From the IWD website: "With well over a century of history and change, the first International Women's Day (IWD) was held in March 1911. IWD isn't country, group or organization specific. It's a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging women's equality."
Get involved with International Women's Day by finding an event in your area: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Events
]]>For Immediate Release 2/26/24
Lexington, KY: Apex Book Company is delighted to announce that it has acquired first North America English rights to the short story collection BREATH OF LIFE by LH Moore.
Breath of Life is a collection of the works of author and poet LH Moore, whose history- and Afrofuturism-inspired speculative short fiction, poetry, and essays move between and blur the genres from horror to science fiction to fantasy. With themes of family and identity, rooted solidly in history and imagining the unknown—both here on Earth and beyond—Breath of Life is an exploration of the unexpected.
Writer, poet and historian LH Moore’s Afrofuturism- and history-inspired speculative fiction and poetry have been in numerous publications and anthologies, such as all three groundbreaking Dark Dreams anthologies of Black horror writers; Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology Sycorax's Daughters; Black Magic Women; Chiral Mad 4 and 5, SLAY, Conjuring Worlds, StokerCon 2019, Humans Are the Problem anthologies; and Fireside, Apex, and FIYAH magazines.
APEX BOOK COMPANY (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Shop our eligible titles. Remember to use checkout code BH2024 to save.
]]>Your discount is automatically applied at checkout!
We have 3 limited edition bookplates of the award nominated book Plague Birds by Jason Sanford, a stack of out of print books from our archives - titles like Aetherchrist and Kentucky Kaiju. Perhaps most exciting we have an incredible piece of Apex history - a limited number of the Apex Digest print magazine - from Summer 2005! All of these surprise swag items will be randomly dropped in to orders over $25 placed between January 15 and January 31 while supplies last.
Act fast before our swag runs out!
]]>Hats off to Eugen and the other outstanding finalists. Locus has a full announcement here.
]]>by Cherie Priest
Coming May 14th, 2024
ISBN (softcover) 978-1-955765-20-6
Available through Diamond Book Distribution
______
The first Ellen Thrush has probably been dead all this time—and it’s not that I don’t care, exactly. I care, I think. I’m curious, at least. But thank God, no one expects me to get too worked up about it. She vanished before I was born, and all I have of her is an old picture or two and her name. My mother gave it to me when I was born: two years, one month, and thirteen days after Ellen mailed a Christmas card to my grandmother. In it, she wrote that she was happy, and she wished the family a wonderful new year.
There’s evidence to suggest she didn’t mean the last part, but it’s not for me to say. Maybe she was a bigger person than I am.
Frankly, I’d be surprised.
We are too much alike, as my mother and grandmother have never failed to remind me. When I did good things—when I finished my master’s degree, when I bought my house with my own money—then I was so very much like my long-lost Aunt Ellen. She had such an independent spirit after all! But when I did things the Thrushes didn’t like, somehow it was still the same story: when I dropped out of my doctorate program, when I got a DUI, when I came home with a girl instead of a boy. Oh yes. So much like my no-good, pervert of an aunt, may she rest in peace wherever she lies.
That’s when they’d pretend that I never switched to using my middle name. They’d call me by her name, with a sneer just loud enough to be heard. Even after I got my sober-for-a-year chip. (I shouldn’t have bothered. I threw it away.) Even after I brought home another boy or two, like I was trying to maintain a balance on some ledger. It never seemed to matter.
So I don’t see the Thrushes very much—not anymore. I didn’t go missing like Aunt Ellen; I just quit coming home.
Plenty of people said that’s exactly what Ellen did; she ran away from home, if you can call it that when a woman’s an adult in her twenties. But I don’t believe it. Sure, I fantasized more than once about walking away from Thrush House myself, leaving behind everyone who ever called it home. Of course, I understand the urge to quit arguing, to quit participating in the endless escalation of whose feelings are hurt most, and why, and by whom. Absolutely, they are exhausting women who deserve one another.
I can truly imagine there’s a world where my aunt Ellen might have had it up to here, packed a suitcase, and rode off into the sunset with her thesis advisor slash girlfriend—an esteemed professor of women’s history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
But not this world. I don’t believe that Ellen ran away, and I don’t believe that she’s alive anymore either.
I don’t believe she would have abandoned Judith.
______
]]>Depending on the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter funding level, we expect to fill the anthology with eight to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period.
In order to avoid duplicates in the open submission call, locations already chosen by the featured authors are listed below. This list will be updated as the authors make their decisions, so be sure to check back!
