The Horror Tree

Horror Tree is a resource for authors that lists open markets, articles, interviews, original fiction, and more!

Category: Pay

Payment Scale

Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: 50 Shades of Dead

Deadline: December 31st, 2020
Payment: $10 for short stories (3000-8000 words)
Theme: Horror romance/erotic horror

Working Title: 50 Shades of Dark

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Deadline: Dec 31 2020 or When Full

Premise:

Horror romance/erotic horror. This is not for pure erotica or romance (no standard PNR), and not for horror that lacks any romantic elements. The components of romance, sensuality, and horror should be well woven together. Happily ever afters not required. Sex not required, but if included should be well done. The best submissions will be equal parts titillating and nightmare fuel.

Looking for stories at a hard R to NR rating, but all levels of sensuality and horror will be considered. If you have ever wanted to push boundaries, this is the call to do it in!

Preference will be given to #OwnVoices, female authors, LGBTQA stories, but all are welcome to submit!

Length Accepted:

Flash, and Shorts.

Eligibility: Open to all. No Reprints. No simultaneous submissions.

Multiple Submissions: See guidelines and story lengths for the number of submissions per pen name.

Publication: Feb 2021

 

Via: Wicked Taxidermy Press.

Events / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Ongoing Submissions: Curiouser Magazine

Payment: $25 per poem, and from $50-125 for short prose
Theme: Horror, magic realism, speculative fiction, science fiction and streams of consciousness are welcome – but they must be somewhat grounded in real life.

Yes, yes, yes. We are open for business and are now accepting submissions to our fledgling publication. Exciting times, indeed!

So, send us your stories! We want to read your elegant and ugly. We want to pore over your terrifying, your elegiac. We want to ponder over your profound and your silly.

Yes, send us your words. We accept poetry and short fiction up to 5,000 words in length. Double-spaced with a serif font such as Garamond, Times New Roman or Georgia is a requirement. Send all submissions in a Word document (.doc or .docx) by email to [email protected]. Previously unpublished work only.

One short story per author, and up to three poems or two pieces of flash fiction up to 750 words. The subject of the email should read “<Name of Author> – <Title of Piece> – <Word Count>”, i.e., “John Citizen – This Story I Wrote – 2,500 words”. Please include a short cover letter in the body of the email, as well as a short (50-75 words) author bio.

We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted elsewhere.

As stated, we’re looking for stories that excite, that break the boundary between real and unreal. Experimentation and surreal ways of looking at the world we live in will be looked upon fondly. Horror, magic realism, speculative fiction, science fiction and streams of consciousness are welcome – but they must be somewhat grounded in real life.

We have no issue with sex, violence or profanity – this is, after all, a journal made by and for adults – but as with most things, excess isn’t quite becoming.

Curiouser Magazine believes that telling stories is part and parcel of a functioning society, so we strongly encourage submissions from Indigenous peoples, women, LGBT+, people of colour and refugees. Your stories are important.

And – and! – we believe in paying writers. Successful submissions will pay poets $25 per poem, and from $50-125 for short prose. You will hear from us no later than four weeks from submission.

We look forward to seeing your words. Surprise us!

Via: Curiouser Magazine.

Flat Amount / Ongoing Submissions / Online

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Ongoing Submissions: Flash Point Science Fiction

Payment: $10
Theme: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Slipsream, and releated.

Story Guidelines

Flash Point Science Fiction wants speculative fiction stories from 100 to 1,000 words in length. Send us your science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and everything in between, so long as it’s short. We here at FPSF are partial to flash fiction and want to see the flash market grow. So as much as it pains us, please take your 10,000 word tour de force elsewhere. We’re not looking for the next Brandon Sanderson. (Unless you are, in fact, Brandon Sanderson, in which case we’d be delighted!)

What we’re looking for:

-Fantasy (all kinds—epic, adventure, contemporary, urban, grimdark, fairy tale, magical realism, myths and legends, etc.)
-Science Fiction (all kinds—hard, space opera, military, near future, science fantasy, cyber punk, dystopian, etc.)
-Slipstream (make it as weird as you want, so long as it works)
-Anything that makes us laugh, cry, think, or smile.

