Quickie: Fun New Market

I loved the title so much, I wanted to share!

From Gila Queen's Guide to Markets:

Bound for Evil: Curious Tales of Books Gone Bad—Dead Letter Press, See Web site. Editor: Tom English. "Dead Letter Press is now soliciting story submissions for a hardcover anthology of weird fiction featuring both classic and new tales about ‘books gone bad.’ Bound for Evil will be limited to not more than 500 copies."

"Stories should be about books that do not belong in a sane person's library; books that wreak havoc in the lives of their owners; books that are no damn good! The ‘bad’ book in your story should be central to the plot. The book should exert a weird emotional, or physical, or supernatural effect on the characters, or on reality, time, or space. The book should be the villain of your story. Perhaps a sympathetic villain, or an unwitting accomplice to evil—but nevertheless, the book should be a ‘character’ in your story, play a major role, and be ‘on stage’ for a good part of the tale. You can think of this as ‘the secret lives and evil times of diabolical books.’ In fact, that's the tag line."

"Consider these classic examples: Lovecraft's "The Book" (the ancient tome transports the reader to strange vistas); Fred Chappell's "The Adder" (the book feeds on other texts in a bookstore); M.R. James's "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook" (the book comes complete with a demon)."

"Further illustrations: How about a book that steals time? (All books do in a way.) Or money? (A whimsical idea, yes, but one I continually have to deal with!) How about a book that supernaturally forces a man to spend his last dollar on it? Poor guy goes home and dies of starvation. The authorities later find his emaciated corpse lying in a house with the walls covered floor to ceiling with expensive volumes! (That would be laughable—if it hadn't really happened to one poor bibliomaniac.)"

"Suggestions: Stories about books used to conjure a curse or call forth a demon have been overdone. Unless you can put an original spin on the idea, then don’t try it. Please limit violence and profanity to the absolute minimum necessary to tell your story. Keep sex ‘off camera.’ Sometimes suggestion is far more powerful than detailed description."

3000–10,000 words preferred; pays 1¢/word + 2 copies; $25–100 (reprints). "Send your tale of ‘books gone bad’ as an E-mail attachment." [E-mail: DeadLetterPress@cox.net; http://www.deadletterpress.com/ ]. Deadline: September 30, 2007.