by Stuart Conover | Aug 16, 2019 | Events, Flat Amount, Online
Deadline: November 30th, 2019
Payment: $10
Please read the entire guidelines before submitting. No, really. Please do. It will help you, and it will help us.
We accept and publish web edition submissions on a rolling basis. We don’t read new submissions in December, January, June and July.
Vestal Review is a magazine for new flash (short-shorts) fiction, 500 words or fewer. We don’t accept reprints.
We love to hear new voices, especially from immigrants, but we don’t discriminate against anyone.
We love magic realism. High fantasy, science fiction, romance and kids stories? Not so much.
No fees. The honorarium is $10. All payments will be made only through PayPal.
For Web edition, we consider only one story per author. We accept simultaneous submissions.
We assume that every writer is also a reader, so please read the guidelines before submitting and not the other way around.
Our philosophy: Most stories are not rejected because they are not good, but because other stories are better.
Vestal Review now publishes its print issues twice a year in a perfect-bound edition. All content is available on the Web. We welcome your submissions, but please read our guidelines first.
We don’t read new submissions in December, January, June and July (except for special calls for submissions). All submissions sent during this time will be deleted. Don’t worry: the categories that we don’t temporarily consider will be hidden from view. Each submission is to be sent separately.
Our reading periods are:
1. February-May
2. August-November
Once in a while, we have special calls for submissions that change the above schedule and payments.
Effective immediately, all submissions should be done using our submission manager. We will not consider any other forms of submissions.
Use this e-mail to inquire about the status of your submission (please wait three months before sending it):
submissions[at]vestalreview.net
Please start the subject line with the word “Query.” Do not use this e-mail for anything else including submissions.
Vestal Review accepts only original material. No reprints, please. Even if it has been displayed on your own Web page, we consider it published. If the story has been posted and reviewed at a password-protected e-workshop with a controlled list of participants, we consider this a plus.
Vestal Review is a magazine for flash (short-shorts) fiction. We realize that there are different definitions of what a flash story is and all of them have merit. In our definition, a flash story is no longer than 500 words and it has a plot. If it’s longer than 500 words and/or has no plot, we are not interested. We are also not interested in porn, racial slurs, excessive gore, or obscenity. On the other end of the spectrum, no children’s or preachy stories either, please. Our target audience is people over 18, so R-rated content is OK, but not X-rated. Most genres, other than children’s, syrupy romance or hard science fiction, are accepted, and we love humor.
Don’t forget that the title is an important part of the story. Make it pertinent but don’t tell too much. We generally don’t favor one-word titles.
Via: Vestal Review.
by Stuart Conover | Aug 14, 2019 | Anthology, Contributor's Copy, Events, Flat Amount, Reprints Allowed
Deadline: October 18th, 2019
Payment: $20 and a contributor’s copy
Note: Reprints welcome
Note: This submission call is for authors who identify as LGBTQ+
The best definition of erotic horror that we have found is “literature that arouses the reader…and then makes them complicit in the horror that ensues because of that arousal.” From a submission call by Thurston Howl Publications.
Body & Blood is seeking erotic horror with a trashy aesthetic. We’re looking for cult, b-movie style fiction from authors who identify as LGBTQ+. Send us your satanic sex cult orgies, or tales of the abandoned house gone wrong. We want erotic horror at it’s trashiest.
This submission call is for authors who identify as LGBTQ+. It is encouraged that the characters in your story identify as LGBTQ+ however is not a strict requirement.
Although we have worked on anthologies in the furry community before, this submission call is not seeking furry submissions. Werewolf and monsters are fine, but we are not looking for submissions where anthropomorphic animals are the focus of your story.
Sinister Stoat Press will not accept/tolerate any art and/or written piece featuring children in sexual settings, pedophilia, copywritten characters, rape, gore, torture, forced consent, dubious consent, zoophilia, necrophilia, ableism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, sexism, depictions of abusive relationships in a positive light.
Up to 3 stories max.
5500 words max
Reprints are fine, however you must own the full rights to the story before submitting.
Simultaneous submissions accepted.
Payment: a flat payment of $20 and a complimentary copy of the print book.
Via: Weasel Press.
by Stuart Conover | Aug 13, 2019 | Events, Flat Amount, Magazine
Deadline: October 1st, 2019
Payment: $25
Note: Must be an Undergraduate Student.
The deadline for submissions for Issue #23 is October 1, 2019.
Prose – Submit 1-3 pieces of fiction or creative nonfiction totaling no more than 3000 words.
Poetry – Submit up to 3 poems.
