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Deadline: May 30th, 2016 Payment: 6 cents per word. Note: Only female authors. Announcing an open call for submissions for Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good, an anthology of dark and speculative fiction in the Women Up To No Good book series, co-edited by H.L. Nelson and Joanne Merriam, to be published by Upper Rubber Boot Books. Authors must identify as female, non-binary, or a marginalized sex or gender identity. This anthology will be themed around the idea of knowledge (learning/science/education/training/etc). Stories may be funny or serious, set anywhere on or off the world, in any time period, but must feature female protagonists whose knowledge is integral to the plot/conflict. Word/page count: Up to 5,000 words/story. Payment: six cents per word. Genres: Dark and speculative fiction encompasses horror, science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism, and we welcome all of these genres. Publication history: Original stories only. Reprints may be submitted by invitation only. Multiple submissions: No. Simultaneous submissions: No. Deadline: 30 May 2017. We plan to reply within one to two months from the deadline. To submit: Send to joanne at upperrubberboot dot com: (a) your complete manuscript as a .RTF, (b) a bio of 100 words or fewer, and (c) make sure you provide the following information: legal name (if different from the name you write under), mailing address, and word count. Put “WOMEN UP TO NO GOOD” in the subject line. If the work is a translation, please also provide a statement from the rightsholder that you are authorized to translate and submit it (both author and translator will receive full payment). We encourage and welcome stories from voices underrepresented in speculative fiction, including (but not limited to) writers of color, LGBTQ writers, writers with disabilities, and writers in translation. Via: Upper Rubber Boot.

Deadline: May 30, 2017 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy Anthologist: Rhonda Parrish Open for Submissions: April 1, 2017 - May 30, 2017 Expected Publication: Winter 2017 Story Length: up to 10,000 words Payment: $10 + contributor copy For a long, long time Santa Claus has hogged the spotlight relegating his wife to the shadows, but no longer. Now it’s Mrs. Claus’ turn to shine! We’re looking for stories that let Mrs. Claus (or is it Ms. Claus?) take centre stage. Whether she more closely resembles Michelle Obama, Betty White, Shohreh Aghdashlooor or Maggie Smith, Mrs. Claus must be a developed, independent character and not simply an extension of her husband. She can help and support him—of course she can—but there needs to be more to her than only that. What’s her role on Christmas Eve? What about the other days of the year? Is she into sleek red snowmobiles or is she more of an old-fashioned magic sleigh kinda gal? Does she prefer baking cookies or kickboxing? Betting on the Reindeer Games or Avon parties with the elves? And what is her first name, anyway? Stories are encouraged to re-imagine the North Pole in new and interesting ways (steampunk? alien? magically relocated to the equator?) and to explore a variety of other settings as well. They can also take place in time frames both real and imagined—Christmas in 1940 Poland, Mars in 2050 or a rediscovered Atlantis in 2017 would all be welcome in this anthology. Note: This anthology is intended for an adult audience, please don’t submit children’s stories. Rights and compensation: Payment: $10 and a paperback copy of the anthology from World Weaver Press. We are looking for previously unpublished works in English. Seeking first world rights in English and nonexclusive right to continue to publish for...

Deadline: May 31st, 2017 Payment: $15 and a contributor's copy if in the US There are things that define us. Things that separate us from the whole. Everyone’s a stranger in some way or another. Whether by coming to a new land, practicing different traditions, estrangement from your own people, or becoming a refugee forced from your home only to find yourself at the mercy of a tyrant… whatever the circumstances, strangers are compelling protagonists and so the theme of our anthology. The Central Arkansas Speculative Fiction Writers Group’s third anthology will be a collection of short stories about strangers. We want to see stories about estrangement, oddballs, and those who simply do not follow rules. We want to see outsiders and those deemed unworthy by society. Outcasts are welcome. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit your work in standard manuscript format to [email protected] with a subject line beginning with “Anthology Submission:” and ending with the title of your submission. Maximum word length is 7500 words. Payment is 15$ and a contributor’s copy. (Only writers within the U.S. will receive a physical contributor’s copy. Writers outside the U.S. will receive an e-book contributor’s copy.) Please only send speculative fiction. That’s science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between. We are looking for compelling storylines and, more importantly, compelling characters. Please no erotica or gratuitous violence. Please no multi-submissions or reprints. We will respond within thirty days of submission. Please do not query about submission status until thirty days have lapsed from when your story was submitted. If querying, please email with a subject beginning with “Query:” and ending with the title of your submission. The deadline is May 31, 2017. Via: Central Arkansas Speculative Fiction Writers Group.