Open call begins: December 1, 2023
Open call ends: December 31st, 2023
Word Count: Up to 5000
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to 5000) + copy of anthology in soft cover
Rights: First English language rights
Sim-subs: Yes
Multi-subs: No
Format: Docx, Doc, or RTF using Shunn Manuscript Guidelines
Apex Book Company and its editors welcome and encourage submissions from writers of all races, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and military status.
We want diverse voices. We value diverse voices. Saying that, please be aware that we do not collect any information that might clue our editors to any of these attributes other than your name, email, and cover letter before any decisions are made regarding your submission.
Submit here: https://apexbookcompany.moksha.io/publication/the-map-of-lost-places
]]>For a full review of our 2023 original fiction, including award eligibility, go here: https://apex-magazine.com/apex-blog/apex-magazine-2023-award-eligibility/
As a reminder, Apex Magazine general submissions will be closed for the month of December. However, flash fiction will be open from 12/7-12/31, our drabble contest is open until 12/15, and The Map of Lost Places will be open from 12/1 to 12/31.
Issue 141 continues to release on the website. Cover art by Peter Mohrbacher, original fiction by J.S. Breukelaar, A.M. Lomuscio, E. Catherine Tobler, Jolie Toomajan, and Erica Satifka, flash by Leah Ning and Liv Strom, essays by Sarah Pinsker and Leanna Renee Hieber, and reprints from R.J. Joseph and Zin E. Rocklyn. And some exciting news! A.C. Wise is returning with the wonderful Words for Thought short fiction review column! Buckle up - this issue is a wild one!
Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann is available for advance order! Buy now and save 40% on the trade edition! This collection will release December 19th!
This collection of short stories and poems by Ada Hoffmann traverses extraordinary universes packed with faeries, cyborgs, talking otters, punitive gods, lovestruck sea creatures, fossil hunters, extraterrestrials, and much more. Exploring themes of love and self-existence, community and otherness, and perseverance, Resurrections is a wondrous blend of genres and literary forms.
Each universe contains an intricately crafted history, cast of characters, places, and paradoxes. From layered magical realms to beauty supply storerooms, Hoffmann brings often-overlooked characters and perspectives to life and lets their unfettered reality expand our imaginations. Resurrections is a glimpse into the spectrum of human existence, flitting from world to world in Hoffmann’s spectacular style.
Editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner are looking for stories about places where weird things happen. Places that have strange histories, their own traditions and customs, their own dangers. These can be based off real folk tales or old wives tales - think the Mothman in Point Pleasant, WV - or ones that you come up with all on your own. But your story should tell of someone going to one of these places - either intentionally or they just stumble across it - and what happens when they encounter the frightening/strange thing that is in or occurs in that location.
In order to avoid duplicates in the open submission call, locations already chosen by the featured authors are listed below. This list will be updated as the authors make their decisions, so be sure to check our guidelines for updates!
Submissions period is December 1st through December 31st, 2023. Submissions Guidelines here: https://apexbookcompany.moksha.io/publication/the-map-of-lost-places/guidelines
As part of our successful Map of Lost Places Kickstarter, we are excited to announce the upcoming Strange Locations microfiction anthology, the third in the brilliant series of microanthologies edited by Marissa van Uden.
We are looking for speculative microfiction in the form of tourist brochures, travel blogs, and travel guides to the strangest, darkest places you can imagine.
Tell us a story while guiding the reader down hidden trails into eerie landscapes, weird biotech gardens, creepy scifi cities, surreal forests, or secret magical places. We’re looking for pieces that reveal intimate stories of loss, horror, or yearning in the voice of the fictional travel writer, or that use specific setting details to show whole new worlds between the lines.
We love dark fantasy, science fiction, horror, eco-horror, clifi, Weird fiction, folk horror, and body horror. Don’t be afraid to mix genres and experiment!
We are delighted to announce that longtime Apex Magazine first reader Kai Delmas is taking the editorial chair for the return of our Holiday Horrors - this time as a Drabble Contest!
This year we're changing it up. 250 words was way too easy, we want more in less. We want your best, shortest, awesomest short-short stories. We want your drabbles!
And who better than to judge these drabbles than the great, the kind, the funny(?), the almighty Drabble King himself, Kai Delmas? (Yes, he wrote this himself. He insisted.) Kai is one of our slush readers with years of experience when it comes to knowing what makes a story an Apex story. Many of you might remember him from our Snap Judgment Episode #6. Kai is the author of dozens of drabbles, and he has a drabble collection under production with Shacklebound Books.