We want good, highly imaginative writing about contemporary life as you see it. We’re not interested in genre writing (romance, detective, horror, sci-fi) unless it somehow rises above the conventions associated with those types of writing. If your writing is clichéd, inspired by TV, emphasizes end rhyme above all else, has flat characters, exhibits a general insensitivity to the beauties and subtleties of language, it will not find a place in this journal.
No pornography. No racism. No sexism. If you’ve got to use profanity, remember a little goes a long, long way.
We do not accept previously published work. However, we do accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. Our response time is about three months.
IMPORTANT:
Undergraduate Students: Only previously unpublished work of current undergraduate writers will be considered. In order to verify your status as an undergraduate, we ask that with your submission you send along the email of a faculty member from your department. Until we gain confirmation of undergraduate status from this reference, we will not be able to publish your work.
Terms: We pay twenty-five dollars upon publication. We acquire First North American Serial Rights, a one time, non-exclusive use of Electronic Rights, with all rights reverting to the author upon publication. We will archive your work online. If your piece is later published elsewhere, we expect that you will mention The Blue Route as the original publisher.
Formatting: We ask that you put no identifying marks on your submission. Instead, in your submission email, we would like the following information provided:
Name (First and Last)
Title of Submission(s)
Name and Email of Faculty Contact for Enrollment Verification
A Brief Biography (No more than 100 words and written in the third person.)
For submissions: Please write “Poetry–Your Name” or “Fiction–Your Name” or “Nonfiction–Your Name” in the heading of the email. Send your work in an attachment in .doc or .docx format. Submissions that do not follow these simple directions may be deleted. Send all poetry or prose submissions to [email protected].
Via: The Blue Route.
by Stuart Conover | Aug 8, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount, Reprints Allowed
Deadline: September 15th, 2019
Payment: $20
Ian Randal Strock’s Fantastic Books has contracted with James D. Macdonald, Judith K. Dial, and Tom Easton for an anthology of 40 Horror stories under 2,000 words (minimum: 500 words) to be called:
HORROR FOR THE THRONE
ONE-SITTING READS
We will open for submissions on August 8, 2019. Submissions will close September 15, 2019.
The stories should be reprints–because the budget permits us to pay only $20 per story. The stories should NOT involve bathroom horror.
We also need blurbs. Anyone dare to call the book “A moving experience!”?
The book will join SCIENCE FICTION FOR THE THRONE and FANTASY FOR THE THRONE on Ian’s dealer table at numerous conventions (as well as on his website at
fantasticbooks.biz and on Amazon etc.). With luck, everyone will decide they just have to have the whole set.
by Stuart Conover | Aug 7, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: October 11th, 2019
Payment: $135
Earlier this year we did an open call and produced Welcome to San Cicaro, the first of Thunderbird Studios’ original anthologies. We got some great stories and exciting new writers, and had a blast doing it. In fact, we enjoyed it so much… we’re doing it again!
Once more, we’re taking another plunge into the mysterious, paranormal jewel of the Golden State—San Cicaro. Want to play in our city? Here’s another chance.
As before, we’re looking for yarns of dark urban fantasy, the weird, the macabre and the hopeful. Tell us of unassuming teenagers stumbling upon witch meetups, who weave spells for good or ill. Of hell-born creatures leaving scenes of carnage that confound the police. Of trolls trying to fit into the society of the homeless. We want them all.
The best way of course to understand the vibe and atmosphere of the stories we are looking for is to pick up a copy of Welcome to San Cicaro, and give it a read. You can also check our prior call for more details.
Details:
Submitted short stories should have a minimum of around 5,000 words up to a soft limit of 8,000 words. We can go as high as 10,000 but will be looking to whittle that down. Formatting should follow William-Shunn guidelines.
Aside from editing and proofreading your work, the editors will also make very minor changes to fit your tale into San Cicaro itself. We may recommend street names, slightly modify passages to mention landmarks, or other such continuity tweaks. Most importantly, we may connect your story not only to the prior anthology, but to stories published in this release. Our ultimate goal is to add tiny details that join your story into a greater, connected narrative.
Authors will be recompensed with a one-time payment of $135 for five-year publication rights, with exclusive rights for the first year, non-exclusive after that. Note that this is an improvement over last year, and that we’re also retroactively increasing the pay for the prior anthology’s authors. If we do a third anthology, we will likely increase payment again to match. Submissions open on August 8th, 2019 and will close on October 11th, 2019.
