First Book Friday: Submission Guidelines

So far, all First Book Friday posts have been by invitation only. I’m continuing to send out invites, but I’ve also decided to try opening this feature up to submissions. If you’re interested in doing a FBF piece, here are the guidelines:

1. I’m looking for submissions from science fiction and fantasy authors who have published at least two novels professionally (which I’m arbitrarily defining as a publisher which paid an advance of at least $2000). Not because I hate self-publishing and small press, but because these are the stories I want to feature and explore here.

2. Submissions should be roughly 500-600 words, and should explore how you came to write and sell that first book.

3. You can query me beforehand, or you can write the thing and e-mail it to me. Please put “First Book Friday” in the subject line, and e-mail it to fbf@jimchines.com. (If you’re uncertain about anything, please send a query.)

4. Remember, you’re telling a story, not writing a commercial. (From what I’ve seen over the past year, a good story will end up selling a lot more of your books than a commercial does anyway.)

5. There’s no payment for FBF posts at this time. However, my blog generally gets 2000+ unique readers per day, most of whom are SF/F fans. I will write an introduction with links to your web site, and will include a pic and links to your first book.

6. You can request a specific date, but I make the final decisions on scheduling.

7. I reserve the right to reject submissions or ask for rewrites, based on my completely arbitrary ideas on what makes a good FBF post for my readers.

8. By submitting, you’re agreeing to give me first rights to publish your piece online, and the nonexclusive right to archive it in my blog. I.e., it can’t appear elsewhere before it goes up here, but once it does, you can repost or resell it wherever you’d like.

Any questions? Anything I missed in the guidelines? I’ll be updating these as needed once I see how things go.