Call for Submissions
The Act Itself
Editor: John Teehan
The Act Itself is a new erotica publication featuring exciting short fiction, breathtaking artwork, and informative articles from the world of adult entertainment. Your hostess is known simply as ‘The Mrs.’ and she works tirelessly to present the very best–all smiles, sighs, and the occasional titter. Our publisher,Bearmanor Media, is a 14-year veteran in publishing fine entertainment books and we’re excited to be a part of this new venture. — From theactitself.blogspot.com
The Act Itself will be published four times a year in both print and ebook, sold both online and by subscription.
Payment and Rights info:
The Act Itself pays 3 cents per word for short stories up to 8,000 words stories, essays and interviews. $10 per photo/art accepted. Every contributor will also receive a free half-page ad (non-transferable) in the magazine for his book, art, CD or other item. (Please query first on sex toys.) We pay on acceptance. We require the work be original and that you have current control over any rights (i.e., if it is a work-for-hire piece purchased by another company, you may not have retained rights, please check).
For written material, we ask that you not publish your contribution elsewhere for a period of one year. After one year, complete rights are returned. In addition to our print and digital production, we reserve the right to republish your contribution as part of our audio issue collection, to be distributed by amazon, iTunes and others, for an additional $25 fee to you. For artwork, rights are not subject to the exclusivity period.
Deadline: Ongoing.
What We Are Looking For:
Check the guidelines below for specifics, but in general we’re looking for fun, sexy stories and quality erotica artwork. We’ll not consider anything which includes underage characters or stupidly dangerous acts. We will consider some fetish-oriented themes, but keep them light. This publication is to bring everyone together, and for everyone to have a good time. What do we like to read in our spare time? Some like Penthouse Letters, others like Literotica.com, others enjoy the Marketplace books, or anything from Blue Moon. That should give you some idea as to what we’re looking for.
Fiction submissions should be sent as attachments tosubmissions@theactitself.com as either a MSWord or RTF file. Please make sure that you only send in a properly proofed version. Sloppy submissions are no good for anyone.
As for art, this will be–at least to start–a black & white publication, so images should have that taken into consideration. Go for sexy mood and suggestion. Go for beautiful form and enticing display. Avoid out and out hardcore porn. Sometimes what’s not seen is more exciting than what’s laid out on a slab. We’d like to see photography, drawings, and possibly even cartoons–although note that we’re going to be tough on that last one especially. Blame Playboy for setting such a high bar for adult-themed cartoons. No manga or anime-styled artwork, please. Art submissions should be at least 300 dpi in TIF or JPG format. If you are having technical issues meeting this requirement, or have questions, feel free to contact the Managing Editor, John Teehan, atinfo@theactitself.com with questions. He’s the helpful sort, he is.
Please do not simply direct us to your portfolio page, but e-mail us examples (or at the very least direct links to examples) of what you consider to be work best suited for this publication.
Got something else we’ve not mentioned but that you think might interest us? Feel free to query us atinfo@theactitself.com.
Guidelines:
1. You must be over 21.
2. You must furnish us with a 3 to 10 line bio.
3. For fiction, send your name, email address, cover letter, story title, and completed manuscript tosubmissions@theactitself.com. (Please limit any art submissions to no more than three per e-mail and not to exceed a total of 5MB in size.) Please be patient, as we read Everything. We try to respond within 4 weeks.
All additional queries and questions on advertising should be sent to our Managing Editor at: info@theactitself.com.
4.Your content must be original, must be yours, and not already in print or as an ebook. Yes, we check. We’re actually fairly good at that.
5. No simultaneous submissions please.
6. Please keep submissions to less than 8,000 words. No novels, novellas or 2-parters.
7. Upon acceptance, you will be required to sign a contract. Payment will be sent for your submission upon our receiving your signed contract. You will also be shown a PDF galley proof prior to publication. This will need to be reviewed promptly or it may miss its scheduled slot.
