Category: Closed Markets

This post is being kept for archival purposes. It looks as if this publication ceased to exist sometime shortly after October 2020, though an official announcement could not be found.

Payment: $.01 per word up to 7,500 words
Theme: strong character-driven speculative fiction stories

What Are We Looking For?

We are looking for new original short stories in the speculative fiction genres:

Science Fiction
Fantasy
Horror
Paranormal
Supernatural

In general, we are interested in strong character-driven stories. We do not want stories that have explicit sex or violence, rapists, or child abusers.

Original Short Fiction

Submissions must be between 1,000-7,500 words.

Stories must be in English.

Payment for original fiction is $.01 per word up to 7,500 words.

Submit your work in Shunn Standard Manuscript Format.

You can send through submissions through Moksha

Reprints

We do not accept unsolicited reprints.

Rights and Rules

No simultaneous submissions.

We try to respond to all submissions within 30 days.

Via: Legendary Tales.

NOTE: Mythaxis itself is not closed but is no longer an “ongoing” open call but instead has four submission windows. We will make posts based around these dates accordingly.

Payment: $20
Theme: Science fiction both hard and soft, fantasy both high and low, horror both harsh and humorous, along with whatever mash-ups or sub-genres can be conceived.

Mythaxis is open for submissions! We seek and offer the following:

• Length: 1,000-7,500 words. This is a firm limit. Generally speaking, the further a story goes beyond 5,000 words the more it will need to impress, but the door is not shut in advance.
• Compensation: $20 on acceptance and return of contract. Payment via PayPal.

We aim to acknowledge submissions the same day they are received. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours of submission, please get in touch.

We aim to accept or reject within 14 days of that acknowledgment, but rl (real life) and rl (reading load) can get in the way. If you do not hear from us after 30 days, feel free to query.

We require First Print and Digital rights with a six month period of exclusivity from the date of publication. We also ask permission to potentially include accepted pieces in future anthologies, in event of which an additional full payment and digital copy will be offered in compensation. All other rights remain entirely with the author.

Simultaneous submissions are not only accepted, they are encouraged. Put your work out there, as many places as you can! We merely ask that you notify us of acceptance at another market as soon as possible. We do not currently invite reprint submissions.

Submissions should be anonymous, and do not require a cover page. Only include the story title, the approximate word count, and the story text. Do not include the author’s name in or on the file.

All submissions must be the original work of the author. We anticipate an adult readership in the sense of maturity, but this is not a market for adult content or offensively extreme content.

We welcome writers of any and all backgrounds, be they cultural or personal, and submissions exploring diverse perspectives and experiences, provided they do not seek to attack or demean those of others.

We look forward to reading your work… but first:

 

A friendly word of advice

It’s important for authors to understand what they are giving up when they assign “first” publishing rights to a magazine. After we publish your story, you will only be able to offer it elsewhere as a reprint, which may mean you can only sell it for less money, or for free – and some markets don’t accept reprints at all.

We want to publish great writing but our budget is modest, there are certainly better-paying markets out there. So why not try to land your masterpiece at the big markets first? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all – and when they prove themselves blind to your glory, we’ll still be here to help you prove them wrong!

Okay, we’ve said our piece. If you’re still keen to roll the dice…

 

HOW TO SUBMIT

Email files as an attachment to:

andrew(dot)leon(dot)hudson

(at)gmail(dot)com

Please use the email subject line “MYTHAXIS SUBMISSION – [STORY TITLE]” to evade spam filters.

Feel free to include a concise cover letter and/or author bio, though neither is mandatory. Mythaxis has a history of publishing first-time authors, and we mean to continue this tradition.

 

FORMATTING GUIDELINES

Acceptable document types are RTF, DOC, or DOCX.

Straightforward manuscript formatting is preferred for editorial convenience:

• Please use an easy-reading font (Times New Roman 12pt, etc.).
• Do not manually insert empty lines between paragraphs, or use tabs for first-line indents. Use paragraph formatting to set automatic indents or paragraph breaks.
• Use a single centred # to represent essential section breaks.
• Use italics for italics, don’t underline instead. Smart (“curly”) punctuation is fine.
• If your manuscript includes any unusual formatting, please alert the editors when submitting and have a really good, story-related reason.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the editor at the above address. We look forward to reading your work!

Via: Mythaxis.

Cosmic Horror Monthly no longer meets our definition of an ‘ongoing market’ and we will list them as open calls become available.

Payment: 1 cent per word for original fiction. 10k words = $100, 50 cents per line for poetry.
Theme: Original horror and dark fantasy stories, poems, and images (paintings, drawings, etc). Most types of horror and dark fantasy are welcome but we do prefer the work have a science fiction or otherwise cosmic philosophical leaning.

