**Yes it's true! Oysters & Chocolate is opening up a new e-book press OC Press. We are hoping to launch this baby in late fall 2011. We are now accepting submissions of erotic novels and novellas! Read on! **
OC Press submission guidelines
OC Press accepts unsolicited submissions of erotic novels and novellas. Please read the submission guidelines carefully. Failure to follow the guidelines may result in a rejection.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
Yes we are an erotica publisher, so sex is the focal part of the story, however, there are other elements of the genre to consider. Accepted novels will display the following literary elements:
- Hot sex and plenty of it. Erotica readers are reading erotica because they want to be excited (much as a reader of horror wants to be frightened). This is erotica, so there must be sex in every chapter.
- Well developed characters. We want to care about your characters. Who are they? What are their motivations to hook up? What are the nuances of their relationship(s)
- Well developed plot. Give us a fully developed story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Include a climax, a love (or a lust) interest, and a compelling sequence of events. Make the reader want to stay up all night to finish your book.
- A rich setting. Where is the story taking place? What makes the setting an integral part of the story? Is it a historical setting? A futuristic setting? A realistic setting? Give us a clear sense of place and context.
- Avoid clichés. Unfortunately, erotica is prone to terrible clichés. Avoid phrases like heaving bosom, wave after wave of pleasure, and as hard as a rock.
- Edit, edit, edit! We expect manuscripts to be as error free as possible. Before submitting, have someone else read and edit your manuscript for spelling and grammar. Bad grammar is distracting and may result in a rejection.
- Cut the fat. Nothing can drag a story down faster than unnecessary details and descriptions. Comb through your novel and trim out anything that doesn’t move your story forward.
- Fact check. Do your research and make sure you’ve got your facts straight, this is especially important for erotica that takes place in real contemporary or historical settings.
- Sex positions. Must make sense! We’ve had a lot of fun trying to decide whether someone can be positioned doggy style over the top of a baby grand piano. Turns out, not really there are different heights to baby grand pianos, so it depends on which one the characters are using. Visualize, or better yet try, your sex positions to make sure they are physically possible.
- Avoid porno style dialogue. This is literary erotica, and as such, dialogue like, “Oh yeah, fuck my pussy, baby,” and “Oh yeah, do you like it like that?” doesn’t usually work.
- Echoes. Avoid overusing and repeating words. For example: “She had a great butt. He admired her butt greatly.”
- Double check your timeline and characters. For example, make sure your character starts and ends with blue eyes and that the timeline of your story makes sense. (Did the events take place over the course of a day, a week, a year, or more?)
*Note these are general guidelines. Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Good writers who know what they are doing can sometimes break a rule or two quite successfully.*
LENGTH OF WORK
Short Stories 5K words and under please review our website submission guidelines here.
Novelette: 6K-14K words
Novellas: 15-30K words
Novels: 31K or more
Works Greater than 51K words may be serialized.
*Please submit a synopsis and two sample chapters if your work is greater than 70K*
GENRES of EROTICA
Indicate whether your work fits into one, or any combination of these categories. If it doesn’t fit into any category, let us know how you would define your story.
Oysters & Chocolate classic categories include…
- Dirty Martini: kinks, fetishes, public sex, stranger sex, threesomes, foursomes and moresomes.
- Vanilla : one man and one woman, usually with an element of intimacy.
- Licorice Whips : BDSM stories with elements of power play, domination, submission, spanking, bondage…etc.
- Oysters : lesbian and bisexual female erotica.
- Banana Split : gay and bisexual male erotica.
You may combine any of the O&C classic categories within any of these subgenres of erotica….
- Erotic horror must include a strong element of horror and suspense.
- Fantasy erotica must be set in an alternative reality and incorporate elements of magic or fairy tale.
- Historical erotica must be set in a real, historical setting.
- Humorous erotica must make the reader laugh.
- Mystery erotica must include an element of mystery and suspense of the “whodunit?” variety.
- Paranormal erotica must include paranormal creatures like vampires, shape-shifters, werewolves, ghosts etc.
- Romantic erotica must have a happy and fulfilling ending.
- Sci-fi/ erotica must be set in an alternative futuristic place and incorporate elements of technology.
Anthologies of short stories– because we publish short stories on our website, we do not accept unsolicited anthologies. Occasionally we will put out a call for submissions requesting an anthology with a particular theme. Please be sure to sign up for our submissions alert newsletter here.
FORMATTING and SUBMISSIONS
- Email your submission to books@oystersandchocolate.com
- Attach entire finished submission as one document per email in .doc (Word) or .rtf (Rich Text File) format
- Email subject line: NOVEL SUBMISSION: TITLE OF WORK
- Copy/paste the FIRST chapter of your novel into the body of the email.
- You may submit up to one manuscript per calendar month
- 1 inch margins all the way around
- Times New Roman, 12 point font
- Double spaced
- 0.5” tab at beginning of each paragraph
- No extra returns between paragraphs
- One space after periods (not two)
- Begin chapters with the word “Chapter” followed by the chapter number and the title
- Insert page breaks between chapters
The first page of your manuscript and your cover email must contain:
Real Name:
Pen Name:
Title of work:
Word Count:
Erotic Genre(s):
Short synopsis:
Brief Author’s Bio:
Copy/paste the first chapter of your submission into the body of the email.
PAYMENT
Authors earn 40% commission of net sales. Net sales are sales after distributor commissions (i.e. Amazon.com charges 30% commissions, so net sales would be 40% of 70% revenue). Payments are made quarterly on January 15th, April 15th, July 15th, and October 15th, or the nearest following business day, for the previous quarter. There is a payment threshold of $25. Payments can be made via check or PayPal. Overseas payments (other than the UK) must be made via PayPal.
RIGHTS
OC Press retains exclusive rights of your publication for two years from publication date, after which time you may republish your work elsewhere. We accept previously published works, so long as you retain rights.
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS
Are acceptable, however, please advise us immediately should your submission be accepted elsewhere.
RESPONSE TIME
We will do our best to respond to your submission within 12 weeks. If you have not heard from us after 12 weeks, you may email us to check on the status of your submission. Write a fresh email to books@oystersandchocolate.com with the subject line Submission Status Request.
FAQ
What does OC press offer to an author over self-publishing?
- OC Press has a built in audience of thousands of erotica aficionados. We've been online since 2005 and have built up a large fanbase of erotica readers. The OC name is synonymous with quality literary erotica, and readers know they will get the best when they come to us. If you publish with us, you'll get the advantage of having the OC reputation behind your work.
- OC Press offers the services of skilled editors who will make sure your work is polished and professional.
- OC Press offers marketing channels via its social networking accounts, newsletters, and more.
- OC Press offers a sophisticated state-of-art distribution channel managed by professional website developers.
- OC Press will take care of all of the logistics of publishing, such as obtaining copyright, providing a sexy cover for your work and obtaining the appropriate ISBN numbers.
Does OC Press publish physical books as well as e-books?
For now we don't, but it is something we are going to look into.
My understanding is that OC Press retains "exclusive" rights for 2 years. Does that includes all secondary rights?
Yes, this will all be in the contract and will include things like publishing the book in other languages, movie or tv options, etc... of course, we can negotiate something different if the writer has specific thoughts or stipulations.
Thanks! Feel free to email us at books@oystersandchocolate.com for questions relating to novel submissions. For other questions or comments, please email us at info@oystersandchocolate.com
Happy writing!
Xo
Jordan and Samantha