Deadline: May 31st, 2017 Payment: 1 cent per word advance and royalties Note: Reprints ONLY Dust off your dragon stories. It's time to "releash" them on the world in the first DFF Dragons anthology. No word on publication timing as this will depend on the quantity and quality of reprint short story submissions. The Basics Theme: Dragons Open: Now Closes: May 31, 2017 (Or upon receipt and contracting of a full TOC; so don't wait.) Stories: Approximately 30 Reprint Stories; Total Words: Approximately 150,000; Story Words: 750 - 10000 Words - Or by prior invitation/permission more or less words; Type: Reprint Only - prefer semi-pro to pro prior publication; Rate: 1 cent per word advance - (less fees charged to author by PayPal). Participation in royalty sharing after advance; Rights: Non exclusive World English print (paper & hardcover), ebook/digital, audio - all for the complete anthology only. Publication: Complete anthology only - no one offs and no individual story license. Response Time: Could be 3 weeks, but if we've short listed your story it could be considerably longer while we build out our TOC. You may submit your reprint to other markets; just us know if it is no longer available (and congrats). However, we will do our best to keep authors in the loop. Submissions will be reviewed for inclusion upon receipt. Please submit only ONE story for consideration at a time; multiple entries will be rejected. IF your story is rejected you may submit another story for consideration - but just one at a time, please. IF your story is accepted then additional stories require pre-approval to submit. We are not looking for and will not license stories that are available to download on-line for free as a stand-alone story from any venue. Notes Dragons - bad-ass dragons. Dragons that destroy things...

Deadline: May 31st, 2017 Payment: Up to $100 and a contributor's copy We are currently requesting submissions for a new horror anthology of short stories we plan to publish this year. We're paying up to $100 per published story based on word count, AND a free printed version of the anthology.  We are looking for edited, well-written, horror stories from 5K to 10K words in length.  Scare us so we can't sleep at night!  Your stories need to be previously unpublished - exceptions to this will be handled on a limited basis as long as you still retain all rights to the work.  We are looking for original content. If you have previously published your story to a blog or social media account, we will not be interested. Please email your story to the address below and in the subject line and enter the words "Horror Anthology." Then, copy and paste your story in the body of the email, do not attach files. If accepted, we will notify you and ask you to submit an MS Word document.  Payment amount to be determined based on word count. We will discuss terms upon acceptance for publication. Submissions will close midnight, May 31, 2017. Other submissions are closed at this time. Please send your submissions to: Via: Rice Paper Press.

Deadline: May 1st, 2017 Payment: 1 cent a word Submissions for the horror collection THE EDGE: INFINITE DARKNESS, the second book in The Edge series, are now open. Submissions should be sent to [email protected]. Send your story as a message, not an attachment, and include a short bio about yourself above the story so we can get to know you. Format your submission title as: "Darkness Submission - Title - Author Name". Please edit your story before sending it because if I can't read it, I won't. (NO REPRINTS - NO REPRINTS - NO REPRINTS) Pay: 1 cent a word (7,000 words = $70 = 0.01 x 7,000) Requirements: 500-7,000 words a story – multiple submissions are allowed within reason, spam is not allowed. My only rule vs multiple submissions is more of a warning than a rule. If I don’t like the first submission, then I can’t promise I will read the following submissions. Timeline: Submissions will be viewed until either May 1st or the book reaches its goal length, whichever comes first. That is, unless the stories received are unsatisfactory and I’m forced to leave submissions open longer, but let’s hope that’s not the case. This collection is the embodiment of Darkness. There is no direct theme in terms of “ghost”, or “monsters”, or anything like that. What darkness can you bring forth that is hidden from the world? A darkness that perhaps exists in the woods, or your basement, or in the back of someone’s mind. Take the reader by the throat and drag their struggling body into the confines of this darkness and make them beg for their own sanity that you let them go. Dark. Twisted. Sick. Perhaps psychological. Write something that would make the school psychologist call you in for questioning. Write something that...

Deadline: May 31st, 2017 Payment: Novella (17,501 to 40,000 words) — $150 + two print courtesy copies Novelette (7,501 to 17,500 words) — $100+ two print courtesy copies Short Story (2,501 to 7,500 words) — $50 + one courtesy copy Poetry (one or more poems; 100 lines total) — $25 + one courtesy copy; additional $25 for each 100 lines Micro Story (less than 2,500 words) — $10 + one courtesy copy Anthologies are a great way to get your stories noticed. Caffeinated Press sponsors an annual house anthology titled “Brewed Awakenings,” with a new volume released every autumn. The first volume, released on March 2, 2015, contains the work of eight invited authors from West Michigan who penned stories under the loose theme of “all goes dark.” The second volume shipped in September 2016; subsequent volumes will follow each October. The anthology ships in print format (vol. 1); print and ebook (vol. 2); print, ebook and audio book (vol. 3 and subsequent). We are currently in the reading window for vol. 3. The window closes 5/31/17. We recommend that you read the Q&A that follows, then visit our Query page to read our formal house editorial guidelines. The submission form for proposed Brewed Awakenings content is at the bottom of the Query page. It will be to your advantage to read both of these documents in their entirety before you consider whether you should submit to us. Q&A When can I submit stories? What’s the deadline? We accept stories year-round. The cutoff for each autumn’s volume is May 31. Submit before then, you’re in consideration for that year’s copy; submit after that, and you’re in the pile for the following year. You obtain neither benefit nor disability from submitting well in advance of the cutoff, but technical errors in the submission...

