Deadline: March 31st, 2017
Payment: 1 cent per word
Note: Female Authors Only!

‘Killing it Softly 2‘ — The 2017 follow-up to the terrifying Killing It Softly, with Managing Editor Suzie Lockhart returning to put together a second volume of Women in Horror. Officially opening February 1, 2017 in celebration of Women in Horror Month 2017.

Publication target: October 2017. Submissions close: March 31, 2017 (subject to extensions as may be required). Answers on submissions can be anticipated at any time up to September 2017, and may be delayed until after the submission period closes in March due to short-listing.

Welcome to Digital Horror Fiction. We are excited to announce a new open call for reprint short stories in the horror fiction genre – dedicated to stories by female* authors. These stories will be published as part of an anthology (Killing it Softly 2) of short stories under the Digital Horror Fiction imprint, by the publisher, Digital Fiction Publishing Corp. This open call is for horror reprint short stories of 3,000 to 7500 words in length only.)

Submissions will be reviewed for inclusion upon receipt. Please submit only ONE story for consideration at a time; multiple entries will be rejected. Once your story is accepted or rejected you may submit another story for consideration – but just one at a time, please.

We are looking for reprint short stories that have appeared in professional or semi-professional books, magazines, collections, or anthologies, and that are available to be re-licensed by Digital Horror Fiction and published through Amazon and elsewhere in an anthology of stories.

We are not looking for (and will not license) self published stories (in any format/venue), stories that have been published and are available to download on-line (free or paid) as stand-alone stories (in collections and anthologies is fine), or stories that are available free on-line in any form (magazine, archive, blog etc, but podcasts that have not been made available in print are fine). Basically, if we search for your story on-line and find it, in writing, by title or content, and it’s free in any format we won’t license it – no exceptions.

Reprint short stories must have a length of between 3,000 and 7,500 words to be considered.

The following is a general, non-binding, statement of the terms under which Digital Horror Fiction publishes submissions but is superseded by the Publishing Agreement and DFP League terms and conditions that will be provided for review and agreement prior to publication and payment.

Authors are paid one (1) cent per word in United States dollars ($0.01 USD) based on final proofread word count. Accepted submissions are paid 100% within 10 business days of first publication date. Payment is via PayPal. There are no fees, charges, or expenses of any kind charged to the author by the publisher; however, transaction, exchange rate, or banking fees charged by PayPal or third party banks are the responsibility of the author.

We buy exclusive second world rights to a short story for one anthology, in the English language and any electronic, audio, and print format, with a six (6) month no new use clause. (You must agree not to reuse or republish the selected Work for a period of 6 months from first payment; but existing publications are fine.) Rights apply only to one anthology (Killing it Softly 2), not general use of a work.

The work is initially published for Amazon e-books and subsequently in a print collection of stories as a digital and print anthology via Amazon Create Space. We provide copy editing and formatting at our cost. Copy editing will be performed on your work prior to publication to bring it in line with Digital’s style guidelines and for technical errors. You may be provided with a copy of the editing changes prior to publication, but your consent is not required. However, no substantive content changes will be made without the consent of the Author.

Authors must warrant, state, represent, and agree that the author has full and unrestricted right to re-license the work to Digital Fiction Publishing Corp. for publication in accordance with the Publishing Agreement, and that the author is the owner of the copyright to the work, without material encumbrance. Author shall be required to fully indemnify and save harmless the publisher for any failure to abide by these requirements. (Please do not license us something you don’t own or can’t license as intended. Digital Horror Fiction is relying on, exclusively, the representations of the author in this regard.)

Additionally, if your story otherwise qualifies and is selected for publication, we require that no self-published or other versions of the stand-alone story remain or be made available on-line (any country any written format) for a period of six months from the date of first payment. That is, if your otherwise qualifying story was ever published by you or a third party on-line as a stand-alone story for free, then you must agree to remove or have removed the story from on-line publication for a period of six (6) months from the date of payment. If you don’t have control over your on-line content we will not license your work – sorry.

Digital Horror Fiction is a horror fiction imprint of Digital Fiction Publishing Corp. and we want horror stories. We will not consider science fiction stories, fantasy. or general fiction for publication by Digital Horror Fiction. Please consider one of our other imprints for these stories.

We want stories for a young adult to adult (not children) audience. Content should be PG to R rated. No erotica, adult content, or gratuitously offensive content will be accepted. Please don’t submit anything that fits these categories as it’s a waste of your time and ours, thank you. Because this is our Horror Imprint, we expect and will tolerate a considerably higher level of gore and general violence where the same is for the sake of a great story — not for the sake of gore and violence. That is, avoid sending us gratuitous anything – violence, sex, profanity, etc. If it is not integral to the story and it’s not advancing the plot or character development; we don’t want to see blood, gore, or sex just for shock value’s sake (this goes for language too).

According to Wikipedia, the source of all that is correct in the Universe (really?): “The identifying traits of horror include:

Horror fiction is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle their readers or viewers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon has defined the horror story as “a piece of fiction in prose of variable length… which shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing”. It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fiction)

We don’t get too hung up on sub-genres or specific requirements (except we do NOT want bloodbath and gore horror or torture/rape). If you think you have a horror short story, then there’s a good chance we will too. Just be careful to avoid trying us out with science fiction and clearly fantasy stories — we have other imprints for terrific stories from those genres.

Thank you for considering Digital Horror Fiction and Digital Fiction Publishing Corp. We look forward to hearing from you.

Please consider white-listing @dfpcorp.com and @submittable.com to ensure receipt of submission related emails.

Please do not submit your story and tie up our Readers if your stand-alone story has been published and is available to download on-line (free or paid),  or your story is available free on-line in any written form (magazine, archive, blog etc), and you can’t immediately take it down or have it taken down. We will not license it if it’s on-line for free.

* Female: Fully inclusive and intended in the broadest sense of the term.

Via: Digital Fiction Pub’s Submittable.