Please submit to the open call at [email protected] with the subject line “San Cicaro.” In the body please include a cover letter about yourself, including links to your bibliography and any details about your story. The story itself should be an attachment of file type RTF, DOC or DOCX. No multiple submissions (just one story per person) and no simultaneous submissions (don’t submit the same story to other publishers) please. We also want original stories only; nothing that has been published before. This includes stories hosted on your blog or published for your Patreon followers.
Thematic Rules:
- Please invent. If your story calls for a landmark, business or ethnoburb (like a Koreatown), just create it. Please create your own characters and avoid reusing existing ones.
- Don’t explain the mystery. Hypothesize all you like, but keep the supernatural stuff fairly underground. We’re really not wild about a POV character who shows up with all the answers.
- Play with next generation technologies. Despite the times, San Cicaro’s hospitals and research firms are still cutting edge. What if fairy livers had powerful medicinal properties? Or if troll muscle fibers were the key to human regeneration? Just keep it under serious NDA.
- No world-destroying monsters. A werewolf or vampire who stalks the night is great. Zombies are fine. But the zombie apocalypse is not.
- Get cultural. We love diving into the origins of supernatural creatures. The etymology, how superstitions have changed, how Hollywood got it wrong. Although our focus is to entertain, discovery of true-to-life folklore is a bonus.
- Don’t go too big. We’re not here for dragons, giants or anything too noticeable. We’ve done so once and we’d rather not repeat it. San Cicaro works best when the magic is at least a little ambiguous.
- Reference the first anthology. We encourage links to past stories, as it creates a sense of continuity and history. However, be conscious of what outsider POVs would actually know about. A good rule of thumb; if an event would be big enough to make it into the local newspaper, it’ll probably be referenced elsewhere. We don’t want characters who are omniscient about all San Cicaro’s mysteries.
- No aliens. No UFOs, no invasions.
- Use extreme subject matter with care. Vivid gore doesn’t wow us. Consensual gratuitous sex scenes are a tough sell. The non-consensual variety are a hard no. We want stories, not shock.
Closing Notes:
If you have further questions or want to ask about an idea or landmark (akin to the San Diego Zoo or the Golden Gate Bridge), feel free to inquire with us. Just send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “San Cicaro Question.” Likewise if you want to make a dedication to someone, let us know with your submission and we’ll name a street after them. We’d like to give a huge thanks to Cerqueira over on Unsplash for the great picture we used for the banner. And be sure to check out the San Cicaro Pulsefor more open call tips. Good luck to everyone submitting, we can’t wait to read your work and re-immerse ourselves in the strange and exotic world of San Cicaro!
Via: Thunderird Studios.
by Stuart Conover | Aug 6, 2019 | Anthology, Events, Flat Amount
Deadline: August 30th, 2019
Payment: $25
Left Hand Publishers is announcing their call for submissions for their next anthology: “Classics ReMixed II.” It’s going to be a collection of short stories based on classics. This is a second volume of our popular Classics ReMixed anthology. Take a classic story, character, or theme of your choice (of any type) and reimagine it. The writer must make it easy for the reader to identify the character or storyline from the classic, but then take the reader in a different direction by reimagining the story – perhaps with humor where there wasn’t before, or maybe tragedy, or even mystery. PLEASE identify the classic you have reimagined either on the submission form or on the first page of your manuscript. Word count is 4,000 to 10,000 words.
Submissions begin: Friday, July 26th, 2019, 12:00 a.m. EST
Submissions close: Friday, August 30th, 2019, 5:00 p.m. EST.
Notice of acceptance or declination will be emailed approximately:
Friday, September 27th, 2019
COPYRIGHTS
The trick is to make the story or characters recognizable WITHOUT violating copyright law. For example, if you were reimagining the story of Superman, you need to find a creative way to do that without using any proper names such as “Clark,” or “Lois,” or “Superman.” HINT: Stories over 75 years old are rarely active in copyrights. If you submit a really good story but it dances all over copyright issues, we may send it back with a note regarding same. Left Hand Publishers reserves the right to decline any short story that could infringe on copyright law and have legal ramifications.
TWIST OR MORAL
All short stories submitted MUST have a twist or a moral somewhere in the story, preferably at the end. Good twists (and morals) will catch the reader off guard and surprise them with more than a touch of irony or shock.
NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS
No simultaneous submissions, please. We ask that you do not submit a story to us and another market at the same time. This has come up a number of times. It wastes your time and ours if we read, edit, review, and possibly accept your short story only to have it be accepted somewhere else at the same time.
In order for our titles to be unique and original, we insist that all submissions be previously unpublished works and properly formatted. Please read and adhere to ALL of the guidelines.
