Category: Ongoing Submissions
Ongoing Submissions: The Hard-Boiled Dimension
Payment: Exposure Only
Read the guidelines.
If you don’t find an answer there, you can query us at hardboileddimension@gmail.com
1. Payments and Compensation
This is the first thing people want to know, right? Our site is an exposure market only. That means no monetary compensation. We’ll be happy to include any links to your website along with your stories or help you with other self-promotion within reason.
2. Rights
For published pieces we take Electronic Publishing Rights. Bear in mind that most publications will not publish pieces that have been published in print, eBook, or on the web, so for all intents and purposes after your work is published by us it can only be marketed as a reprint, which severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive. It is up to you, the author, to decide if publishing your work in print and/or eBook formats and/or on the web, giving up your First Publishing Right for no and/or a token payment, is really what you want to do.
3.Word-limit.
We want short fiction up to 2,500 words. If you want to go over that please send us a query with a pitch for your story. Serials are a possibility, but not actively sought.
4. Genre
We’re looking for speculative fiction as well as gritty crime stories. The genres can combine but it isn’t necessary.
5. Response times
Unknown. It’s hard to predict how many submissions we’ll be getting but we’ll try to be prompt with everyone. For now, feel free to query after two weeks without a response.
6. Simultaneous submissions
If you have a story submitted to us that gets accepted by a paying market, feel free to withdrawal. No hard feelings. But if we’ve already published the story when you get an acceptance from a paying market, we won’t pull it from our website. So be careful. Don’t piss off the editor of a paying market.
What we don’t want:
1. Bad stories
Just because we’re a non-paying market doesn’t mean we’ll accept anything. If you don’t bother to proofread or revise don’t expect us to publish.
2. Long stories
No novels, novellas, novellettes. Be respectful of the word-limit.
3. Replies to rejection letters.
Good or bad replies are not welcome.
4. Explicit sexual descriptions
There’s a bit of wiggle room here. But if it sounds like a pornography’s play-by-play then we’re not interested. LGBTQ stories are welcome.
5. Young-adult romance
If your characters resemble Bella and Edward they won’t appear here.
Format:
Send an email to hardboileddimension@gmail.com with your story attached in the “.doc” or “.rtf” format. Single spacing with double spacing between paragraphs is preferred. Use Times New Roman or Courier only. Make sure to put your title, name, and email on the attachment itself.
Please type “submission” in the subject line.
Any additional information can go into the body of the email
Ongoing Submissions: Short Story Collections
Payment: Unsure, probably negotiated
MASTHEAD
Publisher: Victor David Giron
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Thomas
Senior Editor: Jacob S. Knabb
Publicity: Ben Tanzer
Copy Editor: Carrie Gaffney
Graphic Design: Alban Fischer
GENRES
Neo-noir, fantasy, science fiction, horror, literary, magical realism, transgressive, crime, surrealism, and the grotesque. Everything we like has an elevated perspective, a literary voice, so whatever the genre, avoid the expected, the formulaic, the same old stories and voices. Memoir and poetry will be a very hard sale but we’re not saying 100% no yet—the same for YA/NA.
WHAT WE DON’T WANT
Erotica, romance, most non-fiction, and classic fantasy (dragons, trolls, swords), classic science fiction (spaceships, time travel), and classic horror (same old monsters and cheap thrills).
AUTHORS WE LIKE
Brian Evenson, Neil Gaiman, Dennis Lehane, Jim Thompson, Stephen Graham Jones, Craig Clevenger, Lindsay Hunter, China Mieville, Will Christopher Baer, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Jack Ketchum, Chelsea Cain, Roxane Gay, Chuck Palahniuk, xTx, Paul Tremblay, Craig Davidson, Holly Goddard Jones, Paula Bomer, Matt Bell, Jac Jemc, Kate Zambreno, Amy Hempel, Kyle Minor, Mary Miller, Benjamin Percy, Shannon Cain, Donald Ray Pollock, Kio Stark, Alan Heathcock, Lidia Yuknavitch, Monica Drake, Kealan Patrick Burke, Tina May Hall, Ethel Rohan, Roy Kesey, Nik Korpon, Amber Sparks, Cormac McCarthy, Jayne Anne Phillips, Denis Johnson, Mary Gaitskill, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien, Flannery O’Connor, A.M. Homes, Ron Rash, Sara Gran, Daniel Woodrell, Toni Morrision, George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, Bret Easton Ellis, Hunter S. Thompson, David Foster Wallace, Blake Butler, Steve Erickson, Philip K. Dick, and William Gay. Eclectic, for sure, but hopefully you can see the common thread.
