If you’re buying an individual paperback on Gumroad, take $1 off your purchase by using discount code “newsmutprojectfan” at checkout. This discount code also works on pre-orders of Erato.
Maybe it’s the full flush of our submissions period (260+ authors have sent us a truly uncountable number of stories, and there’s still a week to send more in!). Maybe it’s quarantine. But I keep coming up with ideas for erotica anthologies.
Reading submissions has shown some interesting gaps in the genre. That and spending my downtime browsing Reddit–specifically subs like AITA and relationship advice ones–has made me once again aware of how desperately we need better narratives about sex.
Also, the fact that we have more wonderful submissions than we can ever fit into one anthology is inspiring me to think of Erato IIalready. There are some alterations to the guidelines that would make short-short fiction more competitive, but basically everything in our Easy Sells category will remain a priority.
One thing I can’t get enough of in NSP submissions or anywhere else? Pegging. The one thing I haven’t found an anthology 100% focused on? Pegging! (An exception is the Turning the Tables anthology from Storm Moon press, which was great, but came out several years ago and only contains four stories.) So what do I want to edit? An anthology of the best pegging erotica! I don’t think it’ll be a New Smut Project title necessarily (the focus is narrow for NSP, which aims for ambitiously inclusive anthologies), but maybe a project of my own? Accordingly, I’ve added a list for my MailChimp newsletter specifically to send out alerts about anthologies I’m editing. You can subscribe here.
All those cyborg and sex robot stories we received in the first flush of Erato submissions had the editorial team and our friends brainstorming about what makes a good instance of that subgenre. And, hey, He, She and It and The Silver Metal Loverboth turned me on… Anyway, my partner and I struck upon the most important part of any anthology: an excruciatingly punny title. AI <3 Uis maybe coming to some bookstore somewhere near you at some point in the future, but at least now the title is burned into your memory.
Speaking of science fiction, Erato has received a lot of awesome F/F spec fic. Enough that one could put together a strong anthology of just that. And has anyone? Sapphics in Space? Again, the focus is a little narrow for NSP, but it might be a good choice for someone to pitch to a publisher who does themed F/F anthologies, like Bold Strokes Books or Cleis Press. That someone doesn’t have to be me, and if you take this idea and run with it, it’s a gift, not a theft.
My co-editor Guinevere Chase asks only two things: “couples with different libidos, making it work with lots of love and understanding and excitement and creativity” and “authors making love to the language like their characters are making love on the page”. For that second topic, I haven’t yet come up with a concise brief or pitch–Guinevere’s is really good on its own–but I do have the title: Cunning Linguists.
As for couples with different libidos–okay, here the Reddit reading is getting to me. Straight people, among others, desperately need to be more creative. I don’t mean swinging-from-the-ceiling kink extravaganzas (I don’t not mean that either), but just a realization that intimacy other than “penetration to mutual orgasm” does count as sex! Enter Alternative Options, a spiritual sequel/younger sister to Between the Shores, which will feature couples who enjoy “nontraditional” sex or kink because things like vaginismus, erectile dysfunction, mixed libidos, lowered ability to orgasm as a side effect of medications like antidepressants, fear of pregnancy, the reality of how arousal works for many people, etc. make the “penetration to mutual orgasm” model a poor fit. And/or just because they don’t like that model. I’m not a huge fan myself, and I like it less and less by the day as I (productivate on Reddit’s misery subs) see how being trapped in it makes people miserable for little good reason.
I’d want the final antho to be inclusive of all genders & sexualities, with each story subverting the Norm (though the Norm itself more or less assumes a cisgender heterosexual couple, it’s not like LGBTQIA+ people aren’t also expected to conform to it–“Which one of you is the man,” etc. By which they mean “Surely the long-haired vegetable never wears the strap-on” [click through for full quote from Mae Martin’s routine]. As a longish-haired vegetable myself, I resent that). So this antho can include a nonbinary person and their male partner where one of them has erectile dysfunction, or an F/F story where one or both partners take an antidepressant that makes orgasm less likely, or vice-versa for either of those pairings & concepts, along with a F/M couple where her arousal nonconcordance means she’s not wet or ready enough for penetration but still wants to enjoy intimacy and pleasure. Stuff that can affect you even if you’re not aiming for PIV (or penetration at all).