Deadline: May 31st, 2017. Payment: 5 cents per word Chiral Mad 4 is officially open for submissions! The anthology is scheduled for publication in the first or second quarter of 2018 by Written Backwards, an imprint of Dark Regions Press, to be edited by Bram Stoker Award winning editor Michael Bailey. Much like Chiral Mad 3 and The Library of the Dead, this latest installment will be published in trade paperback, eBook, and deluxe hardback editions. Unlike past Written Backwards projects, this fourth volume in the critically-acclaimed series of anthologies will be a completely collaborative effort of originality, collecting 4 short stories, 4 novelettes, 4 novellas, and 4 graphic adaptations (to celebrate this 4th book), all co-authored and/or co-created. The anthology itself may even possibly be co-edited. We’re also seeking individuals willing to write a co-introduction for the book. Email [email protected] if interested in either of these opportunities. The goal of Chiral Mad 4 is to help bring our creative community together, to make us stronger, to strengthen relationships already in place, and to help create new relationships entirely. It’s time for all of us to play nice, to get along, and to do what we do best: create somethings out of nothings… and we’re going to create these beautiful somethings together. Have a specific writer/artist you’ve always admired? Well, now’s your chance. Reach out. Ask! That’s all it takes to get started. Find a partner, or two, or three, and start collaborating! The more unique the collaboration, the better the chances you have of making it into Chiral Mad 4. The more diverse the collaborations, the better the chances you have of making it into Chiral Mad 4. Now, here’s the hard part: knowing whether or not someone is already collaborating… Email [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns about this. While half the anthology will be filled with commissioned works (the book is...

Deadline: June 1st, 2017 Payment: $0.03 cents per word WE NEED TEN TALES OF HIERARCHY HELL AND BUREAUCRATIC NIGHTMARE! Of all bureaucracies, corporations are the most powerful, seeming to have a life and will of their own.  They're privately held with a multi-national reach, seemingly bottomless resources, and armies of lawyers jealously guarding their trade secrets.  Anything and everything is justified by the bottom line.  Who needs a Cthulhu Cult when you've got Cthulhu, Inc.? Into this insidious world are thrust our heroes—the curious, the puzzled, and the frustrated.  Defying authority, seeking answers they'd be better off not knowing, the secrets they discover threaten their sanity and their lives.  Will they become the next whistleblower media hero?  Or disappear, leaving nothing behind but an empty desk and whispered rumors in the break room?  Remember: it's nothing personal—just business. Corporate Cthulhu is a Lovecraftian horror anthology about the intersection of the Cthulhu Mythos and corporations or other large bureaucracies. This is an OPEN call for submissions—anyone and everyone is free to submit a short story to the slush pile.  Feel free to share this with other writers you think might be interested. What We're Looking For •    Short stories up to 7000 words. •    Original, previously unpublished fiction. •    We're particularly interested in submissions from writers traditionally underrepresented in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fiction.  This includes racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people living with disabilities. •    Stories must include at least a passing connection to the Cthulhu Mythos and/or Lovecraft's other work.  The stronger the connection, the more likely the story is to be accepted. •    Stories that make skillful use of Lovecraftian horror themes: insanity, helplessness and hopelessness, inherited guilt, old isolated locations, books of forbidden knowledge, ancient extraterrestrial influences on humanity, the risks of runaway science, civilization vs. barbarism, humanity's...

Deadline: June 1st, 2017 Payment: Royalties and a contributor's copy Not horror, but with undeath involved you may be able to weave some elements in We’re looking for Steampunk stories—specifically, mysteries that take place in a Steampunk setting. A mystery is the story of a crime and its solution. As for Steampunk, you can find a good, concise description at Steampunk.com. Supernatural elements are welcome. Here are the particulars: Length: Maximum 10,000 words. Deadline: June 1, 2017 Submit to: editorjessfaraday at hotmail.com Format: paperback and e-book Payment: share of royalties plus author copies Contract: we use a modified EPIC contract. Additional Information: A lot of Steampunk focuses on the European experience. Elm Books is dedicated to promoting diverse authors and stories. Priority will be given to stories that feature characters from traditionally underrepresented groups—main characters of color, female protagonists, differently-abled main characters, LGBTQ main characters, and so on. Also, priority will be given to stories set outside of Europe, especially those examining colonialism from a non-European perspective. We will not print stories containing graphic sex or violence. Sound like enough of a challenge? Get writing! Via: Elm Books.

