Category: Call Type

Taking Submissions: Writer’s Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness

Deadline: December 31st, 2023
Payment: $10
Theme: Stories that peel back the layers of the literary process to reveal the psychological horrors writers face daily.

Scott McGregor and Harriet Everend are teaming up to compile a new anthology, Writer’s Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness under January Embers Press.
Beneath the polished pages of every story lies a world shrouded in shadows—a world where the act of creation transforms into psychological madness fraught with terror. “Writers Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness” is an anthology seeking to peel back the layers of the literary process to reveal the psychological horrors writers face daily. From the dreaded writer’s block to the malevolent spirits of rejection, this collection delves into the darkest corners of the creative mind, where the lines between reality and imagination blur.

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Ongoing Submissions: Mystery Magazine

Payment: 2 cents CAD per word
Theme: Crime mystery of every imaginable subgenre, including cozy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humor, and historical mysteries.
Note: Not to be confused with Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

Use the form below (link at the bottom) to send us your 1000-7500 word story or You-Solve-It mystery. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Submissions must be original works of short fiction that have never appeared online or in print in any form. Avoid scenes of animal cruelty or excessive profanity/violence. We pay 2¢/word USD for accepted stories. Our average response time is 4-6 weeks.

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Ongoing Submissions: Plotopolis

Payment: 8 cents per word
Theme: Interactive fiction that can be read/played in half an hour
Note: This is VERY different from our standard market but seemed quite interesting and I suspect that we’ll have 1-2 people who are interested!

Plotopolis publishes interactive fiction. Please read one of our pieces before submitting.

We consider all genres, but submissions should demonstrate strong writing craft. Additionally, pieces should work well within our publishing venues (currently Slack, Telegram, and a chat-interface on the web) and be created for Plotopolis.

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Taking Submissions: Diet Milk Magazine Spring/Summer 2023 Issue Window

Submission Window: December 1st 2023 – January 8th, 2024
Payment: $15 per poem, $0.01 per word ($40 minimum) for short stories, and $50 per art piece via PayPal
Theme: Gothic stories, no set genre

Opens on Friday, December 1, 2023 12:00 AM UTC (in 24 days)

From December 1st – January 8th, Diet Milk Magazine will be accepting submissions for its Spring/Summer issue. We will be open to poetry, prose, and visual art of all kinds. While the most detailed information can be found on our website, here’s a quick rundown of what potential contributors need to know!

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

  • All submissions must fall under the Gothic umbrella, but aren’t required to be a specific genre
  • No reprints or multiple submissions
  • Simultaneous submissions permitted, though we ask to be informed promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere!
  • Poetry/Prose submissions should be .doc.docx, or .pdf // Art submissions should be .jpeg or .png
  • If you receive a rejection, you may submit again (with new work) immediately

P O E T R Y :

Poets may submit up to three poems at a time. No single poem should exceed five pages in length.

P R O S E :

Authors may submit one short story at a time, up to 5000 words. This doesn’t have to be on the dot, but stories exceeding 5025 words will be rejected automatically.

A R T :

Artists may submit up to two pieces at a time. We’ll consider any type of visual art. If you’re unsure whether or not your work falls into this category, query us first. Reach out to [email protected] using the subject line “QUERY: YourName [ART SUB]”. We’ll let you know within 24 hours if your preferred medium is eligible.

Responses, Rights, & Payment

  • Please allow up to three weeks for a response. After that, send a gentle nudge via email
  • Diet Milk Magazine asks for first serial rights. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the creator. A contract will be provided upon acceptance
  • All payments made via PayPal.

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Taking Submissions: WolfSinger Publications Is Open To Novels and Novellas

Deadline: December 31st, 2023
Payment: $75.00 and 10% of the cover price for print books, 40% of the cover price for eBooks with an optional $25 advance and 5% for audio rights
Theme: Primarily Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas and Novels

All material must be submitted as a .rtf document.