We are excited to have him as our judge for this contest. Check out all the submissions details here. Contest opened on 12:00am PST November 18th, 2023 and closes at 11:59pm PST, December 15th, 2023.
The Reach Your Apex initiative is our way of making the knowledge and skills of publishing professionals available to those individuals who are seeking to improve their literary craft. While a majority of our offerings target the craft of writing, we will intersperse our curriculum with workshops/webinars covering various topics about the art of editing and the business side of publishing. We just launched a website dedicated to our classes and workshops, including on-demand recordings!
You can find our current list of classes here. Classes in November include Revising Your Novel with Premee Mohamed, as well as a three part course on writing nonlinear fiction with Premee Mohamed! Coming up, we've got Getting Into Character with Arley Sorg, a reprise of the popular Writing with ADHD with Premee Mohamed, and classes from Arley Sorg, Lavie Tidhar, Richard Thomas, Leah Ning, A.C. Wise, and Nick Mamatas! We also now offer pre-recorded on demand classes as well as critiques and query feedback!
The Flash Fiction Contest for November 7-30—themed The Middle—will close on November 30. The theme for December 7-31 will be announced and will open to the public on December 7th for flash fiction submissions. Themes are chosen by Patrons at the end of the month and announced to Patrons on the 1st of each month. Submissions will be open to the public on the 7th of each month. Submissions close on the last day of the month at midnight (US Central Time).
The winner will be paid $0.08/word or $10, whichever is more. The winning story will appear on our Patreon as an exclusive and will be included in a forthcoming issue of Apex Magazine.
As always, we have fun and community on our Discord, including critique swaps, co-writing opportunities, and general community support for writers. (Rejectomancy, anyone?)
On our Patreon, we have an exciting lineup of exclusives for our Patrons from the Authors of Issue 141 as well as from our book company authors. We'll have our usual interviews, critique opportunities, a surprise recipe or two, and some story insights. Keep an eye on our Patreon!
Not a Patron? Join us for as little as $3/month to get access to these exclusives and the magazine in your inbox!
To add the Apex Events Calendar to your google calendar, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/4c74rext
]]>Our first paperback bundle is Recent Releases and contains Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories by Tobias Buckell, Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon, and Future Artifacts by Kameron Hurley. All for $30!
Our second paperback bundle is Series Starters! This collects The Lost Level by Brian Keene, King of the Bastards by Steven L. Shrewsbury and Brian Keene, The Apex Book of World SF Volume One edited by Lavie Tidhar, and Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Kick off these four amazing series for only $40.
Our final paperback bundle is Celebrating the Oldies! This brings together Dark Faith, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon, War Stories, edited by Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak, and the mostly true memoir For Exposure by Jason Sizemore. Get these classics for $30.
Check out all the bundles here: https://www.apexbookcompany.com/collections/black-friday-2023
Art by Daniele Serra. Jacket design by Mikio Murikami.
ISBN TPB 978-1-955765-20-6
Southern gothic cozy thriller with ghosts and a touch of cosmic horror.
]]>It's hard to believe that we're coming up on the end of the year. The weather is turning cold in the north, warming up in the south. Trees are coming quietly awake or settling into their branches for the winter. In the darkest corners, things seen only in the pause between breaths slink nearer, seeking your love. We're staying busy at Apex, and we're grateful to you for being with us for the adventure.
Issue 141 will release November 7. Cover art by Peter Mohrbacher, original fiction by J.S. Breukelaar, A.M. Lomuscio, E. Catherine Tobler, Jolie Toomajan, and Erica Satifka, flash by Leah Ning and Liv Strom, essays by Sarah Pinsker and Leanna Renee Hieber, and reprints from R.J. Joseph and Zin E. Rocklyn. And some exciting news! A.C. Wise is returning with the wonderful "Words for Thought" short fiction review column! Buckle up - this issue is a wild one!
We are delighted to announce that longtime Apex Magazine first reader Kai Delmas is taking the editorial chair for the return of our Holiday Horrors--this time as a Drabble Contest!
The Map of Lost Places Kickstarter launched on October 10--click here to join us for a tour of places that have strange histories, their own traditions and customs, their own dangers. We have some incredible add-ons and rewards - including the Strange Libations and Strange Machines microfiction anthologies from previous Kickstarters.
Depending on the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter funding level, we expect to fill the anthology with eight to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period. The open call for stories will begin December 1, 2023.
