The Way of the Wizard Writing Contest

The Way of the Wizard

Story Guidelines

(a) The story should be about a wizard, witch, sorcerer, sorceress, of some kind (basically, any sort of user of magic).

(b) The fact that the story has wizards in it should be vital to the story, i.e., magic should be an important factor in the resolution of the plot.

(c) The wizards should be literal, in that they do actual magic, not like a pinball wizard or something like that.

(d) I’m interested in all types of wizard tales, but am especially interested in seeing some stories that explore the idea of wizardry from a non-traditional viewpoint–i.e., something based on the Chilean Kalku or on the supernatural practices of other cultures.

(e) The story may be set in a secondary world, the real world, the present, or in a historical time period…let your imagination run wild.


Genres: Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror. Obviously wizard stories tend to be fantasy, but some sort of SFnal take on the theme would be acceptable.

Reprints/Originals: Original fiction strongly preferred. The anthology will include some reprints, but I will be very selective in my choices given I have all of sf/fantasy history to choose from. If you want to submit a reprint or submit a recommendation for a reprint, instructions for that are here.

Payment: 5 cents per word ($250 max), plus a pro-rata share of 50% of the anthology’s earnings and 1 contributor copy.

Word limit: 5000 words. (Stories may exceed 5000 words, but $250 is the maximum payment per story, and stories 5000 words or less are strongly preferred.)

Rights: First world English rights, non-exclusive world anthology rights, and non-exclusive audio anthology rights. See my boilerplate author-anthologist contract, which spells out the rights in detail.

Reading Period: July 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010.

Response Time: I will be making all of my final decisions in April and May 2010, so if you submit early, your story might be held for consideration for a long time. Most rejections will be sent out quickly, however, so I’ll only hold onto a story if I’m seriously considering it, and if that happens, I’ll notify you.
Publication date: November 2010

Publisher: Prime Books

Submission Instructions: Email your story in .doc Microsoft Word format (preferred) or .rtf rich-text format to jjadams.anthology@ gmail.com. Include the words “Wizards Submission” and the title of the story and your byline in the subject line of the email (i.e., Re: Wizards Submission: “The Wizard’s Revenge” by Slushy P. Slusherton). ETA: There is no need to query first. Submissions should be made in standard manuscript format.

http://www.johnjosephadams.com/2009/06/guidelines-the-way-of-the-wizard/