Deadline: June 1st, 2017 Payment: Royalties **Deadline: June 1st, 2017** Prompt: Literature is inseparable from context: medium, culture, and conflict. Whether that be social media or formal writing, we are always part of a conversation with the world. As writers, we live our lives in the margins, we go beyond a social conversation and create an artistic dialogue. This is the way we process and handle big events in our history, this is the way we change our history; by recognizing what is happening within our environment and putting it in ink. “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster” (Baldwin, 1953). We want to read your work outing the monsters and keeping our eyes open. We want to share your experience with the world as a statement. Writing reflects the human experience—especially that bound by social and political pressures. We write in hopes to disrupt power dynamics and increase the voice of subalterns (Said, 1979). Onyx Neon seeks submissions of disruptive poetry for a social activist anthology. The Project: In Fall 2017, Onyx Neon will release a collection of poems under the umbrella of American Upheaval. The world is reacting to a drastic shift in administration—and those reactions are raw, loud, and critical. We want poems that add to the political conversation. This collection will be edited by Head Editor of Onyx Neon Shorts, Lindsay Deter-Wolf, with Kit Martin. Submission Instructions: Please submit 1–6 poems. Each poem (including its enjambed stanzas and verse paragraphs, your chosen formatting) should appear on its own page, and the submission itself must exceed no more than six pages in total. What we pay: Our standard collection rate...

Deadline: June 1, 2017 Payment: $25 usd There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio Anthology Editor: Carrol Fix Word Count: 3,000 – 8,000 Deadline: June 1, 2017 Authors receive token payment of $25. Please read our Submission Guidelines before submitting. Submit using only this Submission Form. If you send the story directly to the editor, you will be asked to resubmit through the form. Not all stories will be accepted. Only the best of the best authors will earn a spot in Visions VII: Universe, the final Visions Series volume. Visions VII: Universe will focus on the previously unimaginable; in the vastness of the Universe, all things imaginable are possible. Please keep the science fiction theme. This is not a carte blanche invitation to turn your science fiction story into fantasy. If you include things that seem fantastical, make sure there is at least a bread crumb trail of science to support it. Via: Lilli Cat Publishers.

Deadline: June 11th, 2017 Payment: $10 and contributor's copy We are seeking short stories for a new anthology slated for fall of 2017 (roughly early September for release, official title TBA). This will be a sister anthology to our first release, Shadows in Salem, that came out in September of 2016. We want this collection to share the theme of Salem, MA ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT through the years. Set your story in 1955, set your story in 1999, that is up to you, but it must be dark, gothic, or horror related! We will post years that are submitted as they arrive in our e-mail so you can keep track and so we don’t have twenty stories set on Halloween night in 1626. We are from Salem, so we know the area well, as do our local readers, so please take that into consideration in your research! Some witches are okay, but please remember that there is so much more to this city than the witch history! We are hoping to select one story per decade for variety, but we do not expect to fill *every* decade between the founding of Salem (1626) and today. Our anthologies generally end up at around twenty stories, so keep in mind, you don’t have to limit yourself to the last 100 years. Instructions: Send your submission to [email protected] for consideration with “Halloween Salem Submission“ AND THE YEAR YOUR STORY IS SET as the subject line, for example, “Halloween Salem Submission: 1922“, but please read our guidelines below! Submission Guidelines: Submit by: June 11th, 2017  Word Count: 1,000-6,000 Content Requirements: Your story must take place in Salem, MA on Halloween (10/31). The time-period and content is your choice, but DO be unique and DO make it SPOOKY! We will continue posting a running list of the years/decades that...

Deadline: June 13th, 2017 Payment: $15 and contributor’s copy Theme: Death is permanent. This is the falsehood that we tell ourselves so that we can sleep at night. It's the lie that we tell our children so they don't carry their little kitten's corpse to the old cemetery deep in the forest, in the grove where nothing living grows. It's the myth that we wrap ourselves in so we can ignore the gut-wrenching terror of what really comes after all this rigmarole. If the afterlife's so great, why do the dead keep getting up? The Misbehaving Dead is an anthology about rebels--the dead that won't stay down. Maybe their business isn't finished, or maybe Hell spat them back out, but no matter how strong the grave, they just refuse to stay in it. These are the misfits of biology, abominations that aren't alive but don't care. They'll get shit done anyway. They'll get what they want. Simultaneous Submissions: Sure, but please let us know that it's a simultaneous submission and tell us immediately if it was accepted somewhere else. Multiple Submissions: Yes Reprints: Yes, but let us know where it has been previously printed and make sure you have the rights to have it reprinted. Word Count: Up to 10k words. Formatting: This is a very good guide if you have any questions. You can't really go wrong with it. But, if you don't feel like reading that, here's the down and dirty of it. Italicize italics. Do not underline Don't use spaces to lead paragraphs. Use tab or, even better, the formatting options to get the indent. For scene breaks, use either "#" or "***". Use an easy to read font, like Arial or Times New Roman in a reasonable size (about 12 point). Double space your work. Submission Please make sure to include a synopsis...