These might be based on real folk tales or old wives tales - think the Mothman in Point Pleasant, WV - or ones that you come up with all on your own. But your story should tell of someone going to one of these places - either intentionally or they just stumble across it - and what happens when they encounter the frightening/strange thing that is in or occurs in that location.
Apex Magazine is excited to present SNAP JUDGMENT Episode 8 (Halloween special!) of our rapid-fire, live-streaming critique series.
Every quarter, industry professionals Lesley Conner, Rebecca E Treasure, and a special guest offer live feedback on the first page (up to 250 words) of genre short stories or novels. These first pages are read aloud by our talented host and narrator, Aly Grauer.
Our special guest editor for this event was author and editor Richard Thomas! They provide invaluable advice to writers and will give you a leg up on the competition.
Whether striving to protect the family they’ve chosen, searching for meaning amid the chaos of the world, or questioning what it is that makes one alive, robotic ambition can mean many different things. Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience explores the nuance of sentience manufactured and evolved within mechanical beings. It peels back the metal exterior and takes a hard look at what is inside.
Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations.
This anthology includes stories by Lavie Tidhar, Premee Muhamed, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Jason Sanford, and many more.
Preorder now or get your copy through the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter. Robotic Ambitions will be released November 14th!
Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann is available for advance order! Buy now and save 40% on the trade edition! This collection will release December 19th
This collection of short stories and poems by Ada Hoffmann traverses extraordinary universes packed with faeries, cyborgs, talking otters, punitive gods, love-struck sea creatures, fossil hunters, extraterrestrials, and much more. Exploring themes of love and self-existence, community and otherness, and perseverance, Resurrections is a wondrous blend of genres and literary forms.
Each universe contains an intricately crafted history, cast of characters, places, and paradoxes. From layered magical realms to beauty supply storerooms, Hoffmann brings often-overlooked characters and perspectives to life and lets their unfettered reality expand our imaginations. Resurrections is a glimpse into the spectrum of human existence, flitting from world to world in Hoffmann’s spectacular style.
The Reach Your Apex initiative is our way of making the knowledge and skills of publishing professionals available to those individuals who are seeking to improve their literary craft. While a majority of our offerings target the craft of writing, we will intersperse our curriculum with workshops/webinars covering various topics about the art of editing and the business side of publishing. We just launched a website dedicated to our classes and workshops, including on-demand recordings!
You can find our current list of classes here. Classes in November include Revising Your Novel with Premee Mohamed, as well as a three part course on writing nonlinear fiction with Premee Mohamed! Coming up, we've got Getting Into Character with Arley Sorg, a reprise of the popular Writing with ADHD with Premee Mohamed, Dressing the Skeleton with Ai Jiang, and classes from Arley Sorg, Lavie Tidhar, Richard Thomas, Leah Ning, A.C. Wise, and Nick Mamatas!
The Flash Fiction Contest for October 7-31—themed Botanist—will close on October 31. The theme for Novemer 7-30 will be announced and will open to the public on November 7th for flash fiction submissions. Themes are chosen by Patrons at the end of the month and announced to Patrons on the 1st of each month. Submissions will be open to the public on the 7th of each month. Submissions close on the last day of the month at midnight (US Central Time).
The winner will be paid $0.08/word or $10, whichever is more. The winning story will appear on our Patreon as an exclusive and will be included in a forthcoming issue of Apex Magazine.
As always, we have fun and community on our Discord, including critique swaps, co-writing opportunities, and general community support for writers. (Rejectomancy, anyone?)
On our Patreon, we have an exciting lineup of exclusives for our Patrons from the Authors of Issue 140. We'll have interviews, a critique opportunity, and story insights. Keep an eye on our Patreon!
Not a Patron? Join us for as little as $3/month to get access to these exclusives and the magazine in your inbox!
To add the Apex Events Calendar to your Google calendar, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/4c74rext.
]]>The Kickstarter campaign for The Map of Lost Places, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner, is now live! Click here to join us in bringing this anthology to life. Check out the submission guidelines as well if you’re interested in sending a story to the open call in December!
Beyond the anthology itself, we’ve got all sorts of fantastic rewards, add-ons, and stretch goals included in this Kickstarter. Ai Jiang has contributed a beautiful handmade planner as an add-on, and there are five slots available for 15-minute Zoom calls with Brian Keene. A little ways down the line, we’ll have a few surprises from co-editor Lesley Conner, and maybe one or two other things up our sleeves….
