Open Letter to All Who Submitted & Final Submissions Tally...

Dear Writers,

We wish to thank all those who submitted their stories for consideration in the Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet anthology. As writers ourselves, we understand that nagging sense of uncertainty once the 'Send' button is pressed and your creation is sent hurtling across the Internet en route to some random editor's inbox. Please know that we treated each and every submission received with the same respect that we'd hope for our own work, giving each story submitted a full read and careful consideration. We offered useful feedback and constructive criticism where we felt such would help and hope all who submitted took something away from the process. Our sincerest thanks for trusting your submission to us.

We enjoyed the scope and depth of the stories submitted for this project and marvel at the creativity that abounds in the writing community. We were moved by what we came to discover was a universality in the closet experience - and that the experience of hiding in/coming out of closets takes many shapes and forms. Whether your story was accepted or rejected, held for a second reading or requested to be re-submitted with some revision, each writer who submitted played a part in the anthology's evolution in terms of tone and mood. The project, as a whole, is indebted to the 164 writers whose work we considered.

In the end, we're very proud of the eclectic lineup of literary talent selected for inclusion in the project and believe the anthology will be enjoyed by many readers in the coming years.

We've now completed our final two rounds of readings and have added (2) additional stories to our table of contents - both of which will be unveiled at Dark Scribe Magazine in the coming week. Those who submitted stories to us during the months of April and May should have already received notification of our editorial decisions regarding their submissions.

Here are the final results of our open reading period, which spanned from October 7th of 2007 through May 30th of 2008:

• Total # of queries = 197
• Total # of greenlighted queries = 180
• Total # of stories submitted = 164
• Total # of stories not submitted = 16
  

Final Disposition of submissions:

• Accepted = 23
• Rejected = 141
  

Stay tuned to the blog for more announcements in the coming months as the anthology moves into the production process. More unspeakable things to come...

The Editors