We have NINE new books releasing over the next six months and I couldn't be more excited for every one of them.
From gory Killer VHS titles to literary novellas and illustrated novelettes, to our first single-author collection and nonfiction/screenplay book...what a line up! 👀
Shortwave Magazine will be open to submissions, for the first time, in the coming weeks.
We'll be looking for new stories (general theme of horror or dark sci-fi) under 4,000 words. Pay is $.05/word.
More details/guidelines to come, just wanted to give everyone the heads-up!
The decision to drop Zach’s stories yesterday cost us about $600.
I had paid him for his magazine story (5 cents/word) already, I had paid to have it line/proof edited already, I had paid to have his story in the SHADOWS IN THE STACKS anthology proofed, and paid to print
New Anthology Announcement!
WILTED PAGES: An Anthology of Dark Academia, edited by
@AiJiang_
&
@ChristiNogle
, is set to publish in August 2023!
Open submissions, invited authors, cover reveal, and more are all forthcoming spring 2023!
For more info:
✨COVER REVEAL✨ for
@AiJiang_
's forthcoming novelette, I AM AI.
"Moving, brilliant, and certified 100% human" –
@samitbasu
This cover was a collaboration between Ai Jiang, her mother, and Alan Lastufka.
Read more about the cover and release here:
This morning we dropped Zach Rosenberg's story from the forthcoming SHADOWS IN THE STACKS anthology.
We also had a Shortwave Magazine story from him scheduled to publish later this year. That has been dropped as well.
We do not want to work with folks who behave the way he
Saw a few folks giving a certain indie press a hard time for announcing their new titles two years in advance. I'm curious... how long do y'all think it takes to properly produce a book?
It can be done fast, especially in the small/indie space. But, at least for us, we don't
We sold our 10,000th book last night! 🎉
This is all since publishing our first title, FACE THE NIGHT, on March 8, 2022, so it took us just over 2 years (and that first year, we only had two titles).
Thank you all so much for your early support. We will continue to work hard
Apropos of nothing, I wanted to confirm again that Shortwave will never publish anything machine-generated. Not stories, not articles, not art...
We work with incredible human storytellers and educators. And I spent way too much on my graphic design education to not use it.
No.
Audiobooks are very expensive to produce, but we will never turn to AI voice narration.
We've produced two audiobooks so far (with more coming), working with extremely talented human narrators, like Audie Award winner Elisabeth Rodgers.
And that's how we'll continue to
Today we updated our style guide to no longer italicize foreign-language words in our English-language books.
Listening to numerous authors ask us (and other publishers) not to 'other' these words by setting them apart has informed our copyediting moving forward.
Title announcement!
I AM AI, a new sci-fi novelette by
@AiJiang_
, coming June 2023!
Ai describes I AM AI as "close to my heart: a novelette on toxic productivity, the detriments of AI, and the merits of humanity along with its challenges."
Read more:
Extended submissions for WILTED PAGES: An Anthology of Dark Academia begin March 1st!!
WILTED PAGES will be edited by
@AiJiang_
and
@ChristiNogle
.
Start getting those stories ready by reading the submission guidelines posted this morning:
👁️ New title announcement! 👁️
Our first new horror novel in over two years... THE SUNDOWNER'S DANCE by
@todd_keisling
will be published April 2025!
This 100k-word novel—pitched as COCOON meets THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE—is crawling with grief, odd neighbors, and cosmic horrors.
(25/27) Please welcome Alex Woodroe (
@AlexWoodroe
) to the anthology! Alex is a Romanian folklore nerd and the editor at
@TenebrousPress
. Her OBSOLESCENCE story, "Homegrown", is a dark and *delicious* look at human biological augmentations.
After over 500 open submissions, we have our final author list for Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia!
We will tweet a teaser for each story leading up to release, but for today, you can view the entire final TOC here:
The WILTED PAGES Kickstarter is live!
*Every* reward has FREE US shipping (and reduced International shipping).
The Paperback Box Set (pictured below) features an exclusive edition of the anthology available only thru this Kickstarter!
Get yours here:
Happy to announce the recently opened spot in our SHADOWS IN THE STACKS anthology will now feature a new story by
@evelyn_freeling
!
SHADOWS will be released at the StokerCon pre-party, Spirited Giving, and in all bookstores the same day.
