Category: Pro

Pro Rates

Taking Submissions: You, Human, Vol. 2 – September Window

Submission Window: September 1st – 30th, 2024
Payment: 10 cents a word and a contributor’s copy
Theme: What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be real? What does it mean to exist? What does it mean to be human? Once again, Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics will be re-evaluated and revised to help define humanity

Written Backwards is not open to submissions at this time, but due to high interest and numerous inquiries about You, Human, Vol. 2 (to be released in 2025), we are announcing an early open call for submissions for the month of September, 2024. Do not send submissions yet (unless invited). The open call for submissions will begin September 1st and end September 30th later this year.

YOU, HUMAN

The first volume of You, Human (2016) won the Benjamin Franklin Award for science fiction and is the most successful and widely-read anthology published by Written Backwards. Josh Malerman’s story “The Jupiter Drop” was also nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction and is currently in development as a major motion picture.

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Taking Submissions: This Way Lies Madness

Deadline: October 13th, 2024
Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word
Theme: Dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror

In the tradition of Poe’s ‘A Tell-tale Heart’ and Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, This Way Lies Madness (publishing September 2025) will bring together a twisted tangle of dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror. In these pages, readers should expect to find madness in all its forms, without the tired stigmatising tropes. Instead, these tales of deep-rooted terror will draw on metaphor, symbolism, imagery, structural innovation, and close introspection to challenge stigma and promote understanding around mental illness, reflecting broader cultural, generational, and societal impacts with authenticity and insight.

Think of horrific scenarios as metaphors for mental illness: trauma is the creature that drags its prey into its deep, dark lair; the hopelessness of depression is the person lost in a labyrinthine underworld, suicidal ideation is a person living in the belly of a great beast, addiction is the two-sided mirror, or the persecuted werewolf is the representation of a person’s struggle against the duality of bi-polar disorder. Writers are asked to be bold and inventive, to challenge convention, while being sensitive to the stigmatising constructs of mental illness in current society.

Up to 10 stories will be selected from this submissions route, and we welcome fresh interpretations and perspectives from diverse voices. Each selected story will be accompanied by a c. 300-word introduction by the author on their reflections / personal experience that inspired the story. Once selected, authors will be contacted to supply this additional text.

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Taking Submissions: Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores August 2024 (Early Listing)

Submission Window: August 1st-2nd, 2024
Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used.
Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world.
Note: Reprints welcome

 

 

Submissions Schedule

The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T.

For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers.

We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 8¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles.
For new poetry, we pay $1 per line, and for reprints we pay 50¢ a line  We’re looking for poems up to 40 lines. We’ll consider longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 8¢ per word.

We sponsor The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn aboutThe Kepler Award here.

You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc.

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Taking Submissions: The Orange & Bee Issue #3

Open Window: August 1st to the 14th
Payment: $50 per poem, $80 per story for flash, 8 cents per word for short fiction
Theme: Works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales

Upcoming submission windows

  • Submission window for Issue #3: 1 to 14 August (closes midnight AEST on 14 August)

We do not accept multiple submissions (one piece per submission window, please!), or simultaneous submissions.

Submitting your work

Word/line limits

  • Poetry: up to 50 lines (but we’re a little bit flexible!)
  • Flash: up to 1000 words
  • Short fiction/non-fiction: up to 4000 words

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Taking Submissions: Planet Black Joy

Deadline: January 1st, 2025
Payment: 8 cents per word for original stories, 2 cents per word for reprints
Theme: Speculative stories exploring and celebrating Black joy and pleasure.
Note: Authors who are women and non-binary folk who identify as Black, African, or of Afro-descendent heritage
Note: Reprints welcome

Edited by Chinelo Onwualu, Susana M. Morris, and Bill Campbell

You are cordially invited to contribute to an anthology of speculative fiction that’s being published through Rosarium Publishing titled Planet Black Joy in Fall 2025. The collection will feature about 20 to 25 short stories by women and non-binary folk who identify as Black, African, or of Afro-descendent heritage exploring and celebrating Black joy and pleasure.

What are we looking for?

