What is New Ceres?
During the war that left Earth uninhabitable, refugees from the doomed planet fled to the outer colonies. Many of them found their way to New Ceres, a planet that embraced the Age of Enlightenment almost two hundred years ago, and has not yet let go. The water may be green and spaceships may be landing on a regular basis, but New Ceres is a planet firmly entrenched in Eighteenth Century culture. Offworld technology is strictly forbidden to anyone outside the government, and powdered wigs are in fashion. New Ceres is a twice-yearly webzine launching on September 1, 2006. It features fiction, articles and artwork inspired by the mysterious and elegant planet of New Ceres.
Issue 1 contains fiction by Maxine McArthur, Dirk Flinthart and Tansy Rayner Roberts as well as non fiction by Ruth Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Gillian Polack and Cary Lenehan and artwork by Dion Hamill.
The reading period for submissions for Issue 2 (March 2007) is from November 14 to December 22, 2006.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for fiction of any length, and short "non-fiction" articles that explain an aspect of the society, history or world of New Ceres. We anticipate that the contents of the first several issues will be a combination of solicited and unsolicited works. Submissions will be open to writers in any genre. The only proviso here is that your work must exist within the context and reality of the world. We are equally happy to see swords at sunset, romance, space opera, humour, social comedy, horror…there are as many variants as there are writers.
You can pick up characters already within or create new ones. You can have entire storylines within a corner of this world that is your own. You can write in any genre (almost - we do not pay for anything that cannot be viewed by a general audience) and use any word length to a maximum payment of A$300.
Anything. Well, almost anything. No erotica or excessive violence. You can use themes that have already partly been explored, just as long as your story is well told and does not copy what is already there. Just make your story is your own - we do not want stories that simply copy the life histories of characters already in our world. Given the recent history of New Ceres, there is a high likelihood that lots of people from Earth would end up there, out of necessity. And not only from Earth. New Ceres has *so* many possibilities. Explore them.
If you are submitting an unsolicited work, please take the time to read Issue 1 of New Ceres in great detail. Also explore the worldbuilding details available from the New Ceres website. Substantial aspects of New Ceres will be left unfixed to allow our writers to add their own original touches, but it's important that your story not contradict anything that has already been set in stone.
On the other hand, if your story is brilliant enough, our editors will happily work with you to ensure that the details correspond with the other works of New Ceres canon. New Ceres pays 5¢ (AUS) a word for fiction up to a maximum of A$300 per story. We pay between A$10 and A$20 per piece for non fiction articles.
How can I submit?
Submissions should be in standard manuscript format, and forwarded as an .rtf document.
The submission period is between 14 November 2006 and 22 December 2006 ONLY. All unsolicited stories received outside these dates will be deleted unread. There will be a further reading period in 2007.
New Ceres Universe Conditions of Use
1. The shared world of New Ceres (and surrounding system) [hereafter referred to as SWNC] is copyrighted under Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5, some rights reserved.
2. SWNC includes all "canon" information about the world, characters and history of New Ceres (and surrounding system) contained within the New Ceres webzine and New Ceres wikipedia (designated areas of website, specifically excluding discussion forum)
3. The writers and artists who contribute their works to the New Ceres retain the copyrights to their individual works of art or writing, and must be approached individually for permission to reprint or otherwise use these works.
4. The standard contract for the New Ceres webzine requires all writers to release the original characters, worldbuilding details and history contained within their individual works into the SWNC, for common use.
5. If writers choose not to release their original characters into the SWNC, these shall be deemed "closed characters." The New Ceres webzine will pay substantially less for stories containing "closed characters."
6. If a writer wishes to write more than one story with the same character/s in a serial manner, they may choose to designate certain original characters "reserved" which means that other writers can use those characters but may not make irrevocable changes to them or reveal new information about them except with permission of the originating author. Characters may only be deemed "reserved" for limited periods of time, which can be reassessed by the originating author in consultation with the New Ceres Executive Board.
7. Anyone may set their own artistic creations in SWNC (including but not exclusive to writing, visual artwork, games, merchandise, webpages, films) and distribute these in any way they wish, provided that they are not distributed for profit.
8. Anyone who wishes to set their own artistic creations in SWNC (including but not exclusive to writing, visual artwork, games, merchandise, webpages, films) that will be distributed for commercial purposes, must first gain permission from the New Ceres Executive Board (query email address provided). Depending on the nature of the proposed project and the intent behind its intended distribution, the New Ceres Executive Board may require a licensing fee, royalty agreement or other condition before providing their permission.
9. Full details of Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 available here:Return to Top Go to their Website