Lesley and Apex Magazine managing editor Rebecca Treasure are also offering critiques on up to 7,500 words. Additionally, we have ten explorer care packages available, which will include items to keep you safe on your travels: a train ticket, holy water, a book of protective phrases…visit the Kickstarter page to find out more! Stretch goals include excitements like more open call slots, a new dark microfiction anthology from Marissa van Uden, art for the interior of the Map of Lost Places anthology, and an introduction written by Linda D. Addison.
Come help us plot routes through places with magic in the land, horrors in the skies, and dreams that slumber uneasy in the trees. Come follow the legends roaming the bleakest depths of the seas and the whispers that shake the earth’s bedrock. Come find us in the pages of The Map of Lost Places.
]]>Depending on the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter funding level, we expect to fill the anthology with eight to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period. The Kickstarter will launch on October 10 - click here to be notified as soon as it happens!
In order to avoid duplicates in the open submission call, locations already chosen by the featured authors are listed below. This list will be updated as the authors make their decisions, so be sure to check back!
Open call begins: December 1, 2023
Open call ends: December 31st, 2023
Word Count: Up to 5000
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to 5000) + copy of anthology in soft cover
Rights: First English language rights
Sim-subs: Yes
Multi-subs: No
Format: Docx, Doc, or RTF using Shunn Manuscript Guidelines
Apex Book Company and its editors welcome and encourage submissions from writers of all races, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and military status.
We want diverse voices. We value diverse voices. Saying that, please be aware that we do not collect any information that might clue our editors to any of these attributes other than your name, email, and cover letter before any decisions are made regarding your submission.
FAQ
Can you recommend media for us to look at that will give writers an idea of type of work we seek?
We’ve also got a Pinterest board for some visual vibes!
Is the 5000 word limit a hard cutoff?
Yes.
Can you accept post mailed printed submissions?
No.
How long will the submission wait time be?
Approximately one month.
If I’ve been recently published in Apex Magazine, can I submit to The Map of Lost Places?
Yes.
Are original translated works okay?
Absolutely, yes.
Both you and your translator will be listed as contributors and sign separate contracts. We will split your payment 50/50 with your translator unless otherwise instructed.
My story was rejected by Apex Magazine and/or one of our previous anthologies. Can I submit it?
Yes.
Do you still have a question about the guidelines?
Email Lesley Conner (lesley@apexbookcompany.com)
SUBMISSIONS OPEN: https://apexbookcompany.moksha.io/publication/the-map-of-lost-places
For Immediate Release 8/2/23
Lexington, KY: Apex Book Company is delighted to announce that it has acquired first North America English rights to the novella CHLOROPHILIA by Cristina Jurado. The deal was brokered by agent Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.
Kirmen is different from everyone else in the Cloister. Due to the doctor's endless experiments on Kirmen, his skin, his eyes, even his organs are changing. Kirmen wonders if he even belongs with the other inhabitants of the dome that protects the last remnants of humanity from the forever storm raging against the glass. Kirmen's dreams of love, of acceptance, slip away with every treatment. What will happen when the doctor's transformations are complete? What will Kirmen be then?
Cristina Jurado is a bilingual author, editor and translator of speculative fiction. In 2019 she became the first female writer to win the Best Novel Ignotus Award (Spain’s Hugo Award) for Bionautas. Her recent fiction includes the novella CloroFilia and her collection of stories Alphaland. Since 2015 she runs the Spanish multi-awarded magazine SuperSonic. In 2020 she was distinguished as Europe’s Best SF Promoter Award and started to work as a contributor of the bilingual quarterly Constelación magazine.
Sue Burke began writing professionally as a teenager for her local newspaper. By then she was also an avid science fiction fan. She has worked for newspapers and magazines as a reporter and editor, and began publishing fiction in 1995. She has also published essays, poetry, and translations, and taught English to Spanish teenagers in Madrid, Spain.
APEX BOOK COMPANY (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Marissa van Uden will become Apex Book Company's primary acquisitions editor. Marissa joined us about 2.5 years ago and has displayed an eye for developmental editing and finding talented new writers. She has ably ushered two anthologies to publication and has been an invaluable team member when it comes to providing input regarding the direction of the company.
Leah Ning steps up as our managing editor. She will help guide our books into the trade market and will facilitate our new relationship with Diamond Book Distributors. Leah has a gift for organization and has the technical knowledge to assist me with back office work. She also possesses a keen business sense that has been incredibly helpful.
