by Stuart Conover | Apr 18, 2019 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine, Poetry, Pro, Reprints Allowed, Semipro
Deadline: June 30th, 2019
Payment: Between $0.04 and $0.08/word, depending on factors listed below
Note: Reprints, poetry accepted
Following our guidelines does not guarantee that we will accept your story, but ignoring them does guarantee that your submission may be returned without receiving the attention it deserves.
An Overview
At DreamForge, our goal is to publish positive science and fantasy fiction. (That’s about it, but if you want to know more, you can check out our Rules of Fiction page.)
What Are We Looking For?
Space opera, urban fantasy, military sf, magical realms, hard science fiction, sword & sorcery, time travel, cyberpunk, steampunk, hopepunk, and whatever else comes before punk. Parables, poetry, zombies, and vampires are also welcome. No horror please.
- Yes to communities and teams working together to overcome dire challenges.
- Yes to marginalized and under-represented characters as protagonists.
- Yes to science and magic that solve problems, alleviate suffering, and boldly explore new possibilities.
- No to corrupt, dystopian governments or evil corporations.
- No Horror, please
- Stories set before, during, or after an “apocalypse” are more likely than not to be rejected.
- Tone down the violence, profanity, and sex
Story Length
Shorter is better!
If you submit a story over 5,000 words, it has to be amazing to get very far in the review process. We want variety in each issue, and longer your story, the less variety we can print.
Overall, we will consider the following word counts:
- Flash Fiction & Poetry: 100 – 1500 words
- Short Stories: 2,000 – 7,500 words
- Novelettes: 7,500 – 12,000 words.
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by Stuart Conover | Apr 17, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: August 1st, 2019
Payment: $30+
The theme of the eighth annual Bikes in Spaces, the galaxy’s only series of feminist bicycle science fiction anthologies, is in the works! This volume’s theme is… cats.
House cats. Ship cats. Lions. Strays. Anthropomorphic talking cats. Feline deities. Familiars. Wherever your imagination takes you, we’d love to read your story.
Please send us your short stories that feature both cats and bicycles or bicycling in a way that is essential to the story; be fundamentally feminist, even if they aren’t explicitly addressing feminism as a topic; and fall somewhere in the science fiction and fantasy spectrum (sorry, no fanfic, but all other fantastical and speculative genres are welcome). Black and white illustrations are also sought.
We especially love to publish work by writers and artists who don’t see themselves well-represented in mainstream books.
Word count: 500 – 6,000 words, but don’t sweat the exact count too much—make your story the length it needs to be.
Format: Google doc or Word preferred; a PDF or text document are also fine. If submitting an illustration, please get in touch about format and dimensions before you start work on it.
Payment: A portion of profits after expenses from the Kickstarter project used to fund the book is split between contributors; payments are not less than $30 each.
Send submissions to elly at takingthelane dot com by August 1, 2019.
Via: Taking The Lane.
by Stuart Conover | Apr 16, 2019 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine
Deadline: July 15th, 2019
Payment: $20 per story
Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.
A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story.
Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.
We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.
February closes January 15
May closes April 15
August closes July 15
November closes October 15
Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time.
We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.
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by Stuart Conover | Apr 15, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: May 1st, 2019
Payment: $100
Tiny Nightmares will be a collection of short and terrifying tales of monsters, madness, and nightmares. The anthology follows up on Tiny Crimes, an anthology of short crime fiction featuring stories by Carmen Maria Machado, Yuri Herrera, Brian Evenson, Amelia Gray, and more.
For Tiny Nightmares, we’re seeking short stories that play with and expand the boundaries of horror fiction — think of the stretch of unlit highway between Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream, and Stephen King’s IT. Stories that turn our understanding of “scary” on its (trembling) head. We’re looking for:
- Stories of new monsters, and old ones that scare us in new ways
- Tiny, intimate horrors to make our hair stand on end
- Horror as cultural/political/environmental funhouse mirror
- Subversions of traditional horror tropes
- Something so scary we haven’t thought of it yet
Guidelines:
Stories should be under 1200 words.
