Deadline: November 30th, 2016
Payment: 6 cents per word

Every year Apex Magazine hosts a flash fiction contest centered around a holiday. In the past we’ve run contests featuring Halloween and Christmas. While those were both fun, this year we’ve decided to set you all loose on another holiday: Valentine’s Day.

That’s right. Apex is looking for some bad lovin’!

Your story does not have to directly involve Valentine’s Day, but it should imbue the spirit of the holiday in a twisted Apex fashion. Love lost, love won, the holiday itself, Cupid, romance gone horribly, horribly wrong, pining for a mate … the theme for this year’s contest is wide open so have fun with it! Just make sure you give us story that screams love Apex-style in no more than 250 words.

From all of the submissions, we will select three winners. The winning stories will be featured in the February issue of Apex Magazine, and the authors will be paid at least 6 cents per word. We’re currently running a subscription drive with the intention of raising our rates. If we hit our $10,000 goal our pay rate will go up to 8 cents per word. Contest winners will be paid our current pay rate as of February.

In addition to being published in Apex Magazine, they will also win 3 Apex books of their choice.

Want something more? Everyone who enters will receive a free issue of Apex Magazine! All you need to do is let us know which issue you would like to receive and we will send you a download link. So browse through our back issues and pick your favorite.

The nitty, gritty:

• Submissions open on 12:01am EST, November 1st and close at 11:59pm EST, November 30th.
• Stories must be 250 words or less. If a story is longer than that, it will be deleted unread.
• You may submit up to 3 times, but please submit each entry in a separate email.
• The email subject line should be “<Story title> by <author name>, entry #”
• Submissions should include a brief cover letter, including which issue of Apex Magazine you’d like to receive, as well as the story title.
• Stories should be in the body of the email. Do NOT send attachments.
• Send all submissions to [email protected].
• Rejections will not be sent. Once winners have been selected and notified, we will make an announcement here on the Apex Magazine blog.

If you have any questions or would like to query about the status of your submission, email our managing editor Lesley Conner at [email protected].

Via: Apex Magazine.