Events

Taking Submissions: Twisted Tales of Halloween Horror: Carnival Carnage

Deadline: March 29th, 2024 Payment: $15 USD and 4% royalties for 4 years Theme: Halloween themed horror story that takes place around a carnival Note: Female identifying authors only. This INCLUDES trans women and non-binary/gender fluid. The Sisterhood of the Black Pen is back at it again! Submissions are open for our next spicy Halloween horror anthology! This time, a carnival is home to our nightmares. Female identifying authors only. This INCLUDES trans women and non-binary/gender fluid. Submissions due by March 29th, 2024. Story Requirements -7k-10k words roughly. Give or take. -Majority of setting must take place in or around a carnival. -Carnival must be Halloween themed, or story must take place on Halloween day, or a Halloween world, or any variation of these things. -Must contain at least one spicy scene. Why submit a short horror story to us? -We pay $15 USD to each author chosen PLUS around 4% royalties (depending on our final story count) for 4 years. -Rights returned after 6 months of publication date. -We are NOT a publishing house. We are two indie authors who are women who want to help other women. (trans women and non-binary/gender fluid included) succeed in the indie author world. -Our second anthology Twisted Tales of Halloween Horror sold over 4,000 copies. It was voted Best Indie Horror Book 2023 (hosted by @catiereadsandwrites on IG) Hosted by readers, nominated by readers, voted on by readers! It holds over 4 stars on Goodreads and Amazon. -We handle everything from cover design to marketing and everything in between. BUT we communicate with authors during design and help create something we all love. Simultaneously, we walk authors through what we are doing and how we are doing it so that newer authors can learn the steps of indie publication. -Authors finalize their...

Taking Submissions: Roads Less Travelled

Midnight Street Press

Deadline: March 29th, 2024 Payment: FICTION: £40 per story regardless of length, INTERVIEWS: £60 per interview regardless of length and including accompanying illustrations or photographs., NON-FICTION: £60 per article regardless of length and including accompanying illustrations or photographs. Theme: Mixture of two genres or non-extreme horror Midnight Street Press publishes a variety of fiction anthologies and collections, as print and ebooks, in the spirit of the magazine that inspired it. FICTION I’m looking for stories that have a mix of two or more of these genres:  horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi and slipstream, that explore original themes or traditional themes from an original perspective. There is no specific word limit. Strong language and appropriate sexual imagery is acceptable providing it is in context and important in developing character. Correct grammar, including spelling (English or American English), sentence and paragraph construction and punctuation is very important unless the nature of the piece or the author’s style requires a less grammatical approach, in which case this should be specified in the covering message. I find it very tedious to correct these things! JOURNEYS INTO DARKNESS – DEEP HORROR This will be a section within the magazine that will include two or three stories in this genre. What I’m looking for is any or all of these: fantastic, supernatural, psychological, very creepy and frightening. Please DO NOT send slasher or extremely gory, badly written and constructed stories with no character arc. I hate these! INTERVIEWS These can be in any style and must include contact details for the interviewee. There is no specific word limit. Where possible, include pictures (jpegs please) and author biographies. NON-FICTION This can be on any subject relevant to the content of the magazine. There is no specific word limit. Where possible, include pictures (jpegs please) ARTWORK Please submit a...

