Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Civilized Beasts - 2016 Edition!

Publishing and Marketing
#1

Guess what’s back, back again, CB’s back, tell a friend.

Hey guys, you read right! Civilized Beasts, a non-for-profit poetry collection, is back for a second round! Please read the information below for all you might want and need :3 We’re sticking with the same theme this year if only to allow the lovely variety we were able to get from last year’s edition. Please be sure to get your poem in today before the deadline goes zooming by!

Theme: Animals
Sub-theme: Outside observation of animals, in the mind of animals, symbolism of animals*
Rating: GA
Line Count: Unlimited**
Publisher: Weasel Press
Payment: A copy of the book. All profit will be donated to charity.
Charity: Wildlife Conservation Society.
Editors: Dwale, Televasi, myself.
Simultaneous Submissions and Previous Publications: Case by case. Please let us know where else and when your poem(s) have been submitted and/or published, and if it hasn’t been accepted yet, an ETA of when you’ll know.
Submit To: Civ.Beasts@gmail.com Size 12 Courier font .doc .docx Please send all poems individually (one email per poem). Please include the name of the poem in the Subject line. If you are doing anything purposefully different in spelling, punctuation, format, etc for artistic reasons, please be sure to list them in the body of the email.
Deadline: October 15th, 2016.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. Thank you, and good luck!

*The first includes fandom observations, though including fandom-related material is still up for debate. The last allows for works about sonas, totem animals, spirit animals, etc. This is assuming we get enough of each variety to warrant the break-up.

**We will be hyper-critical of longer poems since we only have so much room to work with. They will be read and considered though.

#2

Alright, so I gotta ask–does “animals” extend to bees?

#3

Of course! Would love to see some variety of the insect sort brought in :3

#4

BEEEEEEEEEES.

#5

It is with absolute joy that I announce Civilized Beasts 2015 has been featured on an episode of Culturally F’d! I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am over this XD

Arkay wanted me to make certain the poets who were willing to contribute their work get many thanks, and I totally share the sentiment. I can’t wait to work on the 2016 Edition with all of you!

Here’s the link! And I recommend checking out his other episodes too. He really does his research!

#6

Nice!

#7

Hey guys! After a lot of thought, I decided on an incentive for submitting poetry in for CB2016! Every month, all the poets who have submitted poetry for that month will be entered into a drawing for a free copy of CB2015. There will be one winner each month, for a total of five winners before the deadline of October 1st. A random name generator will be used to keep things fair. Each poet can only win once, but poets who submit multiple months can be entered each month they submit until they win.

Before any wonderfully helpful folks point it out, I have indeed weighed out the pros and cons of this incentive. To be perfectly honest, it’s more of an excuse to give away something meaningful every month than anything >.> So I believe the pros will outweigh the cons.

Thank you to all who enter their poetry! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask on here or email me at civ.beasts@gmail.com

#8

Just a reminder, the first of five incentives starts tomorrow! Only seven poets total have submitted poetry so far, so there’s still a high chance of winning if you get yours in today! If not, there’s always next month :3

#9

Alright, time to give this the old heave ho! I added a thing about simultaneous submissions and previous publications. Still hungry for more poems!

#10

Hey guys, bit of an important update. Submissions for CB have been relatively dry when compared to last year’s. I know a couple of big parts have to do with lack of a push: Weasel’s plate has been full up (excited they’re so busy even if it means they haven’t been able to advertise CB as much), and I’ve been flaky on social media this year. If we don’t get enough poetry this year, we might ask poets if either we can hold onto their poetry or have them resubmit it for next year, and possibly make this an every other year instead of annual collection.

There are still three weeks left, though, so I’m still keeping hope! If you want to help, please feel free to advertise the heck out of this collection for a great cause. Thank you to all who have submitted poetry so far.

#11

Hey guys, great news! We decided to extend the deadline for this through October 15th. You can also submit however many poems you would like! So if the muse strikes before then, please be sure to send us any poetry you feel might suit the theme. All information is in the original post. Special thanks to all who have submitted so far <3

#12

It’s been a bit since I have updated this and you have my apologies!

The second installment of Civilized Beasts is looking amazing! We had a great number of familiar names return for this next installment, and plenty of fresh new names as well! I need to take some time to get everything together to send to the publisher, and it looks like it should be coming out by February 17th. We’re also working with Darkomi, the same cover artist from last year, and it looks like the marble fox from last year’s cover will become our unofficial mascot. I’ve already had a look at the line art, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it! I’ve also contacted Hiccupby, who had donated that amazing line art that we used for last year’s cover page, and we’ll be getting a new cover page from her!

Also, due to a few requests, I’ve made a Twitter account specifically for Civilized Beasts where you can get all the latest updates, submission dates, publishing dates, and places to purchase the earlier collection (someday, collectionS!). I’m still getting some information up on it, but feel free to follow it sooner rather than later. I’m also intending to make an FB page for information that might take more than 140 characters, though I’ll be linking those in the Twitter account. I’ll be sure to include the address here when I get it. I’ll still be posting the calls for submissions and general updates on here, of course, but these might be easier to spot for those who get notifications and such.

I think that’s everything for now. Happy Holidays everyone!

#13

It’s been way too long since I’ve updated this, and I apologize. Yet another perfect storm of things were happening for Weasel and myself (unrelated but sadly at about the same time), but CB 2 is in its final stages. The proofs have been edited and sent to Weasel. I need to finish collecting some information, but otherwise once those edits are made it should be set for publishing. Next update on here should be announcing where to find it.

Everyone involved has been astoundingly patient- thank you so much. I’m reaching out to an individual who has come highly recommended to me for help on Volume 3. I really don’t want to make you guys wait this long for any future volumes.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a lovely day. Be safe!

#14

Civilized Beasts Volume 2 contributor copies are currently being worked on. Weasel Press is seeing delays in all operations due to Hurricane Harvey. I hope to have copies shipped by Mid-Late September. I apologize for the delay.

#15

Civilized Beasts Vol. II copies have shipped. Most should receive their copy by February 14 with the exception of a few international orders. Orders going to India and Australia may take up until March depending on customs. If you have not received a copy by Feb. 14, email systmaticwzl@gmail.com and I will ship you a replacement copy.