Christmas is cancelled
Not really. The Christmas anthology has been cancelled for this year. The process of loading all the new authors for the Halloween anthology is under way and it’s a slow process indeed. There are so many!
The Halloween anthology is a real Monster this time. So many new authors! It weighs in at over 400 pages so it’s more expensive than the previous ones – but then it’s three times bigger than average. It was a tough job, the deadline was set, as usual, expecting to deal with 10 or fewer stories. Well, this time we’ve really been noticed and 39 stories made it into the book. This did result in some sleepless nights but we got it done – then Amazon decided to flag it as being copied from elsewhere. Took a couple of days to sort that out but it finally made it into print and Kindle.
It’s not on Smashwords yet, that’s going to need some consideration. Smashwords want all the author names on the cover so the cover would be just a list of names. The image would be obliterated. It’s also necessary to create a ‘ghost’ account for every author and that will take some time too.
So, since we now have a goal of getting three of the novels in our backlog out in time for Christmas, the Smashwords edition of Monster might not appear until the New Year. Adding new authors to the website will also be done in batches, in between other work.
It really would not have been possible to work on a Christmas anthology this year, especially if it proved as popular as the Halloween edition.
Underdog Anthology 25 will be the Spring 2025 edition, and deadlines will be set earlier in the future.
Halloween 2024
It has been a year of ill health here at Leg Iron Books and the backlog is shocking. Nonetheless, the Halloween anthology will go ahead, opening for submissions on September 1st and closing on September 30th.
The Christmas anthology will not be running this year, unfortunately. The backlog of work has become far too big to run two anthologies so close together.
There will be novel announcements soon, several are close to completion.
UA23
At last, the Spring anthology, ‘Spring Broke‘, is complete and published. All author payments have been sent out and so this one can be ‘put to bed’. It’s late but then this anthology has no serious deadline, unlike the Halloween and Christmas ones, It’s a good one too, with some excellent stories.
Now it’ll be back to the novel backlog. There’s quite a lot in there,
Hiatus
Due to recent medical issues and a resulting backlog of work, Leg Iron Books cannot deal with new novel submissions at this time. Anthologies will continue as usual but we have to clear or at least reduce the backlog of novels before considering any more. We hope this will not take more than a month,
Update, and Anthology 23
There are multiple books going through edfiting simultaneously at the moment, due to the large backlog caused by last year’s medical issues. At least some of them will appear before the next anthology is due, depending on the degree of editing required for each individual book.
There is also a push to get as many books available in hardback as possible, the only issue will be those where the author has unfortunately passed away and we cannot get permission for the new version. Those will also reach a different issue when they reach the end of their contract, it will be up to their next of kin whether those books continue to be published here and if there is no next of kin in contact with us, we’re a bit stuck.
The only problem with hardbacks is the cover. The spine is thicker due to the board covers and there is an indentation next to the spine, so sometimes (often) the paperback cover doesn’t fully reach the ends of the hardback cover. So, sometimes the cover image has to be redone. It’s not a massive problem but it’s enough to slow things down, especially with all the other issues over the past year.
Okay, on to Anthology 23, the Spring Anthology for 2024. This will open for submissions between March 1st and April 3rd and the deadline will be a little flexible because it’s no longer fixed on Easter. Any genre is acceptable, this is the open-genre one so write whatever story you want (within the bounds of legality).
Back to work. There is much to do…
Christmas…
The 22nd Underdog Anthology for Christmas 2023 was finished in the nick of time. It’s pretty dark this year.
There have been many, many delays this year. So there is a large backlog of novels and short story collections now, which will be the main focus of work from now until March, when the next anthology will begin. At least number 23, for Spring 2024, doesn’t have a rigidly fixed deadline.
Watch for a rash of new releases in the New Year.
Anthology 22 – Christmas 2023
The Christmas anthology is now open for submissions until November 30th. Any genre, as long as Christmas is a central part of the theme of the story. Stories should be roughly 2000 words, but this is not set in stone. A little under, or a lot over, is fine. Very short stories, under 1000 words, we can come to some arrangement on the payment. Short ones are not automativcally rejected.
