Deadline: September 29th, 2017
Payment: 6 cents per word
Note: A 2-for-1! I just found out about these listings and as the deadline is coming up I wanted to do a bonus post to get them before your eyes ASAP!
Continuing the success of our previous call for submissions, we’re looking for around twenty to thirty short stories by contemporary writers to complement a selection of classic tales in two new anthologies. We are keen to encourage new writers, without prejudice to age, background or previous publication history. It’s the story that matters, and the quality of writing.
Alien Invasion: Visitors from other planets have long obsessed us. H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds spawned a huge wave of speculative fiction but the roots of such fears run deep in our literature, where the mysteries of other cultures have long threatened the familiar and the comfortable. Did aliens build the ancient pyramids? Do they live amongst us today? What happens when they invade? Would it be an inevitable act of aggression, one of assistance and care, or simply a reminder of our paltry existence in a crowded universe?
Endless Apocalypse: Stories of the end of civilized life have always fascinated us, from the mythological world endings – Armageddon and Ragnarok – to the flood stories from across the Ancient world. They make us wonder what we would do if all around us came to an end – no transport, no fuel, no communications, a retreat into the desperation, the onslaught of disease – how would we survive?
Formal Call for Submissions (2017)
We are looking for new and recent short stories. We do not require exclusivity. You hold copyright, licensing us just for this publication. We don’t mind if your story has been previously published online or in print (though we do need to know publication and date). Simultaneous submissions are fine, but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology.
Word length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.
We pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 6 cents per word.
We would prefer to pay via PAYPAL because bank charges to the US and Canada in particular can be crippling for all concerned.
Payment will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website, flametreepublishing.com for details), although we might choose to pay some early.
Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel.
Please submit in .doc or .rtf formats, double spaced, with your name and email address in the footer or header of each page.
We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 30 working days of the submission deadline.
The anthologies will be published worldwide, available online and to bookstores worldwide, in print and ebook formats.
You can submit more than one story, and to each collection.
The selection will be made by our group of life-long, in-house enthusiasts: Nick Wells (Publisher), Laura Bulbeck (Senior Editor) and Josie Mitchell, Gillian Whitaker and Cat Taylor. If required, the final selection will be mediated by our series editors. We try to keep everyone up-to-date as much as possible with occasional email updates.
A Word about the SFWA
To confirm, we became an SFWA qualifying market last year, so being published by us will help your status with them of course, but also with other readers and writers.
About Flame Tree Publishing
Now over 25 years old we started in 1992, covering a wide range of art and culture titles, with a strong vein of highly-illustrated Gothic and Fantasy books, notebooks and art calendars. Our Gothic Dreams books include Necronomicon, Steampunk, Dystopia, our large format titles Gothic Art, Fantasy Art and Dragon Art are sumptuous, and we publish gothic fiction reprints by Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and more, in our Flame Tree 451 imprint. 2017 also sees the publication of a true labour of love: the all-new Astounding History of Science Fiction.
Our anthologies are designed to be read in print. They look and feel fantastic. You’ll feel proud to hand them to your friends, family, colleagues – so do send us your story!
Thank you, and good luck. We look forward to reading your tales of imagination.
Deadline: September 30th, 2017
Payment: Flash 500-2,000: New:$10.00 Reprint: $5.00 – Short 2,001-8,000: New:$20.00 Reprint: $10.00
What We Want
We are OPEN to regular submissions until September 30, 2017.
Unless specified otherwise, we’re looking for stories that are:
500-8,000 words long.
First person.
Arguably mad science related.
The mad science is negotiable. The rest is not.
We are strongly biased towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We are also committed to publishing work by authors belonging to marginalized groups. If you are LGBTQ, a person of color, or belong to some other group that is underrepresented in the genre, we really want to hear from you.
When it comes to “first person,” this can includes fictional newspaper articles, press releases, brochures, etc. We’re also happy to consider reprints and more than one submission at a time.
Do not send us poetry, screenplays, stories that are being considered by another market (also known as simultaneous submissions), or long winded ramblings from disgruntled mad scientists without any plot.
We currently only open for submissions one month at a time. Sometimes we will hold a story until the end of that period before deciding. If you haven’t heard from us within a month of our submission period closing, send us an email.
If Accepted
Stories will require a fictional identity for the narrator, with a bio. Authors will still be credited under their own name as follows:
Title of Your Story
An essay by [fictional narrator], as provided by [your name].
