Deadline: February 28th, 2021
Payment: $0.03 per word and inclusion in an anthology
Theme: Clowns, Carnivals, and Sideshows!
Note: Apologies for the quick deadline, I missed this being posted
Your March theme is…
Clowns, Carnivals and Sideshows!
Authors, you have up to 1,000 words to write a Dark Fiction / Horror story based on this theme. The submission deadline is end of February at midnight. Please send your submission in the body of an email to [email protected], with the title of your story as the subject email.
Payment includes $0.03 per word, publication in an upcoming Shallow Waters anthology, and an author spotlight on our Patreon page and newsletter. We’ll post the best stories here on Patreon for our $5 and higher patrons to read, after which they’ll vote for the winner. Authors are not allowed to vote for their own stories.
Deadline: March 15th-21st, 2021
Payment: CAD 1/2 CENT per word for originals; 50% for reprints (i.e. CAD 1/4 CENT per word)
Theme: Christmas horror with a dark and subversive theme that doesn’t include Krampus
Note: Reprints Welcome
Wight Christmas is an anthology of holiday horror, and in particular stories that subvert Christmas tropes and seasonal clichés. We are seeking dark reinterpretations of seasonal traditions, and stories that reimagine holiday characters as ghosts, demons, spirits, supernatural entities, or other paranormal phenomena.
Fantasy and science fiction genres are both okay, but in all cases, submissions are more likely to be successful if they are dark and subversive.
Deadline: June 1st, 2021
Payment: $0.01 per word and a contributor’s copy
Theme: Stories must include menopause as the main plot point
Sliced Up Press is looking for short stories involving menopause for its latest horror fiction anthology, Bodies Full of Burning: An Anthology of Menopause-Themed Horror, edited by Nicole M. Wolverton.
Menopause can be hell – so show us your demons, your darkest dreams, bloodiest crimes or scariest transformations. It’s called the change of life, but transitions can be deadly.
What we’re looking for:
Stories must include menopause as the main plot point
We welcome and encourage stories from women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors, as we’re looking for a range of experiences to be represented
All submissions must be in the horror genre, though we don’t want anything involving rape, bestiality etc.
All submissions must be original. We will not accept reprints, or stories published elsewhere including on blogs, social media etc.
Submit your best work in standard manuscript format, as an MS Word .doc or .docx attachment. Anything sent in a different format will be deleted without reply.
Authors may submit one story maximum for consideration. Do not re-send rejected stories (including those rejected for previous calls to Sliced Up Press anthologies)
No simultaneous submissions please.
We are not looking for artwork submissions at this time.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & TERMS:
Please email submissions to [email protected] using the following format in the email subject line:
Submission for Bodies Full of Burning: [author’s name] – [story title] – [word count]. (so your email should look like this: Submission for Bodies Full of Burning: My Name – My Story – 1,500 words)
In the body of your email, please include a brief author bio of 3-4 sentences maximum along with any social media links.
Payment: $0.01 per word, plus 1 x paperback and ebook contributor copy.
Length: Minimum 1,000 words, up to 4,000 words maximum. Longer pieces will not be considered.
Deadline for submissions: 1st June 2021 or until filled
Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 30th June 2021 at the latest. Publication is currently planned for September 2021
If you have not heard back by 30th June 2021, your story has been rejected.
Please do not email to enquire after your submission, unless you want to withdraw your story.
No exclusivity will be sought. Authors retain all rights to their works after publication.
Please do not enquire about publication unless it relates to the project announcements shown above.
Sliced Up Press is not open to unsolicited submissions.
Any unsolicited submissions will be rejected without reply.
Deadline: May 30th, 2021
Payment: 5 cents a word
Theme: Dark, scary stories featuring a classic monster or monsters.
Note: This does NOT open until April 8th 2021 but the competition will be FIERCE so I’m trying to give you as much time as possible
We are proud to announce an upcoming Open Call for the CLASSIC MONSTERS UNLEASHED anthology, edited by James Aquilone.
We’re looking for dark, scary stories featuring a classic monster or monsters. While we prefer new angles that subvert and re-imagine the monster, we are also interested in really good traditional monster stories. Stories can also star secondary characters, such as a well-known sidekick, assistant or love interest, from the classic monster universe.
GUIDELINES:
Payment: 5 cents a word
Length: 1500 to 5000 words (flexible)
Reading Period: April 8 to May 30, 2021 (don’t send before April 8)
Expected Release Date: October 2021 Kickstarter Launch: March 8, 2021.
No Reprints
Deadline: April 30th, 2021
Payment: $30 for the first 3,000 words, then a 1/2 cent per word up to 7,500 words + print contributor’s copy
Theme: Horror fiction focusing on the culture, history, and folklore of the Jewish people
Horror is part of the human condition, but few peoples across the ages know horror quite like the Jews.
