Category: Flat Amount

Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Ongoing Submissions / Poetry / Semipro

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Ongoing Submissions: Jupiter’s Eye

Payment: Original Stories: $30.00, Reprint Stories: $15.00, Flash Fiction: 1 cent/word, Poems: $5.00, Articles and reviews: $10.00
Theme: Original science fiction stories about the exploration and settlement of other worlds

Jupiter’s Eye is a digest published three times a year, in April, August, and December, in print and digitally. It presents original science fiction stories about the exploration and settlement of other worlds. It also presents one or two original fantasy stories along that same theme. Although it does consider darker sf/f, it
does not present horror. It also presents a few original poems, again consistent with the overall theme.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Hellbound Highway

Deadline: August 31st, 2025
Payment: $15
Theme: Road trip terror

Are you brave enough to take a ride on the Hellbound Highway? HellBound Books is seeking short horror stories for an anthology on the theme of bad trips, which will be curated and edited by the double-trouble partnership of veteran horror writers Jane Nightshade and Ann O’Mara Heyward. We want road trips, sure, but also airplane journeys, ship crossings, railroad passages, heck even cattle drives–as long as it’s a trip and it’s B-A-D.

What if a family like the Griswolds from National Lampoon’s Vacation were zombies? What if a weary business traveler waits for the red-eye in an airport that is literally a portal to hell? What if the night manager of the local Greyhound bus station was a vampire who feeds off of the poor and desperate? What if a crook on the lam checks into a cheap motel and discovers that the usual cockroaches are mutants with deadly powers? What if someone stopped at a cafe in the middle of nowhere, and slowly realized that they were the special on next day’s menu?

These are the types of scenarios we are looking for, so let your creepiest imaginings run wild. Scary horror, psychological horror, or comedy horror are all welcome–it just has to be GOOD.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Feast or Famine?

Deadline: April 30th, 2025
Payment: Stories with 5000 to 7999 words will earn $5. Stories with 8000 to 12000 words will earn $10.
Theme: Stories that revolve around food being central to the plot

Based on the interest we have had in our previous speculative-fiction anthologies, the team here at PurpleToga want to start something different this time around.

Food and meals are central to all cultures.

So, this time we are looking for stories where food is a central or pivotal element to the plot. Is it the Last Supper? Court intrigue using poison? This means that all of the stories must have a meal or dish as part of their central theme, and as usual we prefer stories that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Think of how food has been a big part of literature. Where would Snow White be without the apple (or Adam and Eve)? In movies like Thor: The Dark World you have Dr. Strange offered tea and Thor responded he doesn’t drink it and got a big (self-refilling) mug of beer. Where would Star Trek: The Next Generation be without “Earl Grey, hot”? Think of all the meals in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, or how Rincewind fantasizes about potatoes. How much Turkish Delight was a factor in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. These are the kinds of food connections that we are looking for.

A recipe for the key element (or one of the dishes if it is a meal – failing that the full menu) would be appreciated.

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Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Ongoing Submissions / Royalties

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Ongoing Submissions: Incensepunk Magazine

Payment: $100 and royalties of the profits from the magazine
Theme: High tech, high church. A literary magazine on the intersection of faith and sci-fi.

Length: About 4,000 to 6,000 words

Pay: $100, plus lifetime “paid” subscription to Incensepunk Magazine. Stories included in annual anthology also receive pro-rata share of 50% of profits (each story’s author receiving a share from that 50% proportioned by the length of their contribution to the total length of the book) and a print copy of the anthology. See the sample contract for details.

Rights: First digital print plus one-time non-exclusive digital and print rights for the annual anthology.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Pro

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Taking Submissions: Women of the Weird West (April 2025 Window)

Submission Window: April 1st – 30th, 2025
Payment: Stories: 10¢ per word, Poems: $50, Drabbles: $50
Theme: Weird westerns that are pulpy, unexpected, character-driven stories written by women

Women of the Weird West
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Editor: KC Grifant
Release Date: Planned for June 16 th , 2026

What We Are Seeking
Traditionally, women authors have been vastly underrepresented in westerns and weird westerns, so this anthology will highlight diverse women-identifying authors and non-binary authors and their speculative western short stories.

We are looking for original Weird West stories. These should be generally set in what approximates the “Old West” location and timeframe (North America circa late 1800s) and should have a strong speculative element, such as horror, fantasy and/or sci-fi.

We are most interested in pulpy, unexpected, character-driven stories and are open to some weird westerns set outside the typical historical time period and setting (e.g., space westerns) as long as there are strong Old West aesthetics and inspiration.

The goal of this anthology is to showcase a diverse group of Old West stories beyond the typical archetypes. We strongly encourage women, women-identifying and nonbinary writers of all backgrounds to submit regardless of writing experience. We are interested in showcasing emerging writers as well as established writers for this anthology.
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Contest / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: 29th annual Parsec Short Story Contest

Deadline: March 31st, 2025
Prizes: First-place receives $200 and publication in the Confluence program book.*, Second-place receives $100, Third-place receives $50, Youth Story Prize receives $50
Theme: Roots

The 29th annual Parsec Short Story Contest opens on January 1st and closes on March 31st.

There is never a fee to enter the Parsec Short Story contest thanks to the donations from our members and supporters . . . people like you! Thank you for your support!
If you would like to help support the annual contest, please make a donation here.
Your donation ensures the continuation of this writing contest.

VIEW PREVIOUS WINNERS HERE

The 2025 Contest theme is “ROOTS”

Roots. The point of origin, the source of life. Buried in earth and history, they are links to the unseen. Roots can crack stone and carry messages; they can bind us to solid ground or trip us up and send us sprawling. The 2025 Parsec Short Story Contest welcomes science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories that include all types of roots: family legends, genetic inheritance, plant-like aliens, root directories, symbiotic mycorrhizal systems . . . you get the idea.
Convey the theme through setting, plot, characters, dialogue; the only limit is your imagination. The theme must be integral to the story in some way and not just mentioned in passing.

 

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: That Old House: The Kitchen

Deadline: February 28th, 2025
Payment: $20
Theme: Unique horror stories where 90% of the story takes place in the kitchen

That Old House: The Kitchen

​​The slice of a knife.

The heat of the oven. 

If you can’t handle the heat? Stay out of the kitchen. 

Voices is seeking stories for the next installment in the That Old House! This time we take the journey into the horrors of the kitchen! 
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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Hellbound Books’ Anthology of Pandemic & Outbreak Horror

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $5
Theme: Plagues, pandemics, original takes on zombies, outbreaks, and everything related!

The HellBound Books team felt enough time has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic to warrant an appropriately themed anthology. We are looking for horrific tales of diseases ravaging mankind, viruses, bacteria, and fungal spores infecting and threatening to eradicate all of humanity – and, yes, we would love to see your terrifying, unique takes on the zombie trope!

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