Out May 28th!
In light of everything, yet again, we want to stress we will never use AI for covers, interiors, editing, writing, or any other creative aspect of any title we publish.
I didn't go to college and study art just to ask a machine to steal it for me.
I heard the twitter discourse today was about there not being enough horror and sci-fi novella/novelette publishers.
Oh wow do I have a few treats for you!
OBSOLESCENCE is finally out today!
I've tried writing this a dozen times, but summing up my overwhelming appreciation and love for all of these stories and their authors is impossible in so few words...
This has been such an incredible project to work on. Thank you all. 🖤
We just received a tv/film rights inquiry and manuscript request from Temple Hill (SMILE, TWILIGHT, FAULT IN OUR STARS) for one of our upcoming titles so, yeah, this week is starting off well! 🎉
(we help handle tv/film stuff for our authors who don't yet have representation)
Publishers/self-pubbed authors, you should all head over to ACX and claim any titles you own the audio rights to, even if you don't plan on making an audiobook today.
That stops anyone else from being able to claim your title and releasing an audiobook without your permission.
Shortwave Magazine submissions are now closed! 🎉
What a week! Total sub count:
1,192 stories 👀
We hope to finish reading by Nov 1st, but please be patient if you're waiting to hear back. This is twice the number of subs we've ever received for any open calls in the past. 💀
Every time someone points out how happy they are that we give so much attention to novellas and novelettes I want to reply, "Well, we are called Shortwave, not Longwave." But I restrain myself.
This month has been our highest grossing month since we launched two years ago!
Thank you all for your support and for digging the stuff we're publishing. Our authors are doing some fantastic work and I'm so happy to see it's connecting with readers. 🖤🖤🖤
As of 3 hours ago, it's technically Saturday in the first time zone, so Magazine Submissions are now open!
We've received 17 already, and I doubt they're all from that Australian time zone, but hey, let's roll with it, let those submission emails fly!
Happy pub day to WILTED PAGES, edited by
@AiJiang_
and
@ChristiNogle
, and featuring cover art by
@ravenkult
! This new anthology is out now in ebook and paperback everywhere.
We just sent out our newsletter about this release, which you can read here:
We signed our 10th Killer VHS contract this week. The series is now scheduled through 2027! 👀👀👀
Thank you all for the early support. We're just getting started. 🥳
📞 COVER REVEAL! 📞
Excited to share the full wrap for
@claymcleod
's STAY ON THE LINE, featuring six full-page illustrations and a cover illustration by
@slimyswampghost
, with layout/typography by
@AlanDistro
.
Available everywhere in paperback and ebook on July 30th!
UPDATE: All magazine submission decisions have been made.
This was a historic (for us) open submissions period. We needed and budgeted for 12 stories. We opened subs for one week. We received 1,200 submissions.
A literal 1% acceptance rate. Better than lit agents, but worse
Everyone liked our temp cover for
@claymcleod
and
@slimyswampghost
's STAY ON THE LINE so much that we turned it into an art print included **free** with direct orders from our shop!
Designed by
@AlanDistro
. Signed by Clay and Trevor.
Get yours here:
Our first few print proof copies of
@claymcleod
's STAY ON THE LINE, featuring a cover illustration and six full-page interior illustrations by
@slimyswampghost
, just arrived. 👀
And they're perfect! Who wants an ARC? 😅
OBSOLESCENCE print proofs (paperback + hardcover) just arrived!!!
Once
@KristinaHorner
and I approve these, the printer will begin running off backer and contributor copies for us to mail out in a few weeks.
Wide release on May 16th! Pre-order here:
We just published a new story: "Given" by the incomparable
@horrorsong
!
All our magazine stories (fiction and nonfiction) are free to read, but we pay professional rates. Please support us in continuing this mission by reading and sharing new stories. 🖤
As just one small example of how not-competition we are...
When we were getting started,
@TenebrousPress
shared one of their standard contracts with me so I didn't have to start from scratch. Since then, I've made a lot of updates, incorporating feedback from agents and authors,
🪓 COVER REVEAL! 🎄
@BrianMcWriter
's CANDY CAIN KILLS AGAIN: The Second Slaying!
A sequel that picks up immediately where the first book left off with Candy coming to town on Christmas morning to punish a parish full of sinners.
