As of May 11, 2022, the SFWA Independent Authors Committee is seeking novel submissions for our next fantasy StoryBundle to be released this fall. Submissions will be accepted through May 30, 2022 at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

This is a great chance for independent and small press authors to gain more exposure and sell more books. We welcome submissions of indie and traditionally published novels from SFWA members and nonmembers, as well as from small press publishers, if the publishers give permission in writing. 

The overarching theme for the call is “What Am I Doing Here?” The SFWA Independent Authors Committee seeks fantasy stories of characters lost, stranded, abandoned, shipwrecked, or stuck on the wrong side of a portal. As always, the Committee is open to unique interpretations of the theme, perhaps tales of lost memories or of being lost in time, for example. This StoryBundle will be offered in November 2022. 

 Our screeners will select participants from the entries we receive. The exact composition and titles of any individual SFWA StoryBundle is subject to adjustment as we accommodate the best selections. Therefore, we encourage authors not to self-reject if their novel has any fit at all with our theme.

 StoryBundles are curated collections of books offered at a discounted price. Readers select what price they’d like to pay for an initial four books and can unlock the entire bundle by contributing $20. Proceeds go to the participating authors and StoryBundle, and a small cut is donated to SFWA. 

We welcome full-length fantasy novels of over 40,000 words that are either clearly stand-alone stories or the first in a series. We ask that authors submit only one novel (publishers may submit more in separate emails), and do not submit a novel that has appeared in any previous StoryBundle (SFWA or otherwise.) Please only submit novels that will be for sale by October 2022. The book cannot be available for free/permafree; it must be currently priced for at least $0.99.

You must have full rights to enter your novel in the StoryBundle, and the novel must not be in Amazon’s KDP Select at the time that the bundle is published.  You will be notified early enough that books enrolled in Amazon KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited) will have time to be brought out of exclusivity before the StoryBundle is released. 

We welcome full-length fantasy novels of over 40,000 words that are either clearly stand-alone stories or the first in a series. Please do not submit novels with prequels of any length or related books that need to be read first to fully appreciate the submitted work. Please do not submit anthologies. Collections of short stories are only eligible if the stories form a coherent (mosaic) novel. Omnibus collections are only eligible if they are book-length in their totality (less than 200,000 words) and combine to form one clear story.

To submit, email Storybundle@SFWA.org with “What Am I Doing Here?” in the subject line. Please put both the name of the book and the author’s name in the text of the email, and do not use ALL CAPS. Please indicate the email address and contact person to respond to if it is other than the author or the sending address. Include a link to the book on Goodreads, or at any major retailer, or a universal purchase link. If the novel is not for sale at the time of submission, please include a link to either the pre-order page or to an author’s page that will direct us to your previous books. Publishers, please use a separate email for each novel you submit.

Attach both MOBI and EPUB versions of your book. Please do not attach cover jpgs or other files.

Questions? Email us at storybundle@sfwa.org.

The SFWA Independent Authors Committee