Call for submissions: As Good as a Feast

I am currently seeking submissions for an essay/poetry anthology that I am compiling titled, “As Good as a Feast.” I will be paying for up to ten of the essays that will appear in this collection. Any additional accepted submissions will still be eligible for publication in the anthology. However, there will be no monetary compensation for these.

I am currently accepting submissions via eLance through July 25, 2015. If you miss this deadline, you may still submit via the Elderfly Press website through August 30, 2015. However, monetary compensation is available only for those essays submitted via eLance.

Submission Requirements

Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie book series will no doubt be familiar with the expression, “Enough is as good as a feast.” Ma Ingalls often uttered this phrase as a reminder to her children that as long as they had “enough,” they had all they needed.

Your essay or poem submission should explore and promote the idea of finding happiness in having enough rather than engaging in the constant pursuit of more than what is needed. Essays should be between 1,000 and 7,000 words in length (however, if you are submitting via eLance, your essay must be a minimum of 3,000 words to be considered). Poems should not span more than two single-spaced, typed pages of a Word document.

eLance Instructions

Please format your proposal as follows: In the “Relevant Experience and Qualifications Field,” 1) Enter your name (or a pen name if applicable) exactly as you would like it to appear in your by line. 2) Enter a brief (200 words or less) author bio exactly as you would like it to appear in the anthology.

Attach your completed essay submission (3000 words minimum) on the topic, “Enough is as Good as a Feast” (Word documents only). This should be your 100% original work. By submitting, you agree that you own full rights to this essay and are authorized to publish it.

Payment is $20 per essay chosen for publication. You must enter $20 in the “My Earnings” field to be considered. Essays will be accepted as-is, so please submit final drafts only. The project will be considered “complete” upon my acceptance of your proposal, and I will give you a 5-star rating.

Deadline to submit to “As Good as a Feast” via eLance is July 25, 2015.

I will continue to accept unpaid submissions via the Elderfly Press website through August 30, 2015. I look forward to reviewing your submissions!

**7/13/15 UPDATE**

Well, this whole eLance thing hasn’t quite worked out as I had expected. I turns out their policies have a changed a LOT since I last used them. First of all, after my job posting had been published for a few hours, they sent me an email telling me that I had violated eLance policy by asking writers to submit completed essays. They then took it upon themselves to delete half my job post, including the part where I instructed submitters on how many words the essays should be. *sigh*

At that point, since my job post was missing a lot of vital information (like, almost all of it), I went back in and sent messages to each of the people who had thus far responded to my post. I asked them to please give me an overview of how they would approach the essay. Apparently that I against policy as well. I guess this explains why so many of the job posts you see on eLance are so vague they may as well post a “Help wanted” sign and leave it at that.

Anyway, I am at the point now where I have submitted a ticket to eLance requesting clarification on their policy so I can try to avoid being blocked from using the site. I’m waiting to see how that pans out, as I thought I would have heard back from them by now. Perhaps they need extra time to investigate my naughty, naughty behavior.

At any rate, I thought I should do the right thing here and let you know that there is a possiblity that the submission page I shared with you above may get yanked. Or I may decide eLance isn’t worth getting my blood pressure going over and seek out a new way to put out calls for submission until my website can gain some traction. Oh well. You live and you learn, right?