Out this November:
Helped connect not one, but TWO, of our authors with tv/film rep people today who have read and are actively interested in their titles.
Will we see more Shortwave titles becoming films in the future? I very much hope so. 😍
Novelettes don't always get the love they deserve, but we love them! And so do our readers!
This is a chart of our Top 10 bestselling print books over the last 30 days. The top two are novelettes, and there are three total in our Top 10. 🎉
Read any good novelettes lately?
Just signed a contract for our first single-author collection! 🎉
This one's been in the works for months, but that also means we'll get to announce it soon. Like, next week soon! 👀
I'll post about this again next week, but for those who work through the weekend like I do... our submissions page has been updated!
Spoiler: we're now OPEN for dark sci-fi novels by women, for publication in 2025.
New Deal Announcement!
REST STOP by
@natcassidy
, in which a young man finds himself locked inside a gas station bathroom, caught between the horrors on the other side of the door and the horrors rapidly skittering down the walls inside.
Out Oct. 2024!
Just received this photo from
@slimyswampghost
. All postcards are now hand-signed by both
@claymcleod
and Trevor!
These are included FREE (while supplies last) with orders of STAY ON THE LINE from our direct shop.
Congrats to all on the Stoker prelim list! 🎉
Sadly, we didn't make the cut. However, we were the 3rd most recommended press this year. So that's something to celebrate!
# of rec'ed titles:
Tor Nightfire - 18
Crystal Lake - 17
Shortwave - 16
Hungry Shadow - 14
Brigids Gate - 12
New magazine story!
"Give Me English" by
@AiJiang_
, which was a finalist for both the Nebula and Locus awards, available now for the first time to read for free.
"Give Me English" was originally published in the May/June 2022 issue of
@fandsf
.
👁️ Cover reveal for
@writerlynds
's debut collection, LIMELIGHT and Other Stories. 👁️
LIMELIGHT is "an impressive collection" (
@R_E_Treasure
, Managing Editor of APEX Magazine) of dark science fiction tales from near and far futures.
Cover art by
@AlanDistro
. Out September 3rd!
TELEPORTASM print ARCs just arrived and they are glorious!
We'll send copies out to our regular reviewers list first, and a sign-up form for other reviewers who are interested in print ARCs will be available soon.
Each copy of our OBSOLESCENCE anthology ordered direct from us will ship in its own protective box. I just finished designing them! 👀
If you missed out on backing it last year, OBSOLESCENCE is now available for pre-order in our shop, shipping May 16th!
👀 Cover Reveal 👀 time for
@adamfgodfrey
's debut novella, NARCISSUS!
If the remainder of your life was only as long as your ability to avoid your own reflection, how long would you last?
Find out on May 2nd...
More info/preorders:
✨Cover Reveal✨ for
@writerlynds
's HAVE YOU DECIDED ON YOUR QUESTION!
If you could live your life over again, what would you ask to change?
Something big?
Something small?
A single moment?
Have you decided on your question?
Zoe has...
Info/preorders:
Tomorrow we are announcing our first new horror **novel** since our very first book in 2022,
@AlanDistro
's starred and award-winning, FACE THE NIGHT. 👀
This is a big one for us, and a direction we'd like to focus on a bit more alongside our regular novellas and novelettes.
Not mentioned in the guidelines, but submissions are being anonymized. Neither the early readers nor I will have any idea who wrote what until after we've read/accepted.
Mostly saying this so whether your story is accepted or rejected, you'll know it's nothing personal. :)
As of 3 hours ago, it's technically Saturday in the first time zone, so Magazine Submissions are now open!
We've received 17 already, and I doubt they're all from that Australian time zone, but hey, let's roll with it, let those submission emails fly!
New Deal Announcement!
STAY ON THE LINE: A Novelette by
@claymcleod
and
@slimyswampghost
, coming July 2024!
This is one of Clay's creepiest stories, featuring numerous full-page illustrations and cover art by Trevor.
Pre-orders available now:
Just announced!
Huge congrats to editors
@AlanDistro
and
@KristinaHorner
, and all 27 incredibly talented contributors to OBSOLESCENCE!
Our debut anthology is a FINALIST for BEST NEW HORROR at the 2024 Next Generation
@IndieBookAwards
!
🪲 COVER REVEAL! 🪲
@tanyacarinae
's CICADA is the fourth book in our Killer VHS Series, coming September 24th!