Speaking of subverting norms, I remember Alex Freeman and I once brainstormed an NSP anthology of Billionaire Erotica for the Rest of Us–basically anything but maledom billionaire/femsub ingenue pairings. Has the time for that passed? Or might it come again?
Anyway, by this point I’m just spitballing with no intended follow-up, but speaking more of breaking rules: a collection of 35 short stories (not necessarily erotica) that each depict a heroine breaking one of The Rules (or a rule from its many sequels) would be on my to-read list SO FAST. Not all of the stories would be happy–some of The Rules actually are good advice, like “Don’t expect a man to change” or “Don’t date a married man” or “Love only those who love you”. But they’d all be absolutely fascinating. And I really want to be a fly on the wall when someone breaks Rule 31, “Don’t discuss The Rules with your therapist.
(That rule is such a red flag that a red flag parade just broke social distancing orders to march down my street.)
On the one hand, I’m not 100% sure how one would break rule #1 and be “A creature like any other,” but apparently a “Creature Unlike Any Other” is “always stylish, smiling, fit and feminine” which…doesn’t exactly break any molds. Maybe a story about a frumpy, grumpy, but goodhearted tomboy who makes friends with other women who share her interests? “We ARE like other girls, and that’s okay”?
Wow, when I write it all out like that it is quite a list. What do you think? Would you want to read one of these anthologies, or write for one, or edit one?
For updates on any of these projects–which might not come for a while, since editing Erato is still my first priority, plus my day-job copyediting–you can sign up for the New Smut Project newsletter, if they turn out to be NSP projects. OR for any anthos I edit in the future, wherever they come out from, you can subscribe to my newsletter specifically for updates on “Anthologies Edited by T.C. Mill”. Neither are going to bombard your inbox frequently, but you might get some good news in times to come.
Conversely, do you want to edit or claim some of these ideas? I’d appreciate it if you dropped a line letting me know! And maybe you’d be interested in having a slush reader and copyeditor on your team? tc dot mill at yahoo dot com — I’d love to hear from you!
(Though, not to be greedy, but I’m a bit territorial over Erato II for obvious reasons, as well as Alternative Options, Cunning Linguists [Guinevere should have first dibs on editing those concepts] and Best Pegging Erotica. Not that I don’t want to read someone else’s take on an anthology that overlaps with the ideas–Erato was created partially because I loved flash anthologies like Five-Minute Erotica, and I want to edit a pegging erotica antho in part because I have trouble finding as much pegging erotica as I want. But I’m also going to be doing those myself, almost certainly, in the next few years. Knock on wood, bow to the alter of the Muse, etc.)
Some good news for a change – I’ve had several new publications come out over the past few weeks, plus a few other places to recommend in your search for more material:
First, “Beyond Words” in Infernal Ink’s penultimate issue (okay, maybe that part’s not such happy news) is an erotic horror story of young love, as a woman comes of terrible age. It quotes Shakespeare at a key point or two, and it’s sexy, sad, possibly even kind of sweet.
Also–and this is not a trick–I am super, super psyched to be one of the ten weird & wonderful stories in Rule 34, Volume 2: an erotica collection of unexpected turn-ons, live as of April 1!
My story, “Route 34,” is about being stuck in traffic, what might be the strangest reason to get light-headed over Charlize Theron in Fury Road, work shifts that don’t match up, and going the extra mile to satisfy your beloved. <3
The anthology is on sale at the sites listed HERE.
Meanwhile, a reminder that I have two other stories available free online:
Cliterature’s GOD/DESS issue includes an excerpt from my story “Annunciation,” about gender, Catholicism, queer desire, and growing up in the middle of them. Fittingly, the issue came out just a few days past the Feast of the Annunciation.