Deadline: June 15th, 2017 Payment: $60 USD for fiction and $30 USD for poetry Fiction and Poetry Guidelines Arsenika is looking for previously unpublished original fiction and poetry up to 1,000 words long. Payment is $60 USD for fiction and $30 USD for poetry for first world electronic rights and non-exclusive audio rights. We hope to raise the poetry rate to $60 as well in the future—please support us on Patreon if you’d like to help us reach our goal. Submit no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems at a time, and please make sure you fill out the form again for each piece you send, unless the pieces are meant to be read together (e.g. a triptych of poems). All work should be in Standard Manuscript Format (fiction format | poetry format). Format poetry exactly as you would like to see it online—use italics for italics, underlines for underlines, boldface for boldface, etc. Send only TXT, RTF, DOC, and DOCX files. Please do not send simultaneous submissions (pieces that are submitted to Arsenika and another market at the same time). Multiple submissions are accepted, but please have no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems in the submissions queue at a time. We try to respond to all submissions within 14 days. If you haven’t heard from us in 30 days, please send us a query at [email protected]. Remember: Don’t self-reject. Reprints Arsenika does not accept unsolicited reprints. Payment is $10 upon acceptance. Art Arsenika pays $100 for reprint art. Please feel free to query us at [email protected] with a link to your portfolio. Questions Q. Can I submit multiple times per submissions period? A. Yes. Please have no more than two flash fiction pieces and five poems in the queue at a time; once we respond to those, you can send more. For...

Deadline: June 15th, 2017 Payment: Royalty Split Spark and Fizz Books is accepting submissions for its second issue of quarterly science and speculative fiction magazine, Planet Scumm. We’ll be accepting submissions April 23 to June 15. Issue 002 will be released October 2017. Our benevolent overlord Scummy will be especially kind towards spooky submissions hitting his space-desk this cycle. However, horror elements are not required. All submissions must still conform to the guidelines below (we’re looking at you, zombie fiction). What We’re Looking For Previously unpublished short fiction that doesn’t lean heavily on genre tropes. Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain. Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream, glitterlit, analogpunk. Basically anything that pleases Scummy, our megaphone-toting slime buddy. How to Submit Include submissions as an .RTF or .DOC attachment sent to [email protected] along with a brief cover letter in the email body. Stories, or collections of flash fiction, should be 1000-7500 words in length, and submitted in standard manuscript format. Use the subject line “Planet Scumm Submission” followed by your story title. Submit only one short story or flash collection. We will not accept multiple submissions from the same author in one reading period. Simultaneous submissions are okay, as long as you promptly withdraw a story accepted elsewhere. Submissions that are too long or short will be rejected immediately, as will those that are incorrectly formatted. In addition, submissions covering the topics below aren’t likely to play well with our slush readers. The No-No List Zombies, vampires, werewolves, pirates, ninjas Cthuloid/Mythos tales Straight horror without a clear speculative element Erotica Fan fiction Sword-and-spell fantasy Steampunk Anthropomorphic animals Stories that end with “It was all a dream” or “Turns out they were in a simulation” Use With Caution Time travel Political allegory Satire/Comedy Lasers (pew-pew handheld...

Deadline: June 15th, 2017 Payment: Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. ye to the Telescope 25, Garbage, will be edited by John Reinhart. Garbage, trash, refuse, junk, detritus, waste, rubbish. It’s that stuff on the curb, orbiting our planet, jammed into that drawer in the kitchen that always requires an extra shimmy before it'll close. The human relationship with waste is a close one. It’s also one where perspective is vital. One multidimensional being’s waste byproduct may be another less mobile humanoid extraterrestrial’s valued possession, or however that saying goes. What are the stories aged space debris tells their newer members? How do the outer worlds deal with the issue of garbage? Who are the people who deal with trash? I am interested in poetry that addresses all aspects of garbage in the speculative realm. I’ve been a garbage man, a dumpster diver, and a treasure walker. Although I am not likely to sing Oscar the Grouch’s “I Love Trash,” I have an affinity for the overlooked, the discarded, the junk of modern life—and I want to know what the future holds. Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Please send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “ETTT sub:” followed by the poet’s name. Please submit 1–5 poems in English (in body of email or attached as .rtf). Include a short bio. Deadline: June 15, 2017. The issue will appear on July 15, 2017. Payment and rights Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks. Eye to the...

