This was a tough decision for me to make, but I owe the writers who take the time to write and submit my dedication and time, and I feel I have failed the past two years. Yes, I did get the Annual out, but I’ve been so incredibly sick for the past 18 month, in 2024, I have to focus on regrouping and my health.
I hope the Annual will be back in full force in 2025, but I understand only the gift of time will direct my path. For now, I am not accepting submissions for 2024.
However, I have toyed with a few options that still give me this first quarter to get my ducks in a row and work to pay off mounds of medical debt.
I may roll the last three years, and with the blessing of Elizabeth River Press, our first year’s anthology, into a box set and focus on marketing for the fabulous writers who have trusted me with their work over the past four years.
Or I may reach out to the writers I have gotten to know well from their submissions over the years and do a small anthology with less effort of my time in communication and editing.
Health is wealth, and I am grateful for mine, but I live in a place where my finances must be shifted into a positive place again, and for me, that means more working and less giving… for now, at least. If you know me, you must know how much that hurts my soul. But I am determined.
And more importantly, I am feeling well heading into this new year, a new chapter, a new journey, a potential new home with a smaller mortgage, and a huge shift in my companies.
Submission guidelines are as follows:
- All submissions must be in English. We will not translate and will publish in English. Please communicate if British or Australian English is in use, so we do not edit for American English.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify us immediately if your submission is accepted for publication elsewhere so we can remove it from consideration.
- Submissions must not be previously published.
- For any publication, authors and artists provide ARZONO Publishing first serial rights for ninety days after the Annual release date in July 2024, exact date to be determined and posted before May 1st.
- Creators retain all copyrights.
- Short scripts should be limited to a ten-minute film and properly formatted using Final Draft, Celtx, Scrivener, or Word, or other software specifically for formatting scriptwriting.
- Please do not submit PDFs so we can format properly for a 6×9 paperback.
Submissions are closed for 2024
We are looking for submissions in the following writing categories:
- Prose: Short Story up to 7,500 words
- Prose: Flash Fiction up to 1,000 words
- Poetry: One long piece should be able to fit on one page up to three columns – up to five pieces per poet
- Scripts: Up to ten one-minute pages properly formatted using a scriptwriting program such as Final Draft
Stella Samuel and ARZONO Publishing require ALL authors provide ARZONO Publishing with first serial rights for ninety days after the Annual release date. This means the piece submitted must not be published anywhere else, including personal or professional websites, Medium, Facebook, or other print or digital publications, until 90 days after the Annual release date. Reminder: authors retain all copyrights.
We publish inclusive fiction and creative non-fiction pieces and reserve to right to decline pieces based on topic sensitivity. Each piece will be reviewed and potentially edited for grammar. Please submit your best self-edited pieces.
All authors and artists retain copyrights and may publish elsewhere 90 days after this Annual publication.
Anyone wishing to withdraw their piece from the publication must do so before the stated deadline. Otherwise, once approvals and acceptance have been agreed upon, the book, both print and digital, is considered in production.
ARZONO Publishing Presents The Annual should be acknowledged as the place of initial publication should the writing piece be published elsewhere after the first serial rights 90 days have passed.
The TBD Annual 2024 will be published in paperback and eBook. This final release date will be decided upon in May 2024.
To submit a piece for a future Annual, please visit our Submissions page once we announce open submmissions again.
Any questions can be directed to Stella at Stella@StellaSamuel.com
