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

[via: The Hard-Boiled Dimension

The Bug Issue – Issue #09
It’s an infestation!

No, really – the June 2013 issue of The Sirens Call eZine will be infested with nothing but BUG stories because that’s all we’re accepting this time! Since creepy crawlies come in many shapes and sizes, make sure your story has at least six legs to stand on.

Horrify us but don’t imagine the bug; your story must revolve around an insect of minuscule or mutated proportions that could be found in nature.

Deadline: May 31, 2013

Sirens Call Publications is currently accepting submissions for our bi-monthly e-zine, focusing on edgy & dark fiction including Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Suspense genres.
All contributors will receive a free PDF copy of the issue that their work is featured in.

We welcome short stories (1000 – 2500 words), flash fiction (300 – 500 words), and dark poetry.

Artwork, photography and literary reviews are also accepted.

Interviews with both up and coming or established authors will also be featured. Take advantage of this superb opportunity to gain exposure for your work and email submissions@sirenscallpublications.com with your submissions, or contacting mail@sirenscallpublications.com with any queries.

We ask for one time publication rights only; stories that are previously published elsewhere are accepted provided that you hold the rights to them.

[via: Siren's Call Publications.]

Last week I said I had two stories to tell and that I’d tell the second one this week unless something awesome happened. Well, guess what? Something awesome happened. But since I love you all I’m going to give you both and I’m going to try and do it fast. You’ve got writing to do right?

The awesome thing that happened was that my story “Smoke” got picked up by the horror fiction podcast known as The Wicked Library. I wrote about podcasts a while back and the host of that show, Nelson Pyles, contacted me. I was unaware of his podcast at the time. He emailed me after the blog I wrote and I checked it out. It’s fantastic. He does a great job. I decided to submit and see what happened. I sent him a few stories and he picked “Smoke” and said that my stuff is “gleefully brutal.” I desperately want to publish a book so that I can put that blurb on the cover.

I would say this even if my story wasn’t featured, but since it is I’ll put it in caps: GO CHECK OUT THE WICKED LIBRARY. It is on par with all the others that I’ve listened to and deserves more recognition.

That said, my story does happen to headline (it’s the only story, I just didn’t want to use “featured” twice in 3 sentences and couldn’t think of a synonym) TWL’s current episode. Episode 213. Nelson does a great job reading the stories, reads them in character, which is impressive considering that he reads every week. Other fiction podcasts, Tales to Terrify and Pseudopod, for example, have hosts, but said hosts rarely read the stories, they have voice actors. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s cool that Nelson does most/all of it himself. Nelson reads it and sells it and nails it every week. In addition to his vocal skills, he does a good job of mixing creepy sounds and background music to fit the tone and pace of the story. Go listen to “Smoke” and tell me I’m wrong. And then listen to all the other episodes. All that I’ve listened to are pretty damn good.

Just as an aside, ya boi here at HorrorTree, KGSL, that’s me in case you’ve forgotten, is the first author ever to bring the baddassery/obscenity so hard that “Smoke” is the only story at The Wicked Library to carry a WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT label. I have never been more proud and my mother has never been more ashamed.

In addition to excellent audio treatment, episode 213 also got fantastic artwork. My first cover art as a writer actually, and I’m in love with it. The artist’s name is Maddie Von Stark (@maddievonstark) and she does beautiful work every week.

I encourage you to check out my episode and some of the others. Head over to www.facebook.com/thewickedlibrary and give it a spin. You’ll probably recognize names like Jessica McHugh, C. Bryan Brown, and Rose Blackthorn as fellow Wicked Library alumni. TWL even had a story by Joe Landsdale on last month, but that one was only available for a limited time. I’m honored to add my name to that list.

If you’ve got the itch and want to hear someone read your story out loud, send submissions to thewickedlibrary@gmail.com I speak from very recent and weird experience when I say that hearing your story read aloud and with such incredible production is fucking surreal. I hope it’s not too arrogant or masturbatory to say that I listened to it four times in a row that first night, pacing back and forth in this hotel room, pumping my fist, laughing and grinning ear to fucking ear. If you give it a listen, I hope you have the same experience.

My interaction with Nelson, TWL, and Maddie was nothing less than the best. I’d love to work with them again in the future. Call me anytime guys. I’m in. And I hope you all take the time to seek them out.

And here is a crude transition. This paragraph. This is it. We are shifting gears hard. Stay with me.

A couple days after I met Joe Hill I went to the bookstore. For those of you that don’t know, I’m writing this from Disney World. That’s a story in itself, but not for today. Not to mention I’ve got a million new story ideas from this trip. The “It’s a Small World” ride is the creepiest fucking thing I’ve ever experienced. That ride eats Jack Ketchum’s entire body of work for a mid-morning snack.