Deadline: June 15th, 2017 Payment: 4-5% of gross profits depending on length. Guidelines 18thWall Productions Curated by Peter Rawlik “I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with its beautiful stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth…” ~Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow Robert E. Chambers’ The King in Yellow features a being, the King in Yellow himself, who is embodied in the play of the same name, and in the color yellow. We want to follow in the footsteps of Chambers, invoking links between specific colors, the mythos deity they might represent, and what influence they might have on the various arts. For example, what terrifying things are hinted at by the titles the Black Goat, the Green Man, the White Worm, and the Red Queen, and to what arts are they linked? Give us tales that invoke the chromatic avatars of the Great Old Ones and the impact they have on the arts, but as we all know the arts are open to interpretation, and could easily include architecture, literature, cuisine, pantomime, and haiku. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and color is only an abstract concept, but fear and terror are very real, and so are the Great Old Ones. What We Want Fresh takes on the Cthulhu Mythos, Chambers’ mythology (the Yellow Mythos), and Cosmic Horror. This isn’t the place for Lovecraftian clichés. The more it feels like a “lost” Lovecraft story, or relies on the clichés of the genre, the less interested we are. Creativity is the watchword. While we are open to straight horror, we much prefer submissions closer to Chambers’ style and tone. Which is to say, we’d greatly prefer dark fantasy with a cosmic horror undercurrent. If you’re unfamiliar with...

Deadline: June 30th, 2017 Payment: $5 per 1,000 words up front, royalties, and a contributor's copy Franklin/Kerr Press is looking for exceptional sci-fi short stories with a focus on new worlds and civilizations for our upcoming sci-fi anthology Into the Unknown. Stories can cover a wide variety of sci-fi sub-genres as long as they utilize new worlds and civilizations in some context. We will not accept works with erotic or extreme sexually explicit elements. We will choose eight to ten stories to include in the anthology from author submissions to be published in both print and e-book formats. All stories should be edited and as error free as possible prior to submission. Each story can range from 2,000 to 8,000 words, however, longer stories will be considered. Rights Accepted works will grant Franklin/Kerr Press first exclusive English-language rights for one year and non-exclusive English-language rights for the life of the anthology in digital and print formats. The author of each short story will retain the copyright to their respective work. Payment per Story $5 per 1,000 words Each author will also receive one copy of the published anthology in print and be entitled to an author discount on additional copies. Royalties Once the anthology recoups all up-front cost to produce and distribute, authors will receive a percentage of royalties paid from net sales for one year. Royalties will be disbursed quarterly. Simultaneous & Multiple Submissions No simultaneous submissions will be accepted. Multiple submissions from the same author will be considered but please note that only one story per author will be accepted to allow for greater variety and diversity. Previously unpublished stories only, no reprints unless requested. Submission Deadline July 30, 2017 or until all slots have been filled. How to Submit Send your full manuscript along with a query...

Deadline: June 30th, 2017 Payment: $25.00 About 730 AD, an Arab named Abdul Al-Hazred wrote the Al-Azif, a grimoire and memorial to the Old Ones. For this crime, he was driven insane and eventually devoured by a vengeful god in full view of horrified onlookers. What drove him to write this loathsome tome? What terrible visions haunted him so badly he felt he had to risk his soul to put them down on paper? Reveal the visions of Abdul Al-Hazred to us. Explain why the Al-Azif had to be written and why its translation, the Necronomicon, has circulated in secret societies ever since. Expose the secrets Al-Hazred uncovered in his ten years alone in the Roba El Kaliyeh, the Empty Space of the Ancients. Tell us what you know about the occult dealings he witnessed that drove him to spend those last years in Damascus as a hermit dedicated only to finishing his cursed volume. We recognize that horror requires a certain amount of leeway on some things, but be warned. We look down on overuse of specific issues. These include: • Sexual content not inherent to the storyline. No adult content. Keep your tentacles to yourself. • Explicit description of torture or sacrifice, human or otherwise. As a plot device, there is a way to present this without resorting to splatter. • Violence or abuse against a minor, infant to teenager. • Overuse of profane language. People curse. But not every sentence. • Hate language against a race, creed, or gender. Against monstrous races and gods, that’s okay. • Quoting previously published material not in the public domain. This is a legal issue and will not be tolerated at all. HOW TO SUBMIT Please be advised, any stories that do not meet these guidelines will be deleted unread. If...