Please follow standard manuscript formatting when submitting:

Manuscripts should be double-spaced.
Indicate scene breaks with # or another symbol – but please be consistent throughout.
Please use tabs or paragraph settings to indent the first line.

Make sure you include your contact information on the first page of the manuscript.

The body of your email should include the following information:

Contact information
Title of manuscript
Approximate word count
Genre
Brief Synopsis of the story
A general idea of how you will be marketing and promoting your book.

We are looking primarily for Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas and Novels, but will consider other genres except children’s and erotica. For YA – we prefer books that are geared for older teens that might also appeal to adult readers as well.

Our minimum word count is 25,000 and our preferred maximum word count is 80,000 words.
Please note 80,000 words is the preferred maximum – it is not a hard and fast limit.

Prefer stories to have a PG-13 rating – but this is not a hard requirement.

We will only be publishing a maximum of 10 print titles per year.

Submit the complete manuscript to [email protected].
Please put ‘WolfSinger Submission – “the title of your submission” – your last name’ in the subject.

While we are primarily a royalty press, authors will receive an initial up front payment of $75.00 for books (contributors to anthologies will receive $15.00). Books and anthologies will start to earn royalties after initial production costs are earned back from all revenue received through book sales. 

Once a book earns back its production costs royalties will be calculated as 10% of the cover price for print books, 40% of the cover price for eBooks.

We also offer an addendum to the primary contract for audio rights. For authors who accept this addendum there is an additional $25.00 advance and they will receive 5% of the cover as royalties for sales of audio books.


These payment amounts are effective for new contracts offered in 2022 – previously contracted books will remain at the contracted amounts.

Production costs are defined as:

Initial up front payments

Contracted work such as:
Cover Art
Editing
Typesetting (Limited to a maximum of $100 – anything over that will be absorbed by WolfSinger Publications)

These items will be listed and itemized on the first royalty statement.

Statements will be issued twice a year. Payment will be made only if an author’s account has earned $5.00 for that royalty period. All payments will be made via PayPal. If you do not want to obtain and maintain a PayPal account so you can receive payments, please do not submit to us. We are making no other forms of payment or reimbursement at this time.

For anthologies, we welcome idea pitches from those putting an anthology together and will put out the call for submissions as well as post on the WolfSinger website. For anthologies, we also prefer to contract with the individual authors directly.

Charity Anthologies will pay a flat payment of $20.00 to authors and the designated charity will receive 75% of net revenues.

There is no earn-out on Charity Anthologies.

Our sample contracts can be viewed here:

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Ongoing Submissions: Rising Action Review

Payment: $30
Theme: Poetry or Fiction of any genre

We aim to make submissions as easy and stress free as possible for you. We know all too well how nerve wracking it can be to share your work with a literary journal and a complicated submission process doesn’t help. We only have a few things to keep in mind when submitting, please check them out below and then send us that work already!

We proudly select some of the best pieces we receive annually to submit to Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize!

 

Fiction

Length: While we would love to read your novel someday we must ask that you limit submissions to no more than 8,000 words. This can be one story or multiple flash fiction pieces as long as they stay under the word limit.

What we want: Your best work! Any genre and any style are welcome here. Simultaneous submissions are accepted but we request that you notify us as soon as possible if your work has been accepted elsewhere. At this time we only accept submissions in English but welcome translated works.

What we don’t want: While we love all genres and styles we will not tolerate work that is homophobic, racist, sexist, transphobic or anti-semitic in nature.

Additionally, we do not accept previously published work at this time. (Email us if you have any questions regarding what counts.)

Formatting: For fiction submissions use Times New Roman or Arial font, and double space your work.

How to submit: Submissions can be sent to [email protected]  Please send your submission as an attachment (word document or pdf.) Include your name and type of submission in the subject line of your email. Example: John Doe – Fiction Submission

In the body of the message include a short third person bio. If your work is selected for publication your bio will accompany it, so include anything you want your audience to know about you. Check out the bios on some of our published work if you need inspiration. You may also include an author photo to appear next to your bio but this is optional.

