Category: Artwork

Taking Submissions: Electric Spec May Issue 2023

Deadline: April 15th, 2023
Payment: $20 per story or artwork
Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.

submissions at electricspec (dot) com
Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.

A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval.

Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.

We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.

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Taking Submissions: Strange Horizons: Wuxia & Xianxia Special

Deadline: March 1st, 2023
Payment: Fiction: 10¢/word USD, Poetry: $50 per poem, Non-Fiction: $50 for a column, $40 for a reprinted essay, $150 for an original essay, $45 to an interviewer, and $45 to an interviewee, $20 to a roundtable moderator, and $20 to each other contributor
Theme: Stories that fit in wuxia and xianxia fiction

Imagine yourself as a sword fighter, a vigilante hero and upholder of justice. Imagine you are a xia in the world of jianghu—whether a solitary traveller on a mission, an outlaw on the run, or a member of a powerful sect or dying clan. Or imagine you are a Daoist cultivator, soaring across the sky atop swords and clouds, with a story that stretches across realms and even lifetimes.

Welcome to the Wuxia & Xianxia Special, fellow walkers of the jianghu.

Many of us have become fans of wuxia and xianxia fiction ever since we first encountered eminent wuxia and xianxia authors like Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Huan Zhu Lou Zhu. Others among us fell in love with these genres through films from the Shaw Brothers Studio, Pili puppet shows, drama adaptations, RPGs, manhua, and other kinds of popular media.

Over the past decade, there has also been a new and revived interest in the xianxia genre with the rise of web novels, and more recently, through the lens of danmei, as shown by the popularity of dramas like The Untamed.

For this special issue, we are interested in:

  • Traditional and new approaches to wuxia and xianxia fiction
  • Stories full of action, conflict, drama, and intrigue
  • Rich, diverse, colourful, and nuanced worldbuilding, whether featuring the jianghu, a xianxia world, the imperial court, or other kinds of setting
  • Unique approaches to classic wuxia themes like honour, free love, good versus evil, and individual choice versus fate
  • Re-imaginings of what these genres look like in the 21st century
  • Works that experiment with, subvert, and reinvent genre tropes, including in combination with other Sinophone literary traditions such as danmei, chuanyue (time travel), gong’an fiction (court case), and beyond

The editors for the Wuxia/Xianxia Special invite you to submit fictionpoetrytranslations, and nonfiction.
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Ongoing Submissions: Vast Chasm Magazine

Payment: $50
Theme: bold work that explores the expansive human experience

Vast strives to be an engaged literary press that explores the expansive human experience and celebrates complex, diverse voices.

Our mission is to publish bold work, champion distinct artists, and cultivate literary community.

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Taking Submissions: Haven Speculative 2023 Limited Demographic Call #1

Submission Window: January 1st-31st, 2023
Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art
Theme: Speculative fiction
Note: Limited Demographic: Authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups.

Submission Windows

General submission window
  • February 01-28
  • April 01-30
  • June 01-30
  • August 01-31
  • October 01-31
  • December 01-31
Limited demographic window
  • January 01-31
  • March 01-31
  • May 01-31
  • July 01-31
  • September 01-30
  • November 01-30

It’s our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone.


Guidelines for Fiction

We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we’re particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we’re open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra.

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Ongoing Submissions: Illustrated Worlds

Payment: Fiction: 1 cent per word and contributors copy, Poetry: $10 and a contributors copy, Artwork: contributors copy and $50 for cover and $10-20 for interior
Theme: Stories should contain an element of fantasy, dark fantasy, horror, whimsy, magic realism, mythology, folklore or fairy tale type inspiration. Looking for moody, mysterious, fantastical art in the genres of horror, dark fantasy and fantasy. Poetry is a HARD sell.

Illustrated Worlds is a new quarterly magazine specializing in fantasy, dark fantasy and horror. Publishing both new and established artists and authors, the following guidelines will give an idea of the sort of submissions we’re currently looking for.

          Fiction – Short fiction should be 5,000 words or less. Stories should contain an element of fantasy, dark fantasy, horror, whimsy, magic realism, mythology, folklore or fairy tale type inspiration. Send a Word document attachment to [email protected]. Please do not type the body of the submission into the email.
Poetry – Poetry is NOT the main focus of this publication, but I am open to publishing poetry if it is particularly outstanding, but I’m sorry to say that the chances of poetry being accepted are not high.
Art – Looking for moody, mysterious, fantastical art in the genres of horror, dark fantasy and fantasy. Needs are for one piece of art for a cover printed in color, but plenty of black and white art is needed for the inside. Please send good quality JPEG images to [email protected].

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Taking Submissions: Solarpunk Magazine January 2023 Window

Submission Window: January 1st-14th, 2023
Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: up to 5 poems or 5 pages of poems, whichever is shorter. ($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: Themes of defiance, change, and achievement. (Read below)

(At the moment, our nonfiction department is always open for submissions. If the fiction portal is closed and you submit fiction through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be rejected.)

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.

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.

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Taking Submissions: Otoroshi Journal 2023 Spring Issue (Early Listing)

Submission Window: January 1st – 31st, 2023
Payment: $1 per accepted piece
Theme: horrorku, horror themed tanka, haibun, see below for details

The Submission may include any or all of the following:
· Up to seven (7) horrorku or horror tanka [we will rarely publish 5/7/5(7/7)]
· Up to three (3) haibun [title + prose + haiku/tanka — no more than 100 words]
· Up to five (5) pieces of cover art

All submissions must be original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by a print or web-based journal. Posts in closed, critique-oriented groups and social media sites are acceptable for submission, but public posts on forums such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are not. By submitting a piece to us, you are guaranteeing that it is your original work and not under consideration or published anywhere else in the world.

E-mail submission is required. Type poems into the body of the e-mail; no attachments of poetry will be opened. For art submissions, please include all five pieces in a .PDF file or send us a link to a private gallery. If we purchase an art piece for our cover, we will ask that you provide a 300 dpi version of said piece.

E-mail: [email protected]
Subject: Otoroshi Submission

Please include a cover letter noting location in the world. Please include handles for Instagram and Twitter for promotional purposes.

At this time, only one submission per issue will be considered unless the editors directly request a second submission.
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Taking Submissions: Samjoko Winter Issue II 2022

Deadline: January 1st, 2023
Payment: $20
Theme: No set aesthetic, enjoys stories that stands out for its honesty and desire to take risks for the sake of artistic expression.

Winter Issue II submissions now OPEN

Submissions Deadline: 2023/01/15

Payment for Accepted Pieces: $20

WE are non-genre specific. Please read the previous issues to get an idea of what we publish.

If previously accepted, please wait 24 months before submitting again. Only submit once per reading cycle.

Submission Guidelines

Samjoko purchases first worldwide English-language serial and electronic rights from the date the contract is signed and paid for up until 4 months after publication date.
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 a token payment, is really what you want to do.

After initial publication date, Samjoko Magazine will maintain non-exclusive rights to publication. Paid submissions must not use the intellectual property of any other author or company.

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