Taking Submissions: Ghoulish Tales #3

Ghoulish Tales

Deadline: March 29th, 2024 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Stories that are ghoulish or “fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky” Yesterday we revealed the table of contents and pre-order information for Ghoulish Tales Issue #2, so we thought today would be the perfect time to announce that we are officially considering submissions for issue #3, which we aim to publish later this summer. First, if you are not already familiar with the style & tone of the magazine, we highly encourage you to read one of our previous issues. What we are after: short stories that fit our personal definition of the word GHOULISH, which is “fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.” Note that we said fun, not funny. Comedic stories are definitely allowed, but it’s not all we’re looking to receive. We want stories that remind us why we love the horror genre. We want to have a perverted little smile across our face while reading. Make us slobber like idiots. Turn us into the Sickos.jpeg meme. We are also interested in non-fiction about the horror genre. GUIDELINES Deadline: March 29, 2024 (11:59 PM CST) Word count: 5,000 max (short stories); 2,000 max (non-fiction) Payment: 10c per word Simultaneous Submissions: Yes Multiple Submissions: No (Please only submit one story per open call. If we reject you, do not resubmit until we reopen for the next issue.) Reprints: No AI Submissions: No. Please note if you are caught sending us an AI story, you will be blacklisted from ever publishing with us in the future. Don’t do it. How to submit: Send all stories & essays to ghoulishsubmissions @ gmail dot com with – – – in the subject line. Please do not copy/paste the story in the body of the email. We prefer Word doc...

Taking Submissions: Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Urban Stories

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Dark stories that take place in a city during the winter season Thank you for your interest in submitting your work to this anthology. We look forward to reading your short story. Please read the following information to help you to become familiar with the anthology and the submission guidelines. THE CITY Noisy, crowded, ever in motion, the City can be more than a setting—it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped out characters. The City can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike. Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Urban Stories is an anthology that takes place in different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter. Your story submission must conform to the guidelines listed below and feature the City—in fact, the title of each story will be the City of which you write. We are not looking for vampire/werewolf love trysts. We are looking for fantastical elements within the City itself. Because we all know—deep in our hearts—that nightmares and fairies, monsters and ghosts, and terrors of the real and imagined call the City their home. GUIDELINES: • Short stories (3000-7500 words) that feature something fantastical in a city during winter. Your story will be titled by the city name (i.e. “Boston” or “Sydney”). • In this case a “city” should be considered a large population center (over 200,000 permanent inhabitants. • The “city” should be a real place—no “Gotham City” or “Hogsmeade.” • PLEASE Confirm which city your story will take place in before starting to write. We prefer not want any duplicates. FORMATTING: • We read blind—so remove...

Taking Submissions: Olit Winter 2023 Reading Period

Olit Magazine

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $10 Theme: Stories thought of as "the artfully weird" in any genre, ideally from authors from Orlando but will publish from anywhere While we prefer writers with a connection to Orlando or the greater Central Florida area, Olit will accept quality writing meeting our aesthetic and criteria from writers anywhere around the world. What do we mean by aesthetic and criteria? We’re glad you asked. Olit seeks the following: Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Hybrid, Artwork, Photography. Send us all kinds of stuff. We love the artfully weird. Strong preference for Orlando based writers/submissions about Orlando and surrounding areas. We aim to focus primarily on publishing marginalized voices. LGBTQIA+ is a big plus with us. BIPOC voices will always be uplifted here. Disabled? Incarcerated? Low income? Other marginalized voices? Please send us your work. If you do not consider yourself marginalized, your submission is still welcome at Olit if it meets our other criteria. Our aesthetic is best defined as gritty with grace, fast food parking lots in the middle of the night, the underbelly of a tourist city the locals know by memories. We want quality writing with heart and teeth. Give us words that bite back, stories full of verve, and the poems you wouldn’t let Grandma read. We are not the Academy/highbrow lit scene. We are indie and intellectual, raw yet polished. Send us only your best. We welcome simultaneous submissions. We would never ask you not to submit your work to more than one place at a time. Any lit journal still doing that should be banished and left behind. Please send us only previously unpublished works. We welcome multiple submissions. Have a short story perfect for us? Looking to publish some poems at the same time? That is fine with us,...