Pre-orders are now available for eBook and Paperback!
Big news!
The PEREGRINE ESTATE TRILOGY by
@CSHumble
, three new prequel novellas in THAT LIGHT SUBLIME series, will be released Summer 2025!
• To Carry a Body to Its Resting Place
• San Antonio Mission
• Baroness of the Eastern Seaboard
More info:
Excited to announce that our forthcoming novelette, I AM AI, by
@AiJiang_
is being taught this quarter at the University of Washington! (
@UW
)
The Honors Program course explores AI ethics through sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction.
Read more here:
So happy for and proud of
@AiJiang_
and this little (Hugo Award nominated!) novelette that we published last year.
If you haven't read it yet, it's available everywhere in eBook and paperback.
Ai Jiang (
@AiJiang_
) is the sixth-youngest author ever shortlisted for the Best Novelette
#HugoAward
.
One of the 25 youngest authors ever shortlisted in any of the prose categories (novel, short story, novelette, novella, or series).
I am so in love with our 2024 line up. Sometimes, I open our home page and just stare lovingly at it for a minute before getting back to work. But I mean... can you blame me? Look at this. 🔥
DREAD CENTRAL is hosting a very cool, exclusive cover reveal today… ours!
The cover for
@AlexEbenstein
's forthcoming novella, MELON HEAD MAYHEM, was revealed this morning by
@DreadCentral
here:
Click over and join in on the mayhem!
New Deal Announcement!
BIG F*%K, a novella by
@joshuathehull
, in which a foul-mouthed teen hires a professional Bigfoot hunter to track Bigfoot down after the beast massacres his entire family.
This will be the sixth book in our Killer VHS Series. The hunt begins spring 2025!
LIMELIGHT by
@writerlynds
is a new collection of over twenty dark science fiction tales from near and far futures.
Perfect for fans of Black Mirror and Love, Death + Robots, LIMELIGHT will be out in hardcover, paperback, and eBook Sept. 3rd!
More info:
New title announcement!
NIGHT OF THE WITCH-HUNTER, by
@pbarb
, in which an outcast teen inadvertently summons a demonic witch-hunter from the 1600s to her present-day small town while working on a video project for school.
This was originally pitched as THE CRAFT x A NIGHTMARE
Our first open call for submissions starts TODAY!
OBSOLESCENCE is a new collection of short stories about horrifying or fantastical interactions with technology.
Submission guidelines can be found here:
Send us your dark, weird, scary stories!
"Books don't have expiration dates."
I wrote that in an email recently and haven't stopped thinking about it. New books are exciting and shiny (unless they feature matte covers, of course), but I wanted to pause and spotlight a few "old" books... our first five books!
Way past
Following
@TenebrousPress
's lead, we're adding a clause to all contracts asking authors and designers to confirm no more than 10% of their work has been machine-generated (the 10% allowance is a technicality for spell check tools, Grammarly, "smart" Photoshop plugins, etc).
New Deal Announcement!
Shortwave will be publishing a new DEALTHREALM anthology this fall!
DEATHREALM: SPIRITS, edited by
@markrainey59
, will feature new stories by
@joelansdale
,
@BrianKeene
,
@hystericteeth
, and many others.
More info here:
We receive a fair number of unsolicited submissions from agents and I always kinda wondered why?
We're a tiny press with fair, but smaller, contracts. Certainly not worth the time for agents to seek us out, right?
But today I learned we're the 3rd Top Dealmaker for Horror on
Totally not a big deal and totally not subtweeting anyone, but I've seen a few people refer to us as "Short Wave" or "Short wave". No, no.
We're "Shortwave", like the radio signals! You know, limited reach, but carrying data not found on the large corporate stations. That's us!
Print proofs just arrived for
@AiJiang_
's I AM AI novelette! And they look so good!!
I AM AI is out everywhere June 20th in ebook and paperback.
Buying direct comes with a hand-signed bookplate (and maybe more secret goodies)!
Ai vs A.I.
Given the same prompt, who wrote it better?
@AiJiang_
or ChatGPT?
@AngelaYSmith
provides the prompts, Ai Jiang writes her stories live, and then the same prompts are given to ChatGPT.
