We had a hard choice to make. We extended the submission deadline.

The overall submissions were far lower than we normally receive to start with. Perhaps the thin line of the theme made it worse because “supernatural thriller” and “heist” weren’t close, yet people submitted them.

A comment on guidelines: Publishers vary on the level to which they request and invoke their guidelines. Inkd Pub is on the less regimented end, but that means more work on our side. As an example: a fair number of withdrawals occur before the submission period ends, and most of those were marked as “submitted elsewhere”; which is against our “no simultaneous submission” guideline. On occasion, acceptances are rejected by an author because their story was accepted elsewhere (thus the reason for our “no simultaneous submission” guideline). We don’t automatically discard these submissions in the beginning, or keep a list of infringers, but many publishers do.

We apologize to those who have submitted a proper story and been waiting on their response, but we simply don’t have enough stories to fill an anthology.

We’ve selected three stories for nominations to the WSFA Award. – https://wsfasmallpressaward.org/The_History.php

To make this decision we rely on readers’ scores and editor notes, and still the selection was difficult with all the fine stories we’ve published.

Beverle Graves Myers – Tomorrow’s Ghost

N M Cedeño – The Ghostly Lady’s Curse

C.A. Verstraete – Secrets of the Last Mine

Check out these amazing and talented authors!
Brooke MacKenzie, John Grover, Patrick F. Murphy, H.K. Slade, C.A. Verstraete, Lindy Spencer, Clarence Carter, Ann O’Mara Heyward, John Haas, Evan Baughfman, Ken Foxe, D.C. Phillips, Jacob Austin, K.T. Tate, Kristal Stittle, Kay Hanifen, Paul Lonardo, Katie Marie, Jennifer Roberts, Jennifer Cosgrove, A.R.R. Ash, Jane Nightshade

Behind the Shadows II is our second horror anthology and will be available first on our Kickstarter! Come join us with digital, audiobook, paperbark, and LE hardcovers!