Cosmic Horror Monthly is a horror and dark fantasy magazine edited by Charles Tyra.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Instructions: All fiction must be submitted via email to [email protected]. When submitting please paste the entire story in the body of the email. For artwork, please put a link to the gallery/pieces in the body of the email along with any relevant background information. Attachments are acceptable only when submitting individual artwork for consideration. Acceptable file formats are JPG, PNG.

Guidelines

Please only submit ORIGINAL work.

Cosmic-Horror is seeking original horror and dark fantasy stories, poems, and images (paintings, drawings, etc). Most types of horror and dark fantasy are welcome but we do prefer the work have a science fiction or otherwise cosmic philosophical leaning. If you aren’t sure if your work qualifies, submit it and we can decide. No subject is off-limits and we do encourage writers to try and push the status quo. A writer may submit as many stories as they like, but please only submit a single story once. Every email will be checked!

Word Count: We are open to stories of 1000-7500 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred.

Payment

Cosmic-Horror is a growing publisher looking to get established with writers in the indie scene. We pay for stories and art but do keep in mind that all our content is offered for free in order to reach as wide an audience as possible and still provide a premium product with maximum exposure for our writers being in the forefront of concern. For the time being:

1 cent per word for original fiction. 10k words = $100
50 cents per line for poetry.
20 dollars for artwork chosen as interior content.
50 dollars for cover art.

Rights: Please request the artist/publisher contract.

Cover Letters: The first paragraph of your email should contain the length of your story (if applicable), your publishing history, and any relevant information.

Questions/Problems

Email [email protected] for all inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system.

We will try to respond to every email with feedback but unless we are requesting more from you, there is no need to respond, even to say thank you. It may sound harsh, but those emails will only serve to clutter up the editorial inbox.

Diversity Statement: We believe that the horror genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.

Sexual themes and stories with strong sexual content are acceptable, but Cosmic-Horror is not a market for erotica. If in doubt, feel free to send your story in and let us decide.

Please no fan fiction for existing creative universes not in the Public Domain. (The Cthulhu mythos is fair game )

If you’re not sure if your story is suitable, don’t query; please just go ahead and submit it and let us decide.

You are welcome to resubmit previously rejected stories/poems if they have been significantly revised.

Via: Cosmic Horror.

This publisher no longer meets our requirements to be an ongoing market. We will create new listings as we learn of them.

Payment: Royalties
Theme: Pulp Fiction in the Public Domain

Art, Prose/Pulp Stories, comics. As long as it related to public domain characters. Send us your redesigns, re-boots and stories. We will publish them in one of our upcoming mags! Send your submissions to: [email protected]

Note: Contributors will be paid royalties based upon magazine sales and the percentage of the magazine their contribution makes up. Though this will likely be meager. All contributors retain rights to their creations.

Via: Public Domain Comics’ Facebook.

Deadline: April 5th, 2020
Payment: $300 advance on royalties, with 40% royalties on net revenue from print sales and 30% royalties on net revenue from digital sales thereafter.
Themes: horror, science fiction, weird western, or dark fantasy.

Excession Press is now open for submissions!

Our reading period runs Jan. 5th – Apr. 5th 2020.

What We Want:

• Excession Press is looking for original manuscripts 30,000 – 60,000 words in length that can be described as horror, science fiction, weird western, or dark fantasy. Our word count limit is firm, +/- a few hundred words.
• We want quality, character-driven narratives with imaginative settings and creative conflicts that will engage readers.
• We want strong, memorable prose.
• We prefer our fiction to be surreal, grotesque, and thoughtful, but more than anything, we want it well-written and well-paced.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable but we ask that you let us know at time of submission, and we ask that you give us notice if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

What We *DON’T* Want:

• No reprints or incomplete manuscripts.
• No books that are part of a series – your submission should function as a standalone narrative.
• No poetry or non-fiction.
• No YA or children’s stories.
• No stories that function primarily as erotica.
• No experimental formats or images – submissions should be text only.
• No queries. Please have something submission-ready.

Submission Format:

• File must be in a .doc, .docx, or .rtf format.
• 12 point font.
• Double-spaced with .25″ indents and 1″ margins.
• The first page should have author name, an email address, title of your submission, and total word count. Every page should have author name, title, and page number.

How to Submit:

• Email submissions as an attached file to [email protected]
• Include in the body of your email a brief (3-5 sentence) description of your submission and an even briefer (1-2 sentence) description of yourself.