We talked about family and gifts, sacraments and liberation theology and martyrs. What scars through resurrected hands and feet mean to survivors. You told me about WATER’s liturgies and discussions for queer women. The label was still new to me then. Once in high school, a boy had sneered to my best friend and I, “What are you, lesbians?” (I haven’t seen him since, unfortunately). You used both words with equal pride.
I told you about Gabriel.
We spoke all the way back to my dorm.
“It was great talking to you.”
“Gosh, yeah.”
And I let you kiss my lips instead of my cheek; I kissed you back; I went up to my room and sinned thoughtlessly, unselfconsciously, but afterwards I lay awake and thought and prayed.
The next Saturday, I invited you to my room for us to finish our project. Which we did, in record time. And then—Two women together in a bedroom.
“You’re so beautiful,” I say, placing your folded socks on my chair without looking away from your hands as they open your shirt. The silver Miraculous Medal gleams at your throat beneath the rainbow bandana. I’ve put my rosary aside. “You’re the most…awesome, amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
You don’t seem to know what to make of that, but after a moment you smile. I lean closer, placing my hands on your knees. Your body’s warmth beats through your jeans.
“Okay,” I say—reassuring myself more than you. Be not afraid. “This is . . . better than okay.”
At the Erotic Review, “Like That“–part of what may one day become a proper romance novel–shows how two former lovers briefly become closer to each other. It’s also more than a little kinky.
While it was going so well, he’d proposed handcuffs. She accepted, enthusiastically. And when he brought over the pair he’d picked up at the porn store off the highway, she’d hopped onto her bed and raised her hands toward the headboard. That was when he realised maybe he hadn’t been clear. Or in her eagerness she had misinterpreted him.
But she was so eager to have them put on her. So he did.
It was fun, although he was slower to get hard than he’d ever been. At first he worried he wouldn’t be able to get into it. But she was, after all, naked — beautifully so — and her excitement became contagious.
The fact was, Leo liked doing what women wanted. But this time, he felt out of place — enjoying it, but in the way he would enjoy accidentally crashing someone else’s party.
Lastly, ebooks!
If your socially responsible isolation reading includes a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you should know:
Lovely Boy, a submissive male story of taboo roleplay,is available on KU until May 17
It’s up for preorder on Gumroad and will be available on Smashwords in May.
Her Seal Upon Him, a femdom story of medieval fantasy,is available on KU until May 20
To Have and to Hold: Honeymoon Pegging Erotica is only available on KU until April 11th–then it goes into expanded distribution.
And as of Saturday, April 4, you can enter a giveaway on LibraryThing to win a free copy (you may need to scroll down the member giveaways list to find it)!
Speaking of free books, TELENY (gay Victorian erotica which might be by Oscar Wilde) is available as a free download here on my website. It’s also available as a paperback through Amazon, but I can’t in conscience recommend giving Amazon warehouse workers more to do this month–especially since some of them are striking. Keep that in mind for later.
Also in mind for later when you order print books again–and relevant in light of Amazon’s less savory business practices: Bookshop.org is designed to be an ethical Amazon alternative and a convenient way to buy print and audio books online while supporting local bookstores. Of the sales price, 10% goes to support participating ABA independent bookstores in an earnings pool that is distributed to every six months. Another 10% of sales go to linking affiliates, including small publishers, for whom affiliate sales can provide as much as 20% of their total income. I’m a participating affiliate, with a “storefront” listing books my writing has appeared in; publications from my micropress, the New Smut Project; and recommendations of some of my favorite erotica titles:
As bookshop.org expands their catalog, I intend to keep building those lists, especially the ones for femdom!