Taking Submissions: The Dragon’s Hoard 2

WolfSinger Publications

Submission Window: November 1st 2023 to March 31st, 2024 Payment: $15 and equal share of 50% of the anthology’s royalties Theme: Stories about dragons—their hoard or lack thereof must factor into the story in some way. At WolfSinger Publications, we love all kinds of creatures – especially DRAGONS. Dragons love…well…their hoard. Be it a hoard of gold, gems, books, virgins, whatever your dragon loves to collect and hoard. Or maybe your dragon doesn’t have a hoard—well then WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR DRAGON? —All dragons have a hoard—don’t they? If he doesn’t—then explain why not. We’re looking for stories about dragons—their hoard or lack thereof must factor into the story in some way. Since dragons are primarily a creature of fantasy I’m sure we’ll get plenty of fantasy stories; but we’ll take science fiction as well as any other speculative fiction genre, but you MUST be creative. A creative twist on the idea of dragons and their hoards is the most important part of the story. Break the story-writing rules if you want. If you use a tried-and-true plotline, twist it in an original and interesting way. Original stories are preferred. Query for reprints. ALL writers are encouraged to submit. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pro with years of credits, a beginner just starting out, or a teenager - please feel free to send the editor a story. In your cover email, please tell the editor a bit about yourself and a quick one-line synopsis of the story. Include genre. If experimental, please explain the type or how so the editor doesn’t edit out the form or reject it out of hand. Thank you. In the Subject line please put Submission: Dragon Hoard: Title of your story: Your name. Attach as a .rft file, please send to: [email protected] Submissions Open:  Nov 1st...

Taking Submissions: Flashpoint Science Fiction 2024 Open Window #1

Flash Point Science Fiction

Submission Window: January 15th – March 31st, 2024 Payment: $0.02 per word Theme: Science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between Note: Reprints Welcome We are open to submissions: Jan. 15 – Mar. 31 May 15 – Jul. 31 Sep. 15 – Nov. 30 Before submitting, please read the writer’s guidelines below. Story Guidelines Flash Point Science Fiction wants speculative fiction stories from 100 to 1,000 words in length. Send us your science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between, so long as it’s short. We here at FPSF are partial to flash fiction and want to see the flash market grow. So as much as it pains us, please take your 10,000 word tour de force elsewhere. We’re not looking for the next Brandon Sanderson. (Unless you are, in fact, Brandon Sanderson, in which case we’d be delighted!) What we’re looking for: -Fantasy (all kinds—epic, adventure, contemporary, urban, grimdark, fairy tale, magical realism, myths and legends, etc.) -Science Fiction (all kinds—hard, space opera, military, near future, science fantasy, cyberpunk, dystopian, etc.) -Slipstream (make it as weird as you want, so long as it works) -Seasonal (we love stories with holiday and/or seasonal themes, but please submit AT LEAST 3 months in advance of the relevant occasion) -Anything that makes us laugh, cry, think, or smile. What we aren’t looking for: -Horror—it can be spooky or menacing, but we’re not a horror market, so the fright factor should not be the primary appeal. DARK fantasy and sci-fi, however, are welcome. -Literary fiction—this is a genre market, so there needs to be an SF&F element, however slight. -Gratuitous sex or violence—we’re big fans of Love Death + Robots, but don’t be that guy. -Fanfic—original concepts only, please. We know there was a lot going on in Hobbiton while Frodo was away, but that’s not our...