What to expect: We try to review submissions as quickly as possible our usual response time is between 2-3 weeks. Feel free to follow up with us after three weeks if you still haven’t heard back.

If your work is selected for publication we will contact you about any needed edits or formatting changes and provide you with a publication date! If your piece is rejected we will offer our thoughts and welcome you to resubmit. After submitting (regardless of decision) please wait 3 months before submitting again, thank you!

Payment: Thanks to a grant that our budding press received we are now able to pay each  contributor a small stipend of $30.00 to compensate them for their work. (Please note that all authors will receive no more than 1 – $30.00 stipend (per calendar year) regardless of the number of pieces they have accepted.)

Payment will be dispersed on the date your piece is published. For U.S. writers compensation can be sent via check, Venmo, or Cash App. For international writers we currently only offer payment through Venmo and Cash App at this time. Thank you.

Technical Bits: If we publish your work on the website, we reserve first North American electronic publication rights and the right to keep it here in our archives indefinitely. All other rights remain property of the author. We also retain the right to share your work on our social media channels.

We hope to read your work soon! Thanks you for visiting us and happy writing!

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Taking Submissions: The Lorelei Signal 2023 Apr – Jun Issue

Deadline: November 15th, 2023
Payment: $15.00 for short stories, $5.00 for poems and flash (<1000 wds) fiction pieces., $5.00 for reprints
Theme: SF/Fantasy stories with strong / complex female characters
Note: Apologies for the short deadline, just found this market, we’ll be more on top of their open windows in the future

The Lorelei Signal is a quarterly SF/Fantasy electronic magazine – one that will feature strong / complex female characters. This does not mean your female character has to be the main hero or villain in the story. What it does mean is no shrinking violets, or women who serve only to get into trouble so the male hero can rescue them.

Each issue I hope to publish:
7 short stories, 1 flash fiction piece and 2 poems
that meet the following guidelines:

My primary guideline is simple:
Write a good fantasy story with strong/complex characters.


What I am NOT looking for – erotica / slash / or other such stories.
Although well written love scenes that are IMPORTANT to the story will be considered on a story-by-story basis.

1) Stories should be no longer than 10,000 words.
However, tell the story – if it takes more than 10,000 words to tell the story properly so be it.
Just try to cut it down if possible – but remember the story is the important part.

2) Stories must feature 3 dimensional / complex characters.

3) I will accept reprints as long as it has been at least 1 year since the story was previously published,
rights have reverted back and you tell me where it previously appeared.
These will be limited to 2 per issue.

4) Please keep the graphic gore down to a minimum
(only what’s needed for the story).

5) Please keep the obscene language to a bare minimum
(again, only what’s needed for the story).

6) Simultaneous Submissions will be considered IF:
a) You tell me up front
b) You inform me immediately if the story has been accepted elsewhere
If I have too many occurrences of finding out a story was accepted somewhere else when I contact an author to tell them I would like to accept their story for The Lorelei Signal – I will no longer accept simultaneous submissions.
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Ongoing Submissions: StoSo Times and StoSo Ink

Payment: Contributor’s Copy and $5
Theme: Speculative fiction – that is stories and poems and art in the genres of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, and any combination thereof.

StoSo Press is currently seeking submissions for our new publications StoSo Times and StoSo Ink.

StoSo Times is a monthly online publication that specializes in the genres of Fantasy, Sci-fi, and Horror. StoSo Times will be sent first as a newsletter edition, then shared on our website as part of StoSo Ink. Our goal is to publish at least one story and one poem per genre on our online editions. Every 12 months we will include the year’s publications in a print anthology.

Eventually we plan to expand into publishing novels and nonfiction as it relates to SFFH, such as thought-provoking essays, book reviews and recommendations, author interviews, excerpts from forthcoming books, and other noteworthy industry news. Additionally, we intend to release more SFFH anthologies, video and audio content to further explore the realms of speculative fiction.

If you’re interested in volunteering as a slush reader (or other role) please reach out.

Detailed instructions for submitting to StoSo Press follow.

 

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