Behind The Scenes: Dark Faith 2 tagged:

Behind The Scenes: Dark Faith 2

Posted June 1, 2012 in Blog, Dark Faith

If you’re reading this, you most likely submitted to Dark Faith 2 and came here looking for a peek behind the scenes.  First, let me say thank you for submitting your story (and for your patience during our reading period).

The Submission Process

Dark Faith 2 received 700 submissions.  Over 600 of these were unsolicited “slush pile” stories. To put that in perspective, we’re talking roughly 8,500 pages of short fiction, enough to fill more than 26 anthologies.

We accepted unsolicited submissions during the month of January.  These were predominately read over a 90 day period from February to April.  We rejected the majority of unsolicited stories during this period.  In early May, we received and read the last of the solicited stories and made several more rounds of cuts to arrive at a tentative table of contents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthology By Writer

We invited the original contributors to write stories for Dark Faith 2.  These stories made up the largest segment of the book (42%).  We also solicited a new pool of professionals (31%).  And we accepted seven stories (27%) from unsolicited writers.  One unsolicited story will mark the first publishing credit for a new writer.  Another, a writer’s first professional sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthology by Genre

Keep in mind that Maurice, Jason, and I all enjoy fiction that blurs the line between genres.  Many of these stories dip more than a toe into neighboring genres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strange But True

We received 14 novel pitches with full manuscripts included (all deleted unread).

Several novel submissions came from “literary agencies” that exist solely to mass email editors. God knows what they steal charge for their spam services.

We still receive submissions for the original volume of Dark Faith (published in 2010).

We do keep a special folder marked “crazy” (if you’re smart enough to read this, you’re not in it).

Despite Maurice’s best efforts, no talking animal stories were purchased in the making of this anthology.

 

Tentative Table of Contents

“Subletting God’s Head” by Tom Piccirilli+
“The Cancer Catechism” by Jay Lake+
“The Big Blue Peacock” by Nick Mamatas+
“Kill the Buddha” by Elizabeth Twist*
“Robotnik” by Lavie Tidhar+
“Prometheus Possessed” by Matt Cardin+
“Night Train” by Alma Alexander
“The Sandfather” by Richard Wright+
“Sacrifice” by Jennifer Pelland+
“Thou Art God” by Tim Waggoner*
“Wishflowers” by Tim Pratt
“Coin Drop” by Richard Dansky+
“Starter Kit” by R.J. Sullivan*
“A Little Faith” by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens
“The Revealed Truth” by Mike Resnic
“God’s Dig” by Kelly Eiro*
“The Divinity Boutique” by Brian J. Hatcher*
“The Birth of Pegasus” by K. Tempest Bradford
“All This Pure Light Leaking In” by LaShawn M. Wanak*
“Fin De Siécle” by Gemma Files
“The Angel Seems” by Jeffrey Ford
“Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy A. Snyder+
“A Strange Form of Life” by Laird Barron
“In Blood and Song” by Nisi Shawl and Michael Ehart*
“Little Lies, Dear Leader” by Kyle S. Johnson+
“I Inhale the City, the City Exhales Me” by Douglas F. Warrick+

+ Original Dark Faith contributors
*  Unsolicited submissions