The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Untitled Sword & Sorcery Anthology

Deadline: August 1st, 2025
Payment: $10 and a contributors copy
Theme: Sword and sorcery stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words

What we Want: Good sword and sorcery stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words for our upcoming anthology. No science fiction or horror.
What we Don’t Want: We don’t want splatterpunk or porn. No poetry. We don’t want pure romance stories, but of course you can have romance in the story (You know what we mean). If you don’t have a clue, then just send it anyway. As long as it has magic, heroes with swords, or involves mythical adventures, we’ll read it.
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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Hellbound Highway

Deadline: August 31st, 2025
Payment: $15
Theme: Road Trip Terror

Are you brave enough to take a ride on the Hellbound Highway? HellBound Books is seeking short horror stories for an anthology on the theme of bad trips, which will be curated and edited by the double-trouble partnership of veteran horror writers Jane Nightshade and Ann O’Mara Heyward. We want road trips, sure, but also airplane journeys, ship crossings, railroad passages, heck even cattle drives–as long as it’s a trip and it’s B-A-D.

What if a family like the Griswolds from National Lampoon’s Vacation were zombies? What if a weary business traveler waits for the red-eye in an airport that is literally a portal to hell? What if the night manager of the local Greyhound bus station was a vampire who feeds off of the poor and desperate? What if a crook on the lam checks into a cheap motel and discovers that the usual cockroaches are mutants with deadly powers? What if someone stopped at a cafe in the middle of nowhere, and slowly realized that they were the special on next day’s menu?

These are the types of scenarios we are looking for, so let your creepiest imaginings run wild. Scary horror, psychological horror, or comedy horror are all welcome–it just has to be GOOD.

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Articles / Industry News

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Science Fiction and Mystery Magazines Acquired by New Publishing Company

Science Fiction and Mystery Magazines Acquired by New Publisher: What Readers Need to Know

Must Reads Magazines has acquired The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. 

The change in ownership was first reported by Steve Davidson at Amazing Stories when he noticed the publisher attribution had changed on the Asimovs and Analog websites.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Non-fiction / Poetry / Pro / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: Solar Punk Magazine April 2025 Window

Submission Window: April 1st – 14th, 2025
Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: One poem of up to three pages ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished
Theme: Fantasy and Science Fiction that falls into the category of Solarpunk that ideally include themes of defiance, change, and achievement.

Note: Our nonfiction is no longer always open for submissions. It will now open and close on the same schedule as our other submission portals.

All submissions to Solarpunk Magazine are done via Moksha. Any submissions received via email will be deleted without a response. Please don’t email us to describe your story and ask if it’s something we’d be interested in before submitting. We appreciate the consideration, but its easier if you just submit the story through Moksha.

In 2024, we are particularly looking for stories between 1,500 and 3,000 words. While our word limit remains 7,500, stories that fall between 1,500 and 3,000 will have a better chance of being selected for at least the first few submission periods in 2024.

Please read the full submission guidelines on down below or on our Moksha page before submitting your work. All submission periods end at 11:59 pm PST on the 14th of their given month.

2025 Submission Window Schedule:

January 1-14
April 1-14
July 1-14
October 1-14

2025 Issue Release Schedule:

Issue #19 – January 14
Issue #20 – March 11
Issue #21 – May 13
Issue #22 – July 8 (Colorful Roots)*
Issue #23 – September 9
Issue #24 – November 11

The Basics:

If your work is accepted, please wait two full submission windows before submitting again. For example, if a story you receive word in April that your story is accepted, please do not submit during the May and July open windows, but feel free to do so once the September window opens.

Simultaneous submissions: Yes, but please let us know immediately if your submission gets accepted elsewhere before you hear from us.

Unsolicited reprints: No

Translations: Yes

Multiple Submissions: No, not within each category. But you can enter one submission per category per submission period. For example, you can submit one short story, poetry, and a nonfiction article all in the same submission window using each individual submission portal.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Goblins & Galaxies Magazine May 2025 Window

Submission Window: May 7th – 14th, 2025
Payment: 3 cents per word
Theme: Sword & sorcery, dark fantasy, and science fiction stories under 6,000 words

What do we want? 

Sword & sorcery, dark fantasy, and science fiction stories under 6,000 words

When do we want it? 

Once per year: May 7-14

How do we want it? 

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Articles

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Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Tree Whisperer

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Tree Whisperer

Welcome to “Writing Prompt Wednesdays,” a haven where your imagination can roam free in the realms of speculative fiction. As we embark on this weekly journey, it’s thrilling to think about the untold stories waiting to be penned in the domains of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding wordsmith, these prompts are your gateway to unexplored worlds and untapped potentials.

Every Wednesday, we’ll serve up a fresh, thought-provoking prompt designed to ignite your creative spark and challenge your storytelling prowess. Think of these prompts as a key, unlocking the doors to uncharted territories where your creativity is the only limit. From eerie, shadow-laden corridors of Gothic horror to the farthest reaches of interstellar space, and the mystical depths of high fantasy, our prompts are a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to approach these prompts. They are mere stepping stones, guiding you towards the vast landscapes of your imagination. Use them to break free from writer’s block, to experiment with new ideas, or simply as a fun exercise to keep your writing skills sharp.

This week’s writing prompt:

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Articles / Industry News

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Bloomsbury Announce SFFH Imprint, Bloomsbury Archer

Bloomsbury Launches New SFFH Imprint: Bloomsbury Archer for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

Bloomsbury has announced a new imprint to launch in the UK this autumn and in the US next year. Bloomsbury Archer is specifically geared towards speculative fiction, which seems to cover a wide umbrella of subgenres, including science fiction, fantasy, speculative romance, horror, and alternate history. The new imprint takes its name from Bloomsbury’s logo, the archer Diana, and specifically mentions myth retellings as one of the subgenres they will be publishing.

The new imprint will incorporate certain authors already contracted with Bloomsbury, such as Alan Moore and Samantha Shannon, but is also building a new catalogue ready to be announced later this year. Bloomsbury Archer is headed up by Noa Wheeler – who has acquired such fantasy authors in the past as Leigh Bardugo and Kekla Magoon – and Erica Barmash in the US, and Vicky Leech Mateos in the UK. All editors have had a long career in media and acquisitions within Bloomsbury, and with other Big Four publishers.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Magazine / Pro / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores April 2025 Window

Submission Window: April 1st-2nd, 2025
Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used.
Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world.
Note: Reprints welcome

 

 

Submissions Schedule

The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T.

For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers.

We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 8¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles.
For new poetry, we pay $1 per line, and for reprints we pay 50¢ a line  We’re looking for poems up to 40 lines. We’ll consider longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 8¢ per word.

We sponsor The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn aboutThe Kepler Award here.

You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc.

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