LENGTH
We are currently looking for short story collections of at least 40,000 words (with 10-20% unpublished) and novels that are around 60,000 words, no more than 80,000. Word count will never be a reason we reject a collection or novel, it’s always about the writing. These are just guidelines.
SUBMISSIONS
Hit us up at Submittable, and yes, we take simultaneous submissions. Standard format—Times New Roman, 12-point, 1 inch margins, .25 inch indents on first lines, separate your breaks/scenes with a glyph (*) or (***) or (#), page numbers lower right, name and contact information upper left, etc. We prefer Word .doc or .docx. We’ll try to get back to you as soon as we can, hopefully in 30-60 days.
[via: The Dark House Press.]
Ongoing Submissions: Horror d’oeuvres
Payment: All authors will receive 5 cents per word payable on initial publication, plus 1 free copy of all print editions their work appears in. In addition, authors will get a complimentary lifetime subscription to the Horror d’oeuvres site.
Size limit: 99-999 words
Acquisitions Editor: Shane Staley
DarkFuse is now accepting original micro-fiction (flash fiction) for its website Horror d’oeuvres (http://www.horrordoeuvres.com) and it’s anthology series published under the same name. Before submitting, please make sure your work fits ALL of the following criteria:
(1) Manuscript must be between 99 and 999 words
(2) Story is dark fiction (dark element to the plot). Thriller, horror, suspense, crime, bizarre.
(3) Fiction is original, never before published in any form
(4) Manuscript is not submitted (or will be submitted) elsewhere during our review process
(5) No multiple submissions in each category (only one flash fiction story at a time)
Rights
If accepted, DarkFuse acquires lifetime rights for web (each story will be archived for the life of the site) and first worldwide anthology rights for both print and eBook. DarkFuse does not take any film rights or other media. Year’s Best Anthologies are excluded from these rights, meaning that if your work would be accepted in the major year’s best anthos (edited by Ellen Datlow, Stephen Jones, etc.), then it would be free to be reprinted in those specific publications.
Publication
The initial publication will be on our website Horror d’oeuvres (http://www.horrordoeuvres.com). This website is a subscriber-based / members-only site, so your work will not be accessible to the general public—only to paid subscribers). DarkFuse will also be publishing stories in an anthology series to be published in eBook and a best-of anthology published in eBook and paperback.
Payment
All authors will receive 5 cents per word payable on initial publication, plus 1 free copy of all print editions their work appears in. In addition, authors will get a complimentary lifetime subscription to the Horror d’oeuvres site.
Response Time
You will receive our decision within 6 months of submission. Rejections will be sent via e-mail form letter (we do not have the staff to provide a critiquing service).
Acceptances will be delivered via a personal e-mail from the editor.
Tips
DarkFuse is best known for its quality fiction. This isn’t the easiest market to break into, so please bring your best work.
Always provide us with a clean, well-formatted manuscript with your name, address and other standard information on the cover page or header.
The fiction is always our top priority, but during our final cuts we also look for authors who know how to market their work. Having a clean, informative author website will have a positive effect on final decisions. Also, providing an interesting marketing synopsis will go a long way.
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The following information MUST be included with your submission:
Your bio
Your website URL
You can submit at Dark Fuse’s Submittable.
Ongoing Submissions: SQ Magazine
Payment: SQ Mag pays US$15 per story. For stories that are serialized, SQ Mag will pay US$15 for each edition the serial appears.
Submissions
Fiction
We are a quality speculative fiction ezine. We strive to publish five or six stories (excluding serial entries) every two months. We also aim to publish each of the following genres in each edition:
1. Science Fiction
2. Fantasy
3. Horror (not common motifs like vampires or zombies as a rule, and we are predisposed toward subtle dark stories, those that are powerful and unique)
We are a magazine for mature readers, so we do publish language, sex and violence, but they have to be highly pertinent to the story.