As mentioned above, I’ve also started to experiment in offering ebooks directly through Gumroad–and might start offering paperbacks once I work out details such as shipping and sales tax. Here are the stores for my TC Mill books and The New Smut Project anthologies (you can “follow” us there for updates on paperbacks and/or the publication of our new flash fiction collection, Erato). Buying through Gumroad means a higher percentage for royalties go to the authors, which is especially important with the first two NSP anthos, for which 100% of profits are paid out as royalties to contributors.
Stay safe, keep your hands clean, and entertain yourselves! See you all on the other side.
No, I’m not talking to my partner (who doesn’t need to be asked to submit to me <3) but rather to the talented erotic writers of the world: the New Smut Project is compiling our third anthology, and seeking breathtaking flash fiction!
Stories can be in any genre or setting–contemporary, historical, other worlds, time travel… Whether your characters find satisfaction through BDSM, fetish, or vanilla encounters, in long-term romances or one-night stands, it’s all good. This is an erotic collection, so submissions should be arousing. But how explicitly you want to portray the sex, and what counts as sex, is entirely up to you – be as blunt or as oblique, straightforward or experimental, as you like.
No limits on the gender or number of participants. We DO want to see stories that are inclusive, sex-positive, feminist, and that offer positive portrayals of LGBTQA+, kinky, and poly characters. We want to publish stories by #OwnVoices authors and about characters from around the world, from diverse racial and class backgrounds, of diverse body types, abilities, and ages. All characters must be of legal age and express their consent. Safer sex practices are awesome. Details of realistic sexuality, from arousal nonconcordance to stubbing your toe as you (try to) pad sensuously across the bedroom, will be received with delight.
I’m serious about the arousal nonconcordance, friends. I read Come As You Areand cannot shut up about it. If you submit a story about arousal nonconcordance and I publish it (and believe me, I will try to) I am going to find Emily Nagoski’s (virtual) address and hammer on her (virtual) door to tell her about it.
I’ll also be especially excited to publish #OwnVoices stories celebrating trans women, trans men, and nonbinary people; stories exploring non-penetrative sex (for any reason: vaginismus, personal preference, trauma history, a spirit of experimentation); and stories in historical settings from around the world (we’ve received some great speculative fiction and contemporary so far, and even some time travel, but I think there’s definitely room for some good historical treatments). Ultimately, anything that knocks my socks off will be embraced, and frankly what I’m going to fall in love with next is probably something I haven’t even thought of.
The other thing that sets stories about at this length is their voice and narrative style. Particularly, writing that doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. Metaphors are regions of great risk as well as great reward. Prose poetry welcome; rhyming poetry will have a harder time.
My fangirling above is in the singular first person, but Erato is also co-edited by Alex Freeman and Guenivere Chase. I don’t think they disagree with my preferences but they certainly have their own as well :D.
I’m still experimenting with potential cover art, but here are some options to set the mood…including someone very special to me on the far left <3. Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day eve, I’m allowed to be sappy!
Since the release of our first 2 anthologies in 2015, NSP has sold ebooks on Sellfy, a platform offering digital publishers one of the best royalty rates on the market–ensuring our authors are as well-paid as possible from each book sale.
Unfortunately, Sellfy is changing its terms of service, and as of February 1, 2020, it will no longer have a free plan option available. The Sellfy paid plans are not practical for a micro-publisher of our size, and so Heart, Body, Soul and Between the Shores will no longer be available through Sellfy after January 31, 2020.
However, they’re still available now, and will be until the end of January! You can CLICK HERE to view the NSP store for a read that will bring some heat to your winter (or, for our fans in the southern hemisphere, make your summer even hotter…in a good way ;D). <3
As a clarification: This is very much not the end of NSP! We’ll no longer be selling our anthologies through the Sellfy platform, but our books remain available through Amazon, iBooks, Kobo,Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Also, the editors of the New Smut Project have always intended to release more anthologies, and, not to jinx anything, but an alignment of time and other resources may produce some exciting announcements for readers and writers of engaging literary erotica in 2020! (Hint: flash fiction.)
First, “Beyond Words” in 
