Anthology 25
There is a lot going on here. Ian Caswell’s book will soon be ready and Anthology 25 is in process. If you have submitted and not yet had a response, don’t despair. As with the last anthology, the submissions are far higher than we are used to and responses are likely to be slow. The deadline, April 30th, is probably going to be a serious cutoff this time.
Still, most of the submitted stories are excellent and you’ll hear whether you’re in very soon. Since there is a limit on submissions (with the exception of the editors, who don’t get paid for our stories) a refusal is not an indictment on your skills, more a reflection on our limited finances. Still, with around 20 authors so far, we are well within manageable levels.
Responses, and edits, will start to come out in the next few days. Author contracts, where applicable, will be sent out at the end of April and payments will come after the contracts are completed.
It looks like a mid May publication date. All authors will be notified when the book is available.
Anthology 25
The Twenty-Fifth Underdog Anthology is now open for submissions until April 30th, 2025. We are aiming for publication mid to late May this year.
This anthology, originally the Easter anthology, is now the ‘any genre’ one. Anything from romance to science fiction, comedy to horror, as long as it’s legal and not pornographic.
Payment is, as always, £12 per story or the equivalent in copies of the book. Stories should be around 2000 words, although this is somewhat flexible. Very short stories (1000 words or less) might be offered a reduced payment. Unfortunately we cannot offer an increased payment for longer stories, although these can be accepted.
The deadline on this one can be a little flexible since it’s not tied to a specific annual event. If you let us know you’re going to be a day or two late with your submission, we can accomodate it. Keep in mind though, that once editing starts we’re going to be busy so a day or two over the deadline is okay (with a prior warning!) but later than that will be too late.
Since Anthology 24 was a Monster, we’re going to have to set a limit on size for this one. It was a delight to produce that monster but the size makes it a lot more expensive than the rest of the anthologies so it’s a hard one to sell. So send your best, and don’t be disheartened if your story doesn’t make it into this one. We really do have to limit the size of these books for sales reasons.
Looking forward to reading your story.
News from Leg Iron Books
It’s been a while so there’s some catching up to do.
First of all, we have gained one author and lost another. Stephen Clothier joins our author list with his first novel, ‘Dreamstalker‘. It’s a well researched tale of ghosts, witchcraft and a demonic entity.
Meanwhile, Mark Ellott has decided to go it alone. This is not disappointing, since the entire purpose of this enterprise was to get new authors started – and Mark is a prolific writer. He has been trying to get agented, and it’s certain that he wouldn’t disappoint any agent who chose to take him on. Leg Iron Books will continue to list his books until he has his own copies online, then he has the option to have his books listed here but linked to his own Amazon listings instead. Basically, we offer free advertising. Mark will continue to provide stories for the anthologies so he’s not leaving us completely.
The next anthology (number 25) will open for submissions on March 27th and close on April 30th. This is an any-genre anthology, no longer tied to Easter or any other date, so it’s rather more relaxed than the Halloween one. Nonetheless, this one will have a limit on stories, most likely around 20. The last Halloween anthology, ‘Monster’, was a very big one with a lot of excellent stories, but the bigger the book, the higher the price has to be and that makes it something of a hard sell.
There are still books in the queue waiting to be edited but that backlog is slowly getting dealt with. As long as life continues to not throw any more curve balls (fingers crossed) we should get the backlog cleared by the summer. Meanwhile, if you submitted something and haven’t heard, it’s because we’re currently overloaded. If you submitted during the madness that was the last anthology, it’s entirely likely that it’s lost among the mass of emails from that time! So please do feel free to resubmit, unless you’ve already found a place for your work elsewhere.
Well, back to work. Those stories didn’t write themselves and they certainly won’t read themselves!
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.