Deadline: November 15th
Payment: 1¢/word

Unnerving Magazine accepts short story submissions of horror, dark science fiction (light), dark fantasy and dark literary. Generally leaning strongly toward horror over other genres. Sex, gore and violence are welcome in moderation. The same goes for bizarro works, nothing too far gone (whatever that means). Please no hard science fiction, sword and sorcery fantasy, erotica, romance, humor that isn’t sinister or literary works that venture so far into experimental that it becomes nonsense.

Unnerving Magazine will print quarterly starting with December 2016. Each issue will have different word count calls as we work through the kinks of layout.

For Issue one, we seek seven stories (as the need is filled, the pertinent slot will be removed):

Flash Slots

500 words or fewer

500 words or fewer

1000 words or fewer

1000 words or fewer

Short Slots

approximately 2000 words (within 15%)

approximately 2000 words (within 15%)

approximately 3500 words (within 15%)

approximately 5000 words (within 20%)

 

Payment is 1¢/word. Original fiction only. Reprints by invitation only. We ask for 3 months exclusivity from publication date and non-exclusive print-on-demand rights for 5 years. Submit only one story at a time and if a story is rejected, please do not submit again for 20 days. Submit in .docx, .doc or .rtf only. Double-spaced. Please use common sense when formatting. Everything hard on the eyes will be rejected automatically. Allow for up to 4 months before querying. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Open to authors from any country. Payment by PayPal only within 30 days of publication.

Submit stories to unnervingmagazine(at)gmail.com In the subject line specify intent, slot length and surname, ie. Submission: 500 Words: Brown. Anything aside from this will not be considered and will be rejected without notice.

 

Currently we do not seek artwork, but will likely in the future, so check back later.

Submissions for Issue #1 will close November 15th unless filled prior.

 

For an idea of what we’re looking for, read some of the following short stories/collections:

The Wheel by Bentley Little (Cemetery Dance)

Goblin Boy by Rick Hautala (Cemetery Dance)

Hawkin Rhone by Elizabeth Voss (Cemetery Dance)

A Very Tight Place by Stephen King (Just After Sunset)

The Kelp by William Meikle (Lamplight)

Kittens by Dean Koontz (Strange Highways)

Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland by Joe R. Lansdale (Midnight Graffiti)

Wind Chimes by Sean O’Dea (Third Flatiron)

Jeffty is Five by Harlan Ellison (Shatterday)

Pumpkin-Head by Joyce Carol Oates (Sourland)

Dying in Bangkok by Dan Simmons (Lovedeath)

The Long Rain by Ray Bradbury (The Illustrated Man)

The Body Politic by Clive Barker (The Inhuman Condition)

Hairball by Margaret Atwood (Wilderness Tips)

Night Shift by Stephen King

Haunted by Joyce Carol Oates

Houses without Doors by Peter Straub

Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories by Richard Matheson

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Via: Unnerving Magazine.