Classics ReMixed II
In our Call for Submissions for our anthologies we accept only short stories. (Novels, novellas, and short story collections (as an entire book) should be submitted to https://lefthandpublishers.com/open-call-for-submissions/. ) We will review your submission and contact you on the viability of Left Hand Publishers accepting it to be published. Please use this form to submit your book manuscript and the form on this page for short stories. If you do not receive a receipt of your submission within 72 hours, please email us at [email protected] to confirm that we have received your document.
WIN A FREE AUTHOR WEBSITE
Submitting your story automatically registers you in our Register To Win contest where you could win a FREE author website (some restrictions apply). IF you do win the free website, you will need to provide hosting for it. We recommend GoDaddy.com. This does NOT register you in our Win A Free Kindle contest. In order to be registered for that, you must register here and then review some of our books in order to complete the registration.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
- No simultaneous submissions, please. We ask that you do not submit a story to us and another market at the same time. This will not only remove you from this submission but all future submissions.
- GENRES: Open to Speculative Fiction (works in which the setting is other than the real world, involving supernatural, futuristic, or other imagined elements); Suspense; Thriller; Supernatural; Horror; Mystery; Crime; or Science Fiction (or some combination of any of those genres) is acceptable. Please note below which genre you think your story fits. It may be more than one. LHP reserves the right to place any submission into what they deem the appropriate venue.
- SPECIFICALLY UNACCEPTABLE GENRES: Romance/Erotica, Middle School, Biographical, Autobiographical, Memoirs, Poetry, Non-Fiction, or Pornography.
- WORD COUNT: 4,000 to 10,000 words.
- Title of submission shall not contain variations of the phrase “Classics ReMixed” – do not use the words “remixed,” “classics,” or “reimagining” in your title.
- PLEASE identify the classic you have reimagined on either the submission form or on the first page of your manuscript.
- Standard manuscript format. (Go to www.lefthandpublishers.com for complete guidelines and to download the format template.)
- Submissions must be made as .doc or .docx attachment only and NOT copied into the body of the email. Only electronic submissions accepted.
- In accordance with Left Hand Publishers’ standards, stories containing pedophilia, bestiality, overtly descriptive rape, or graphic gore will not be considered.
- Factors in anthology acceptance:
- How well does the story fit the theme of a given book;
- Quality of the story based on characterization, conflict, moral, TWIST at the end, and how engaging it is;
- Word count, length, and formatting (while minor considerations, they indicate a certain professionalism about the craft);
- Technical writing quality: sentence and story structure, pacing, split infinitives, an overabundance of adjectives, adverbs, similes, filter words, etc.
- Quality of the manuscript’s editing/proofreading (again, both indications of professionalism about the craft)
- Failure to submit story according to guidelines will be cause for immediate rejection.
- Multiple story submissions (to LHP) are accepted if individually submitted in compliance with guidelines.
- Stories shorter than the 4,000-word minimum may be submitted with a second work. The two works together will be considered one submission (to meet the minimum word criteria), and if accepted, the author will be awarded one compensation check when the book is printed and one electronic copy of the book. No single story shorter than 4,000 words will be accepted (and more importantly, compensated for) without a second piece that brings the word count up to at least 4,000 words. This is to be fair to the writers who are submitting at least 4,000 words.
- Only previously unpublished stories may be submitted. Upon acceptance into the anthology, author will receive a standard short story/anthology agreement from Left Hand Publishers.
- Exclusivity – the rights to the short story are reverted back to the author 12 months after the initial publishing. Left Hand Publishers reserves the right to continue to reprint the anthology, but the author may also shop the story to other markets with the understanding that it may still be in print with LHP.
- Multiple authors – one story may have multiple authors, but only one royalty check per story will be distributed and one electronic copy of the book. It is up to the multiple co-authors to figure out how to divvy that up.
- Compensation – will be to a PayPal account only.
- SUBMISSION – Only submit the form once. It may look as if it is still processing (spinning), but we have most likely received it. If you think we did not get it, email us to ask, or resubmit via email.
- SUBMISSIONS OPEN: Friday, July 26th, 2019.
- SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: Friday, August 30th, 2019 (5:00 p.m. EST)
- SELECTION PERIOD: Friday, September 27th, 2019 – Acceptance or declination notification e-mails will be sent out then.
- CONTRIBUTOR COMPENSATION: $25 per story (or combination of stories) selected for inclusion and one electronic copy of the anthology. Payable upon book going on sale (estimated date: Late November, 2019).
Via: Left Hand Publishers.