We are an international publication, and strive to publish authors from varied nationalities, and we are committed to presenting stories in the spelling conventions of the
We do not publish fan fiction or stories that are derivative from work already published, in any media and format.
We do not accept simultaneous or multiple submissions. We will not publish fiction that has already been published (reprints) – on occasion we will solicit reprints.
Flash fiction to novelette in size (less than 17,500 words) are accepted. We will publish few pieces that are in the extremes of this spectrum. Novelettes may be accepted for serial publication, but we would be normally accepting just one such beast per year.
Illustrations
We love good illustrations and are on the lookout for covers for each of our editions, and illustrations that may enrich our fiction. Please see our guidelines for fiction (above) as an indicator of subject matter we are after.
We normally pay US$50 per illustration. However, we will provide prominent credit to the artist, and are more than happy to display a link to the artists’ sites. A contract will be asked to be signed that simply gives us license to display the image on our site. We also ask that the best of the six covers for the year be used to illustrate the cover of that year’s anthology, with citation given.
Poetry
We do not accept submissions. On occasion we may solicit pieces.
Payment
SQ Mag pays US$15 per story. For stories that are serialized, SQ Mag will pay US$15 for each edition the serial appears. We don’t pay any staff members of the zine. We are new and are following the model that as we grow and improve SQ Mag’s business, we hope to get to the stage where we can start paying contributors at a semi-pro rate. In the meantime we offer good exposure and additions to CVs – authors and artists included. Regardless of our current contributor payment status, we strive for excellence in production.
As part of the contributors’ contract, SQ Mag reserves the right to publish the story in a ‘best of’ anthology the next year (see Legals below)
Fiction – Legals
It is very important that authors understand what the legalities of publishing with us entails. Below is a download of our standard contract, to fully appreciate the details.
The key messages are as follows:
The author gets a token payment for having a story published in SQ Mag, including (if chosen) in the annual Anthology.
The author will give SQ Mag First World Serial and First World Electronic Rights. That is, we are the first to publish the story in a magazine and in any electronic form of the ezine.
The author cannot publish the story in any form for six months following the story being published in SQ Mag. It can stay in SQ Mag indefinitely, but the author has the right to ask for it to be withdrawn any time after 6 months (noting point 4 below).
The author gives the rights to SQ Mag to publish the story in a single title anthology, in print and ebook formats, indefinitely, if SQ Mag chooses. Author whose story is published in the anthology will get a complementary print copy, and royalty payments following the sale of 150 royalty-attracting units.
SQ Mag agrees to make sure that the editing process is carried out in close consultation with the author, and states clearly that very minor editing (consistency and spelling/grammar) can be carried out.
Submission Process
You can only submit through the Submittable system, accessed by clicking here.
Stories must adhere closely to the guidelines recommended by William Shunn in his Proper Manuscript Format article. We are not associated with William Shunn in any way.
Stories must be submitted in RTF format. Most word processing programs have this ‘save as’ option.
We will endeavor to provide the author with a response within 4 weeks. SQ Mag reserves the right to consider any submissions made 14 days from publication date for the subsequent edition.
Queries can be made to sqsubmissions(at)ifwgpublishing.com – submissions made through this address will automatically be rejected and remain unread.
Art submissions can be made through the queries address
Ongoing Submissions: Psychopomp
Payment: Exposure Only
PSYCHOPOMP
A quarterly anthology of varied fiction fashioned as a platform for both new and established authors.
Debuting in September 2012, Psychopomp’s goal has always been to promote authors, poets, and artists and feature expressive stories that are unique to each issue.
Published by Artifice Comics for both Kindle and other ebook readers, each volume costs a meagre $1.00, an admission price used to bolster funds for promotion and distribution of the anthology with a future goal of building a stable of creator owned, creator published titles to wow future audiences.
Submission Guidelines:
All stories to be submitted through email with the subject SUBMISSION: TITLE, AUTHOR, WORD COUNT in .doc, .docx, .odt or .rtf format to psychopomp@artificecomics.com.
Word count for short stories to be between 1,000 and 7,500 words. There is no word count for poetry submissions.
Please include a brief author summary and introduction to your piece and, if possible a link to your website in the email.
