I Love You Unconventionally
Like the millions of stars in the sky or the grains of sand on a beach, so are a million different ways to love and be loved. From the love of friends to that lovers or family, everyone finds a way to love a little differently, and sometimes, a little unconventionally.
Submissions Open February 1st, 2024
Where Aphotic Love was created to expose the darker, tragic side of love, I Love You Unconventionally is all about displaying the unique side of love, one that ranges past romance, reaching to also include platonic and familial love.
We're looking to create an anthology that comforts readers, brings to light unusual examples of love, and renews hope in love, while also pushing the boundaries of what society wants us to think love is.
I Love You Unconventionally is book tragically beautiful, and beautifully tragic.
Our anthology will be broken up into three main categories...
Familial
Perhaps it's the love of a father protecting his family, love between a mother and daughter, siblings who stay by each other's sides, the bonds of family are not easily broken.
Romantic
Not every romantic relationship is created equal. Full of passion, care, dedication, and loyalty, romance is a very special and often misunderstood form of love.
Platonic
Chroniclly underrated, the love between friends is like no other. Sometimes when love is chosen between two people, the bonds that are formed can be life and world changing.
I Love You Unconventionally
Submission Guidelines
We have a limited number of spaces available for submissions. Submissions are not accepted by first come first serve. We will select candidates by careful review of if they align with procedure and the quality of their content.
Submission Deadline
Submissions for I Love You Unconventionally open February 1st, 2024, and will close May 31st, 2024.
We will not consider submissions sent after May 31st 11:59pm CST.
Length
All short stories must be between 100—5,000 words long.
​
All poetry submissions must be between 10—1,000 words long.
Content
All fiction submissions must be relatively clean with no graphic sexual content, no sex scenes, no excessive cursing, no graphic blood/gore/horror, and no smut. Fade to black is acceptable. Cursing on a PG-13 level is acceptable. Fade to grey is acceptable in some circumstances. Fighting, magic, & horror elements is acceptable.
​
Please contact us if you have questions about your story's content. We are more than happy to review it to see if it's acceptable.
Genres
All genres are accepted except for smut and some extreme horror.
Accepted genres include but are not limited to: Romance, Fantasy, Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Western, Paranormal, Historical.
​
All stories must fit strongly into one of our three categories: Familial, Romantic, or Platonic.
​
Please contact us by sending us a DM on social media, through the contact page on this website, or via email at dragonbonepublishing@outlook.com if you have any questions about your story's content.
No AI Content
We will absolutely not accept any submissions that were generated by Artificial Intelligence. All submissions must be original work created by a human and owned by a human. By submitting to this Journal, you automatically pledge that the work you are submitting is your own and that you did not use AI to create it.
Formating
We will only accept entries that are either a workable Word Document or Google Doc.
We will not accept PDFs.
Title of the document must include the name of the work and author name.
All entries must be double spaced and Times New Roman 12pt font.
Please include a short 100-word or less author bio at the beginning of your submission inside the Word Document or Google Doc (your bio's word count will not be added to that of your submissions).
​
Editing
Please only send in entries that have been previously edited.
We will not accept any entries that need extensive developmental editing or excessive grammatical edits.
Where to Submit
Please fill out our submission form and answer each question carefully and thoroughly.
​
Submission Form for the anthology, I Love You Unconventionally
​
We will not be accepting submissions sent via email.
Number of Entries
Each author may submit as many entries as they would like to each of the categories, as long as each entry follows the rules stated on this page.
Anthology Rules
Compensation
As compensation, authors will receive an official epub copy of the anthology for free.
Our Rights
Dragon Bone Publishing holds and retains all rights to refuse to publish any work we do not wish to publish. We also retain the right to remove any content from our magazine that we wish at any time. We hold the right to terminate any contract made with an author if we see fit.
Contract
If an author's work is accepted for publication in the anthology, they will be required to sign a contract stating that Dragon Bone Publishing has the right to print, reproduce, and profit off their work. If an author wishes to refuse publication, they may do so before signing the contract.
If the author does not sign and return the contract before the stated deadline for that contract, it will be understood that the author refused publication and their work will no longer be considered for publication.
Terminating Contract
Authors hold the right to pull their content from the anthology any time before that particular issue is printed. However, if an author decides to pull their work from the anthology after they have signed a contract (and wish to terminate that contract), they will have to pay a fee of $80 to compensate Dragon Bone Publishing for the work already put into the author's content.
Exclusivity
Dragon Bone Publishing will not maintain exclusivity rights to stories published in the anthology. Any stories previously published (that are not currently under an exclusivity agreement with another publisher) will be accepted and stories published in the anthology can be published elsewhere as long as the other publisher does not require exclusivity.