proofread their story and as many others as possible, sending feedback to chapter email
• October: book is published!
• November: book signing party and author copies distributed!
• All authors with work accepted into the anthology will be given one free copy of the anthology.

FORMATTING GUIDELINES:

• Please include your name, pen name, title, content warnings, and email address (that you check often), at top of submission so other chapter members can contact you.
• Submissions are accepted in .doc or .docx extension only.
• All submissions must be in 12 point Times New Roman, 2.0 spaced, 1″ margins.
• First line hanging indent of 0.5″
• Scene breaks are marked with centered *** (no space between *)
• Header should contain your name and the title of your work. Footer should contain a centered page number.

COMMUNICATION: Editors and authors will use email to communicate. Please be certain you have updated contact information in the form. Be prompt, meet deadlines, and be professional.