Defunct: Ongoing Submissions: Gallows Hill Magazine

So you want to submit to Gallows Hill. Awesome! There’s a good chance we’d like to read your work! But let’s get some ground rules set so we don’t waste your time and effort. Remember – more rejections are sent out due to a piece not being a great fit for a magazine than for a piece being poorly written, so it is a good idea to read these guidelines and understand them before submitting.

1. We publish dark fiction. This primarily means horror, but dark fantasy, gothic, supernatural and ghost stories, black comedy, and genre-benders stand an equal chance if they are well written. In fact, there are certain issues coming up that focus entirely on the genres that are tangential to horror, like dark fantasy.
2. We publish short stories. We are a roughly 60-page magazine that balances fiction with tons of other awesome content. That means we can only devote limited space to fiction, and we want to publish as many people as possible. So we do not consider novels or novellas for the magazine. We do hold competitions such as our annual NaNoWriMo competition that look for long-form fiction, but general submissions should be no more than 9,000 words.
3. We publish upsetting content. This magazine revolves around horror, a genre dedicated to making the reader uncomfortable. If you have scenes or elements in your work that you are afraid might upset us, submit it anyway. Our editors checked their delicate sensibilities at the door. Of course, any mature content needs to be justified in the story. Any sex or violence or gore can’t be done strictly for shock value.
4. We publish articles, reviews, and columns. Do you have something to say about horror? Want to submit a review or exclusive interview? Want to start a monthly column that discusses a particular aspect of horror culture? We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to submit your work to us, or email our Editor-in-Chief ([email protected]) with a pitch if you’d rather.
5. We publish poetry. Send your dark poems on over! Short poems are cool because we can scatter them in with other content, but we do longer poetry as well. Just don’t send a 10,000-line epic. See #2 for reasoning.
6. We publish artwork. We love dark art (note: different than the dark arts). We are always looking for artwork, photography, or any other sort of visual piece to publish. From cover images to illustrations, from photography to serial-published visual stories, we want it all! If you are interested in submitting artwork and photography, please email [email protected] directly.
7. We are humans. That’s right. Despite what some websites might claim, a good editor cannot be replaced with a robot or algorithm. Our staff reads every submission we get, and that takes a lot of time. So be patient. You can stay up-to-date with where your piece is by tacking its progress on HeyPublish. We will respond to every request once we make a decision, but we can’t guarantee that our decision will be quick. With that in mind, we are totally cool with simultaneous submissions. Just let us know if your piece has been accepted elsewhere.
8. We don’t just publish a magazine. That’s right. We do more. While we are still in the developmental stage for our book, comics, and poetry imprints, we do offer you the chance to get published in our anthologies. Most notably our annual Editor’s Choice Awards. Because our magazine revolves around themes, sometimes our favorite pieces just don’t fit into the publishing schedule for Gallows Hill. That’s when we go hit the golden buzzer in the middle of the office and unleash a cascade of streamers and glitter and balloons. Those stories will be accepted into our year-end special edition e-book and promoted all year. Cleaning up the office afterwards is a pain, though.

We do believe in paying writers and artists for their work. While we are working diligently to getting to a full $0.05 per word, our current rates are $25-50 for fiction, $15-25 for poetry, and $10-50 for artwork and photography.

That’s pretty much all I can think of to tell you. On behalf of all of the editors here at Gallows Hill, I wish you the best of luck with your submission. We are looking forward to reading your work!

Now go submit.  What are you waiting for? A giant button to click?