Category: Audio

Ongoing Submissions: The No Sleep Podcast

Payment: Short Stories (1200 to 2499 words): $100, Regular stories (2000+ words): $125
Theme: Horror written in the first person where the main focus of a story should be to scare or unsettl

Here at The NoSleep Podcast, we love nothing more than hearing from up-and-coming or seasoned horror writers who’d like to work with us. We want you to frighten us and mess with our heads, so we in turn can terrify our listeners. As such, we’ve prepared a handy list of submissions guidelines to get your relationship with our show started. We welcome and encourage a broad, diverse range of submissions from all across the horror genre, and can’t wait to read the spine-tingling tales you send us.

Submissions are handled by our team of editors, who upon your story being selected will work with you to ensure your story is primed for audio adaptation.

This email is for story submissions only. Submissions or inquiries about art, voice acting, or contributing to the podcast in some other form should not be sent here. The editors don’t handle that side of the podcast and won’t be able to answer your questions.

(more…)

Ongoing Submissions: Flash Fiction Podcast

Payment: half cent per word with a minimum payment of three dollars (USD).
Note: Reprints allowed.

Submissions are open for Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast. We are currently reading for Season 3, which will run from Jan to Nov 2018, and include approximately 45 stories.

The Flash Fiction Podcast is just what it sounds like. Most weeks, a new short-short story is put out in podcast form by Manawaker Studio, produced and hosted by CB Droege.

At the end of each season, the episodes are compiled into an audiobook to be made available through Audible. The episodes will also be archived indefinitely on the Manawaker site.

The podcast is supported by Manawaker’s patrons on Patreon.

THE STORIES

There is no requirement of submitted stories other than length. The ideal length is around 800 words, but stories as short as 250 or as long as 1500 may be considered. All genres will be considered, but the story must remain accessible to all ages, which mostly means no erotica or gore-horror.

Currently, we are particularly low on genre subs, so if you are trying to decide which flash to send, and one of them is a sci-fi, fantasy, or detective story, send that one.

SUBMITTING

Submitters may submit up to three works in the body of an e-mail.

Previously published work is okay, as long as you let us know where it was published previously, so we can credit them in the podcast. It’s the submitter’s responsibility to ensure they have the rights to their work before submitting.

Simultaneous submissions are okay, just make sure you tell us right away if the non-exclusive audio rights to your work are no longer available at any point, and please do so in a reply to your original submission, so that it’s easier to find.

If your work is accepted, you will grant Manawaker Studio the right to edit and produce the work non-exclusively as part of the weekly podcast (which is posted on the Manawaker website, iTunes podcast store, Google Music, and several other aggregators which pull content from those services.) and in an audiobook collection, which may remain ‘in print’ indefinitely. The work or parts of it may also be used for promotional purposes by Manawaker Studio.

At no point will Manawaker studio require any sort of exclusive rights to any story, and the original creator will retain all copyrights.

Compensation for the use of an accepted work will be a token payment of a half cent per word with a minimum payment of three dollars (USD).

A sample contract sits here, if you are interested.

All submissions should be sent to [email protected] with ‘FFP Submission’ and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief cover letter and third-person bio (65 words max) (for the contributors page on the website) in the body of the e-mail. If you’d like a URL for an online portfolio or blog included, give that as well.

Response times will vary ranging from a couple weeks to a few months.

Note: all submissions received before 2 February 2018 have been read and responded to. If you sent something in before that, and have not heard back, then something went wrong. Please query, so that we can figure out what happened to your submission.

Further note: Due to a providence of sharing for the call, I received an absolute bounty of subs in Dec and Jan, and it’s taking longer than usual to get through this tall pile. Sorry for the delay, hopefully I’ll be through it soon, and back to more normal turn around times.

There is no deadline for submissions, as this is an ongoing project.

Any questions about the project or these guidelines (or any queries after submissions) should be sent to [email protected].

Via: Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast.

