Decadent Publishing is
looking for 15-30K word count, erotic short stories with a one-night stand theme.
They can be any romance genre and must have a HEA or HFN ending.
Your 1Night Stand story
will need to adhere to an important list of details. Here's the long list. If
you have more questions that aren't answered here, email one of us (our
emails are below)
1 Night Stand series
1Night Stand (not One Night Stand) is the business name of an exclusive online dating service.
1NS is owned by Madame Evangeline ("Eve"). Eve has no employees. She runs the business entirely alone. We will not make any exceptions, so please don't ask.
Madame Eve is French, therefore she thinks like a Frenchwoman, but she isn’t cliché.
Aside from direct verbal contact with Jackson and Jagger Castillo, owners of the resorts where most of the one-night stands take place, Madame Eve is never seen or heard.
All correspondence with Eve is done via email, text messages or fax…no phone calls.
Jackson Castillo and his chain of hotels do not own 1Night Stand. Nor is he an employee of Eve's 1Night Stand company. The Castillo Hotels and Resorts have business dealings with 1Night Stand, as mentioned above.
Madame Eve does an extensive background check on all of her clients before she matches them up. Every match she makes should be completely safe for all parties involved. Please don’t have a main character who is crazy. Unless he or she is crazy in love. That’s different.
This is a high-end, very expensive matching service. It is not a prostitution or escort service. Madame Eve is not a madam. Madame is a term of respect.
Please do not mention price for services. Madame does not want money discussed.
Madame Eve does NOT advertise her services. All business is done through referrals of satisfied customers or by chance happening upon her website. Please do not have your characters finding her advertisements in magazines or mailers. We will make you revise that detail.
Madame typically uses Castillo Resorts and Hotels for her client's rendezvous while in Vegas. There are several Castillo hotels and resorts around the world (and beyond!). All of the hotels are very high-end luxury. However, a one-night stand can be anywhere. Do not feel that your story has to take place in a Castillo hotel.
Castillo Resorts and Hotels are owned by Jackson Castillo and family. Jackson's parents emigrated from Cuba prior to the Cuban revolution. Jackson’s character appears in the first book. So, he can be mentioned but not used as a primary. If you need a description of him, email Valerie at submissions@decadentpublishing.com
Jackson has brothers and cousins who work for the resorts. Please ask before you write one of the family member's stories. We are strictly limiting the family members who will be included in the series.
This is a contemporary series but can be any genre, subgenre, LGBT, menage, etc. It can include time travel/steampunk/paranormal, which opens up all sorts of options for other eras/worlds. If you want to write a time-travel 1Night Stand story, please have your story return to contemporary setting for the ending.
Madame Eve may be portrayed as a bit magical...she can hint at some supernatural ability to find perfect matches. Her goal is long-term love/relationships/happiness for her clients, not just a one night hookup. Hence each story must have...
a HEA or HFN ending. Since this is an internet business, the encounters can take place anywhere in the world. The story (without the epilogue) should only last for that one night, but if you need a followup, an epilogue will take care of that.
Make sure you have a resolution for your 1Night Stand. We won't allow primary characters to continue their story in a subsequent book or sequel. However, we love to see primary characters show up as secondary characters in subsequent books, and so do our readers. This will allow you to give the readers closure on how past characters are doing, too.
Make sure you have a resolution for your 1Night Stand. We won't allow primary characters to continue their story in a subsequent book or sequel. However, we love to see primary characters show up as secondary characters in subsequent books, and so do our readers. This will allow you to give the readers closure on how past characters are doing, too.
While the initial goal of the evening is a one-night stand, and each character has a reason for seeking a 1Night Stand date, the sex shouldn't be just for the sake of sex. There must be a plot with conflict and resolution. Make it believable. This is erotic romance, not erotica.
Word count 15 - 30K. If your story needs to go over word count, we're fine with that, as long as the story needs those words. Keep in mind that there needs to be adequate story arc, character development, etc. so don't skimp on your words!
Safe Sex - with very few exceptions, we require safe sex practices, including the use of condoms.
We’re looking for strong plot and writing. Please submit clean, tight, well-written, beta-read (critiqued is even better) stories. If your story is not clean, we will reject it. We won’t have time to clean up your story for you. We get several submissions per month and this series moves quickly.
Once you think you're ready to submit a story, follow the submissions guidelines on our website - DecadentPublishing.com
Please feel free to email us with any questions:
Please feel free to email us with any questions:
Valerie Mann submissions@decadentpublishing.com
Kate Richards kate@decadentpublishing.com
Valerie & Kate are the acquisition and content editors for this series. We’re tough but fair editors. We appreciate and expect fair revisions from the authors. 1NS will be heavily promoted by Decadent Publishing, us, and our blog. We appreciate and expect the 1NS authors to participate in promotion as well.
Thank you for considering writing for Decadent Publishing’s 1Night Stand series and we hope you choose to participate!
Valerie Mann & Kate Richards
