Category: Anthology

Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Tales of Galactic Pest Control

Deadline: July 1st, 2025
Payment: $100 or higher depending on Kickstartr
Theme: Short stories that explore the theme of pest control in creative, unexpected, and engaging ways.

We’re seeking original short stories that explore the theme of pest control in creative, unexpected, and engaging ways. However, don’t be misled by the title—this is not a shared-universe project, nor does your story have to be set in space or on an alien world. Your tale can take place anywhere—on a starship, in a medieval village, deep in the jungle, or even within the microcosm of a single human body. The crucial element is the struggle against some form of infestation, nuisance, or destructive force.

Your protagonist might be a seasoned exterminator, a desperate homeowner battling an alien infestation, or even the pest itself, trying to survive against overwhelming odds. We welcome a wide range of tones, from serious and thought-provoking explorations of ethical dilemmas to lighthearted, comedic takes on interstellar vermin problems. Whether your story leans toward hard science fiction, space opera, fantasy, horror, or slipstream, as long as it aligns with the pest control theme, we want to see it!

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Elven Rock of Ages

Deadline: August 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: A 1980s band that end up in a fantasy kingdom (a few specific details to include below.)

Announcing the latest open call by Ps and Qs Publishing! Elven Rock of Ages

 

What I’m Looking For: 

 

Rift is tired of ruling his Elven Kingdom. He’s been maintaining peace for a thousand years. His son is ready to take over and his daughter is leading his armies. He has nothing to do except sit in his court and pretend to be entertained. Enter a 1980s band that managed to stumble into his kingdom. Finally, something new. Deciding that playing rock music is how he wants to spend his time, he and three of his most trusted guards head out into the world. They take on the names, 

 

Rift – singer

Belanger – bass 

Draye – guitar 

Todd – drummer (Someone has to have a normal human name.) 

1988 – Band Name

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: High Stakes and Bloody Business

Deadline: July 31st, 2025
Payment: One free paperback OR $10 USD
Theme: Stories that involve vampires. Your vampire(s) can be the whumpee, whumper, and/or caretaker. We will also consider stories about vampire-adjacent creatures such as dhampirs, succubi, etc.

Bring out your vampires! For WPP’s fourth anthology, we’re looking for stories that involve vampires. Your vampire(s) can be the whumpee, whumper, and/or caretaker. We will also consider stories about vampire-adjacent creatures such as dhampirs, succubi, etc.

Word Count: Up to 17,500 words

 

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Liminal Madness

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Stories where liminal space is a priority 

M Presents Publishing is looking for short stories for its forthcoming anthology: Liminal Madness. Liminal Madness is a slight departure from the straight horror that previous anthologies had focused on; while horror is definitely a theme in this book the stories can be about anything so long as the idea of liminal space is priority. Think of the popular Backrooms or any place that is an eerie transition between places, a place that seems normal yet there is something… wrong: a hallway in a school that is strangely silent or a staircase that seems to keep descending with no discernable bottom.

Liminal: adj: relating to a transitional or intermediate state, stage, or period
Liminal Space: noun: a state or place characterized by being transitional or intermediate in some way; informal: any location that is unsettling, uncanny, or dreamlike

Let your imagination run wild as these spaces envelop your mind, whether you’ve no-clipped out of reality or wandered off the forest path.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Suffering the Other

Deadline: May 30th, 2025
Payment: $10
Theme: Dark speculative fiction that explores various aspects of otherness and its effect on those so othered

Dim Shores will be publishing an anthology in late 2025 or early 2026 — Suffering the Other. America’s blossoming fascist state is vigorously persecuting basically anyone who is not a healthy well-off cisgendered heterosexual white male: LGBTQ+ folks, immigrants, the disabled, the poor, women in general. Particular attention is being paid to immigrants/non-citizens of any stripe, and the transgender community. As such, this book will be a benefit for RAICES and Transgender Legal Center, two of the many organizations helping those who are being victimized by this roaring tsunami of oppression and vitriol.

Suffering the Other will be edited by Justin Steele and myself (Sam Cowan), just like both volumes of Looming Low. Unlike Looming Low, we are taking submissions for this book. Following are some guidelines.

WINDOW: March 30 through May 30, 2025.

THEME: People tend to fear what they don’t understand. Throughout history these fears have festered and metastasized, again and again, into prejudicial hatred and violence against out-groups. Too many people have become very adept at dehumanizing those who are not like themselves. The stories in this book will explore various aspects of otherness and its effect on those so othered via dark speculative fiction.

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Anthology / Events / Pro / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Skull X Bones

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: 0.08 USD / word and royalties
Theme: Science Fiction or Fantasy pirate stories

Avast, ye scurvy dogs! It’s time to plunder! Pirates have enchanted and haunted readers for generations, from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island to the ill-fated Firefly. Whether it’s Blackbeard, Mal, or Han Solo, we love our swashbucklers, our One-Eyed Willies, and our scruffy-looking nerfherders. In SKULL X BONES, we want writers to give us their best science fiction or fantasy pirates, whether they be on the sailing ships of the deep wide ocean or the spaceships of the black void!

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Gauges and Ghouls

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Haunted workplace stories

What I’m Looking For: Haunted workplace stories, modern day or historical, it’s completely up to you. Just write a great character-driven story that hooks the reader fast and reels them in hard. There do NOT need to be ghosts. You don’t need to have a truly haunted workplace. You can have spooky vibes, vampires, werewolves, the whole nine.

Story length will be between 5,000 and 10,000 words.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Untitled Science Fiction Anthology

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

What we Want: Good science fiction stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words for our upcoming anthology. No fantasy or horror. We will read any science fiction stories.

What we Don’t Want: We don’t want 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, I reckon.

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