Anyway, before I left I went to Half Price Books (I buy new sometimes, don’t judge me) to get some new shit to take with me on the plane and to read by the pool when there were no chicks around to creep out. I got two books by Jeff Strand and a graphic novel by Garth Ennis. Those books have nothing to do with this story.

In the bookstore, I thought I recognized a guy I hadn’t seen in years. I figured I’d either be right and look cool or wrong and look like a doosh but I wanted to know. As y’all probably all know by now, I’m not scared to roll the dice.

I said something. On rare occasions I am right. This was a rare occasion.

It was an old buddy from college. His name is Kyle Johnson. He just had a story called “I am the Box, the Box is Me,” on Pseudopod about a month ago. I shared a few fiction workshops back in the day with him and another writer, Douglas F. Warrick, who will join the story in a minute.

So I’m talking to Kyle and we’re looking at the horror anthology section at Half Price Books and he’s like “Hey, holy shit,” and I’m like “what?” And then he reaches down and grabs a book off the shelf and opens it.

“Yep. I thought this looked familiar,” he said laughing. And there’s his name right in the table of contents with Jack Ketchum and Gary Braunbeck. He’s a real humble guy and the book is a few years old and it was all genuine. I was like “No shit.” I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. He said that was one of the first stories he ever sold. Man, I wish I would’ve been that serious way back then.

I ran into him at about 8:30 and the story closed at 10. We talked until they kicked us out. It felt good. Then as we were leaving he said he was going to meet Doug for a beer and invited me along.

I went. So glad I did.

Here’s the thing about writing. It’s a lonely fucking job. No one really gives a shit what you’re doing and even if they do, it’s almost impossible to explain to a non-writer. It sucks. Sure, you’ve got friends online, but at least for me, real, tangible conversations with fellow writers, especially good ones like these two are impossible to find. I jumped at the chance and we had a blast.

I won’t bore you with all the details but I’ll give you the bullet points. First off these two are best friends and they’re awesome guys. They both went to South Korea to teach English for a couple years. They’re back now, and they told me different stories about their experiences there. We also got to talk process, craft, conventions, publishing, authors we love (they both introduced me to Kealan Burke, I’m 20% into KIN and it’s awesome) authors we don’t love (I’ll take this knowledge to my grave) and how much all three of us detest the term “genre.”

Doug talked about writing and preparing his own collection “Plow the Bones” out now from Apex. I was hoping to finish it before I wrote this, but I’ve still got about three stories left. It’s incredible. Like literally. He builds worlds and uses rich language to paint powerful, beautiful, haunting and thought-provoking metaphors and darkly fantastic stories. It gets my recommendation. My Amazon review is coming soon. He promised he’d sign it for me the next time I see him. Kyle talked about co-writing with Maurice Broaddus, also known as the “Sinister Minister” for a story in a collection called “Glitter and Mayhem.” I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list. I know they’ll deliver.

It’s refreshing and motivating to spend time with other people passionate about writing. When I knew them years ago, they were and I wasn’t. I didn’t get it back then. Still don’t, at least not like they do, but I’m learning and getting more involved every day. I was always jealous of them back then. I shouldn’t have been, I should’ve just taken it all more seriously. Completely my fault.

But now I’ve got the drive and I’m still jealous of them, but it’s a good jealous. The best kind of jealous. An “I wish I would’ve gotten my shit together a lot sooner can you help me with what I missed” kind of jealous. And I couldn’t ask for two nicer, more helpful, motivating guys to sit around and have a beer and talk shop with. Even though I hadn’t seen them in years, that didn’t matter. We didn’t even really stay in touch much on Facebook and shit. A comment here and there and that was it, but that night last week, we reconnected and we plan to stay connected. We’re all pretty damn serious about this writing stuff and banding together is beneficial. Writing aside, we share interests. We talked WWE for like an hour and we laughed and we laughed.

GOOD SHIT!

We all live in Dayton, and there’s a lot of great writing coming out of Dayton. Shocking, but true. I hope we can stick together and keep it moving stronger, faster, better and bloodier from here.

Thanks guys, those drinks and that conversation meant a lot to me. I can’t wait to do it again.

To all of you reading this, I’m sure you all have writer friends, but if you don’t have any close to you that you can meet up with in person, try and reconnect with old ones or go out and make some new ones. Friendship goes a LONG way in writing and it’s nice to have it up close and personal as well as scattered across the world.

If you wanna make a new writer friend swing by New World Horror – Kerry G.S. Lipp or send me an email newworldhorror@gmail.com. I won’t be a dick. And don’t forget to check out The Wicked Library, “Plow the Bones” and “Glitter and Mayhem.” Good times will be had by all.