If you're wondering about me ... I'll stay busy as ever, if not busier, wheeling and dealing in the background. I will work on the acquisition side along with Marissa. Apex is expanding and my attention has been stretched to far too many projects. Apex is fortunate to have Marissa and Leah as people I can trust to hand responsibilities off to and know that everything will be just fine, if not better!
]]>
Apex Book Company is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror prose publisher founded in 2005 by Jason Sizemore. Sizemore’s goal was to publish groundbreaking, meaningful, and entertaining fiction by diverse writers from around the world. The company’s first book, an anthology of horror titled Aegri Somnia, was a Stoker Award-nominee. This early success encouraged the company to expand its book business, which now boasts over thirty titles.
“It will be an honor bringing the work of our authors to a wider audience via our partnership with DBD,” said Apex Book Company publisher Jason Sizemore. “When we decided to expand, Diamond was our #1 choice for distribution into the book trade market.”
Apex Book Company, whose tagline is “strange, shocking, surreal, beautiful,” boasts an ever-growing library of prose works that feature diverse and innovative storytelling in genre fiction. The company’s publishing history includes several acclaimed works such as Tade Thompson’s Rosewater, The Apex Book of World SF anthology series, and Nebula Award nominee Plague Birds. Apex’s recent releases underscore the company’s commitment to thoughtful storytelling: Danged Black Thing is a groundbreaking collection from Eugen Bacon that received a starred review from Publishers Weekly; Do Not Go Quietly, an anthology highlighting the intersection of technology and resistance movements; and the dark fantasy afrofuturist novel Pimp My Airship by Maurice Broaddus. Marissa van Uden is the current acquisition editor with Leah Ning serving as managing editor.
Upcoming releases from Apex Book Company include Island of the Dead by Brian Keene, Cinderwich by Cherie Priest, and the horror anthology The Map of Lost Places, co-edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner.
“Jason and the Apex team have done a remarkable job discovering exceptional and award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror talent, and shepherding their work to a dedicated, growing fan base,” said Tony Lutkus, President of Diamond Book Distributors. “We’re excited to bring Diamond’s full resources to deliver their books to even more readers throughout the world.”
]]>Our current bundles include the following:
The Lost Level Series (Brian Keene)
The Saga of Rogan (Brian Keene & Steven L. Shrewsbury)
Her Pitiless Command (Benjanun Sriduangkaew)
Unreal Circus (E. Catherine Tobler)
The Apex Books of World SF (ed. Lavie Tidhar)
]]>]]>
Being from Kentucky, it's been difficult watching the cruel rhetoric and painful attacks on the LGBTQ community that our political and spiritual leaders are spearheading. I know I have friends who are feeling betrayed and, frankly, scared by the recent actions of bigoted zealots. And even if you think you don't know anyone harmed by the hate speech and attack on LGBTQ rights, I'm willing to bet that you do.
Apex Book Company will be donating 10% of all our website book sales made during June to the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP). The TEP advocates for the equal rights of LGBTQ people in Tennessee where anti-LGBTQ legislation has been especially harsh.
The history of Pride Month is interesting. The Today Show has a nice surface-level dive into the origins of Pride Month and why we celebrate.
Here in Lexington, KY, our Pride Month celebration happens on June 24th. If you're local to the Apex offices, visit https://www.lexpridefest.org/ for more information.
]]>COIL by Ren Warom is a tier 2 selection of the CyberPunk Dystopia Novels Collective Bundle at Fanatical. For $7, receive COIL and ten more books! For $13 receive 20 books!
Head to Fanatical to grab your bundle today! This bundle only lasts 8 weeks, so don't wait to get your books.
]]>
Lexington, KY: Apex Book Company is delighted to announce that it has acquired first North America English trade paperback rights to the novel ISLAND OF THE DEAD by Brian Keene. The deal was brokered by the author.
ISLAND OF THE DEAD is a horror/sword and sorcery novel in which an enslaved barbarian plots his escape from a war galley transporting soldiers and a mysterious biological weapon. But when a storm at sea leaves them shipwrecked on a mysterious island, friend and foe alike must band together against a ravenous, steadily growing horde of the undead.
Through Apex Books, Keene has written the LOST LEVEL series of dark fantasy novels and co-authored the ROGAN CHRONICLES series with Steven Shrewsbury.
BRIAN KEENE writes novels, comic books, short stories, and nonfiction. He is the author of over fifty books, mostly in the horror, crime, fantasy, and non-fiction genres. They have been translated into over a dozen different languages and have won numerous awards.
