We think THE NIGHT LAND is one of the most colorful, inventive, and moving fictional worlds ever created. Haunting. Unmatchable. Unforgettable.

But the book, as it issued from Hodgson's pen in 1912, is crippled by an unreadable style.

For some reason Hodgson cast it in the frame of the future-dream of a gentleman of the 17th century. He attempted to reproduce the language of that period, with scant success.

Hodgson became a much more skillful handler of words later, but he never reworked his first great vison.

We believe that the concept of The Night Land deserves more, and we are offering to buy new fiction set in the Night Land universe.

Fiction:

We are contracted to produce an anthology of stories, tentatively entitled NIGHT LANDS, from WILDSIDE PRESS. We intend to deliver this anthology by the early months of 2003. End march 2003 should be considered our deadline.

We will typically buy first publication rights for the web, for the anthology, and possibly for INTERZONE magazine. In some cases we may offer to buy web rights only.

We will pay:

• 8 pence (approx. 11 cents) per word plus royalties -- for FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WEB-ONLY RIGHTS PLUS FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINE RIGHTS AND FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ANTHOLOGY RIGHTS.
• 4 pence (approx. 5 1/2 cents) per word -- for FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE web-only rights

These are our typical rates. Actual rates will be legally established by a contract with you.

Payment on acceptance.

View our sample web contract here

View our sample web, magazine and anthology contract here

View our sample web "teaser" and anthology contract here

Variations on these contracts may be establised by mutual agreement, for example for the anthology only, for a web "teaser" and anthology only, and so forth.

Accepted stories will be posted on this site as they are purchased. We may in some cases post only teasers for the anthology.

If we buy web-only rights, the writer will be free to resell the story to any hardcopy publication or web site one month after purchase.

If we buy magazine and/or anthology rights, the writer will be free to resell the story one year after purchase. We make allowances for earlier resale in the case of "Best of the year" anthologies and single-author anthologies.

Note that, currently, our funds limit us to purchasing the equivalent of one moderate-length story per calender month. We will probably not increase this volume much in future: our prime intention is to publish a few very good stories.

Advice to writers

We will try to respond to fiction submissions within one month.

We prefer prose fiction in the 2,000-10,000 word range. We are open to longer works, and to short-short pieces, prose-poems, and the like, but these are not our preferred formats.

Text above the 10,000 word limit will be half rate.

We will publish short poetry.

Very short pieces of prose or poetry, if we accept them, will be treated for purposes of payment as if they had a length of 500 words.

What to write about?

It is of course desirable that this anthology of stories have some internal consistency. Therefore you might first read some of the stories already collected online in Night Lands with this in mind.

Also, you must at least skim Hodgson's original novel. (start with chapter 2 if you value your life and sanity.)

You may wish to check out the suggested timeline to understand the hints we have given above, and Night Thoughts for some background ideas. However, don't be bound by these, they are just our own ideas. The Night Land universe includes millions of years of human history. Here are a few suggestions:

• Write about the Cataclysm
• Write about The Road Makers
• Write about the experiments that first let in the Pneumavores.
• Write about the building of the Redoubt
• Write about an attack on the Redoubt
• Write about the age of the airships
• Write a story about an explorer from the Redoubt, and what he finds in The Night Land
• Write about the colonists who left the Redoubt and trekked down to the Land of Seas and Volcanoes.
• Write about the Fall of the Redoubt

Try to write somewhat in the spirit of SF, not fantasy. Explain the Pneumavores, the Watchers, and the other semi-human things in the Land, rationally - but partially.

Erotic (but not pornographic) content is a fundamental part of Hodgson's vision, and is strongly encouraged.

A short glossary of neologisms evolved in published work so far is appended.

What to avoid?

Do not imitate Hodgson's style or plotting. No archaisms, no future-dreams. We are not after a rewrite of Hodgson's own book.

Do not imitate Hodgson's superficial attitudes towards women. This, after Hodgson's unfortunate writing style, is the great flaw in the heart of THE NIGHT LAND, and must be addressed.

Hodgson's treatment of the erotic was not superficial icing. It was part of a serious attempt to build a theory of the human condition that was consistent with existence in a radically Entropic universe. Within a context of universal Darkness, human beings find salvation and paradise in erotic love - a love which Hodgson saw as extending through many lives and (in THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND) , as finding a fulfilment in eternity.

Hodgson was desparately serious about this, but unfortunately he failed abysmally. The erotic passages in THE NIGHT LAND are based on adolescent fantasy, not real human love.

Perhaps you think you can do better. If you think you understand what Hodgson was about and can treat can treat his cosmic eroticism meaningfully - give it a try.

(Yes alright. Consensual flagelation and foot fetishism are OK. Why not :-) ??

Criticism:

If you want to write a piece of criticism or analysis about THE NIGHT LAND or related works we will post it for free. We won't pay you, but we will listen to you.

Artwork:

Unfortunately, at this time, we can not in fairness encourage you to create new and uncommissioned artwork primarily for the purpose of display on this site. Financial constraints and limited web-space mean that we must make fiction our first priority, and the financial recompence we can offer for artwork will be modest.

However, we will probably commission artwork in future.

(If you have already created and published some sort of artwork inspired by THE NIGHT LAND, we might be interested in buying the right to republish it on this site. You are invited to contact us to discuss this. We have typically paid around UKP 30 for the reuse of each such piece of art.)

Where do I submit stuff to?

E-mail your work to Andy Robertson.

(note. We have had some problems reading .doc attachments, so if possible create .rtf format attachments. If you can't do that, just pasting the story into the body of your e-mail is perfectly acceptable.)

Who are you?

Andy Robertson?

I'm just a SF fan who has got a bit of spare money. I have been helping out with INTERZONE mag for the last decade or so, so I've probably already seen stories by you. If you doubt my good faith, check with INTERZONE'S EDITOR David Pringle.

Nigel Brown?

Nigel Brown has published fiction in Interzone, Aboriginal Science Fiction, and various anthologies. He has enjoyed the work of William Hope Hodgson for many years, and considers the Nightland to be one of the most imaginative and exciting adventure stories he has ever read.

It was Nigel's idea to "do something" about promoting THE NIGHT LAND. Though he is not very, um, webby, he prompted me to start this website and he is an invaluable help and encouragement.

Do you intend to start charging for this website?

No. The web site is and will be a free site, not a pay site.

We have no illusions about making money. We are doing this just for the sake of the Stories.

And because Hodgson should be famous. Damnit!!

-- ANDY ROBERTSON

-- NIGEL BROWN