From slavery in Egypt, to the Holocaust, to the crippling neuroses brought on by overbearing mothers, the Chosen People have not only endured hell on Earth, they’ve transcended it to become some of the most influential—and feared—people on the planet.
THE JEWISH BOOK OF HORROR is an anthology of horror fiction focusing on the culture, history, and folklore of the Jewish people, to be published on the first night of Hannukah, 2021.
Submissions must tie into the Jewish people or Judaism in some way, shape, or form. While we intend to publish a handful of stories about the Golem and dybbukim, Biblical times (10 Plagues!), and persecution across Europe, we also encourage authors to expand their horizons of what Jewish horror can be, and certainly not shy away from irreverence and/or humor.
THE JEWISH BOOK OF HORROR will be published by Denver Horror Collective (publishers of Terror at 5280’, Denver Post bestseller and 2020 Best Book Award winner for anthology and finalist for horror & the newly-released Consumed: Tales Inspired by the Wendigo), and edited by Josh Schlossberg, biological horror author and lead editor of Terror at 5280’.
Please take a moment to read the submission information below to ensure your story content and format fall within guidelines.
While we of course encourage Jewish authors to submit, this open call is open to all authors, everywhere.
DEADLINE: Lag B’Omer, April 30, 2021, midnight. (more…)
Deadline: May 15th, 2021
Payment: A contributor’s copy and: $0.04 per word for original fiction and $0.01 per word for a reprint
NOTE: THIS CALL IS FOR EROTIC CONTENT AND IS NOT MEANT FOR MINORS.
Note: Reprints welcome
Deadline: February 28th, 2021
Payment: $0.01/word (1 cent a word) USD for fiction and $5 per poem
Theme: Speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories.
Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all. We’d suggest looking through the archives to familiarize yourself with the zine, and/or checking out other work by our past contributors, to get a sense of what we’re looking for and what we like.
We are also interested in publishing diverse writers. Kaleidotrope welcome writers of color and other groups, as well as work that represents the diversity of characters we want to see more of.
Fiction
We have no minimum or maximum word count but strongly prefer stories over 250 words and under 10,000.
Poetry
We consider all forms. However, individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell.
Artwork
We are looking for primarily full-color illustrations to serve as cover art. We currently do not commission new cover artwork or pieces to appear with individual stories and poems. The best way to submit artwork is to email a link to your online portfolio or gallery, though you may also send individual pieces for consideration.
Magician stand on rock with river and sci-fi city at night. Digital painting
Deadline: February 28th, 2021
Payment: $0.01 per word + contributor copy
Theme: Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales
Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales Anthologist: Rhonda Parrish Open for Submissions: February 1 – 28, 2021 Expected Publication: 2022 Story Length: up to 7,500 words Payment: $0.01 per word + contributor copy
Simultaneous submissions = okay. Multiple submissions = no.
For this, the third installment of Punked Up Fairy Tales, we are excited to mash the world of cyberpunk together with fairy tales and see what sort of magic results. Embracing the high-tech/low-life aspect of cyberpunk will give these stories both the sleek coolness of futuristic technology and the grittiness of traditional fairy tales.
Give me a story of Rapunzel trapped in a tower of circuits rather than stones, of trolls who live under bridges as well as those who do their work behind a keyboard — or whatever passes for a keyboard in the future. What if Snow White was a computer and the apple a virus? What if Hansel and Gretel were hackers following digital breadcrumbs? Or Cinderella was a program who must stop running by midnight or else?
Don’t rely exclusively on imaginative technology to make your story stand out in a crowd — make sure you nail all the other important parts of a story as well. Plot. Character. Setting. You know the list.
Original fairy tales are welcome, as are retellings. If you choose to retell a familiar favourite, make sure your story offers something new and interesting. I’d rather see stories that reflect the long history of fairy tales as social commentary than those which simply tell the same story with a different setting.
I am excited to read stories set all over this or other worlds, and would love to see ‘Own Voices’ stories and, as always, welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds (including, but not limited to, race, color, religion, gender/gender expression, age, disability, and national origin). Further, I love to see a diverse collection when it comes to which fairy tales are represented, but also the races, genders and sexualities of the characters within them.
How to Submit: check back closer to submission window for details
About the Anthologist
Rhonda Parrish is the editor of more than a dozen anthologies including, Fire: Demons, Dragons and Djinns and Tesseracts: Nevertheless. In addition, Rhonda’s written work has been in publications such as Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (2012 & 2015). Her YA Thriller, Hollow, was published in 2020 and her website, updated regularly, is at http://www.rhondaparrish.com
