Our Anthologies are themed releases featuring short stories from must read authors. 
Published in digital and physical formats.

Pre-Orders are posted to Amazon as soon as we have 4 submissions.
Contracts sent as submissions come in.

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Current Themes & Deadlines:

Join us on Facebook or Discord to discuss!

• More 2023 Dates coming soon! Join us on Patreon to help pick themes!

• Word Count:
  • 5,000 – 10,000 words (Wiggle Room Allowed.)
  • Professionally Edited (Authors submission must be edited by an individual that would be deemed a professional by other authors before they submit their story.)
  • Feel free to submit before editing to get an approval. / acceptance.
• Style:
  • New material. / Not currently published anywhere.
  • Can be characters from a currently published series.
  • Can be new characters that only appear in the anthology. 
  • Can be different characters with each submission.
  • Author has creative freedom with tropes and elements.
  • The listed theme needs to be the main idea of the story, but how it is executed is up to the author. 
  • Cozy Mystery Anthologies: Must be a complete mystery.
    • Can be as easy as 3 scenes/chapters. (Setup, Discovery, Payoff.)
  • Fantasy Anthologies: Must be a complete story.
    • Must not require reading previous works to enjoy.
• Genre:
  • Cozy Mystery Anthologies: Can be Paranormal or Non-Paranormal, and any sub-genre of cozy mystery.
    • Must be clean. (i.e. – no foul language, or on-screen violence/sex.)
  • Fantasy Anthologies: Can fit into any sub-genre of fantasy.
    • No to low romance, it must not be the main plot of the story.
• How to Submit:
  • Email: aconitecafe@gmail.com
  • Title Email: “Submission – Anthology Title – Author Name“
    • Anthology Title means the title of the anthology you are submitting you.
    • Author Name means your pen name as it will appear on Amazon.
    • If you do not put the word Submission first, your email will be rejected.
  • Body of Email Contents: “Anthology Title – Your Story Title – Author Name – Word Count“
    • Attach submission as a .docx file titled the same as the body of email contents.
    • If you do not title your file correctly it will be rejected.
• Document Format:
  • Courier New Font
  • 12 pt.
  • double spacing
  • 0.25 inch paragraph indents. (No tabs!)
• Chapters Titles:
  • Format with Heading 1
• Scene Breaks:
  • centered
  • * * *, i.e. asterisk space asterisk space asterisk
  • single enter before, and after.
• Ellipsis:
  • Please do not use the ellipsis symbol
  • instead use . . . i.e. dot space dot space dot.
• Header contents:
  • “Anthology Title – Your Title – Author Name – Word Count”
• Add your 150 word bio plus a single link of your choosing except to a sales platform, after your story.

Acceptance:

• Acceptance decided by Sabetha Danes.
  • Only the quality of writing / mystery / plot will have weight on acceptance. 
  • All submissions will receive feedback, and the potential for reworking if possible.
• Once accepted:
  • The author will receive an email containing typos, this must be returned within 5 days of receiving it.
  • Once the anthology is filled, the author will receive an email containing contract, & a questionnaire via Google Forms, this must be returned within 5 days of receiving it.
• Author is responsible for a marketing fee of $20 per story submitted. (This is NOT pay to play, but CO-OP publishing and covers the cost of marketing, cover & formatting. See Royalties section below.)
• The author will receive digital proof copies of the ebook and print book, this must be returned within 5 days of receiving it.
• The anthology will be published under the series name “A Cozy Mystery Tribe Anthology” or “A Caffeinated Fantasy Anthology & will stay published until the publisher decides otherwise. 

Rights:

• The publisher will receive exclusive electronic rights, and worldwide print rights for 90-days and non-exclusive rights thereafter.
  • After the 90-days, authors will be able to publish their story on their own, but will not be able to put it in Kindle Unlimited.

Placement:

• A week before publication a sharable Youtube video will be posted where authors & readers will discover the story reading order within the anthology by random drawing.

Pricing:

• Ebook Pricing: $2.99
  • 90-Day Kindle Unlimited Run.
  • With potential of 99¢ sale run.
• Paperback pricing: $12.99
• Pricing is subject to change at the discretion of the publisher.

Marketing:

• Authors are required to promote the anthology as if it was one of their own books (or as their publisher would promote their own works.)
  • If an author is found to not be promoting an anthology during the first month of release they will be considered in breach of contract, and will lose their rights to royalties. Plus:
    • Removed from the Anthology.
    • Rejected from working with Aconite Cafe in the future.
• This includes newsletters, social media, organizing newsletter swaps, participating in the launch party, organizing ARC reviews from their readers,  and more.
  • They must be able to providing links to organizer on request.
  • They will tag Cozy Mystery Tribe or Caffeinated Fantasy where applicable.
• Potential for paid newsletter promotion sites to be scheduled, and Facebook ads during 14-day launch window.
• A group giveaway will potentially be organized for the month of the launch, it is not required but appreciated if every author contributes a prize pack valued at whatever they decide, on theme with the anthology.

Royalties Payout:

• Amazon Distribution Payout:
  • Authors will receive one payment via paypal after the publisher received the final Kindle Unlimited payout, then an annual payment during the month of February.
• Wide Distribution Payout:
  • Author must be a member of Draft 2 Digital.
• Royalty Splitting:
  • All royalties will be split equally between all stories & the publisher.
  • Co-Authors share a single split.
  • Example: (9 stories + 1 publisher = 10% each)

• What does the fee cover?
  • The fee for each anthology covers the cost of covers, formatting and marketing.
• Is there a maximum word count for a single anthology?
  • Each anthology will have a cap of about 15ish authors. If one (like a holiday themed one) were to get an excessive amount of submissions, then we would potentially open up a second volume and have two publications that month. If we are routinely getting 30+ quality submissions then we will move to monthly releases, bi-weekly, or weekly publications.
• How many copies have to be sold to break even?
  • For each author to break even within the first 90 days, we need to sell 1,500 copies, assuming there are 15 authors contributing to the anthology.
• Is there a way to see how full each open anthology is?
  • At this time we are not implementing a cap. If the submission date hasn’t passed, we have room for you!

We publish Cozy Mystery and Fantasy series, in digital and physical format.

• Email: aconitecafe@gmail.com
• Title Email: “Publish Me – Your Title – Author Name”
• Body Contents: “Title – Author Name – Word Count”
  • Plus less than 1000 words answering the following:
    • How many books have you published?
      What are your publishing goals?
    • Why are you submitting to us?
    • What books on writing craft have you read?
  • Provide us with the following links if available:
    • Amazon Author Page
    • Goodreads Author Page
    • Social Media Links
• Attach submission as a .docx file in the following format:
  • Courier New Font
  • 12 pt.
  • double spacing
  • 0.5 inch paragraph indents. (No tabs!)
  • Header contents:
    • “Title – Author Name – Word Count”