By submitting fiction to Psychopomp, you grant us exclusive electronic rights for 6 months, non-exclusive print anthology rights for 24 months.
Relating to the later publication of pieces previously accepted for inclusion within Psychopomp, please be aware that larger publishers may be reluctant to accept submissions that have appeared as part of an indie publication or on the internet. This will in turn limit chances of its appearance in such an anthology or the financial renumeration provided for it as it will be considered a reprint.
Please be certain that you are aware of this situation prior to submitting to Psychopomp
We aim to review all pieces within 48 hours however sometimes this is not possible. Please leave seven working days before inquiring as to the status of your submission.
Psychopomp is at present a non-paying market with all funds generated from publication of the anthology being used for the promotion of individual works by the authors involved.
Please inquire regarding reprints. Psychopomp does not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.
[via: Artifice Comics.]
Ongoing Submissions: Psycopomp
Released Quarterly
Payment: Exposure Only
PSYCHOPOMP
A quarterly anthology of varied fiction fashioned as a platform for both new and established authors.
Debuting in September 2012, Psychopomp’s goal has always been to promote authors, poets, and artists and feature expressive stories that are unique to each issue.
Published by Artifice Comics for both Kindle and other ebook readers, each volume costs a meagre $1.00, an admission price used to bolster funds for promotion and distribution of the anthology with a future goal of building a stable of creator owned, creator published titles to wow future audiences.
Submission Guidelines:
All stories to be submitted through email with the subject SUBMISSION: TITLE, AUTHOR, WORD COUNT in .doc, .docx, .odt or .rtf format to psychopomp@artificecomics.com.
Word count for short stories to be between 1,000 and 7,500 words. There is no word count for poetry submissions.
Please include a brief author summary and introduction to your piece and, if possible a link to your website in the email.
By submitting fiction to Psychopomp, you grant us exclusive electronic rights for 6 months, non-exclusive print anthology rights for 24 months.
Relating to the later publication of pieces previously accepted for inclusion within Psychopomp, please be aware that larger publishers may be reluctant to accept submissions that have appeared as part of an indie publication or on the internet. This will in turn limit chances of its appearance in such an anthology or the financial renumeration provided for it as it will be considered a reprint.
Please be certain that you are aware of this situation prior to submitting to Psychopomp
We aim to review all pieces within 48 hours however sometimes this is not possible. Please leave seven working days before inquiring as to the status of your submission.
Psychopomp is at present a non-paying market with all funds generated from publication of the anthology being used for the promotion of individual works by the authors involved.
Please inquire regarding reprints. Psychopomp does not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.
Ongoing Submissions: Writing Tomorrow
Payment:
NOTE: genre thriller/horror stories without a substantial theme will not be accepted
Submissions
Thank you for your interest in submitting to Writing Tomorrow! We publish both emerging and established writers in print and digital media. We accept previously unpublished fiction (up to 12,000 words), poetry, creative nonfiction, novel excerpts, and artwork. We offer $50-100 for fiction/nonfiction and artwork. The rates for poetry and flash fiction begin at $25. Please refer to the guidelines below before submitting through our submissions manager. (Click the link at the bottom of this post.)
Specify in your cover letter whether your work is poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or artwork.
Please put a word count and a short bio in your cover letter. Headers and footers are not necessary.
If you have multiple poems or artworks, send them in a single attachment.
You may send up to six poems or three works of fiction at a time. Please do not send more until you’ve received a response from us.
Indicate whether your work is a simultaneous submission in the cover letter.
While we believe in the freedom of expression and will read anything you have to say, we will not print:
gratuitous sex/profanity/violence
overtly religious/political works
genre thriller/horror stories without a substantial theme.
We expect already polished works and will print those pieces that refuse to be forgotten. We may, however, edit your work. You will have the chance to work with us and review any changes. And of course, you will retain your full rights after publication.
Are you ready to submit?! Click here.
We look forward to reading you!
[via: Writing Tomorrow.]
Ongoing Submissions: Black Treacle – Non-Fiction Submissions
Payment: 15.00 CAD
We are now open for non-fiction submissions and will be publishing at least one piece a month starting with our March/April issue.
What are we looking for?
