horror fiction, prime gothic, horror writer, horror publishing, horror magazine, horror fanzine, prime gothic publishing, horror author, fangoria, dark side, stephen king, james herbert, shaun hutson, publishing

Horror writers! How do you get your work published and out in front of an army of manuscript-hungry commercial Editor’s and Publishers? (In a world of free words, the answer, until now, has been elusive, if even attainable).

Answer: Write for Prime Gothic!

How does it work?

Writing a piece of fiction is only half the battle. How do you go about ever seeing your work published? Or, for that matter, if you send off your manuscript via the post how do you have any guarantee you’ll ever see it again?   Broadly speaking, writers tend to be artists and publishers tend to be business people. Thereby lies the rub.  Written work not only needs to be of a very high quality (forget the cliché most people have a book in them, how many can ever bring it out?) but it also needs to be aggressively promoted.

So: do you have a piece of horror fiction (short story, sample chapter, film option) ready to be put in front of legions of genre publishers, book and magazine companies and movie companies?

If your work is of a high enough standard we will include it in the next edition of Prime Gothic. Prime Gothic is then disseminated to a wide range of publishers and producers – free of charge – for them to appraise your work.

There really is no better way of getting your work out in front of publishers (short of the laborious task of sending hundreds of speculative enquiries which, sadly, often receive scant more than a cursory and uninterested reply).

It works this way. Because we only select the very best written work, Editors and Publisher’s are far more likely to look at the writing in Prime Gothic. Publishers are human beings; they receive thousands of unsolicited manuscripts and its far, far easier to scan through one reliable source. Secondly, because we only target genre publisher’s you don’t waste any time or incur any expense submitting your manuscript on a “hit or miss” basis.

You retain the copyright to your work, and if your piece should be of interest to any publisher we will liase with both them and you in order to secure the very best contract available.  This is our speciality.

Although there is no guarantee your work will be accepted we take every step to ensure you have the very best possible chance.

At last! The missing piece in the publishing process!

What do we look for?

Your work can be a short story or a sample chapter from a novel, or and idea or film option. “Horror” in the widest sense must be the predominant genre, though this may include reference to sub-genres such as fantasy, drama or Science Fiction. We are particularly keen to see work that puts a fresh slant on the genre or deals with traditional material in refreshing and novel ways. Whilst we cannot comment in depth as to why a piece may not be deemed suitable you can be assured if your work is accepted it has met a very high standard indeed.

The benefits to you

If accepted your work will be published in the illustrious Prime Gothic journal. Prime Gothic is published electronically every two months. Congratulations! You are now a published author.

Prime Gothic is disseminated to a large range of genre publishers and editors for their consideration. We follow up any enquires on your behalf.

You may be fortunate to be accepted for publication in print. Congratulations, you could be on your way to a lucrative new career as a horror writer!

Copyright endorsement. In the event of any future dispute publication in Prime Gothic will help to confirm veracity that you hold the copyright to your work.  General dissemination of fiction over the Internet can prove extremely hazardous but your published work has the added security of being date tagged and lodged by us.

In short: beware of intermediaries stealing your copyright!

It may not seem a big issue right now, but it will be when you become published. The Internet is populated with intermediaries who will ask you to sign contacts which, effectively, steal your copyright. Can you imagine the despair you would feel to see your work subsequently republished and palmed off as someone else’s? Regretfully this happens all the time, but it cannot happen if you are published in Prime Gothic (at least without the full redress of law).

You’ll also receive a free complementary copy of Prime Gothic showing your work, adding to your credibility as a writer and to your published portfolio.

This process can be summarised as a basic flowchart as follows:

PUBLISHED ELECTRONICALLY – PROMOTED TO PRINT PUBLISHERS –  (PUBLISHED IN PRINT) COPYWRITE ENDORSED – PUBLISHED FOR FUTURE PORTFOLIO.

What’s wrong with just vanity publishing your work instead?

Nothing, per se (after all, the famous poet William Blake published all his own work on his own printing press). But think about it. If everyone can publish their own work there will be, frankly, an awful lot of rubbish in print costing an awful lot of trees.   The vanity-publishing route provides no guarantee of quality or merit, which makes it almost wholly redundant from a promotional aspect. Add to the fact that vanity printed material gets virtually zero exposure it can also be an extremely costly procedure.  Don’t expect even a small print run of a novel to set you back much less than £1000. Subsequent attempts to sell via e-tailers online or to use website promotion could be costlier still.

