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Category: Semipro

Semi-Pro Rates

Events / Online / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Story Unlikely 2022 Window

Deadline: September 30th, 2022
Payment: 5 cents a word for stories up to 2,000 words. Stories above 2,000 are capped at $100 payment
Theme: Accepts ALL genres, prefers: memoir, bizarro, and speculative, humorous, strange, and thoughtful
Note: Reprints Welcome
Note: You do need to be a free subscriber to submit

Whatever happened to the art of storytelling? It’s become a lost relic, along with our identities. But here, we’re revitalizing this once great craft. Don’t worry, you’re in good hands. After all, if laughter is medicine, then Story Unlikely is therapy for broken souls.

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Contest / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Contest: Shallow Waters June Flash Theme

Deadline: May 31st, 2022
Payment: $0.03 per word for the winner, and 2 cents per word and 1 cent for second and third place respectively
Theme: Open Water

Your June theme is…

…Open Water. Whether it’s lost at sea, trapped in a boat, being a stowaway, kidnapped, going down with the ship, etc. But keep it dark and psychologically disturbing.

Bonus challenge: write the story in a pre-21st century setting.
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Events / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Cafe Irreal Summer Window 2022

Deadline: July 1st, 2022
Payment: One cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum)
Theme: Fantastic Fiction You really NEED to read the description below.

The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we’re interested in stories by writers who write about what they don’t know, take us places we couldn’t possibly go, and don’t try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, “What is irrealism?”) pages on this web site.

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Events / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Old Moon Quarterly May 2022 Window

Deadline: May 20th, 2022
Payment: 5 cents per word
Theme: character-focused, weird sword-and-sorcery: stories of a dark and transgressive nature, set in a secondary or historical-paranormal world

What We Are Looking For:
Old Moon publishes character-focused, weird sword-and-sorcery: stories of a dark and transgressive nature, set in a secondary or historical-paranormal (“our” reality, but with a twist, if you will) world, with a focus on rounded characters undergoing some sort of conflict, resolved (though not always successfully!) by the might of their main or mind.
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We love stories that combine that sense of action and adventure with well-rounded characters who make us question our own realities and perceptions. We love to see the gothic, the baroque, the eldritch, and we love to see it hit with an axe.
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Events / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Last Girls Club Fall Issue 2022 (Early)

Submission Window: July 1st – August 1st, 2022
Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $0.01 USD per word/$25 USD max, Poems-less than 200 words $10, Flash Fiction-less than a 1,000 words $0.01 USD per word/$10 USD max
Theme: Dark Shadows: The Gay 90s; closeted, cast out, or converted.

The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century.

This season’s theme is Dark Shadows: The Gay 90s; closeted, cast out, or converted. This issue is dedicated to my dear friend Paul, who died of cirrhosis in ’00s. We worked the graveyard shift together at a Texas gas station in the 90s. The stories he shared with me of growing up gay in the South, with a deeply religious emotionally scarred mother broke my heart. The 80s Satanic Panic led to a religious fervor that cast a long shadow over society and personal freedoms.

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Events / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Rakehell Magazine May 2022 Window

Submission Window: May 8th-14th, 2022.
Payment: $0.01 (one cent) per word
Theme: Swashbuckling action in all genres

Rakehell buys First Worldwide Serial Rights to swashbuckling tales from 3,000 to 8,000 words long. We currently pay $0.01 (one cent) per word. We know that’s not much, and we hope to increase our rate as soon as possible.

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Anthology / Events / Pro / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Hidden Villains: Arise (Early Listing)

Submission Window: June 1st, 2022 to August 31st, 2022
Payment: Between $0.05 and $0.08 per word
Theme: Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Arise – appear, emerge, come to light, surface, befall, ensue, stand up, transpire, etc.

Inkd Pub is excited to announce a submission call for Hidden Villains: Arise opening June 1, 2022. We hope to have this project completed and published in spring 2023.

Theme: Hidden Villains Arise – Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows.
Arise – appear, emerge, come to light, surface, befall, ensue, stand up, transpire, etc.
Express yourself as the theme moves you.

There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Sci-Fi, Horror, or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion.
Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted.
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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount / Poetry / Reprints Allowed / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: It Came From Under The Bed

Deadline: August 31st, 2022
Payment: Original Stories: $25.00, Reprint Stories: $15.00, Flash Fiction: 1 cent/word to $10.00 maximum, Poems: $5.00 (for minimalist poetry such as scifaiku, etc., the rates for Scifaikuest apply), Illustrations: $7.00
Theme: “Bed” is not limited to an actual bed. It can be a futon, a sofa, a chaise lounge, a recline, or anything you can reasonably sleep on.
Note: Reprints Welcome

IT CAME FROM UNDER THE BED is a paperback anthology of stories, poems, and art, and will be published by Hiraeth Publishing. Editors for IT CAME FROM UNDER THE BED are Terrie Leigh Relf and Marcia Borell. IT CAME FROM UNDER THE BED is open to submissions as of 1 April 2022. We expect to close on 31 August 2022. We expect to publish on 1 January 2023.

IT CAME FROM UNDER THE BED wants original stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development. Remember, if readers do not care what happens to your main character(s), they won’t read the story. The narrative should maintain a sense of wondering what’s going to happen next; of what’s lurking just around the corner. Showing is better than telling. Frex, instead of telling the reader that it’s cold, show your character shivering, stomping feet, or having ice form on beard or hair. The inner thoughts and emotions of your character(s) are just as important.

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