Response Times:

• We’re a small team. If we like your manuscript, expect a response 3 – 6 months from date of submission.

Payment and Rights:

• Excession Press offers a $300 advance on royalties, with 40% royalties on net revenue from print sales and 30% royalties on net revenue from digital sales thereafter.
• Authors will have the ability to purchase their titles at wholesale.
• Excession Press will be granted the right to publish and distribute your work worldwide in paperback and ebook formats. All other rights will be retained by the author.

Via: Exession Press.

The website is reporting that submissions are closed.

Payment: Contributors Copy

Theme: We will consider one story per author per issue, and submission of original and unpublished work in any genre is very welcome. The only essential is that your story makes us want to read on.

 

General

If you’re not familiar with Structo, take a few minutes to read through some of our back issues. They’re free to read, and this is by far the easiest way to find out whether we might enjoy your kind of writing. If you’re not a fan of reading on screen, you could always pick up a copy. If anything isn’t clear—or if you have any questions—please do get in touch. As well as following the specific guidelines here, we would encourage everyone to take a look at this excellent article from The Review Review for some general advice on the best way to go about submitting writing to magazines.

Fiction

Short stories of up to approximately 3,000 words will be considered, both original stories and new translations of non-English language texts. We will consider one story per author per issue, and submission of original and unpublished work in any genre is very welcome. The only essential is that your story makes us want to read on. The ‘previously unpublished’ rule does not include personal blogs, so if you’ve published stories in that form that’s fine, but please let us know.

Poetry

We will consider up to three previously unpublished poems in English or new translations from other languages. The ‘previously unpublished’ rule does not include personal blogs, so if you’ve published poems in that form that’s fine, but please let us know. Visual poetry and other hybrid forms are welcome. Our first consideration is the merit of the poetry, then the quality of the art. There’s a higher burden of proof on the pieces because of this but we’d love to receive some.

Do you offer compensation for published work?

As the magazine is not-for-profit there is currently no payment for included work. Contributors will be sent a copy of the magazine before it hits the streets however, with the option of picking up any extra copies at cost. We also continue to support our writers long after publication. As Structo grows, more and more subscriptions are gifted to agents, publishers, anthologists and reviewers. We submit also work to the Pushcart Prize, Stack Award for Best Original Fiction and Forward Poetry Prizes. As one of our writers you have the option of joining our Structo Alum Facebook group, and are able to submit work for publication in our chapbooks. We’re also working on the cash thing.

What rights do you take?

To give you as much freedom as possible, all work in Structo is published under the protection of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & Wales licence. Nothing in this licence impairs or restricts your individual moral rights as author.

Do you accept simultaneous submissions?

Yes. Please let us know as soon as a piece is accepted elsewhere.

Happy with all that?

Send us your work using the link below.

Via: Structo/

This market no longer meets our definition of ongoing. We will post their calls as we see them go live.

Payment: $20 for a poem
Theme: Poetry on SF or fantasy themes

We are currently open to submissions, but we do have a big pool of accepted pieces so will be reading very selectively.

Polu Texni is looking for articles, poems, or art profiles that pertain to our themes. Submissions can be sent to submissions at polutexni.com.

Non-fiction: This is our current biggest need. We are looking for articles on future art, technology and art, fannish culture, emerging media, art and science, or art and fantasy, among other things. Feel free to drop us a quick email with an idea and a short bio before you write, although we are unlikely to make a commitment before reading the finished piece. We will pay 3 to 5 cents a word.

Artist Profiles: We want to run profiles and interviews on speculative artists. We want to hear from mixed media artists, and artists with less exposure. Please send photos or links to photos, and if chosen we will contact you for an interview.

Poetry: Poetry on SF or fantasy themes. We prefer strong visual images. We pay $20 for a poem. Please send one poem per email, in the body of the email. Please, no attachments. It’s OK to send multiple poems, but please send them in separate emails. We might make an exception for attachments if your formatting is particularly fussy, but also be warned that WordPress isn’t the best tool for finicky formatting so this is not the best market for pieces that rely on careful visuals. If you have a suggestion for an accompanying photo or illustration, let us know if your poem is accepted.

Book Reviews: We would like reviews of books pertaining to our themes, either speculative fiction books, art books, illustrated books or graphic novels. Pays 3 cents a word.

Please contact me at submissions at polutexni.com if you have any questions.

Via: Polu Texni.

As this market became closed to submissions, it no longer falls under our definition of ‘ongoing’ and we will post calls for them as they re-open.

Payment: CAD 1.5c/word. CAD .4c/word for reprints.
Note: Reprints Welcome

Via: tdotSpec Magazine.