What’s wrong with getting a literary agent?

By all means try!  A cursory glance through The Writers and Artists Yearbook will soon convince you that few agents are looking for new work and those that do tend to avoid this area of fiction. Finding an agent for short stories is about as difficult as finding a publisher for poetry. We hate to be doom-mongers but it’s just not going to happen this way!

Who’s behind Prime Gothic?

Prime Gothic is the brainchild of Jon and Angie Rose, both experienced published authors with a wide knowledge of the genre, the industry and the publishing process.  Jon authored the first ever British University dissertation on horror films (The Psychodynamics of Screen Terror, Bradford 1984) and has been a contributor to the flagship Newsfield magazines including the seminal Fear and The Games Machine (as Editor). Jon also produced Prime Gothic magazine in the early 1980’s. Jon formerly ran the horror import company Necropolis, he is also an accomplished radio broadcaster and an experienced commercial copywriter, as well as a fully insured member of the National Union of Journalists. Angie hails from a paralegal background in the United States and is familiar with the legalities of publishing and contract. This partnership is particularly fruitful for budding authors because of the Anglo-American ethos.

Prime Gothic is run as a cooperative because we are all horror authors pooling collective resources for the good of one and all. We are all passionate about the genre. All work is published on merit only, and there is no heirachy or hidden rule book to adhere to (other than the ability to write quality horror fiction).

Submission guidelines

All work must be between 3000 and 5000 words in length. Manuscripts should be provided in Word or RTF file format, double-spaced, spell-checked, subbed and neatly edited.  Manuscripts submitted without regard for the basic rules of grammar or presentation will be immediately rejected. Your manuscript must be in a publishable state, since we do not sub, edit, proof or comment on your work in any way.

A word about Film options

Despite the occasional media story such as a Hollywood film producer paying a fortune for a plot narrated by a taxi driver during a ride to the airport it is highly unusual for an unknown author to make any money this way.   Whilst we will be happy to appraise synopsis plots for horror films writers should be aware than the take-up for such options is likely to be very low, unless you happen to be very lucky. Should we decide to publish any such option you will, however, have the added security that the ideas are copyright to you via the published vehicle of Prime Gothic in the event of any future dispute.

What are the costs?

In order to access the full range of Prime Gothic Publishing services you need to join Prime Gothic. Membership contains the following benefits:

Make unlimited submissions for publication (subject to acceptance).

Copyright endorsement of all accepted work.

Free copies of Prime Gothic.

Become a member of a dedicated horror writers group.

We charge no fees at all for reading or appraisal. The membership structure of Prime Gothic also helps us weed out timewasters and those whose work is of dubious merit. Since Prime Gothic has no advertising base it is funded entirely by its members.

Should your work go on to be published elsewhere we retain the right to act as your sole agent and to charge a fee of 12.5% of your published work. Far from worrying you this should help underpin the fact that we have a real interest in promoting your work. This is a win/win situation, because if you don’t publish, we don’t make a penny.

There are no hidden clauses since the aim of Prime Gothic at inception was simple. To get quality horror fiction out in front of as many interested parties as quickly and efficiently as possible.

How quickly will I get a response?

We will acknowledge receipt of your manuscript within 24 hours.  We work to a publishing cycle of eight weeks, so please allow at least four weeks from the date of your submission to hear whether your work has been accepted or not.

Is this another of those “here one minute gone the next” businesses that sadly populate the Internet?

We have been in the business for 20+ years so it is extremely unlikely we won’t be here tomorrow!  We are sure there could be far more audaciously lucrative business models set up by any unscrupulous person whose intentions were far less honourable than our own!

Can I telephone you or visit you to find out more?

Due to our current and expected workload this would not be logically feasible, however we will be happy to provide phone contact details to any author who is accepted for publication in Prime Gothic.

General MacArthur said in life there are no certainties, only opportunities. So if you join us now, this could be the best opportunities you’ve yet to find, online or off!

Questions of a general nature?

Please submit them to: admin@grimoires.co.uk

We look forward to seeing your work in the next available edition of Prime Gothic and towards helping you to become a successfully published horror writer.process, ramsey campbell, horror writing, horror stories, horror story, copyright, hollywood, dark fiction, occult fiction, self publish, vanity publishing,

Jon & Angie Rose

JOIN NOW!

write a novel, write a horror novel, short story, film option, become a writer, become an author, author, writer, writers group, writers union, horror writers, published, rowling, harry potter,

©Prime Gothic Press 2007