What we aren’t looking for:

-Horror—it can be spooky or menacing, but we’re not a horror market, so the fright factor should not be the primary appeal.
-Literary fiction—this is a genre market, so there needs to be an SF&F element, however slight.
-Gratuitous sex or violence—don’t be that guy.
-Fanfic—original concepts only, please. We know there was a lot going on in Hobbiton while Frodo was away, but that’s not our property and it’s not yours either.

Submission Specs

In terms of how your story should look, we recommend you read William Shunn’s Proper Manuscript Format. This is the industry standard and we think it’s a good one. It won’t matter for our submission portal, which is plain text, but should we accept your submission and request the manuscript file, we will expect it to be in this format.

Please do not submit to us via email directly. Submissions received in this manner will be deleted unread.

We do not accept unsolicited reprints. Even if it was posted on a personal blog or website, so long as it’s public anyone who has access to the internet can read it, and that qualifies as publication.

No simultaneous submissions. This means you shouldn’t submit the same story to us and any other market at the same time.

No multiple submissions. One story at a time please.

Our normal response time is 30 days. If you haven’t heard back from us after 60 days, please contact us and we’ll bump your story to the front of the line. If we were fast readers, we wouldn’t be reading flash, right? Wrong, we still would, because we love it.

Note: Flash Point SF welcomes submissions from writers of all races, colors, religions, genders, gender expressions, ages, national origins, disabilities, and sexual orientations. No matter who you are, we want to give you a voice (provided that voice stays under 1,000 words)!

Payment:

We pay $10 per story for first worldwide rights and for non-exclusive reprint rights. We also reserve the non-exclusive right to republish your story in our annual anthology, as long as this right is activated within 24 calendar months of the story’s original publication date. These anthologies are anticipated to consist entirely of material originally published by Flash Point SF. Payment will be determined if and when they occur.

SUBMIT HERE

Via: FLash Point Science Fiction.

Events / Magazine / Poetry / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Departure Mirror

Deadline: October 31st, 2020
Payment: $0.10/word up to 3,000 words for fiction. $300 flat rate above that. $5/poem flat rate for poetry.
Theme: Speculative fiction that astute readers should be able to see how your story addresses the world we live in right now.

What we Publish: Original fiction and poetry, all of which must be broadly “speculative fiction” (science fiction, fantasy, alt-history, magical realism, slipstream, or in some other way altered reality).

Length: 12,000 words or less preferred, but you may submit stories up to 20,000 words. 30 lines or fewer for poetry.

Rights Purchased: First worldwide English-language rights.

Payment: $0.10/word up to 3,000 words for fiction. $300 flat rate above that. $5/poem flat rate for poetry.

Simultaneous Submissions: Accepted. Please let us know immediately if your work sells elsewhere.

Multiple Submissions: Accepted on a trial basis. Please do not dump your entire trunk on us or this will change. For fiction, we recommend not sending us multiple submissions unless there is a compelling reason to do so (in case we send feedback). Please submit each story separately. For poetry, please submit up to 10 poems in a single file.

Reprints: By solicitation only. Query if your work was previously published but obscurely enough that you think it should not count.

Translations: Accepted for first worldwide English publication.

Response Time: We strive to respond to all submissions in less than 90 days.

Query address: departuremirror [at] gmail

Departure Mirror Quarterly stories are:

  • Current. Astute readers should be able to see how your story addresses the world we live in right now.
  • Well written.
  • Accessible to a mainstream American audience.
  • Diverse. We mean this not only in terms of the types of stories we publish, but also in terms of the types of authors we publish. Writers from historically underrepresented and oppressed groups are especially encouraged to submit.
  • Anti-violence. We do not publish anything that promotes or glorifies violence, including threats of violence and coercion. (Minimum necessary force in self-defense can be acceptable if it is portrayed as regrettable rather than triumphant.) Stories certainly can contain violence (it is a fact of life), but violence should not be shown as the correct solution to the problem. Government-sanctioned violence is violence, so resolution through military action, police use-of-force, capital punishment, etc. is included in this policy. In societies in which laws are enforced through coercion and violence (such as ours), passing a law would also be included in this policy. We accept stories that highlight the inappropriateness violence. We particularly like stories that show us a better way.
  • Unexpected. Speak truth to power. Invent something new. Advance a conversation. Subvert a trope. Bring us an unheard voice. Surprise us.