Payment is £12 per story or equivalent in your local currency. Authors within the UK can opt to be paid in copies of the book (usually three copies, unless it happens to grow far more than usual). Unfortunately this isn’t currently feasible for authors outside the UK, since the postage costs and delays would reduce the number of books and it could take an unreasonably long time to arrive. Outside the UK, you’re better off taking the cash and ordering a copy locally. Or just spend it on beer, it’s your money after all.
The deadline has to be fairly firm in order to get the book assembled, formatted, all author contracts and payments done, and available in time for Christmas.
Finally, please don’t send any AI-generated text or images. This leads to copyright issues and will also cause Amazon to mark the entire book as AI-generated, which is unfair to the other authors.
Anthology 21 (Halloween 2023) available at last.
It has cut very close to being to late this year, but despite multiple setbacks, the Halloween anthology, ‘A Day Off for Angels‘, is available just in time.
The print version has a bonus story at the end, partly because the print version costs five times as much as the eBook, but also because this book was a couple of pages shy of being thick enough to allow text on the spine. A blank spine looks dreadful on a bookshelf and anyone who has the previous 20 anthologies is going to be mightily disappointed if their shelf suddenly sports a blank one.
That story was lifted from ‘Fears of the Old and the New’ by H.K. Hillman, with permission of course (since it was my own book). It does not appear in the eBooks since they were already loaded when the few pages shortfall came to light – and there was no time to reload them. It will be is now available online for those who feel cheated.
Next up is the Christmas anthology. Hopefully there will not be the mass of problems delaying that one too!
Halloween and Christmas anthologies
The Halloween anthology (UA21) has been dreadfully delayed by hospital stuff, which isn’t completely over yet. The worst is past, I think, but there will be more medical meddling in the coming weeks. It has taken them six decades to find something seriously wrong with me and they aren’t going to let go easily.
Both anthologies will go ahead regardless. The Halloween one will go straight to PDF for distribution to authors, with notes on what was edited, especially as almost all the stories needed nothing more than a few typos fixed. Authors can expect that PDF and their contracts in the next few days.
The Christmas anthology will open November 1st and close around the 30th. This one has a tighter time constraint because deliveries over Christmas are always subject to delays. I will also be dragged into surgery halfway through November, at least twice. Maybe on those occasions, it will indeed be the one day visit I was promised twice before and not some protracted stay where they take more blood samples than Dracula. Next time, I’m taking a full pack of cigarettes and maybe a hip flask…
Leg Iron Books is wounded but not dead. We’ll be back.
Halloween anthology update
There’s been A Thing.
I will be getting a rather spectacular kidney stone removed on the 29th April September [it was very late when I typed this] (I hope, it didn’t go so well last time). This means I’ll likely be a dazed mess after anaesthetics on the 30th, when the anthology is due to close. The stories sent in so far look like they really won’t need much editing so hopefully between RooBeeDoo and myself, most of the work will be done early.
However, if you send in a late entry on the 30th, it’s not likely to get attention right away. Therefore the deadline is extended to October 2nd (midnight, GMT). It can’t be any later than that if it’s going to be out for Halloween.
I will attempt to have all, or at least most, contracts and payments dealt with before the sawbones slice me up but please be patient if things don’t proceed as fast as usual.
Novel editing has been passed to RooBeeDoo, who, unlike me, isn’t retired and still has to work a proper job for a living. I’m afraid those will be slow too.
There is also some new madness that Amazon has installed, and that needs to be dealt with since it is likely to be the cause of the absolutely dire sales in the last quarter. Even though almost all of the books were published before the very recent AI rise to fame. Leg Iron Books will not use AI to generate books or covers, and any authors who do so will need to inform us of this on submission. It’ll have to be in future contracts too.
Once the stone is out I’m likely to be stuck in the house for a while. Which should, at least, improve the writing work output.