Horror finds a home with Bones
Bag of Bones Press is a new independent publisher of fresh horror, dark, and speculative fiction.
‘We’re also keen on sci-fi and fantasy, as long as horror is the dominant element in a story,’ said publisher SJ Townend. ‘We’re keen to offer our support to new and up-and-coming writers by providing a place for them to showcase their best work. We’re open to submissions (for our specific calls) from anyone and we’re especially keen to read work from under-represented voices and from writers who have less in the way of professional qualifications and training in the writing industry. Everyone deserves a chance, right? After all, we’re just a bunch of horror lovers ourselves, trying to manifest something beautifully horrid.’
Bag of Bones set up in 2021, ‘with the intention of providing ourselves and other writers with a distraction against the true horrors out there in the world at the moment,’ said SJ. ‘We’re a small team of horror fans who hope to publish anthologies to help showcase excellent writers of dark fiction. Along the way, we intend to donate a proportion of any profit we might see to children’s charities in the UK.’
Bag of Bones aims to release at least three titles this year, and next year, hopefully more. ‘Our debut horror anthology, 206 Word Stories (a word for each bone in your body) will be published this spring and we have Annus Horribilis (horror set in 2022) and Step into the Light (daylight horror) on the way too. Being a small indie press, we listen to our audience. If someone suggests a good call idea, we’ll consider it.’
Bag of Bones takes a broad approach to horror. ‘We love the classics, King, Poe, Barker, Rice, Lovecraft, Jackson, and we’re also fans of indie horror. Just check out Twitter’s #horrorfam, you’ll find lots of great indie writers and publishers there. Ghost Orchid Press, Brigid’s Gate Press, Cemetery Gates Media, and Kandisha Press, amongst many others are all releasing stellar anthologies, novellas, and novels at the moment.’
Currently, Bag of Bones is after 500-5000 word stories for the daylight horror call (deadline: Oct 31st or until full) and stories of up to 2022 words for our Annus Horribilis call (deadline: March 31st or until full), any theme. ‘We’re looking for great writing with twists we can’t see coming.’ said SJ. ‘We like it all: traditional stories, transgressive and experimental prose. We’re not big on poetry, but will consider it if it tells a great story.’
Authors wanting to submit are advised to craft their writing with care. ‘If you like one of our calls, try and draft your story early then sit on it for as long as you can (not literally) before re-reading and re-drafting it with “fresh eyes”. Please don’t send us a first draft; we need polished pieces.’
In the future, SJ is hoping operations will expand. ‘We’ll be sticking with collating and publishing anthologies for a year or two and hopefully, we’ll see our rates of pay grow with our authorship and readership. Maybe we’ll open up for novellas at some point? Long term, we’d love to be able to give up our day jobs and focus on the press full time. We can dream---but, unsurprisingly, we prefer nightmares.’
Bag of Bones published in print and ebook and pays royalties.
Website: www.bagofbonespress.com