Departure Mirror Quarterly poems are:

  • Readable by someone with no formal training in poetry.
  • Reflowable. Poems that depend on typography for their meaning do not fare well in two of our three formats. Visual poetry does not work at all.
  • Evocative.
  • Speculative. Make sure there is a clear SF/F element, please.

We will be closing for submissions on Oct. 31, 2020. We will re-open January 2, 2021 and remain open for the month of January.

Submit via Moksha.

If the link above does not work, we are temporary closed for submissions. In that event, we will post a note here of when we will be reopening. Do not send e-mail submissions to the query address while we are closed for submissions.

Last updated 09 October 2020.

Via: Departure Mirror.

Events / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Paper Butterfly

Deadline: November 5th, 2020
Payment: $15 canadian
Theme: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, humour, western, mystery, literary…and any variation or combination thereof.

YES, PLEASE:

Flash fiction stories only.  Word count: 1,000 or less.

English language only.

Original work only.

Genre: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, humour, western, mystery, literary…and any variation or combination thereof.  If in doubt, send it along – you never know.

Multiple submissions:  feel free to send as many submissions as you wish to during the reading period.  Please send each submission in separate emails.

Simultaneous submissions: all good. If your story is selected for publication elsewhere, please contact me right away to withdraw it from my consideration.

NO, THANK YOU:

Word count over the limit.

Poetry, non-fiction, essays, children’s stories, anything other than flash fiction.

Erotica, excessive gore, abuse, or ‘isms such as racism, sexism, etc..

Overly saucy language.  I don’t mind swear words, I just would prefer to keep the content on the site closer to the PG side of things.

Reprints.

Stories sent outside of the reading period.

Artwork.

Queries. They’re not necessary.  Send me your work if you think there’s a chance I might like it.  Please don’t ask me about your submission after you’ve sent it. I will get back to you by December 15, 2020.

FORMATTING:

I’m not picky about fonts or font sizes or margins or paragraph indentations or anything of the sort.  I will format your work to fit the site if it is accepted for publication.  If your story has an experimental form and I accept it, we’ll work together to ensure it is posted properly.

Cover letters are not required.

Your contact information (name, email address) MUST be included somewhere in your submission.

Please watch your spelling and grammar – if your story is littered with errors, I am likely to give it less of a chance.  Don’t worry about American/Canadian/British spelling; I’ll sort it all out.

Submissions may be an attachment (.rtf, .docx., .doc) or pasted into the body of your email – it’s up to you.

If edits are required, I will make them and send you the proof for confirmation before publication on the website.

If your work is accepted, I will ask for a short bio.  This will be an opportunity to add a link to your author’s website or blog.

RENUMERATION:

If your story is accepted for publication, you will be paid $15.00 (Canadian funds).  Please note that if you live in countries outside of Canada, the exchange rate may mean you don’t quite make fifteen bucks from your story.  I’m sorry about that, but if it’s a problem, please don’t send me your work.  Payment will be issued via PayPal.  In order to receive payment, your PayPal email address must be provided to me.

  • If your story is selected for publication during the October/November reading period, payment will be issued on or before January 15, 2021.

PUBLICATION:

Authors retain all rights to their work.

Bear in mind that if your story is posted on Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction (or anywhere else on the Internet, for that matter), you may not be able to submit it to another publisher as it will be considered a “reprint.”

If, for some reason, you wish to withdraw your story from Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction’s website, please send me a message and I’ll remove it as quickly as I can.  Again, it will still count as a “reprint” in the view of a future publisher, even if it has only been posted for a short time.

If your story is accepted, I will let you know when I plan to post it on the website.  It will be posted on the first day of that month.

OTHER THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW:

I will send you a confirmation of receipt of your story within 72 hours of your submission.

I must apologize, but I cannot offer more than a form rejection letter at this time.

SEND SUBMISSIONS to shrob17(at)hotmail(dot)ca. I will not consider submissions sent outside of the reading period, so double check that it is open before sending me your work.

Via: Paper Butterfly.

Flat Amount / Magazine / Ongoing Submissions / Poetry

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Ongoing Submissions: Poetry London

Payment: £30 for one poem and £20 for each subsequent poem
Theme: All forms of poetry, including translations

Poetry London is a leading international magazine, where new names share pages with acclaimed contemporary poets. We also publish a wide range of poetry in translation.

