Submission Window: October 1st – 31st, 2024
Theme: Haunting, atmospheric and unsettling stories full of subtle menace and pervasive dread
Payment: £0.07 per word

Dust & Dark is a new quarterly magazine showcasing the best in original horror fiction. We will shortly be inviting submissions for our debut issue, scheduled for release in Spring 2025 following a Kickstarter campaign early next year.

What we’re looking for

We’re in the market for short, scary stories between 2,000 and 7,000 words in length. The majority of stories we publish are expected to be between 3,000 and 5,000 words.

We’re looking for stylish, atmospheric horror fiction, and we take a broad view of what that means. We’re interested in clearly defined characters, evocative settings, tight pacing and compelling plots. But most of all, we’re looking for stories that leave a lingering sense of unease after we’ve read them. We’re much more interested in expertly rendered dread than straightforward shocks.

We also see horror very much as part of the speculative fiction spectrum, and if your story has something to say, it’s likely to stand out in our submissions pile. Don’t just scare us: surprise us, intrigue us, open us up to new perspectives.

We are particularly keen to feature writing from a diverse range of voices, and we especially welcome submissions from writers of colour, disabled authors, LGBTQ+ authors, neurodivergent authors and anyone from a background or community underrepresented in publishing. If our submissions process presents any accessibility obstacles for you, please contact us to discuss any necessary accommodations.

Our debut issue will be dated Spring 2025, and while it isn’t a themed issue, stories with a particularly autumnal or wintery feel may not be the best fit.

Please also note that we will be publishing in British English. We will amend non-British spelling (color, flavor, etc.) unless there is a narrative reason not to.

Stories in translation are welcome as long as they have never previously been published in English. Please ensure that any translators are credited in your submission.

You are welcome to submit work which has been simultaneously submitted to other outlets, however, please let us know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere so that we can withdraw it from consideration.

What we’re not looking for

We don’t publish:

• Poetry
• Non-fiction
• Young adult fiction
• Gratuitous violence*
• Erotica*
• Paranormal romance
• Stories without a discernible element of horror
• Multi-part series

We are unlikely to accept stories which rely on well-established horror tropes unless you do something genuinely original with them. We also aren’t looking for stories set in existing fictional universes, including those in the public domain (this includes stories based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft).

In addition, as a print and digital magazine, we need to make efficient use of our limited page space. This means that stories based on things like internet chat logs or text message transcripts don’t really work for us.

We are not currently seeking illustrators, columnists, reviewers or other contributors for the project.

* Violent or sexual content is not banned, but it needs to be presented in the context of a wider story. It can’t be the primary focus of the piece, and we aren’t looking for detailed description of sex, injury or gore.

Rights

We ask for:

• First worldwide serial rights to your story

The exclusive right to publish your story in the print and digital editions of our magazine before it appears in any other outlet.

• Six-month period of exclusivity

We ask that you do not submit work published in Dust & Dark to other outlets, print or online, for a period of six months after the date of publication. We are willing to make reasonable exceptions in the case of high-profile “year’s best” anthologies.

• Digital back issues

We ask for the right to sell the digital editions of the issue including your story for four years, with the option to extend this right at four-year intervals for a further payment of 10% of your original fee.

• Promotional material

We ask for the right to use short excerpts of your work to promote the magazine. We also ask that you provide us with an author photograph and some short (approx. 100 words) biographical information for our promotional work.

Payment

We intend to pay £0.07 per word for accepted stories.

Our Kickstarter campaign

We will be funding our debut issue through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. We recognise that this creates a delay in the publishing process, and we will pay each contributor £30 in advance of the campaign, with the remainder of their fee paid immediately upon receipt of campaign funds.

We fully expect the campaign to be successful, however, if we do not reach our fundraising goal, all rights will immediately return to the authors, and you may keep the initial payment with our thanks.

Timeline

Our intended submission and publication schedule is:

• 1 October, 2024: Submissions window opens
• 31 October, 2024: Submissions window closes
• November 2024: Submissions reading
• December 2024: Story selection, initial author payments
• January 2025: Kickstarter campaign
• February 2025: Final layout and pre-production
• March 2025: Print production and delivery to backers

We have previously delivered complex publishing projects, and we expect to be able to work within this schedule. But having recently worked through Brexit and a global pandemic, we are very aware that unexpected events can create delays in the process. We will communicate clearly and openly about any delays if and when they arise.

Plagiarism policy

By submitting a story to us, you affirm that it is entirely your own work (or in the case of co-authored stories, that all co-authors have been named in your submission), is your own intellectual property and that there is no obstruction to licensing the rights outlined above.

You further affirm that no part of the work has been produced using so-called artificial intelligence software including but not limited to ChatGPT. The use of this software is plagiarism, and anyone submitting algorithmically generated stories will be banned from future submissions.

How to submit

We will provide a link to submit your work when our submission window opens in October.

Submissions should be in manuscript format and should be saved as either Microsoft Office or ODT files. We will not open submissions in other file formats. There is no need to include your postal address or telephone number in your submission.

If your story contains elements which could be particularly challenging for our submissions readers, please also include a content warning in your cover email. This is particularly important with any story dealing with domestic/intimate partner violence or threat/harm to children. Please use your best judgement and err on the side of caution. If there’s a possibility that your story might contain difficult material for some readers, include a warning.

We will only consider one story per author during our submission window, so please send us the piece you think most closely fits the brief. Please also note that in order to ensure a variety of featured authors, we will only publish one piece of work from any contributor per calendar year.

Via: Dust & Dark.