During the entire month of November you can save 10% off a copy of Survival By Storytelling Magazine at Lulu.  It’s really simple too.  Go here to our Lulu page, click buy, and enter the code GREATBOOK during checkout.  That’s it.  You’ll save 10% off your purchase and get a copy of SBS in the process!  Cool, huh?

Spread the word!

We’re working on creating some images for ads and other promotional materials (including a press release).  For now, however, if you could please spread the word about SBS by mentioning it on your blogs, Facebook, Myspace, or wherever, that would be fantastic.  We may have some contests coming up to win free copies of the mag that will involve such things!

Having said that, we’d like to open the door to reviewers.

If you have a book-related blog and are interested in reviewing the first issue of Survival By Storytelling, please send us an email to sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com.  We have a few hard copies coming in the mail, but if you are willing to read a pdf, that would be most preferred.  SBS is non-profit, so our budget is rather small.  (Also, we can’t give review copies to everyone).

Thanks,
Shaun

Well, I know you’ve all been waiting for this for quite a while, and it’s finally here. Survival By Storytelling Magazine, Issue One is up for sale at Lulu for a mere $9.00 in print and $5.00 in electronic format! You can go here to purchase it. The magazine will also be appearing on Createspace and Amazon in time, but the process for those two is different from Lulu, and longer, but you’ll hear from me as soon as it happens.

For now, you can get your copy of SBS from Lulu. And in case you wanted to know why you should purchase the issue, here’s some incentive:

• We have some amazing fiction and poetry from writers new and old, all twenty-five and under, many of them members of YWO (Diocletian, Mercy, Adri, Nyx, Tegzz, and Crocolyle, unless I’m missing anyone).
• We have an interview with author Paul Genesse (The Golden Cord and The Dragon Hunters; he has also written many short stories for collections published by DAW). He also wrote us a fine article about writing.
• There is also an article by author T. M. Hunter in here, author of Heroes Die Young.
• Every sale of SBS pays our authors. Since we pay by royalties, every sale is directly helping the contributors, and that’s a good thing, right?
• Every sale also helps Young Writers Online, which is also good. Mostly the money goes to contributors, but YWO gets a little bit out of it too, and that goes to making sure we can have more contests in the future!
• It’ll make you feel good inside. Trust me. SBS is like chocolate, only better.

So go out and get your copy now! As for the contributors: you’ll be getting an email from me shortly in regards to free copies for you, which wasn’t in the contract, but, hey, I feel that you deserve something for your patience. Plus, it’s standard practice anyway!

Lastly, please advertise about SBS. I’ll try to get some promotional images together, but if you could blog about us, that would be great. Spread the word and let everyone know what you think about the magazine!

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive of this endeavor over the last year+. It’s been a lot of work and we’re glad to be done, if not a little misty-eyed about it. Thanks to all who contributed, and here’s to a good opening run!

Survival By Storytelling is almost here.  We’re done with the formatting and all we’re waiting on now are the finalized images for the cover.  Once we have those, then SBS Mag is going to press.  Hopefully that will be soon (today or tomorrow).  Either way, SBS is going up and getting out there.  When it does, there will be another post!

We encourage everyone to spread the word.  Tell all your friends.  Blog about us.  Get people to buy the magazine when it comes out.  The more we sell, the better.  Why?  Because payment for stories/poems/etc. is based on sales.  Since you all get royalties, the more we sell, the more you earn.  That means for you it’s a good idea to let people know about us to help this thing along; for those that are not in this issue, we encourage you to buy it and spread the word!

Here’s to a smooth publishing process!

Some notes regarding some comments and emails sent our way recently:

1. Yes, we will accept advertisements for our first issue, and subsequent issues.  We are currently almost done with the first issue, so all requests for advertising should be sent immediately.  Rates are based on the size of your advert, etc.  If you are interested in advertising with us, please contact us via email at sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com for more information.  We will not accept pornography or inappropriate content for ads.
2. Submissions will be open when we feel that the first issue has had its run.  We suggest that you subscribe to the feed for our blog to be updated on the status of submissions.
3. Submissions that exceed what is indicated in our guidelines may still be accepted upon being queried by the author.  That means send us an email telling us about the piece if it exceeds our word limit.

And that’s that.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or send us an email!

Our original cover artist has not returned the contract, which means we now need new artwork for the cover. If anyone is interested, please contact us at sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com. We are interested in original art, not photography, in any style or genre. I have a soft spot for artwork that either is or looks like watercolor, even in simplistic form. Other forms of art are welcome too (digital, black and white in pencil or pen, or bizarre stuff).

We cannot pay an upfront fee, but we will offer a portion of the royalties earned.

Please contact us if you have anything that might be of interest.

A couple important points to be made:

1.  If you have not returned a signed contract to us for your piece of fiction, poetry, or art, then we cannot legally publish your work.  You will not be in the magazine.  We still have some missing contracts.  If you don’t want to be published in the first issue, then please let us know so we can remove you from the lineup.  Otherwise, you’ll be removed and we’ll go to press without you.

2.  Submissions will open up a few months after the first issue hits “stores.”  We want to assess things to see how the issue is received.  This will help us figure out which stories people liked the most, and which people hated.  Strengthening our hold on a literary direction is important, I think.

The first issue of SBS is expected to go up within the next few weeks.  We’re getting close to release, but are being held up by folks who haven’t returned their contracts.  But, at the close of this week we will be waiting no more.  We’ve got to get this thing printed and out there!

More updates coming soon!

I told you all I would bring you the table of contents.  The TOC listed here is tentative and may change in the event that some of the authors have not given me their contracts.  This TOC also does not reflect the order of the magazine itself, as we are still working on that aspect of the first issue.  But, I don’t want to waste your time babbling about all this, so here goes:

Fiction
“Chrysalis” by Josh Robert
“Cold Water” by Peter Meritt
“Memoirs of a Torn Page” by Divya Mohan
“Dried Flowers” by Adrienne Copeland
“Honor Roll Bound” by Emerald Du
“Invisibility” by Kelsey Ray
“Me and the Moon, Demilune” by Noah Blake
“Night Planks” by Thea Green
“One Last Look” by Nick Lyle
“Row 7″ by Gregory Wells
“The Birth of Sweet-Fish” by Chris Chapman
“Waffles” by Meagan Burbidge

Poetry
“A World Without Streetlights” by Tegan Bridge
“Frame of Reference” by Natasha Angela Gregorio
“Glass Friendship in a Play” by Niyousha Bastani
“In Plus Than Perfect Planets” by Milton Perez
“Summer of Artifice” by Benjamin E. Nardolilli
“The Rescue of a Unicorn” by Tabatha Schroeder
“The Type of Night That Makes You Crazy Just Thinking About it” by J. T. Howard
“Word to a Dramatist” by Rei Thompson

Articles
“Economies of Scale” by T. M. Hunter
“Six Ideas on Creating Memorable Characters” by Paul Genesse
“A Cure For Sap:  The Time Traveler’s Wife is a Love Story With Substance” by Mary Mann

Interviews
w/ Paul Genesse (conducted by Shaun Duke)

Quite a few of the fiction pieces are actually quite small, which explains why we have so many.  In any case, it looks like a fantastic lineup!  Thanks to all the contributors for their stories, poems, and articles!

More information will be coming as we get closer to the printer.

Thanks,

Shaun

I wanted to keep everyone up to date. We’re working on editing all the accepted submissions right now. It’s a long process. I will have a list of accepted submissions so everyone can see the table of contents.

More updates in the near future.

Thanks,
Shaun