Bouchercon 2021 Anthology

To all Bouchercon authors:

We are pleased to announce there will be a short story anthology for Bouchercon 2021. Our goal is to raise money for the New Orleans public library, which is desperately in need of funding. All of the proceeds after publishing costs will be deducted and the rest will go to the library, along with the proceeds from our live and silent auctions.

In addition to stories published by some of our guests of honor and invited authors, we are asking for blind submissions from our Bouchercon friends. We hope most of the stories in the anthology will come from these blind submissions, and will include emerging voices, new voices, and authors who are in the early years of publication. We are eager to hear from everyone, but if you have never been in a Bouchercon anthology before, we urge you to please submit! 

Submission guidelines: 

Short stories must be less than 4000 words.

Stories must not have been published anywhere else previously.

The theme of this anthology is second chances, redemption, second try, play it again. Since this is the second Bouchercon in New Orleans, we may call it Second Time Around— but that is still in the works.  Any ideas, love to hear them.

The story DOES NOT have to be set in New Orleans. 

Your story should be submitted only to me at the email below. I will blind it and send it on to our staff of reviewers and readers.

You will be paid $75.00 for each story we publish so you meet the guidelines for certain awards in our industry.  But you could donate that money back to New Orleans Public Library and get a tax write off and help them in their time of need.

If selected, we will send you a contract assigning Bouchercon the rights for your story for one year after the publication date. After that, the rights revert to you.

The hard deadline for submission is November 1, 2020. Any stories received after this will not be considered for any reason.

Please submit stories via email and in Word documents to Anthology@bouchercon2021.com.

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Please include your name, email, and any other contact information we might need.  I will remove the identifying information and send them on to the selection committee. 

We already have some wonderful big names for this anthology, but it is the new voices and new writers who will make this special.

We urge you to submit, and we will be holding a celebratory signing, if all goes as planned, at the New Orleans Bouchercon in 2021.

Any questions, please let me know. I have asked Hank Phillippi Ryan to edit this anthology, and she will also write the introduction.

We are eager to read your stories, and eager to make this the best anthology ever.

Mystery Mike

Co-Chair New Orleans Bouchercon 2021