Original articles (1500-5000 words) of interest to our readership. We are looking for a wide variety of topics, including: genre history discussion, essays on the writing process, advice for writers, traditional/self-publishing experiences, etc … We pay a flat rate of 15.00 CAD.
If you interested in submitting something, send a query letter to nonfiction at blacktreacle.ca with the subject line TITLE.
We’re looking forward to reading your queries.
Ongoing Submissions: Death Throes Webzine
Payment: Exposure Only
What we’re looking for:
When it comes to fiction, we like it dark…like really dark…I’m not kidding. Anything within the genres of horror, suspense, noir, fantasy is acceptable, as well as the various sub-genres. When you finish writing your story, if you nearly crap your pants from fright during the first edit, if the second draft sends armies of maggots squirming down your spine, we’d love to read it. Almost nothing is too taboo or too sacred (with the notable exception of stories that describe the act of rape, explicit descriptions of violence against children, or if the story feels like a platform to describe heavy combinations of sex and violence). We are an adult publication, but we know that children and teenagers will find their way here from time to time. With respect to the above mentioned no nos, we want you to reach down into the dark crevices of your soul, throw what you find there on paper, and then send it on in. We’re currently looking for flash fiction (50-1000 words) and short stories (1000-5000 words). We do accept reprints, with a limit of one per issue, but at this time, we’ve stopped accepting them due to having enough to last awhile). We want original, dark stories that will make us want to sleep with the night light on.
What we’re not looking for:
Pretty much anything not listed above…however, if you write a romance story and its content makes you crap your pants, then feel free to send it in…the worst we could do is say no…or laugh at you.
Guidelines:
We’re not too picky about font size and tab settings. All accepted stories will be reformatted before uploading to the web-site. We prefer that you send your masterpiece as an attachment and not in the body of the email…reserve the body of the email for your contact info, writing credits and bio info that you’d like us to share. If you’re a private person, then just your contact info is fine. We will edit your work, if needed and then send it back to you for final approval.
Writers retain the rights for their work and can resell/resubmit to other sites after the story is relocated to the archive. We reserve the right for first digital publishing on our site. Keep in mind, if you publish with us, your piece will become a reprint, and worth less if you submit it to other magazines, if they accept it at all. We don’t accept simultaneous submissions, but are happy to see multiple ones.
Once your work is on the site, we’ll celebrate it, Tweet the crap out of it and elicit reader comments. We’re also looking for book reviews and fellow writers who’d like us to post links to their works.
If you’ve read all of the information above and are still crazy enough to submit your story to us, send it off to editor@deaththroes.net and we’ll get back to you.
[via: Death Throes Magazine.]
Ongoing Submissions: Fiction Vortex
Payment: Each month there will be a monthly prize for our top three stories of that month. Fiction Vortex will pick the best stories of the month and award* them prizes as follows:
First Prize: 30 U.S. dollars
Second Prize: 20 U.S. dollars
Third Prize: 10 U.S. dollars
There will also be a Readers’ Choice award wherein our readers can vote for the best story of the month. The winner will be awarded an additional $10. At the moment, we do not pay per word or per story. We hope that our prize amount and payment per word will change. Soon.
*As of right now, the only means we have of sending award money to our winners is (a) to a PayPal account or (b) mail a certified check written in US Dollars. We will not do wire transfers since the fee would be more than the actual prize.
SHORT STORY SUBMISSIONS
There’s a long-standing belief that science fiction and fantasy stories aren’t as good as purely literary fare. We want you to prove that mindset wrong (not just wrong, but a steaming pile of griffin dung wrong) with every story you submit. It’s almost like we’re saying, “I do not bite my thumb at you, literary snobs, but I do bite my thumb,” but in a completely polite and non-confrontational way. Basically, we want imaginative stories that are well written, but not full of supercilious floridity.
What We Want
Fiction Vortex only accepts speculative fiction. We want sci-fi, fantasy, horror, supernatural, alternate history, alternate realities, etc.
We want strong characters and stories that explore and explain elements of our world with the employ of the otherworldly. Answer the ordinary with the extraordinary. We want original, stand-on-their-own stories that make people use their imaginations.