Deadline: June 30th, 2017 Payment: $50 and a contributor's copy Note: Sorry about the short time on this, hit my inbox today! As I sit in the hospital and watch my mother attached to a machine with a constant drip of chemicals, I’m enthralled (and terrified) by the paradox that medical professionals are dumping poisons into her body…in an attempt to save her life. There’s a fine line between hurting and healing. Between medicine and poison. And that line plays out in fascinating ways. Like the toxic juice flowing inside the sterile hospital room, literature and folklore, as well as history and the present, are brimming with poisons and toxins, potent plants and venomous animals, used for both good and evil. Snow White’s poisonous apple, fed to her out of envy. Hamlet’s family rivalry escalating to poisonous drinks and blades. Socrates’ punishment of death by Hemlock. Wartime experimentation with tainted food, bullets, and gasses. Cleopatra’s collection of venomous animals and plants to gauge their effects on humans. Modern-day witch doctors selling albino body parts as potions for success. Martian and Moon dust with enough toxins and metallic substance to end a human life. Both real and fictional, intentional and naturally occurring, poisons will always be used for the darkest of purposes. But the opposite is also true. Australian citizens are paid to collect funnel-web spiders, their venom used to create antidotes for bite victims. For centuries, midwives have used herbs, potions, amulets, toadstools, and charms for healing. Sherlock Holmes occasionally dabbles in cocaine to sharpen his mind. Penicillin mold saves lives from infectious diseases. The Princess Bride’s charming  Westley spends years building up immunity to iocane powder, practicing mithridatism, named for King Mithridates who poisoned himself daily to become resistant to poison-related assassination attempts. Poisons have their advantages, too. Whether it’s battling space...

Deadline: June 30th, 2017 Payment: 8 cents per word With Ride the Star Wind in the editing phase, we are now open to submissions for our next anthology: Welcome to Miskatonic University, an anthology of modern-day weird tales set in good ol' MU. Miskatonic University is still going strong in the Arkham Valley (and in various satellite campuses and research stations around the world). Resilient and forward thinking, few institutions can weather the times and adapt like good ol' MU. It's a strange brew of conservatively reaching into the past while progressively marching forward. And it's a hotbed for the weird and the wonderful! So what might a modern MU look like? What might student life be like today? These tales combine college life and the cosmic weird. Of course, there's beer, sex, and parties; study groups and all-night cramming; campus activism and impassioned discourse; vital research and faculty struggling for tenure. But also, you know, gruesome and psychedelic cosmic weirdness. What avenues of study has the university sanctioned either publicly or privately? Where are they getting so much funding? The university's been around the block and are at the bleeding edge of certain realms of research. Occult studies have seeped, seemingly innocuously, into various branches of nearly all academic departments and inform everything from quantum physics to computer science, sociology to modern American literature. Library studies is hands down the best, most advanced in the world, likely one of the most well funded of sectors at the institution with ever-evolving safeguards and best practices. But there's bound to be lingering effects from all the occult activity, like "sensitive" people and locations with breaches to the "other side." People disappear all the time; sometimes they even come back. Entire wings are off limits to humans indefinitely. As a whole, this anthology is...

Deadline: July 1st, 2017. Payment: Royalties and contributor's copy Details: Stories can be 2500 words to 10,000 words. The anthology will be published in ebook and paperback formats. We pay shared royalties (royalty split info available upon acceptance of story and before signing of contract). Authors will receive the e-book and one print copy of the anthology, plus wholesale pricing for additional print copies. This is considered token payment. Submissions must be previously unpublished. We are seeking twelve months of exclusive worldwide print and electronic distribution rights and non-exclusive worldwide print and electronic distribution rights in perpetuity. Multiple submissions are fine, but simultaneous submissions are discouraged. Please don’t re-submit a rejected story unless we request revisions. We hope to have responded to everyone within one month of the submission window’s closing. Feel free to query if it’s been longer than two months. Stories must be double spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font (or something similar). Do not submit in Courier. The story title, your byline, a word count, and contact information should appear on the first page, and your last name, story title, and page number should appear in the header information of all other pages. We’re not particular about whether you use italics or underlining for emphasis, how many spaces are after the period, or whether you use straight or smart quotes. Submissions may be sent to the email address: Submit your stories via email as an attachment in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. The subject of your email should be SUBMISSION: <story title> by <byline>. The email body should contain a short list of your publishing credits and any pertinent biographical details. The submission period ends July 1, 2017.   Theme guidelines The story must have a fantasy/speculative element. Science fantasy is ok, but we’re aiming for fantasy rather than straight science fiction. We prefer “clean” stories and strongly prefer noblebright...

Deadline: July 1st, 2017 Payment: $25 and a contributor's copy Rayor Books is accepting original science fiction short stories for our upcoming anthology, Occupied: Stories from After the Invasion. This anthology will be published as an eBook on Kindle, and as a POD paperback. Theme We are looking for stories set after Earth has lost an invasion, and the homeworld is now occupied. This could be a contemporary setting, where the invasion happens next week, or one 25,000 years from now, after Earth’s empire loses a war. It could be set right after the invasion, or generations later, when humanity doesn’t even remember its independence. The only rule is that the occupation must be important to the story. While military science fiction is the obvious route here (and we love military sci-fi), it certainly doesn’t have to be. We’re not going to put a hard word-count on this. It’s possible a flash piece or very long short story could bowl us over. We expect, however, most of the stories to be in the 4,000-8,000 range. Reading Period Now, until July 1st, 2017. Payment $25 on acceptance, through PayPal, plus 1 contributor copy of the paperback. Contributors will also be able to purchase additional copies of the paperback at a 45% discount. Rights First Print and First Electronic Rights, with a 1 year from publication date exclusive period. We further ask that the author not make the story available for free on their website or anywhere else while the anthology is in print. The exclusivity period would be waived if the author has the opportunity to be reprinted in a “Best of” anthology or single-author collection within the year. We just don’t want it competing in another small-press anthology or for sale for 25 cents on your website right away. Please bear in...