Stories should be previously unpublished.
Payment will be $100 dollars.
Deadline: May 1st
Via: Catapult’s Submittable.
by Stuart Conover | Apr 12, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: March 31st, 2019
Payment: $5
Note: Female-identifying writers only
Under Sapphire Stars, our first LGBTQ anthology is calling for female-identifying writers to step up and deliver their own amazing horror in that LGBTQ space. Stories can range from themes of horror, insanity, and murder to eroticisms played out within the ranks of an eldritch cult. Editor Desiree LeAnn is looking for only the best of the best, but we invite you to surprise us, scare us and to move us.
- We will not accept any stories about rape.
- Racism/Sexism/Bigotry of any form will never be accepted here.
- Stories between 1500-5000 words preferred.
- Double check your grammar and spelling.
- Format your story correctly.
- Please submit all stories in DOC/RTF format.
- We prefer stories that have not been published before.
- We prefer to avoid multiple and simultaneous submissions.
- We retain exclusive publishing rights for 12 months.
- We pay $5.00 for stories
- Submission Date: 4.1-5-31
Via: Madness Heart Press.
by Stuart Conover | Apr 11, 2019 | Anthology, Contributor's Copy, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: May 15th, 2019
Payment: $75 and 2 contributor’s copies
Title: Once Upon An Enchanted Forest: An Anthology of Romantic Witchcraft Stories
Word count: 7K-15K
Submission Window: February 5 – May 15
Payment: $75 paid upon publication + 2 paperback copies + 25 electronic copies for distribution to readers/giveaways
Anthology Release Date: 9.23.2019, the autumnal equinox.
Prompt and Theme: The autumnal equinox marks the shift into darkness which completes on Samhain. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead. This is a time of Thanksgiving and kinship. However, in our stories, we also want to consider the theme of The Enchanted Forest. How can you place romance, sorcery, witchcraft, an enchanted wood, cottage, village, or castle into this theme? How can you play up the impending knowledge that everything is changing from light to dark? How can you take your characters from a time of celebration into a world of romance, magical intrigue, and sorcery?
What would lurk in your enchanted forest?
The autumnal equinox, magical/witchcraft elements, and romance must be includedin some manner, but remember that you have a ton of material to pull from. From the Celtic Connection: Druids call this time of year Mabon, Mea’n Fo’mhair, and honor the The Green Man, the God of the Forest. Various other names for this Wiccan Sabbat are The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega, Italian), Alben Elfed (Caledonii), or Cornucopia. The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, or Winter’s Night, known as the Norse New Year. (“Information Categories.” What Is Wicca?, wicca.com/celtic/akasha/mabon.htm.)
For modern stories, the autumnal equinox is still celebrated across the world. Every culture recognizes or has recognized this turning of the season, so do a little research. So many ideas await!
Things to note:
- We love diversity in all its forms.
- We love strong women with agency.
- We enjoy historical, contemporary, and even futuristic tales.
- We most definitely want a good romance, which means a Happily Ever After or a Happy for Now ending.
- We are not looking for erotica or horror.
- If you’re wondering what kinds of stories we’re looking for, we advise you to take a look at 2018’s anthology, Once Upon the Longest Night, which released on the winter solstice, 12.21.18.
Formatting and Other Guidelines:
- The work submitted must not have appeared in print or online anywhere before. We do not accept reprints, multiple submissions, or simultaneous submissions.
- We do not accept fanfic.
- All submissions must be in English.
- Follow industry standard format, minus identifying information. We prefer Times New Roman, 12-pt font, double spaced. Use italics for emphasis, smart/curly quotes, and em dashes, not double hyphens.
- Your story should be in DOC or DOCX format.
Response: Final decisions will be made by June 1st.
Remove any identifying information from your submission/header, please.
Thanks and Good Luck!
Once Upon Anthologies
Via: Once Upon’s Submittable.
