Publishing Opportunity no.11

H.A.L Publishing, respectable Chinese based English-language publisher's, are hosting their first international competition. These guys are definitely a firm you should be regularly checking in with; they're fantastic.

"The purpose of this contest is to reach across the 16,000 miles (the author of this post is American, so if you want kilometers feel free to do the conversion yourself, we are Barbarians that way) between China and the North American continent so that HAL’s loyal readers can be privy to reading work from a larger cross section of writers, and so that new readers can discover HAL"

This is a short-fiction competition, meaning that there's a word limit of 1,500 words (handy that, that's our limit too) on all submissions. Genre is non-specific, as far as I can tell. The contest is only open to those residing within North America.

The contest listing can be found here.


Be sure to read the submission guidelines, which are very clear. Some main points, however: previously published work is not allowed, and the entry must be supplied in a word document which has no identifiable information contained within it.

Deadline for entry is September 15, 2012 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Winners will be announced by October 15, 2012.


Prizes for this contest include online publication on H.A.L Literature's website, copies of previous H.A.L anthologies and $50 US Dollars (paid via paypal). For the word length required, this is, in the industry, a professional standard payment. (5c p.word).


Crooked Cat are a small eBook publishing website based in the United Kingdom. They have published numerous books by numerous authors, and are a veritable firm that have years of experience behind them. They are always open for novel length submissions.

Don't write novels? You're in luck, they're also currently calling for submissions between 1,500 and 4000 words for their Hallow'een anthology, based around the horror genre. Here is the page detailing that particular submissions call.


Submissions for Crooked Cat go to submissions@crookedcatpublishing.com, preferably in a regularly used file type such as .doc or .rtf.

If you are submitting to the Hallow'een Anthology and not just to Crooked Cat, ensure that your e-mail includes the topic line "HALLOWEEN ANTHOLOGY".



Crooked Cat Publishing's website is there, with details on all you may need to know. If you are submitting to the Halloween Anthology then please note that all royalties accrued for the anthology will be donated to the charities MSF and Barnardo's, so your writing goes towards a worthy cause. However, if you are accepted, you will be published, in print and in e-format, as a part of the Anthology, across Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the iTunes BookStore from October 2012.


Considering this is Opportunity Number 11, I probably should have addressed this issue sooner, but would you guys be interested in regular, unscheduled informative blogs on the different terms, practices, procedures and elements of the publishing world?

I'd be very willing to do casual blogs for your perusal through tWR, if that is what you were looking for. Please, leave your thoughts below.

As always, other opportunities can be found through duotrope.com, for those of our intrepid readers.

Happy writing, friends.