Category: Semipro

Semi-Pro Rates

Events / Magazine / Pro / Reprints Allowed / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Deadlands February 2023 Window

Submission Window: February 1st-28th, 2023
Payment: 10 cents per word, Reprints at 1 cent per word
Theme: Stories that deal with death and what comes from death (see below)

The Deadlands exists in liminal spaces between life, death, and elsewhere. We are looking for fiction that concerns itself with death—but also everything death may involve.

A ghost in a shadowed wood. An afterlife discovered through a rusted door. An abandoned house in the middle of a haunted field. A skeletal figure moving with intent toward something unseen. Death personified. Burials in troubled lands. A raised scythe against a clouded sky. Memento mori. The rivers of the dead. The sprawling underworlds beneath our feet. The Deadlands would love to see stories from a worldwide perspective, different cultures, different approaches to death. We welcome stories from everyone, everywhere. We are particularly interested in works by writers from historically marginalized and underrepresented backgrounds.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: We Fear Not the Sea

Deadline: March 30th, 2023
Payment: 2 cents per word
Theme: Stories inspired by sea shanties, more on that below!

This is a Call for Submissions for We Fear Not the Sea, an anthology of stories inspired by sea shanties.

Each tale should be based on, or somehow incorporate, one sea shanty and include a speculative element of some kind. Give us your adventures with ghosts, sea monsters, and mermaids! Put us in the salty sea boots of sailors, whalers, pirates, and privateers!

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Spoon Knife 8

Deadline: July 31st, 2023
Payment: $20 plus 1 cent per word
Theme: Smoke & Mirrors

Autonomous Press is now accepting submissions of short fiction, short literary memoir, and poetry for the eighth volume of Spoon Knife, our annual genre-bending lit anthology.

We are accepting submissions until July 31st, 2023.

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by the end of 2023.

Spoon Knife 8 will be published in Spring 2024.

The theme for Spoon Knife 8 is Smoke & Mirrors. All submissions should touch in some way or another on this theme, but it can be interpreted as broadly and strangely as you like, and as literally or figuratively as you like (i.e., actual smoke and actual mirrors need not appear).

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Novus Monstrum: The Midnight Zone (Full Call)

Submission Window: February 1st, 2023 – March 30th, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word plus 1 contributor’s copy.
Theme: Stories with original monsters
Note: We had previously included a listing for this call, however, it was only a partial one and we now have the full details to share!)

NOVUS MONSTRUM

OPENING 2 FEB for submissions from Dragon’s Roost Press:
volume one of the weird, dark, speculative new anthology series,

 

THE MIDNIGHT ZONE

Our first season of mind-rattling speculations, our volume one, is a menagerie of original monsters. To qualify, your story must feature, meaningfully, a never-before-seen monster (however you define the word) and must contain a speculative element. 1000-5000 words, with a sweet spot of 3k. All land, sea, space, time, earth, wind, and fire monsters welcome.

Join featured authors Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, Gabino Iglesias, Gwendolyn Kiste, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, Lucy A. Snyder, Jeffrey Thomas, and Gaby Triana, and the twisted editorial minds that brought you Stitched Lips, Appetites, Burnt Fur, and Harmony & Dissonance, to go to strange-and-dark new places, to plumb the depths of a Twilight Zone with sand in its teeth.

The real-world midnight zone is that depth between 1,000 and 3,000 meters in the ocean where no sunlight penetrates.The pressure is intense, life is fleeting, and predators and scavengers abound. Take us to that place only you know, the one that is inhospitable, surprising, uncomfortable, strange, or otherworldly. In The Midnight Zone, we’ll lose ourselves and awake to find an impossible face staring, inches from our own.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Road Kill: Texas Horror By Texas Writers Volume 8

Deadline: May 15th, 2023
Payment: Two cents per word
Theme: Horror stories that take place in Texas by Texas authors

DEADLINE: MAY 1, 2023

HellBound Books is pleased to announce plans for the 2023 edition of Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol. 8.
Horror author and editor Patrick C. Harrison, III will edit Vol. 8 of the series, which has featured the works of Joe R. Lansdale, Stephen Graham Jones, Robert E. Howard, O. Henry, Jeremy Hepler, Madison Estes, David Bowles and others. Harrison is looking for original horror stories 1,500-10,000 words in length.
The stories must be written and submitted by Texas authors and must be set (based) here – hence the title. Two cents per word and contributing writers will receive one free copy and a 50% discounted wholesale price on any copies of the book that he or she purchases to carry and sell on their own. Writer stipends will look something like this: 10,000 words – $200, 7,500 words – $150, 5,000 words – $100, 2,500 words – $50, 1,500 words – $30.
All payments will be made after official acceptance, and when acceptance is communicated, each author will need to send a short bio.

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Events / Flash / Magazine / Pro / Reprints Allowed / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Story Unlikely 2023 Window

Deadline: September 29th, 2023
Payment: 8 cents a word for stories up to 1,875 words, 1 cent per word for reprints
Theme: All forms of fiction
Note: Reprints Welcome

SUBMISSIONS TO OUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARE CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH.

Why submit to us?
– WE PAY PROFESSIONAL RATES. It’s hard work writing good stories, and you deserve to get paid fairly for it. Or maybe you don’t, and you’re just duping us? Regardless, we pay 8 cents a word for stories up to 2,000 words (well, 1,875, to be exact). Stories longer than this are capped at $150 payment.
– 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.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Non-fiction / Reprints Allowed / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Haven Speculative 2023 General Submissions Call #1 (Early)

Submission Window: February 1st – 28th, 2023
Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art
Theme: Speculative fiction

It’s our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone.

Guidelines for Fiction

We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we’re particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we’re open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra.

We pay 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx.

We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we’ve finished. We’re more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and emotional depth. Meditative stories that all take place in a single room, for example, are less likely to capture our imagination. Basically, we want it all: character, concept, dialogue, tone, plot, a strong opening and ending, and everything else!

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please no multiple submissions. Also, please wait at least a week before you submit again after hearing from us about a story.

As writers ourselves, we do our best to handle each story with the care and attention it deserves. Every submission is an act of bravery, and we know that putting yourself out there as a writer can be tough. Just know that any story we receive, unless they contain something illegal, will be kept in confidence.

When in doubt, don’t self reject! Submit submit submit!

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Mother Knows Best

Deadline: March 31st, 2023
Payment: 6 cents per word
Theme: A women-in-horror anthology inspired by “bad mothers.”
Note: All writers who identify as women (cis, trans, and non-binary femmes) are welcome to submit.

MOTHER KNOWS BEST: Tales of Homemade Horror is a women-in-horror anthology inspired by “bad mothers.” We’re looking for your best horror stories featuring mother-figures: mama trauma, smother-mother, etc.

MOTHER KNOWS BEST is a women-in-horror anthology. All writers who identify as women (cis, trans, and non-binary femmes) are welcome to submit. International submissions always welcomed!

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