His 2003 novel, The Rising, is credited (along with Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later film) with inspiring pop culture’s recurrent interest in zombies.
He has also written for such media properties as Doctor Who, Thor, Aliens, Harley Quinn, The X-Files, Doom Patrol, Justice League, Hellboy, Superman, and Masters of the Universe. He was the showrunner for Realm Media and Blackbox TV’s Silverwood: The Door.
APEX BOOK COMPANY (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Lexington, KY: Apex Book Company is delighted to announce that it has acquired first North America English rights to the collection RESURRECTIONS by Ada Hoffman. The deal was brokered by agent Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.
This collection of short stories and poems by Ada Hoffmann traverses extraordinary
universes packed with faeries, cyborgs, talking otters, punitive gods, lovestruck sea creatures, fossil hunters, extraterrestrials, and much more. Exploring themes of love and self-existence, community and otherness, and perseverance, Resurrections is a wondrous blend of genres and literary forms.
Ada Hoffmann is the author of the OUTSIDE space opera trilogy, as well as dozens of speculative short stories and poems. Ada’s work has been a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Compton Crook Award, and the WSFA Small Press Award, among others. They are also the author of the Autistic Book Party review series, devoted to in-depth #ownvoices discussions of autism representation in speculative fiction.
Ada is an adjunct professor of computer science, as well as a former semi-professional soprano, tabletop gaming enthusiast, and LARPer. They live in eastern Ontario.
APEX BOOK COMPANY (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Lexington, KY: Apex Book Company is delighted to announce that it has acquired first North America English rights to the novella CINDERWICH by Cherie Priest. The deal was brokered by agent Stacia Decker of Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner Literary Agency.
"I've known Cherie since the start of our careers in the early aughts. While I've published many of her short stories, this is the first time I'm able to bring her long form work to our readers. I love CINDERWICH, I love Cherie, and I think Apex readers will as well."
CINDERWICH is a mystery/thriller southern gothic novel set in dying Tennessee town that is known for one thing: the mysterious death of a young woman decades prior. It's a return, in some ways, to the thematic concerns of Cherie's early work set in the American South such as FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS and NOT FLESH NOR FEATHERS.
Cherie Priest is the author of two dozen books and novellas, most recently the Booking Agents mysteries Grave Reservations and Flight Risk. She also wrote gothic horror projects The Toll, The Family Plot, and the Philip K. Dick Award nominee Maplecroft; but she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker. Her works have been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, and have won the Locus Award (among others) – and over the years, they’ve been translated into nine languages in eleven countries. Cherie lives in Seattle, WA, with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.
APEX BOOK COMPANY (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Apex Publications, LLC is looking for a part-time social media manager to create and schedule promotional posts for Apex Book Company and Apex Magazine.
Job Requirements:
Nice, but not necessary:
Job Details
Apex highly values our social media accounts as they are the easiest way for us to share information with our readers and a fun way to interact with others in the genre. Our ideal candidate is someone with fantastic organizational skills who enjoys the interactive component of the job. The position is a great way to get your foot in the door and get a behind-the-scenes look at how the small press publishing world operates while making some coffee money.
Please direct all inquiries to Jason Sizemore (jason@apexbookcompany.com).
]]>It is fellow organic and Robotic Ambitions co-editor Jason Sizemore here to share the news that the submissions portal for the anthology has opened!
Portal link: https://apexbookcompany.moksha.io/publication/robotic-ambitions/guidelines
Our Kickstarter is still active! We have plenty of fantastic stretch goals yet to unlock.
Back the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/robotic-ambitions
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Lexington, KY: Apex Publications is happy to announce our new project ROBOTIC AMBITIONS: An Anthology of Robotic Sentience. Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner will co-edit the anthology. Editors Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner are looking for stories that examine the concept of “robotic ambitions.” Using philosophical, moral, and practical points-of-view, what does it mean to be sentient and mechanical? What challenges will mechanical beings face from a fearful and chaotic world? What are their goals and ambitions?
Depending on the Robotic Ambitions’ Kickstarter funding level, the anthology will be comprised of six to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period that will open in early March.
Apex Publications is an industry leader in the science fiction and fantasy literary world and is headed by Jason Sizemore. It is the parent company of Apex Magazine with co-editor-in-chief Lesley Conner. Marissa van Uden, Rebecca Schibler, ZZ Claybourne, and Maurice Broaddus who work as additional editors for the bi-monthly publication. It is also the parent company of Apex Book Company, publisher of Pimp My Airship, Plague Birds, and more.