Ongoing Submissions: The Centropic Oracle

the-centropic-oracle

Payment: 0.01 per word, CAD
Note: Non-released in audio reprints allowed

The Centropic Oracle is looking for science fiction and fantasy stories that make you feel and think. In our opinion good fiction – particularly SF and Fantasy – should challenge us to examine our own lives and beliefs. It should force us to reflect on how we fit into the world and what it takes to make the world a better place by our being in it. We aren’t looking for things that will give us answers to those questions, but that doesn’t mean your story shouldn’t have a resolution (good, bad, or indifferent!) to its conflict.

What we do not accept:

    • – erotica of any description;
    • – gratuitous graphic violence;
    • – profanity – we need to maintain our non-explicite rating on iTunes, so keep it PG
    • – anything to do with zombies;
    • – pieces that are nothing but proselytization of a religious or political perspective;
    • – racist, homophobic, misogynistic, or misandrist works;
    • – fan fiction – it must be an original story that you own all the rights to.

 
What’s a tough, tough sell and makes us shudder at the thought of having to read it yet again:

  • – vampires;
  • – werewolves;
  • – any supernatural being in a romance with a human.

 

Basics

The prose must be readable and easily spoken aloud. This means that it must flow naturally and not distract the reader from the story. Lyricism is fine (we quite enjoy it) but pointless repetition is distracting. This is flash and short fiction so every word counts. Make those verbs active and incorporate your adjectives well to set mood! A single well-placed word in a sentence can change it entirely. Word usage frequency is something we notice. Take a break from your piece and read it again. Do you notice one word that pops up again and again? If you notice it, it’s guaranteed we will – it’s a pet peeve. Rhythm and cadence matter too, we don’t want to read pieces that sound like they were written by a robot who is only capable of crafting sentences five words long.

Characterization is integral. If you don’t know your character, your reader won’t either. It’s distracting when a character behaves in ways that don’t make sense, or outbursts feel like they came out of nowhere.

Continuity errors are a sure way to get a rejection. If your antagonist changes hair colour part way through the story, you will get a rejection. Continuity is one of the key basics in editing and is an indicator that you haven’t proofread your piece, let alone given your best effort to it.

Grammar matters. Know the difference between your, you’re, and yore, and between to, too, and two. Know when to use a comma. The occasional typo is one thing (even those of us who are proficient in grammar can miss a single typo despite reviewing a manuscript a dozen times) but poor grammar won’t get you past the first read, and if it’s bad enough we won’t even finish the read.

If we have rejected your story, do not resubmit it. We do not ask for rewrites. Ever. If it’s almost there, we will accept the piece contingent on specific edits. If you refuse the suggested edits and we feel strongly enough about the necessity of those edits, we will release your piece unpublished and without payment.

If we accept your story we will require a bio and a photo from you for promotional purposes on our website. In addition, be prepared to be called to interview with the reader and/or a small panel for a group discussion of your story. Talking points will be sent out prior to the voice-only interview so that you can have anecdotes or comments prepared. If you do not wish to have your photo posted, or appear on the show, do not submit.

Word Count

Flash fiction submissions should be between 200 and 1500 words. We accept vignettes in the flash fiction category as long as they make us feel and think. We aren’t of the belief that they don’t have value and we actually enjoy them when the prose is beautiful.

Short story submissions should be between 1500 and 6500 words. The upper limit is absolute and longer stories will be rejected without being read. This is an audio podcast, and we aim to keep our ‘casts to a maximum of 40 minutes.

Query us about serial works (not novels, serials in the fashion of the original Sherlock Holmes stories). It’s a tough sell, but we may go there for the right worlds and characters. Our criteria for those are more extensive and our automated system does not handle our process.

Multiple Submissions

We do not accept multiple submissions. We do our best to keep our response times as short as possible, which means keeping the pending list as short as possible. Once you have received a response to your submitted story you are welcome to submit again.

Simultaneous Submissions

We do not accept simultaneous submissions. We try hard not to keep you waiting long for a response.

Reprints

We do not accept pieces that already have audio recordings published but we do not consider your story a reprint if it has appeared elsewhere in print (hardcopy or electronic) only. Be sure to tell us when submitting if it has been published in print and we will promote it before the ‘cast so our audience may read along if they wish.