We will send a contract for esignature. For new stories, we will ask for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year and nonexclusive rights afterwards. For reprints, we will ask for nonexclusive reprinting rights.
Payment is based on story length and whether or not it’s new.
Length
New
Reprint
Flash (500-2,000):
$10.00
$5.00
Short (2,001-8,000):
$20.00
$10.00
Our contract says we’ll pay before it appears in the book, but we aim to send payment within a few weeks of receiving your contract.
Please Be Aware
Most publications will not reprint fiction that has appeared in online or print format elsewhere. By selling to a token paying market, you are limiting your ability to make more money off of your fiction. It is up to you, the author, to decide whether you want to give up First Publishing Right for token payment.
Deadline: October 31st, 2017
Payment: $0.02 per word
Attention, writers of horror fiction.
We’re currently seeking short stories for an upcoming anthology titled Lost Films. In 2016 we released Lost Signals, which has done very well for us. Think of Lost Films as its sequel.
We are looking for horror stories involving films, Hollywood, projectors & projectionists, home movies, webcams, television, documentaries, and other themes involving recorded visual disturbances. We want these stories to be weird and terrifying.
Some good examples of what we’re after: Cigarette Burns by John Carpenter, Starry Eyes by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, Experimental Film by Gemma Files, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, “Ardor” by Laird Barron, Videodrome by David Cronenberg, Angel of the Abyss by Ed Kurtz, and everything else discussed in this LitReactor article.
Deadline: October 31, 2017
Payment: $0.02 per word
Word count: 1,000-8,000
Reprints: No
Send all submissions to [email protected] with “LOST FILMS – [STORY] by [AUTHOR]” in the subject line. If you haven’t heard back from us by December 1st, feel free to query. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
And if you’re interested in the first installment, you can purchase Lost Signals here.
Good luck. I look forward to reading your stories.
Deadline: May 26th, 2018
Payment: Contributor’s Copy
The Poet’s Haven is seeking poetry and short stories that begin with the cliche line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Pieces can be dramatic or humorous: we are seeking a variety for this anthology.
(Despite publisher Vertigo’s well-known cat obsession, there is one canine he adores: Snoopy. V’s been on a kick watching “Peanuts” cartoons, and he’s been reading the collections of Schulz’s original strips when he has the time, so when it was time to pick the next Digest theme, this is the one he selected out of the dozens of ideas post-it noted all over his walls.)
This call will close on May 26, 2018. The anthology is targeted for printing in early or mid-summer.
Publication in this series pays one copy per piece. A maximum of two pieces will be selected from each contributor. All contributors can purchase additional copies at a 50% discount.
Poet’s Haven Digest titles are published as 4.25″ wide by 5.5″ tall pocket-sized books. We are not seeking cover art for this anthology. (The publisher has already decided what he wants on the cover and will either draw it himself or commission someone to do it after he decides his artwork is horrible.)
The Poet’s Haven is a place for artists across a wide and diverse spectrum to feel safe seeing their work published. We are open to unsolicited submissions from both experienced, published creators and talent new to submitting work for publication. We offer minimal restrictions on content and genre. What little content that is disallowed is as follows: material that is obscene, excessively vulgar, pornographic, racist, or in any way bigoted will not be published here. The Poet’s Haven also does not accept religious material.
Our publications are intended for mature readers. While our primary audience is adults we are NOT limited to any one demographic. We have knowingly published work from creators as young as 9 and as old as 95.
We are free to publish what we wish but we will maintain a level of decency; therefore, nothing obscene, pornographic, racist, or bigoted will be accepted.
The publisher has decided to focus on non-religious poetry, artwork, and stories. That said, since many authors are highly influenced by their faiths, work that expresses faith may be acceptable but writing or artwork that preaches a faith will not be accepted. Work that questions faith in general may be acceptable. Work designed to insult the followers of any certain religion will be rejected the same as work of a bigoted nature.
Writing that is badly misspelt or in need of severe grammatical or punctual corrections will be rejected. Your word processor program has a spell check. Spell Check is your friend. Use it.
Please make certain your are submitting your work to the correct call. Submitting poems to the call for short stories will get your work rejected, unread. Submissions of incomplete or unfinished work will be rejected, unread. Sending a chapbook manuscript to a call for pieces for the website will get your work rejected, unread.
