Michael J. Sullivan continues to be awesome.

Fictiongarden.com Hall of Famer Michael J. Sullivan proved a few years ago that the transition from self-published author to traditionally published brick and mortar author was not only possible, but realistic if you had the talent.

Now he's extending the opportunity to anyone with the chops to write a suitable short story!

Go to http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/05/extending-helping-hand/ for full details. A summary from the great man himself is provided below:

For my next Riyria novel, I'm going to bundle someone's short story with it to give exposure to a new or aspiring author. You can read the full details in the link but the bottom line is this:

• I'm going to hold a contest and I've provided a sign-up sheet to be notified when submissions open.
• Winner will receive $0.15 a word (more than 2x pro rate for anthologies) for up to 5,000 words - story can go up to 7,500 words but the payout is maxed at $750.
• Any genre is acceptable - although the audience will be my readers so take that into account when when writing your shorts
• If you aren't familiar with my work, you can get a free sample when you sign-up.

The reason for the pre-posting and sign-up is the window will be really small, and I can't have it delay the release date of the novel it will be bundled with. So, by announcing early people can start working on their query and short now and be ready when submissions open up.
I'm hoping to get some good stories, and everyone who enters will, at a minimum, get their query critiqued - an added benefit.

Now back to J.R. typing.

For those who don't already know, Riyria is a best-selling series, so if you've got a story that fits into that kind of thing then you're going to get a LOT of eyes on your short-form work. You don't need me to tell you that's a big deal and can translate to a lot of eyes on your long-form stuff, if you do that kinda thing.

So what are you waiting for? Get writing!