Payment

Currently we pay CAD$0.01 per word, but that will increase as we grow. If we publish your story we do ask that you help us promote it on your social media platforms. The faster we grow our audience, the faster we can increase our word rate. Payment will be made within 30 days of publication.

As part of the compensation you will be actively promoted on our website, so please keep us updated with any new credits you accumulate. We will provide an affiliate link to anything you have listed under your byline on Amazon – or any other online retailer – and a direct link to any electronic free-to-read publication. You will receive periodic email requests from us to review your Contributor page and provide us with any relevant updates. Your Contributor page will appear on our Featured Author page in rotation and we will give you notice of when you will be featured so that you can share it on your social media platforms.

Paypal support payments made directly on your page will be forwarded to you less Paypal’s fees and a 10% commission. Payments made from the story’s feature page will be split 50/50 between the author and the actor less Paypal’s and our fees.

In the future, we may ask to include your piece in an audio anthology compensated a on pro-rata royalty basis with 33% to the author and 33% to the actor.

Rights

We require a one year exclusive and five years non-exclusive to audio rights from the date of publication. If you make a print (hardcopy or electronic) or video performance sale, let us know – we want to promote that!

Formatting

Please submit in the Shunn format. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can see it here. Submissions that do not follow this format will be rejected unread.

File Format

Please submit rtf files only as our readers use a variety of devices.

How to Submit

We accept submissions through our electronic submissions manager only. Emailed submissions, or submissions sent via the contact form, will be deleted unread. We do not accept hardcopy submissions.

Our Process

Once you have created an account in our Submission Manager and have submitted your story you will be redirected to a page that shows your Submission ID number and a confirmation email will be sent out. If you don’t get a submission ID, please contact our site support ([email protected]) to report the error. If you don’t receive the email, check your spam folder before contacting us. You can check back often to see your submission progress through the various reading stages. We take pride in our writer friendly submission manager, and hope that it helps your stress level to know where exactly your piece is at in the process, and how long you should expect it to get through that step. Please do not send us an email query unless your submission disappears from the manager (open or closed) and you have not received an email. We do not keep copies of rejected stories, only the submission activity.

Via: The Centropic Oracle.

Ongoing Submissions: Apex Magazine

apex-magazine

Payment: Original fiction is $.06 per word up to 7,500 words. If we podcast your story, payment is $.01 per word up to 7,500 words.

Submit short fiction through our online form found here.

Our magazine is an SFWA-certified professional market.

Editor-in-Chief: Jason Sizemore
Managing Editor: Lesley Conner

Original Short Fiction:

1) Submit your work in Shunn Standard Manuscript Format.
2) Maximum word length is a firm 7,500 words. Anything more will be auto-rejected.
3) Payment for original fiction is $.06 per word up to 7,500 words.
4) If we podcast your story, payment is $.01 per word up to 7,500 words.
5) Apex Magazine welcomes and encourages submissions from writers of all race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and military status, in any of its activities or operations. We want diverse voices. We value diverse voices. Having said that, please be aware that we do not collect any information that might clue our editors to any of these attributes other than your name, email, and address prior to any decisions made regarding your submission.

Reprints:

We do not accept unsolicited reprints.

Poetry Guidelines:

1) Your poem must be 200 lines or less.
2) Your poem must be original and unpublished.
3) Poets can submit up to 5 poems at a time. However, please submit each poem in a separate email.
4) Payment is 25 cents per line.
5) Poetry editor Bianca Spriggs provides some tips regarding the type of work she is seeking in this blog post. Reading it is probably a good idea. 🙂

Rights and Rules:

No simultaneous submissions. No multi-submissions. We try to respond to all submissions within 30 days.

Before you submit your work, please review the appropriate contract template. If we accept your work, we will expect you to be familiar with our terms. Thanks!

Original Short Fiction
Reprint Fiction
Nonfiction
Poetry
Artwork

Queries:

Please send all queries regarding a submission’s status to our managing editor Lesley Conner ([email protected]).

Submit short fiction through our online form.

Via: Apex Magazine.