The Poet’s Haven has a general open call for chapbook manuscripts each spring. 2017’s call will be open from March 13 through May 13. This call is only open for a short period each year to prevent us from getting so buried in submissions that we cannot find enough time to read them all.
Copyrights:
The Poet’s Haven receives the rights to publish all work submitted to the PoetsHaven.com Galleries on the website. The author retains ownership and is free to have it published elsewhere, provided the other publishers do not require first-time or exclusive rights.
The Poet’s Haven receives the rights to publish all work submitted to The Poet’s Haven Digest in both print and electronic formats. The author retains ownership and is free to have it published elsewhere, provided the other publishers do not require first-time or exclusive rights. We ask that authors refrain from submitting a piece published in a Poet’s Haven Digest anthology to other anthologies, magazines, and/or online journals for at least one year.
The Poet’s Haven receives the rights to publish all work submitted to The Poet’s Haven Author Series in both print and electronic formats. The author retains ownership and is free to submit individual pieces to anthologies, magazines, and/or online journals, provided the publishers do not require first-time or exclusive rights. Authors may not place more than half (50%) the contents of an Author Series title at another press, including as part of a full-length “Collected Works” type publication.
Submissions must be made by either the creator of a work, or on behalf of the creator. PLAGIARISM IS A CRIME, AND WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! We will assist any investigations of a submitter for fraud to the best of our abilities. If you are submitting a work on behalf of the creator, be certain to give us a way to contact him or her, other than through your e-mail, if need be. A postal address will work fine. The author or artist MUST BE AWARE THAT HIS OR HER WORK IS BEING SUBMITTED! The ONLY exception to this rule is in the case of a deceased author or artist, in which case the work must be submitted by the author or artist’s next-of-kin/proprietor-of-estate.
Due to time restraints, we are unable to critique each and every item submitted. Comments from the publisher or editors will be rare.
Response Time:
The Poet’s Haven is largely a one-person operation. Some publications may have another editor helping out (such as the “VENDING MACHINE” anthologies), but nearly everything here is handled by publisher Vertigo Xavier. Unfortunately, those few ads you see on these pages do not bring in enough money for running The Poet’s Haven to be his exclusive, full-time job. Real-life responsibilities do get in the way of him completing updates and reviewing submissions as fast as everyone would like. In other words, it may be some months before your submission gets a response. Please be patient. If you choose to simultaneously submit work both here and elsewhere, when any sort of exclusive rights are required and the other publication accepts your work before you see a response from us, please remember to log back in to your Submittable account and withdraw your submission.
Contact Links and Author Bios:
Pages on the website featuring your work can also include a short author bio and a link to your personal website or social media page. Please include this when sending your submission. We will no longer list author e-mail addresses on the site. If you wish to provide readers with a way to contact you via e-mail, we recommend setting up a small blog with a contact form. The Poet’s Haven Digest and VENDING MACHINE anthologies will include a very short author bio and website URL in the contributor index. The Poet’s Haven Author Series publications include an author photo and bio on back of the book (or inside the cover, if a flip-book format).
Payment for Publication:
Access to The Poet’s Haven website is free of charge. Any meager profit generated by advertisements either goes toward paying for and promoting the site or towards producing our offline events and publications. We cannot pay for work to be published on the website.
Payment for work used in print publications will be described in that print publication’s submission call.
Disclaimer (this is VERY important!):
The Poet’s Haven is a privately held publishing company. This is not an open forum. We, the publisher and editors, reserve the right to refuse any submission for any reason we see fit. This may include work that we feel is questionable, may be in violation of any of the above guidelines, or that we have any objection to. We have a policy of “ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLSHIT.” If you attempt to cause problems by initiating spam campaigns, attempting a DDOS attack, or harassing any member of The Poet’s Haven staff, you will be blocked from accessing the site.
Removal Requests:
The Poet’s Haven website is no different than a print publication. If your poem is published in a magazine and a year later you decide you don’t like the piece anymore, the publisher can not go through all remaining copies of the issue and tear out the page. The Poet’s Haven will not entertain ANY requests for removing poetry from the site on the basis of the author not liking his or her older work. Removal requests can be made for the following reason ONLY: plagiarism. Please provide documentation (ie: cite the work that was plagiarized) when making any removal request.