Maybe this means hard space pirate sci-fi or sword and sorcery tales that would make Tolkien shed tears of joy. But it also might mean a story about a fairly normal person in Everytown, USA that happens to have a third eye, or a super sniffer, or a ghost for a friend. The possibilities are endless. Well, not endless. If your story has even a whiff of vampire love triangles or sprinting zombies, we’ll probably laugh at you.
What We DON’T Want
Fiction Vortex is not a pulpit for preachy stories. While we want stories that address current issues and concerns in the world, we will not accept personal sermons that are vaguely veiled in narrative. This means you, Aunt Berenice. We all have opinions; for instance, we happen to think that the full Windsor knot is infinitely superior to the half Windsor, and that LOLdogs are funnier than LOLcats, but that doesn’t mean we won’t subject you to a story about the Final Battle between the LOLdogs of Windsor against the evil LOLcats of Halfwin. Actually, that sounds kind of cool. But the point is that just like some other things we all have, it’s better to keep opinions to ourselves.
Additionally, we will not accept anything containing unnecessary or graphic violence, language, and sexual content. Keep things to a PG-13-ish rating because we want this site to appeal to a broad range of ages and personalities. That especially means keeping swearing in check. We understand they’re important for emotion and narrative purposes from time to time, but keep it light and sparing. We want strong stories not stories that rely on shock factor.
We will not accept multi-part or partial stories. This does not include separate stories about the same world or same character. The story must stand on its own.
We will not accept any reprinted stories. That includes stories printed on your personal or writing group sites and/or blogs, you dirty double-dipper. No poetry, either.
Oh, and as for fan fiction. Absolutely no fan fiction. For the love of everything holy, no fan fiction. We’re happy if you like to write it, but there are plenty of other venues to post it.
Fiction Vortex and its staff reserves the right to reject any story for any reason. We also reserve the right to let out evil cackles when doing so.
Length/ Word Limit
There really are no minimum requirements, but we aren’t interested in abstract or experimental pieces. The maximum is 7,500 words, but we prefer stories 5,000 words and under.
Format
All stories must be submitted in the body of an email sent to submissions@fictionvortex.com. Please, no attachments. The email subject line must include the word “SUBMISSION”, all uppercase, followed by the title of your story. Don’t screw this up because the email gremlins get really angry if you do. In the body of the email, tell us what kind of story it is (broad generalization such as mystery sci-fi, or urban fantasy), the word count, and where else you have been published. If you don’t have any publishing credits yet, don’t fret. We like new writers.
All submissions will receive an answer within two weeks of submission. A website submission form is in the works. It’s easier to say than do, much like any of the Harry Potter spells. For now please use the email submission process.
Any deviation from the required format will result in an automatic rejection without any response to you from the Fiction Vortex staff.
Compensation
Each month there will be a monthly prize for our top three stories of that month. Fiction Vortex will pick the best stories of the month and award* them prizes as follows:
First Prize: 30 U.S. dollars
Second Prize: 20 U.S. dollars
Third Prize: 10 U.S. dollars
There will also be a Readers’ Choice award wherein our readers can vote for the best story of the month. The winner will be awarded an additional $10. At the moment, we do not pay per word or per story. We hope that our prize amount and payment per word will change. Soon.
*As of right now, the only means we have of sending award money to our winners is (a) to a PayPal account or (b) mail a certified check written in US Dollars. We will not do wire transfers since the fee would be more than the actual prize.
Rights
By publishing your story on Fiction Vortex we will own First Rights and then we reserve the option to buy Non-Exclusive World Anthology Rights.
What this means is that we have the right to publish your story on the Fiction Vortex website and the option, at our choice, to pay you (10 U.S. dollars at this time) to reprint your story in any Fiction Vortex anthology. With that option we will have the right to distribute any of those anthologies anywhere in the world in either print or electronic format.
You will not be able to publish your story as “new” or “first time published” anywhere in the world. However, thirty days after the original Fiction Vortex publish date of your story you are able to have that story appear in any other online format, print magazine and/or anthology.
Bear in mind that most publications will not publish pieces that have been published in print, eBook, or on the web, so for all intents and purposes after your work is published by us it can only be marketed as a reprint, which severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive in the future. If you feel that our compensation doesn’t merit giving up your First Publishing Rights, we understand, but please continue to follow us as we hope to change/improve our payment structure as Fiction Vortex grows.
[via: Fiction Vortex.]