The magazine is published in February, May and September. We receive a vast amount of submissions, so reading can take up to three months, and if your work is shortlisted, maybe even longer. You might find it helpful to read the magazine first, to see if your work is suitable.

We appreciate subscriptions, as we depend on these to survive, though if you don’t subscribe it won’t affect your chances!

Please ensure that you pay the correct postage when submitting poems and books for review. As a small charitable organisation, we don’t have the resources to pay for any additional costs incurred and won’t be able to collect any post where incorrect postage has been paid. Thank you!

We pay poets £30 for one poem and £20 for each subsequent poem. Appropriate adjustments may be made for very long poems. Review and interview fees are agreed in advance with the Reviews Editor and benchmarked at £45 per 1,000 words.

TO SUBMIT POEMS

Poetry London aims to publish the best, most exciting poetry being written now, and we are always interested in work by unpublished poets, as well as celebrated ones.

Submissions are read by Martha Sprackland, Poetry Editor.

At the moment, we are especially interested in poetry in translation. For submissions of translations, or discussions of translation projects, please contact us directly on [email protected] All other submissions should follow the process below.

Both postal and electronic submissions are welcome and all are carefully read.

For postal submissions, please send a maximum of six poems to:

Martha Sprackland
Poetry London
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London
SE14 6NW
UK

Always include a stamped addressed envelope for our reply.

We will reply by email if you are sending your work from abroad. In these circumstances you may submit your poems by post and request an email response in your cover letter. Unfortunately we cannot return manuscripts from outside the UK.

For online submissions, please click the button below and follow the instructions.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if you are submitting online through Submittable. Please withdraw your poems if they are accepted elsewhere.

submit

Via: Poetry London.

Anthology / Events / Royalties / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Alternative Deathiness

Deadline: March 1st, 2021
Payment: $.02 a word and royalties
Theme: A fun filled romp into the concept and nature of Death.

B Cubed Press is pleased to announce an open call for Alternative Deathiness.  A fun filled romp into the concept and nature of Death.

Seriously what the hell is death, big guy with bones and a sickle? An ominous Tarot Card?  Or is it simply the passing of one thing for another.  A change in phase. Or, it is the ending of you, and just you, a personal FU from the universe that say oopsie, you’re out of here?

So be prepared to look hard at this topic, its rituals, its layers.  Have fun.  May as well,  considering the end comes for us all.

This book will be edited by Bob Brown and Irene Radford, the team that brought you the best selling Alternative Truths.

If you wonder what perspective the editors bring just remember, we’re old.  Our friends are old, our families are old.  Death is beginning to feel more like a roommate than a concept.  So?  Let the stories rip, show no deference to religion, ritual, or sensitivities.  For god’s sake, we’re talking death here!

And don’t try sneaking zombies and ghosts and vampires in to get around death.  Oh we might buy one or two REALLY GOOD Ones, but that isn’t the focus.

Does this mean we will not accept sensitive looks at this from a more popular perspective?  No, but it means that it will be tested against the criteria that the writing be good, and carry an explanation of the nature of death. In terms of what we are looking for, think openly about the concept of death and life, can’t have one without the other.  The setting is open anywhere in time and space.

This book will be part of the best-selling Alternatives series.  We will be accepting stories, poetry, and essays from now through March 1, 2021.

Story length for our books average about 2200 words but have ranged from 100 to 7500 words. However, we only use one or two stories over 5,000 words and our advice is to keep it under 5K, unless we communicate in advance.  Reprints are accepted, but we hold them to a higher standard and limit them in number.

Pays $.02 a word upon publication, plus a share of the profits. As always a share will go to charity, usually ACLU, but that can be changed to something else by agreement with all the contributors. Collaborations will earn 1 share to be split between contributors.

Submissions should adhere to SFWA formatting guidelines https://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/04/manuscript-format/. It’s always good to make an editor happy.

For the first time we are using Moksha, submissions are accepted at https://bcubedpress.moksha.io/publication/alternative-deathiness.

Should you have any questions, please contact Bob at [email protected].

Via: B Cubed Press’s Moksha.