In the modern age of Google, some authors have expressed concern about work written many years ago, perhaps when that author was still in college or even high school, being found today by prospective employers. Your work was found to be of a high quality when it was submitted, and it should not be removed from the site. However, if you are concerned about the emotions of your youth influencing your professional standing today, we can alter the name listed with your work. We recommend simply changing your first name to your initial. This way, if you do someday return to writing, you can still take credit for your early work.
Deadline: March 1st, 2018
Payment: $5 for flash fiction and $10 to $20 (depending on length) for short stories and nonfiction to authors
Issue #10: Primal Fears (Spring/Summer2018) Footsteps follow but you turn around, and no one’s there. You’re alone in the dark. Lost in a strange and terrible place with no exits. You have no control. See and hear monsters under the bed, bogeymen and bad guys. Creepy-crawlies. Things that squish, splat, burst and ooze. Trapped in your body, trapped in your mind. Reality slips away. You’re nothing more than an animal. Prey. Meat. Here are all the old terrors of childhood, the primitive, reptilian fears that have haunted our species since we first slunk from the mud and the fears that will chase us into the future. Submission deadline: 3/01/2018
“We are not afraid.” Body PartsMagazine is an online literary magazine of horror, erotica, speculative fiction, essays and art. Each themed issue honors Eros and Thanatos, the Greek gods of libido and mortido—life and death. We celebrate the vast and various expressions of dreams and darkness, our primitive desires and urges, and seek to encounter—and embrace—those shadowy monsters who dwell in the dimly lit corners of human experience.
Fiction Body Parts accepts well-written, thoughtfully structured horror, erotic horror, speculative fiction, dark fantasy (including fairy tales and mythology), exceptional stories about ghosts, ghouls, monsters and wretched creatures, Gothic fiction, and all combinations of the above. Our boundaries are few and far between.
Flash Fiction: 1,000 words or fewer. Short Stories: up to 8,000 words. Serialized or Longer Fiction: query us with total word count.
Art/Photography We accept your original artwork and photography reflective of an issue’s theme. Email a query with a link to your art online (web, Dropbox, Google album, etc.) Payment varies.
Essays & Interviews We accept short essays and interviews (up to 1200 words) about topics that fit within our themes, people integral to the type of work published in Body Parts (writers, artists, photographers, etc.). Query first. We do not accept book/game/music reviews. Payment varies.
Payment Body Parts is a paying market. We offer an honorarium of $5 for flash fiction and $10 to $20 (depending on length) for short stories and nonfiction to authors, and $5 to $20 for artwork and photography published in our journal.
Rights We request exclusive rights as long as the issue in which your work appears is current. Once the subsequent issue has been published, you’re free to pursue reprint publication with other journals, anthologies, etc.
How to Submit Cut and paste your text and submit it within the body an email. Emails with attachments will be deleted unread.
In the subject line, include the word Submission, the issue number you’re submitting to, and the title of your piece.
Please include a publication-ready bio and your website/social media sites. If your piece is selected for publication, we’ll send you a “Congratulations” email and request your PayPal email address and an author photo. Response times can be lengthy so simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please email us to withdraw your work from consideration if it’s placed in another publication.
Hydra is currently putting together a fantasy anthology of short stories from 10 authors. Previous publication experience is not required. Payout will be $30, payable when the anthology releases sometime in the spring of 2018.
Requirements and details:
Unsheathed: an Epic Anthology of Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, edited by best-selling author Stuart Thaman
Epic / heroic fantasy submissions only. No urban fantasy, no paranormal fantasy, no fantasy romance
Some element of sword play or sword-related theme must be present in each story
Stories, once accepted, will be professionally edited with the author’s input
Stories must be between 7,500 – 10,000 words
Submit all submissions, in their entirety, to [email protected] – be sure to include the phrase “Fantasy Anthology” in the subject line
Submissions must be made by December 31st, 2017 to be considered
Unsheathed will receive a very large marketing effort from Hydra Publications. We kindly request that all authors participating in the anthology make their best efforts as well. The goal of the anthology will be exposure and cross-promotion, not sales and royalties. In order to maximize exposure, the anthology will be priced in electronic version for $0.99 and will also be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.
Paperback copies will be made available for purchase to all authors
Each author will be given one full page biographical section in which to list their other works and websites, etc. after their story
Authors will also receive a detailed sales report after the first month of publication to know how well they’re work is being marketing and promoted
Hydra is only interest in first-publication stories, and Hydra will retain rights to the stories for a term of 5 years