I don’t usually sound like a marketing machine so indulge me this time and I promise I won’t be waiting in the backseat of your car.

Keep reading, keep writing, keep it real, and get me the fuck out of Disney World, (mom and dad if you’re reading this that’s a joke, I’ve had a blast, can’t thank you enough and love you with all my heart)
KGSL

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.

===

The following information MUST be included with your submission:

Your bio
Your website URL

You can submit at Dark Fuse’s Submittable.

Call for Submissions: Sunbury Press Horror Anthology Sunbury Press (www.SunburyPress.com) is preparing to publish a horror anthology with a title to be determined sometime in 2013. The book will be edited by horror author Thomas M. Malafarina.

The theme for this as yet unnamed anthology is Contemporary Undead — stories involving zombies, vampires and spirits or all kinds set in the present day.

Since these subjects have been done to death (so to speak), we’re looking for a fresh and unique approach in your stories. We want tales that will disturb and horrify and keep the reader dying for more.

We want terrifying villains and not wimpy love-starved pitiful characters who are burdened with teen angst. We want our monsters to be monsters with no qualms about who they are or what they do. The lion doesn’t spend time feeling sorry for his prey.

Author compensation, upon publication, will be one contributor’s copy of the anthology as well as discounted copies for purchase by the authors.

Sunbury Press may need to keep your story for the entire reading-period, but may not be able eventually to accept it depending on the timing of other acceptable stories being submitted during the period.

Please do not call us about your submission. You can check the status of your submission by checking here online.

Note: Manuscripts not meeting Submission Guidelines or the Manuscript Format Requirements will be disqualified.

Submission Guidelines:

Must be submitted electronicly no hardcopy submissions accepted;
Stories should be between 2,000 and 6,000 words;
All stories must be new and original; no reprints accepted;
Stories cannot be previously published in any form;
No simultaneous or multiple submissions;
No fan fiction or stories involving any such copy protected characters;
Stories must written in third person;
Must be 18 and older to submit to this anthology;
Graphic scenes are not discouraged as long as integral to the story. Try to keep language PG 13. No gore-porn, hard-core porn or unwarranted cruelty to animals or children will be accepted;
The accepted stories will all be published with the author’s correct by-line.
Manuscript Format Requirements:

Manuscripts should be double spaced;
12pt Bookman Old Style and use Italics;
Bold or Underline as required;
1″ Margins;
Left Justified (Align Text Left);
No Extra Spaces Between Paragraphs;
1/2″ Tabbed Indents;
Section Breaks Marked With Centered *** ;
Title half way down the first page, BYLINE/WRITING AS NAME below the title;
No Headers or Footers, No Page Numbers;
Use Italics instead of underline or _this_ or *this* ;
Use “double quotation marks” instead of ‘single quotation marks’ for speech;

You can submit at Sanbury Press Submittable.

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

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.]

MONSTER HUNTER – DOOMSDAY

Submit to Emby Press

Reading Period: 3/15/13 through 9/15/13
Tentative Publication Date: November 2013
Payment: $25.00, payable upon publication for First Worldwide Print and Electronic rights.
Word Limits: 2000 to 6000 words.
Submissions will only be accepted as DOC (Word) or RTF formats, submitted through our submissions link.
Genres Accepted: Dark Fiction, Horror and Sci-Fi. No Fantasy or poetry accepted at this time.
Original, unpublished work only. No reprints, please!
No simultaneous subs (submitting to emby and another press at the same time).
No multiple subs, please (keeping in mind that I will notify all authors as soon as possible if a story is declined so that they may submit that story to another market and hopefully submit another story to our book).
Please read and follow our submission guidelines.

“The outbreak spread faster than anyone could have imagined. By the time we realized the true extent of the threat, the only choice left was to hit back with everything we had – to go for broke…”

Be it a zombie apocalypse. a vampire uprising or an alien invasion, there does come a time when no option is “off the table”. This anthology is about those stories.

Give us a giant un-stoppable monster, or a demonic cult that has been building secretly for decades; a lycanthropic epidemic or a xeno-morph infestation. And answer it with a full military response.

As BLOOD TRAILS will document the intense emotional connection between characters, DOOMSDAY is your chance to cut loose and fill a story full of miniguns, drones and if necessary, nukes (it is the only way to be sure). Let action be your inspiration – picture this as if it were a script for an 80′s blockbuster.

As with BLOOD TRAILS, DOOMSDAY marks the first volume of a trilogy, so you may tell a single story, or you may build a world in which a three story arc can take place.

In addition to the payment listed ($25 per story) each author accepted will receive a patch.

Deadline for stories is 9/15/13. Let the chaos and mayhem begin.

[via: Emby Press.]