Read more and watch the full livestream here:
We have more to announce, and more to add to the site still, but wow 2024 is shaping up to be a great year for Shortwave releases.
Fifteen months ago, I couldn't dream of working with so many talented people. This is just awesome. ❤️
One more title announcement and maybe one
Cover reveal 🎉 for
@EMurrayAuthor
's forthcoming novelette, WHEN THE DEVIL!
Paperback and eBook pre-orders available now from Amazon and our own shop!
WHEN THE DEVIL will be released May 7th!
Shortwave just hit our first
#1
Amazon Bestseller!
Our horror anthology, Deathrealm: Spirits, is on a huge sale—only 99 cents for the next five days! And just over 12 hours into the sale, we topped the Horror Anthology and Short Story charts! 🎉
Just signed the contract for our final 2024 title! 🎉
We have a fantastic run of books scheduled for the next 18 months and I can't wait to share all of them with you!
My only focus for today: building the WILTED PAGES kickstarter for our forthcoming dark academia anthology co-edited by
@AiJiang_
and
@ChristiNogle
.
Extended submissions open in a few days on March 1st!
Have you started on your story yet?
It feels like Christmas morning! 🎄🪓
Announcing
@BrianMcWriter
's CANDY CAIN KILLS AGAIN: The Second Slaying
A slasher sequel that picks up immediately where the first book left off with the festive killer coming to town on Christmas morning to punish a parish full of sinners.
60% of our 2024 titles have been announced already and I just can't get over this amazing lineup...
- Rest Stop by
@natcassidy
(Oct 2024)
- Cicada (Killer VHS
#4
) by
@tanyacarinae
(Sept 2024)
- Stay on the Line by
@claymcleod
and
@slimyswampghost
(July 2024)
- Teleportasm
New Deal Announcement!
The 4th Killer VHS Series novella is CICADA by
@tanyacarinae
!
Ash is stuck at the worst small town film festival, dying of boredom, until she realizes she's starring in the bloody sequel.
This is Tanya's debut, out Sept 2024!
Happy release day to
@AiJiang_
and her brilliant novelette,
#IamAI
, available now everywhere books are sold!
This was a fun (and timely) project to work on, and the response from early readers and reviewers has been wonderful!
More info + links here:
Cover reveal time for
@BrianMcWriter
's CANDY CAIN KILLS!
The second entry in our Killer VHS Series, this holiday slasher will be available to hide under the tree starting November 14th.
Pre-orders (and ARC requests) are now available here:
For a one-person press, Shortwave had a fantastic 2023!
Thank you to all the authors, readers, and reviewers who helped make our first full calendar year in business such a success! 🤎
Not counting our two dozen new magazine stories, we published 14 titles this year. 4
We're also mystified. If you have read OBSOLESCENCE, please consider reviewing it or telling a friend about it. We all put so much energy into this collection, and it's genuinely fantastic. 27 new stories by a group of incredibly talented writers, new and established.
I've tried to let the work speak for itself, but it turns out if you don't ask, you don't receive, so...
This is me asking: please review our titles?! Love it? Hate it? Wish there were ten more books in the series?
Scream about it on Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph... wherever!
WILTED PAGES: An Anthology of Dark Academia, co-edited by
@AiJiang_
and
@ChristiNogle
, is out next month!
We just received our print proof copy (featuring
@ravenkult
's gorgeous cover art!), seen below with some of the campaign backer perks.
Have you pre-ordered your copy yet?
Our first new story of 2023!
In "Indigo Night" by
@AlexWoodroe
, a father and son travel to the last planet in our universe, intrigued by what they may (or may not) find there...
Read it here for free:
WILTED PAGES: An Anthology of Dark Academia editors
@AiJiang_
and
@ChristiNogle
are looking for a few early slush readers.
If you would like a chance at reading submissions for the anthology, please fill out the form below!
Apply here:
I started sending out a few acceptances today from our Shortwave Magazine open call. 🎉
We received 1,200 story submissions and are still reading through them, but we are nearly finished! Another 2-3 weeks and we should have decisions for all of the pieces.
New Deal Announcement! 🎉
We are excited to bring you WHEN THE DEVIL,
@EMurrayAuthor
's debut novelette, in which a woman finds salvation in a new sapphic partner, homebrewed poison, and facing a God that she no longer believes in.
In paperback and ebook summer 2024. 😈