short story submission rules:

Later this year, it's our plan to publish a book of stories written by fans and readers of The Destroyer Series. That seems a simple straightforward thing but things are not always as simple as they first appear to be.

Publishing a book for instance entails a financial risk. That's my problem and i accept it. Often, books that are vaguely similar to this, disguise themselves as "contests" and require the story writers to submit entrance fees. We're not going to do that, because i always regard that as vaguely cheesy and feel it could give this whole thing the impression of being a scam and i'm not interested in that, thank
you.

On the other hand, i am trying to run a publishing business...(in my own inimitable haphazard manner.) Obviously, the biggest part of that business is finding our own body of readers who might be inclined to buy one of the books from our website and maybe someday along the line become committed Destroyer freaks.

So what i think might be a fair deal would be for everyone who submits a story for possible publication to send along with it a list of 10 names and E-mail addresses of friends, family, lovers, readers, (your favorite Uncle Charlie...) Anybody who we can add to our mailing list and send a notice to

-- WHEN YOUR BOOK FINALLY APPEARS --

...and who might just order a copy. There are No obligations on their part. You don't have to order a minimum amount of books or anything like that. NO B.S. on our part (no long strings of spammed junk email to them either). I'm trying to build a name file of 2,000 prospective readers for Ballybunnion Books, So these names need to be new; nobody who is already on it, and don't just send in each other's names!)

That understood, here's the rules for the book of short stories:

1) Stories should be between approximately 1500 and 5,000 words. (That's 6 to 20 doublespace typewritten pages.) give or take.

2) They should be sent as email attachments in some kind of format that Brian
or I can download and work with. Ii have MS Works and MS Word. I don't want typewritten manuscripts in my mailbox 'cause I don't type so well. Do it yourself. I'm not your slave.

2a -- The stories have to be original, not libelous, not include the names of real people,
and writers will have to sign a document to that effect. (Ii ain't getting sued because
you want to get even with your uncle charlie.) To that end, I might just arbitrarily take it upon
myself to change names of certain characters.

3) Obviously, the stories have to concern Remo and/or Chiun and/or the House of
Sinanju, Destroyer, or its characters, major or minor.

4) No pornography, no excessive obscenity. I'm a prude.

5) I make the decisions on what stories I'll publish and that I won't publish. No arguments allowed.

6) I am the editor and have all the rights and privileges appurtenant thereto. any changes of substance i
might be impelled to make in any story, i'll run by you. you are the authors; i'm not; unlike some, i take no pleasure in changing other people's writing through some imperious turn of mind.

7) All the writers will have their stories bylined and with a brief bio (and maybe picture) and will also have their names on the book cover.

8) I and/or Mullaney will write a story or at least an introduction to the book and share
cover credits. I will be the credited editor.

9) There'll be no payment required for the stories; nor, on the other hand, will there be any payment made to the writers. (I'll be lucky to break even on this deal.)

10) Short story writers have to understand that because of the long history of Destroyer copyrights,
and the need for me to make sure that those copyrights are never questioned, the book will be copyrighted in my name and all rights will belong to me. (obviously, i can't have other writers racing off publishing their own books of destroyer stories. my lawyers and gold eagle's wouldn't be happy with that. if, later on, for instance, a writer wanted to include his story in some other collection somewhere, we could think about that on a case by case basis. I am not unreasonable but i can't give away Dick Sapir's and my property.)

11) The books will be done in a professional manner, trade published, and sold through our websites and we'll make every effort to get wider distribution,through such venues as amazon.com etc. if you've got local bookstores that might want to sell the book, let us know. we'll deal.)

12) All story writers represented will get one free copy and be able to buy additional copies at 1/3 off the cover price, yet to be determined.

I want anyone interested to send me an email note that they're interested.

Please type "Short story interest" in the subject line.

If we don't have enough stories, this project may die of its own weight. So if only four people express interest, why waste our time spinning our wheels? If we get a lot of stories -- and there can't be too many -- we would certainly figure on doing a second book.

Hey, everybody, this is a work in progress. let's see how it goes. I'd love to do a bunch of these books.
I await your responses.

-warren murphy