Events / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Constellation Magazine #1

Deadline: November 1st, 2020
Payment: 4 cents per word
Theme: The Bonds That Unite Us / Los lazos que nos unen

The Themes for Year 1 are:

#1: The Bonds That Unite Us / Los lazos que nos unen

#2. Myths and Monsters / Mitos y monstruos

#3: Beyond the Stars / Más allá de las estrellas

#4: Love Needs No Translation / El amor no necesita traducción

The Bonds that Unite Us

Constellations are the product of human imagination, giving meaning to the patterns we see in the sky. From these scintillating dots lighting up the night, we’ve created stories about heroes, legends, and mythological creatures. We created those bonds, and we give them meaning.

Each culture that has looked up at the sky with wonder has its own interpretation of these connections, and now we want to hear yours.

What are the bonds that unite our cultures and languages around the world? How are these bonds formed, and what upholds them? How can they be broken and forged again? What unites an alien civilization to humankind? What ties the dragon to the unicorn and prevents it from making a meal out of her?

Sometimes these bonds are ones of blood. (Vampire tastes may vary.) Sometimes they’re shaped by shows of courage and strength, and the common struggles we face. These bonds can topple walls and bring down civilizations, and sometimes they’re the foundation for something new.

The theme is open to interpretation, as long as the stories fit under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Myths and Monsters

Since the dawn of time, humans have stared into the abyss and wondered what hid in the darkness. Tell us about the myths and monsters that have shaped your perception of the unknown.

Do your monsters hide in broad daylight or lurk in the shadows? Are they under the bed or are they ancient demons you can invoke when the moon is full? Have you heard a beating heart beneath the floorboards or the deathly song of a mermaid? Did the alien-like creature speak, or did you just imagine it?

Sometimes monsters wear suits and ties, sometimes they can’t be seen, only felt. When they told you the witch would come to eat you if you didn’t sleep during siesta, was it true? What is your version of the chupacabra, the Kraken, or la Llorona? Take us to the darkest corners of your mind and tell us a story meant to be read by candlelight.

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The theme is open to interpretation, as long as the stories fit under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Guidelines for Submitting Stories

Stories can be submitted in English or Spanish.

Please remember that each language has its own punctuation rules.

—Presta atención al uso correcto de las rayas o guiones largos —dijo la editora.

“I will,” said the writer.

If you submit your story in Spanish, it will be translated and also published in English.

If you submit your story in English, it will be translated and also published in Spanish.

All stories in the magazine will be published in both languages.

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Simultaneous submissions and multiple submissions are not allowed.

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We pay 8 cents per word, up to 6400 words. We ask for six month world first exclusive rights and translation rights for all original stories accepted.

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If your story is accepted, you are agreeing to be contacted by the person doing the translation for your work in case they have any questions. Translating is a collaborative process, and we want to make sure we get all the nuances correct.

What We’re Looking For

The theme of each edition will vary, but the general consensus for all stories is as follows:

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– Well-written original stories that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, up to 6,400 words long. No exceptions.

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– Authors are free to interpret the themes creatively, and we encourage you to twist and bend the themes to your will, as long as they fit into any of the speculative fiction genres. However, if you have to explain to us how your story fits in with the theme, it probably isn’t a good fit for us.

What We Don’t Want

– Racism, homophobia, bigotry, discrimination, or misogyny.

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– Stories that include gratuitous violence against humans, robots, animals, or any sentient beings, whether it’s rape, torture, or murder.

– Stories that glorify any cultures above others.

Submissions will be open from October 15, 2020 until November 1, 2020 for the first issue:

#1: The Bonds That Unite Us / Los lazos que nos unen

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Please make sure to send your submission to the correct category and language.

Translators

We’re looking for people who can do literary translations from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. Please contact us at [email protected].  We pay $0.04 per word.

Artists

We commission art months in advance based on the issue’s theme. You can send us a link to your portfolio to [email protected] with the subject as follows: ART PORTFOLIO and your name.

As of now, we’re only looking for art by BIPOC creators from anywhere in the world.

We will pay $1000 and ask for rights to use the art as our cover for the digital and print versions of the magazine and online promotional material. We may ask for other rights, and they will be clearly stipulated in the contract beforehand.

Questions?

If you have any questions please message us via our Contact Page or email us at [email protected] 

Special Notice

If you are an author or artist from the Caribbean, Latin America, or their diaspora and you have a project coming out soon please contact us. We’d love to feature and promote your work in Constelación Magazine. 

Via: Conetallation Magazine.