Deadline: November 15th, 2016
Payment: $10 and a contributor’s copy

Mighty Quill Books is accepting dark fiction submissions for the Dead of Winteranthology from now until Nov.15th, 2016.

About the anthology:

This is a non-themed anthology. Meaning that although the title of the anthology is Dead of Winter, your submission neither has to relate to death nor the dead nor to winter, the winter holidays, etc. Seeing as how our publishing focus is on dark fantasy and horror, however, we are looking for stories with a dark bent.

What we are want:

• Non-themed, original short stories. We are not accepting reprints. We are purchasing the first print and electronic rights to your work.
• Minimum 1,000 words. Maximum 5,000 words. No more, no less.
• Stories can be set in any time period you choose and any genre you choose, except romance, erotica, hard science fiction, historical fiction, extreme horror/splatterpunk.
• Characters and plots that are three-dimensional. Neither are required to be likeable, however, they are required to be believable. Immerse us in your fictional world.
• Manuscripts must be in .DOC or .DOCX file format and formatted in standard manuscript format. Any stories NOT adhering to the standard manuscript format will be immediately rejected. Here is how to do standard manuscript format:  http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html.

What we don’t want:

• No novels or novellas.
• No multiple submissions.
• No simultaneous submissions.
• No trunk (unfinished) stories. We only want your best work. We are happy to work with the right story to a degree, but typos, grammatical errors, and/or an underdeveloped plot/characters will get your story tossed.
• No explicit sex scenes or excessive violence/gore.
• Absolutely no explicit descriptions of abuse toward children or animals, and no sexual abuse of any kind. Abuse in a character’s past is fine, but please include no more than subtle flashbacks as long as it’s integral to the plot.
• “Trendy” subjects like vampires, werewolves, and zombies are fine, if you can find an original way to present these tropes. We don’t want your interpretation of Interview with the Vampire or An American Werewolf in Parisor The Walking Dead. Be original.

Compensation:

Because this is our first anthology, the compensation is $10 (US) paid via PayPal, plus a printed contributor’s copy.

We sincerely hope this compensation rate will increase with subsequent releases.

How to submit your work:

Send your work to [email protected] with the subject line: Dead of Winter 2016 Submission.

Include the following in your email:

• Your name and pen name (if applicable)
• A short description of what you are submitting
• Your submission as an attachment in one of the two formats listed above.

Any emails received after the Nov. 15th deadline or not adhering to the submission guidelines will be discarded. We will try to respond to every entry we receive, but we have a small team, so we can’t guarantee this.

Good luck!

More information about this anthology:

If you have questions about the above criteria or anything else relating to the anthology, send us an email at [email protected].

Via: Mighty Quill Books.