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Taking Submissions: Story Unlikely 2024 Window

Deadline: September 29th, 2024
Payment: 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,500 words. Stories longer than this are capped at $200 payment
Theme: Any genre, good stories, measured both by the quality of the writing and the skill in storytelling. We prefer prose that elicits emotion: make us laugh or cry, think or consider, anything on the edges or in between.

SUBMISSIONS TO OUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARE CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH, READ THE GUIDELINES BELOW CAREFULLY – FAILURE TO ADHERE TO OUR RULES MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION, AND WHO WANTS THAT?

Please note that we have additional perks and leeway for MEMBERS, highlighted in GREEN. [Horror Tree Editor’s Notes: The green formatting didn’t come across, however, everything member-related is spelled out by them.] Your membership not only gives you a leg up in the submission process, but helps keep the lights on (and pay our talented writers).

Why submit to us?
– WE PAY WRITERS FAIRLY. It’s hard work writing good stories, and you deserve to get paid. Or maybe you don’t and you’re just duping us? Regardless, we pay 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,500 words. Stories longer than this are capped at $200 payment ($400 for MEMBERS).
– NO SUBMISSION FEES. We’re not saying the other guys are getting rich off $3 per submission, but there’s something about the idea that we, as writers, have you pay you, the publisher, just for the privilege of rejecting our work with a form letter, bothers us. (Costs of running an E-zine aside) We’re going to go ahead and coin a phrase right here and now – ‘Write privilege’, get it? Of course, you do.
– GET YOUR WORK IN FRONT OF A LARGE AND GROWING AUDIENCE. Our aim is fixed on telling good stories, period, and because of that we have built a massive readership from all over the globe. Want to get your stories out to more than just dear old nana? Then you’ve come to the right place.
– REASONABLE TURN-AROUND TIME. If you haven’t heard from us within 90 days, then your story was rejected. Rejections stink – we get it – but its better than forever waiting and wondering. 
All MEMBERS get their stories reviewed within ONE month!
– WORKABILITY. Is that the right term? Well, we’re going with it. Unlike large publishers who view authors as just a number, we actually work with you to help present the story in its best possible light. We do, however, expect reciprocity; Story Unlikely is comprised of volunteers who are by nature team players. If you’re an inflexible my way or the highway type – or even worse, an unbearable ideologue – then consider this a premature breakup. No really, it’s us, not you.
– GET ILLUSTRATED. We illustrate ALL stories we publish, and we think we’re doing a pretty bang-up job with that.
– Still NOT CONVINCED? Then listen to a message that our editor-in-chief JUST received from our new CFO, David Wallace. Yes, that’s a clickable link, and no, we’re not joking (well, sort of).

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Taking Submissions: Planet Black Joy

Deadline: January 1st, 2025
Payment: 8 cents per word for original work, 2 cents per word for reprints
Theme: Stories that express black joy written by women and non-binary folk who identify as Black, African, or of Afro-descendent heritage
Note: Reprints welcome

You are cordially invited to contribute to an anthology of speculative fiction that’s being published through Rosarium Publishing titled Planet Black Joy in Fall 2025. The collection will feature about 20 to 25 short stories by women and non-binary folk who identify as Black, African, or of Afro-descendent heritage exploring and celebrating Black joy and pleasure.

What are we looking for?

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Taking Submissions: Orion’s Belt 2024 Window

Deadline: September 1st, 2024
Payment: 8 cents per word for fiction and $25 for artwork
Theme: Literary Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Basics

Stories should be submitted to [email protected]. All stories must be under 1200 words (not including the title and byline). All stories over 1200 words will sadly be rejected automatically. All stories must contain significant speculative elements. This does not mean all sci-fi stories must have lasers and rockets. It just means a non-speculative story doesn’t become speculative if you include a single line clarifying the story takes place on Mars.

When to Submit

Because of the time needed to evaluate submissions and prepare stories for publication, Orion’s Belt has a limited submission window. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to you. Stories submitted outside the submission window will not be deleted, but they will not be read until the submission window re-opens.

Our current submission window opened March 1st.

This submission window will be open until September 1st.

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