Deadline: July 1st, 2017 Payment: 3 cents per word, ($120 max). The first issue of Red Room Magazine will be published in late September/early October 2017 from Comet Press. The magazine will feature horror fiction and non-fiction; reviews, articles, interviews. The magazine will tentatively be published 2 or 3 times per year in digital and print. DEADLINE FOR ISSUE 1: JULY 1, 2017 FICTION & POETRY We are looking for dark, disturbing, extreme horror and dark crime stories. We want stories that are well plotted, and not just gore for gores sake, although we think gore is a good thing (and encouraged, along with blasphemy, subversive subject matter, graphic violence and language, etc). Anything goes except kiddie content, of course. Length: Up to 4000 words. Pay: 3 cents per word, ($120 max). Word count is flexible, but our maximum payment is $120.00. Reprints: At this time reprints are invite only. Multiple submissions: Up to two, send them in a separate email. Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, but please let us know in your email query, and let us know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. NON FICTION: ARTICLES, BOOK REVIEWS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS We are looking for original, high quality and well-written horror related articles, author interviews, and book reviews, of up to 1000 words. Book reviews should be between 400-600 words in length and follow standard book review format. Reprints: No reprints. Length: Up to 1000 words. Pay: 3 cents a word ($30 max). Longer works might be considered but $30 is the max payment. Multiple submissions: Up to two in each category, please send them in a separate email. Simultaneous submissions: Yes, but please let us know in your email query, and let us know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. ARTWORK We offer $30 for reprint rights for preexisting cover...

Deadline: July 1st, 2017 Payment: Contributor's Copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for volume two of its furry anthology series SPECIES: Foxes. Deadline: July 1, 2017 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable Rating: PG-13 Please put the story title and FOXES in the subject. Foxes have been tricksters throughout most cultures. From the flame-tailed Japanese kitsune to the wily Reynard and Disney's Robin Hood, foxes have been playful and mischievous characters across the globe. For the second volume of SPECIES, we want to see the many faces of anthro foxes. We will be accepting exactly five reprints and five original stories. Foxes have to be the central characters, but they do not have to be the only characters in these stories. While we will accept stories of wolves in pre-modern settings, we will prefer stories of them in 1900s to futuristic settings. You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any). (Reprints do not count in the total). Reprints are encouraged, but you have to own full permission of the work in order for us to consider it. We will not accept simultaneous submissions. Payment: Authors will receive a free copy of the print book. Send submissions in .doc or .docx format to [email protected]. If you are sending more than one submission, send multiple emails instead of putting them all in one. We will inform all authors regarding decisions within a week or two after the deadline. Book will likely be released in July. Via: Thurston Howl Publications.

Deadline: July 1st, 2017 Payment: $25-$200 depending on length and three free copies. Note: Texas writers only I attended a meetup today and got information on an open call for Texas-based writers (either born here or living here) for Road Kill: Texas Horror from Texas Writers, Vol. 2. They are eager to hear from authors who have been traditionally marginalized, excluded, or unrepresented because Texas has many voices and it’s important to include everyone. Here are the details straight from the Editor’s hand. Hello, E.R. Bills and Bret McCormick here. We are the editors of the upcoming horror title, Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, from Eakin Press. Due to the success of the anthology, we are accepting stories for Road Kill Vol. 2. We are looking for original horror stories, 1,500–10,000 words, give or take. If we receive a 14,00-word story that knocks our socks off, we will consider it. And the same for an 800-word yarn. We prefer not to receive stories that have already appeared elsewhere. Submissions should be sent to ba.mccormick (at) yahoo.com. The primary objective of Road Kill is to promote new, up-and-coming horror writers in Texas, but the collection will include some works from established wordsmiths. The stories must be written and submitted by Texas authors and they must take place in Texas—hence the title. No one will be making a fortune, but we will be paying one-time fees (based on word count) and if the anthology sells over 5,000 copies, royalty percentages—1% per writer—will kick in. Every writer will receive three free copies and every contributing writer will receive 50% discounted wholesale pricing on any copies of the book that he or she purchases to carry and sell on their own. The scale for writer stipends will look something like this: 10,000 words – $200...