Taking Submissions: The Dragon’s Hoard 2

WolfSinger Publications

Deadline: March 31st, 2024 Payment: $15.00 flat rate plus equal share of 50% of the anthology’s royalties. Theme: Dragons and what they hoard At WolfSinger Publications, we love all kinds of creatures – especially DRAGONS. Dragons love…well…their hoard. Be it a hoard of gold, gems, books, virgins, whatever your dragon loves to collect and hoard. Or maybe your dragon doesn’t have a hoard—well then WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR DRAGON? —All dragons have a hoard—don’t they? If he doesn’t—then explain why not. We’re looking for stories about dragons—their hoard or lack thereof must factor into the story in some way. Since dragons are primarily a creature of fantasy I’m sure we’ll get plenty of fantasy stories; but we’ll take science fiction as well as any other speculative fiction genre, but you MUST be creative. A creative twist on the idea of dragons and their hoards is the most important part of the story. Break the story-writing rules if you want. If you use a tried-and-true plotline, twist it in an original and interesting way. Original stories are preferred. Query for reprints. ALL writers are encouraged to submit. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pro with years of credits, a beginner just starting out, or a teenager - please feel free to send the editor a story. In your cover email, please tell the editor a bit about yourself and a quick one-line synopsis of the story. Include genre. If experimental, please explain the type or how so the editor doesn’t edit out the form or reject it out of hand. Thank you. In the Subject line please put Submission: Dragon Hoard: Title of your story: Your name. Attach as a .rft file, please send to: [email protected] Submissions Open:  Nov 1st (DO NOT SUBMIT PRIOR TO THIS DATE) Submissions Close:  Mar 31st Release Date:...

Taking Submissions: Kai’s Recurring Nightmares guidelines

Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers

Submission Window: January 1st, 2024 - March 31st, 2024 Payment: Contributor's Copy (Charity anthology.) Theme: A horror story that must include a character named Kai and must reference Dungeons & Dragons in some way Thank you for choosing to submit to the seventh annual Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers (GLAHW) mini-anthology. We are looking for horror fiction, between 2,000 and 5,000 words, along with the following requirements. 1. A character named Kai. The character can be the protagonist, antagonist, monster, victim, friend, etc. As long as he, she, it, or they play a significant, if not pivotal, role in the story. 2. The story must make a reference to Dungeons & Dragons (including its iconic dice!). Whether it is the setting of the story, part of the backstory for a character, or a passing reference, Dungeons & Dragons and Kai should have some importance to the story. We will be editing the stories, but we will not make any changes without first discussing them with you, the writer. We’re writers, too, and we know what it’s like to have our stories altered without our consent. We won’t do that to you. Having said that, however, we will try our best to make each of the stories in this anthology the best they can be. So, if we give you notes, we’d appreciate it if you’d consider them carefully. We’re not saying you have to agree with us (We’ve had plenty of writers argue with us, and sometimes, we see their point and concede the edit). Just that you listen. The cover art for Kai's Recurring Nightmares will be handled by the talented Steve Bejma Submission Please submit all stories to [email protected]  The subject line should read Submission: Kai’s Recurring Nightmares. Stories should be submitted as an attachment in either MS Word (.doc, .docx) or...

Taking Submissions: Tasteful: Cannibal Stories to End Hunger

Tasteful Anthology

Submission Window: March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Literary cannibalism stories We are looking for literary cannibalism stories to fill out our charity anthology, which is raising money for Philabundance. Philabundance distributes food throughout nine counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Learn more about their work here. Submission window March 1st – March 31st 2024. Marginalized authors are invited to submit for an additional week, though April 7, 2024. Wordcount 500 – 5,000 words Preferred word count is in the 2-4k range, but we’ll be considering longer stories and flash fiction if you can sell us on the piece. Payment As this is a charity anthology, we are looking for writers willing to donate their words to support a good cause. Payment will be our eternal gratitude and a contributors copy (softcover and ebook). The Cause Tasteful is being created in the hopes of raising funds and awareness for local food shelters. While we’ll be running promotions to support various local food banks, the profits we make from sales will all be donated to Philabundance. You can read more about their good work here. What we’re seeking Curators Cassandra Daucus, Iseult Murphy, and Cat Voleur are looking for literary tales of cannibalism. We seek stories that have a focus on beautiful prose, unsettling metaphors, and transcendent themes. If you can make us question our morals or keep us up at night craving flesh, we’re interested in your work. Finally, we want stories that “punch up”, not ones that “punch down.” While we appreciate both gore and sex, we are not interested in extremes for the sake of shock value. Please don’t send We will reject any offensive materials such as those containing racism, sexism, or...