Writing for Black Library – Open Submissions 2018 Recap

Back in early 2018, Black Library announced an open submissions window – a fixed period of time during which the public was actively encouraged to submit pitches for stories set in the various worlds of Warhammer. BL don’t generally accept submissions outside one of these specific windows, and this one proved VERY popular! Ever since it closed there’s been speculation from fans about when the next such opportunity would arise…and now we know that it’s going to run between the 26th August and 23rd September 2019.

With that in mind, I wanted to take a look back at last year’s window to see what we can learn from it, so that anyone thinking about submitting this year has something to work from when preparing. In this article you’ll find some information about the authors who successfully made it through and had stories published by Black Library and a recap of 2018’s guidelines. I originally published this article in July 2019, in anticipation of the next submissions window opening, complete with useful resources to help with planning for this year. Since then Black Library have confirmed the details of the 2019 window, so I’ve adjusted this article to be focused entirely on 2018, while you can check out this article here for information about the 2019 window.

When 2018’s window opened I published this blog post, which included my thoughts on the opportunity (including the chance to be published in the new version of Inferno! – which is awesome) along with a summary of the key requirements and some comments on what I’d like to see. Feel free to have a read of that article if you’d like, but for the sake of completion I’m going to recap the guidelines and requirements from last year’s window below. First, however, a few dates and figures to give a bit of context for what happened last time around:

• 10th January 2018: the submissions window opened.
• 10th April 2018: the window closed.
• 18th December 2018: Richard Garton, Black Library Submissions Editor, confirmed on Twitter that he had finished reviewing the 3,500+ submissions.

That’s a lot of story submissions, which goes to show the popularity of Warhammer and Black Library, and the desire that fans have to contribute to these settings. It’s no surprise that it took eight months (and I’m assuming several people) to read through all of them! Let’s see what we know has come from those 3.5k submissions…

2018 – successful authors

We don’t have any confirmed figures of the number of successful applicants out of all those submissions, but during the ‘Coming Soon’ seminar at Black Library Live Richard did give (having been rather put on the spot) a rough figure of about 14 authors. I think we can probably take that as a pretty accurate figure, give or take a couple. While I don’t have a full list of who all of those authors are, I do have a few confirmed names, and the stories which they’ve since had published:

• Jamie Crisalli: Ties of Blood was published in Inferno! Volume 2. Jamie has had an Age of Sigmar novella announced – The Measure of Iron, as part of the Novella Series 2 – with another story in Inferno! Volume 4
• Thomas Parrott: Spiritus in Machina was also published in Inferno! Volume 2. Thomas has had a novella confirmed (no title yet, but we know it’s part of the Novella Series 2), with another short story due in Inferno! Volume 4.
• Robert Rath: The Garden of Mortal Delights was published as a Digital Monday short story in May.
• Nicolas Wolf: Reborn was also published as a Digital Monday short story in May
• Eric Gregory: Bossgrot was published as a Digital Monday short story in July. Eric has another story due in Inferno! Volume 4
• Richard W. Strachan: The Widow Tide was published in Maledictions. Richard has another story due in Invocations (the next Warhammer Horror anthology)

Click on the titles above if you’d like to check out my reviews of those short stories, to get a feel for what was published! That’s obviously only five, out of the 14-ish that were successful, but from what I understand it sounds like there are more stories from successful authors still to be published at some point in the future.

What’s great to see from my perspective – i.e. as a fan and a reader – is that two of those authors already have novellas due for release this year, and three of them (that I know of) have further short stories coming out soon. Hopefully the other two will have further stories due out as well, which haven’t yet been announced. What this tells me is that the open submissions window is an opportunity for prospective BL authors to not just get a single story published but to get a foot in the door, which will hopefully lead to long and prosperous authorial careers!

New author interviews
I thought it would be fun to speak to some of these successful authors about how they prepared for their submissions, what inspired their choices, how they found the whole process and how they feel now that they’re on the other side. Click on the links below to read each of these, and check out these authors thoughts, insights and advice!

• Writing for Black Library – Thomas Parrott
• Writing for Black Library – Richard Strachan
• Writing for Black Library – Robert Rath
• Writing for Black Library – Jamie Crisalli
• Writing for Black Library – Nicholas Wolf

Next though, let’s take a look back at last year’s guidelines, which these authors successfully navigated.

2018 – guidelines and submissions process

The original Warhammer Community pages which contained the 2018 open submissions window guidelines, along with various FAQs and advice from established authors, are sadly no longer available to view. Worry not, however, as I’ve included the appropriate information from those pages for your perusal below. Here’s what BL had to say about the window overall:

We are looking for exciting and dynamic characters who drive an absorbing plot that captures the grim darkness and unique tone of our universes. As Inferno! has always delivered the very best from across all of our settings, we are encouraging stories set in Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000, Blood Bowl and Necromunda!

We want diverse narratives that fit into at least one of the following themes:

• Heist
• Detective/Police Procedural
• Adventure
• Mystery
• Ghost/Paranormal/Horror
• War

And the submissions process:

1. Your story must use Games Workshop’s Intellectual property and be based in any of the Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Blood Bowl or Necromunda settings. It must also adhere to one or more of the above themes but you may interpret this in any way you see fit.

We’re looking for a broad range of stories and characters that capture Black Library’s unique mood and tone.

To fit with Black Library’s range, your story should not include graphic descriptions of gratuitous violence, sex or explicit bad language.

2. Pitch us your idea by sending a one-paragraph summary. This must tell us what the story is about (not necessarily just what happens) and who the characters are. Think about what drives the story? What are the character’s goals?

3. Write a sample of the story no longer than 500 words in length, in UK English. This could come from any part of the story and doesn’t have to be set at the beginning (we’d recommend not sending us the ending, however…). At this point, we are not looking for fully written stories. Please submit correctly formatted work in Times New Roman, point size 12, double line spaced.

The key things that I would personally take from those points are:

• Pick something cool and fun from one of the four main GW settings.
• Think carefully about how to pitch the story in that one-paragraph summary.
• Work hard to polish the 500-word sample.

There was also a separate FAQ section with additional advice, from which I picked out a couple of particularly interesting snippets in my 2018 article:

• “All submissions should be set in the contemporary timeline for each setting.“ In other words don’t pitch stories set in the Old World or during the Scouring etc.
• “We recommend that you don’t use any previously established characters from other Black Library novels/short stories or Games Workshop publications.“ So no pitches featuring Lorgar and Perturabo teaming up in the Eye of Terror, then.

Bear in mind that just because these were the guidelines for the 2018 submissions window, it doesn’t mean they’ll apply to the 2019 window. The 2019 window has slightly different guidelines, so if you’re interested in submitting a story then click here to find out more.

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I hope this article has been interesting and/or useful, whether you’re actively getting ready to submit this year or like me you’re just interested in the process of open submissions. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve got any thoughts, questions or feedback, or get in touch on Twitter or Facebook.