APEX PUBLICATIONS (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
]]>Depending on the Robotic Ambitions’ Kickstarter funding level, we expect to fill the anthology with six to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period that will open in early March.
The Robotic Ambitions Kickstarter has funded and is still ongoing. Click here to back!
Opens: March 14th
Reading Period: Ends March 28th for general submissions; April 5th for marginalized writers.
Word Count: Up to 5000
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to 5000) + copy of anthology in soft cover
Rights: First English language rights (soft cover, hard cover, ebook, digital)
Sim-subs: Yes
Multi-subs: No
Format: Docx, Doc, or RTF using Shunn Manuscript Guidelines
Apex Book Company and its editors welcomes and encourages submissions from writers of all races, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and military status.
We want diverse voices. We value diverse voices. Saying that, please be aware that we do not collect any information that might clue our editors to any of these attributes other than your name, email, and cover letter before any decisions are made regarding your submission.
FAQ
Can you recommend stories for us to read that will give writers an idea of type of work we seek?
Is the 5000 word limit a hard cutoff?
Yes.
Can you accept post mailed printed submissions?
No.
How long will the submission wait time be?
Approximately one month.
If I’ve been recently published in Apex Magazine can I submit to Robotic Ambitions?
Yes.
Are original translated works okay?
Absolutely, yes.
Both you and your translator will be listed as contributors and sign separate contracts. We will split your payment 50/50 with your translator unless otherwise instructed.
My story was rejected by Apex Magazine and/or one of our previous anthologies. Can I submit it?
Yes.
How will I know what day you open to submissions in early March?
We make an announcement via the following channels—social media (Twitter, Instagram, and FB), Kickstarter update, blog post on this site, and via the Apex Book Company newsletter.
Do you still have a question about the guidelines?
Email Jason Sizemore (jason@apexbookcompany.com).
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* Discount does not include preorders, bundles, merchandise, workshops, or gift cards.
Did you know that Apex offers free media mail shipping on all domestic orders of $35 or greater?
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This coming December we have four workshops available. Each are priced at less than $20.
• Writing an Effective Short Story Opening led by Jason Sizemore
• Writing an Effective Short Story Ending led by Jason Sizemore
• Novel Pitch Practice led by Rebecca Treasure
• Don't Sell Your Soul: Dissecting the Short Story Contract by Leah Ning and Rebecca Treasure
All workshops/seminars are led over Zoom. We offer two scholarship seats per course. If you're interested in a scholarship seat email Jason Sizemore (jason@apexbookcompany.com).
]]>Lexington, KY: Apex Publications is happy to announce Will Sobel as the company’s new Business Developer. Sobel will work in tandem with owner Jason Sizemore to explore new business plans, sales avenues, and other operational tasks. Sobel joins the growing crew of Apex including co-editor-in-chief Lesley Conner, associate editors Rebecca E. Treasure and Marissa van Uden, and special editors Maurice Broaddus and ZZ Claybourne.
Sizemore says of the new talent, “I'm excited about the business knowledge and expertise Will brings to the team from his years in sales and marketing in the tabletop industry. He will be a vital resource as we look for ways to expand Apex Publications.”
Sobel says, “Everyone at Apex is kind and welcoming, and the energy Jason has for growing the company is tremendous. It’s a dream to work with kind-hearted people like this, and to be part of the Apex family.”
Apex Publications is an industry leader in the science fiction and fantasy literary world and is headed by Jason Sizemore. It is the parent company of Apex Magazine with co-editor-in-chief Lesley Conner. Marissa van Uden, Rebecca Schibler, ZZ Claybourne, and Maurice Broaddus who work as additional editors for the bi-monthly publication. It is also the parent company of Apex Book Company, publisher of Pimp My Airship, Plague Birds, and more.
Will Sobel is a game designer and writer. You can find games with his name on shelves around America including Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition from Avalon Hill and Astro Knights from Indie Boards & Cards. His experience with sales and marketing come from years as a buyer in distribution, manager of a local game store in his hometown, marketing for Upper Deck Entertainment, sales and marketing for Green Ronin Publishing, and more.
APEX PUBLICATIONS (www.apexbookcompany.com) is a small press dedicated to publishing exemplary works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Owned and operated by Jason Sizemore, Apex publishes the thrice Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine. The Apex catalog contains books by genre luminaries such as Maurice Broaddus, Lavie Tidhar, and E. Catherine Tobler.
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