Ongoing Submissions: Escape Pod Podcast

escape-pod

Payment: $0.06 per word for original fiction; $0.03 per word for reprints
Note: Obviously your horror here will require a large science fiction slant

Escape Pod publishes in both text and audio; you are offering both of those one-time and archival rights to us when you send us your story. Escape Pod is a science fiction market. Our mandate is fun. We are fairly flexible on what counts as “science” (as we’ll delve into superheroes or steampunk on occasion) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre, but we are not looking for fantasy, magical realism, or more than a tinge of horror. If your story isn’t centered on science, technology, future projections, alternate history, and how any or all of these things intersect with people, we’re probably not the right market for it.

Diversity: Escape Pod welcomes submissions from writers of all backgrounds. We are especially interested in seeing more submissions from people of backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented or excluded from traditional SF publishing, including, but not limited to, women, people of color, LGBTQ or non-binary gender people, persons with disabilities, members of religious minorities, and people from outside the United States. Our goal is to publish science fiction that reflects the diversity of the human race, so we strongly encourage submissions from these or any other underrepresented groups.

Wordcount: 2000-6000 words (firm)
We publish short-form fiction more or less exclusively. We are not interested in flash fiction, poetry, serialized fiction, or novel excerpts. As with other genres, we support their existence, but they’re not what we do.

Payment: $0.06 per word for original fiction; $0.03 per word for reprints
We are an SFWA qualifying market for original fiction and pay professional rates.

Format: Paste your story in plaintext into the body of an e-mail and send it to us with the subject line “Fiction Submission: [TITLE].” (This will help avoid overzealous spamcatchers.) Include a short note with your name, an address where you can be contacted/paid, the story’s title and wordcount, and (if it is a reprint) any venues where it has previously appeared.

Where to Send: submit AT escapepod DOT org
See you there!

Via: Escape Pod.

Ongoing Submissions: The Drabblecast

Payment: $.06/word for original fiction, with a cap of $300.00. Reprint submissions at a pay rate of $.03/word, with a cap of $300.00.
Theme: Strange Stories for Strange Listeners
Note: Reprints welcome

The Drabblecast is an award-winning online speculative fiction magazine and podcast that publishes “Strange Stories for Strange Listeners,” often also classified as “Weird Fiction.”

Loosely, this encompasses any and all genres, but largely centers around those of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

We’re looking for powerful stories that are simultaneously relatable and a good degree off the beaten path. We’re looking for stories that will work particularly well when read aloud and treated with full cast audio production. We’re looking for submissions that are humorous, bizarre, gross, disturbing, badass, interesting and original— your favorite story that we both know would be a hit if only it found the right home.

We’ve been expecting you! Please wipe your feet on the various dismembered feet on your way in.

What We Buy

  • Short Fiction — 500- 4,000 words

We Also Run

  • Drabbles — Exactly 100 words.
  • Twabbles — Exactly 100 characters.
  • Episode Art — See the Art page.

Payment Considerations:

  • The Drabblecast currently pays the professional market rate for speculative fiction as defined by the World Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of $.06/word for original fiction, with a cap of $300.00.
  • The Drabblecast accepts reprint submissions at a pay rate of $.03/word, with a cap of $300.00. 
  • Stories under 500 words (including Drabbles and Twabbles) are published on a pro bono basis.
  • The Drabblecast accepts Simultaneous Submissions (please let us know if someone else accepts before us)
  • Drabblecast does NOT accept Multiple Submissions, unless specifically requested or solicited by Drabblecast editorial staff.

Your Submission Should:

Submit stories to [email protected]

  • Include your name and story title in the subject of the email.
  • Include bio (including preferred gender pronouns), story word count, information regarding the submissions publication history or indication if the work is original and unpublished in the body of the email.
  • You do not need to submit a cover letter.
  • Please attach submission as either a .doc, .docx or .rtf file, or include story in the body of the email if preferred.
Our response time is no later than 3 months, most often sooner. In the event that you have not received a response from Drabblecast after 90 days, please feel free to inquire as to story status.

Rights Requested:

The Drabblecast requests first world electronic rights (text and audio), first print rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights for any print and electronic anthologies.
Drabblecast Content is protected by a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative 2.0 License.

Diversity Statement:

The Drabblecast believes that, like great fiction, great writers come in all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds. We welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.

[via: Drabblecast]