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Taking Submissions: Front Zone Issue #5 – Halloween & Holiday Horrors

July 31, 2021

Submission Window: July 3rd – July 31st 2021
Payment: flash: 600-1000 $6.00 CAD, short story 1001-2499 words $10.00 CAD, short story 2500-3500 words 12.00 CAD poetry: 6.00 CAD per poem
Theme: Halloween & Holiday Horrors issue

Canadian eZine of Horror, Dark Fiction, and Poetry

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES and TERMS
for Issue 5

Guidelines and terms change from issue to issue, so please read.

To re-visit guidelines/terms as they were for issue 4 see here.

NOTE: Beginning with this issue, Frost Zone Zine is an electronic publication: eZine, eBook, NO print copies.

(There will be other print opportunities in the future, for different projects.)

THEME for this issue: Halloween and Holiday Horrors

Stories set on or near Halloween, Christmas, Yule, or other winter Holidays.

Seasonal settings of autumn and early winter are also acceptable, as long as the season plays a significant role, otherwise please do not send general horror or poetry, all submissions must fit the theme to be considered.
October through December holiday stories from the southern hemisphere (and with spring/summer settings) are also fine — but such stories must include Halloween, Christmas, or other holidays, otherwise they are general horror.

SUBMISSIONS OPEN JULY 03 – JULY 17

What we want:

Supernatural. Quiet Horror. Gothic. ParanormalEerieStrange. Magic.

Preferably 20th or 21st century, real-world settings.

Clear and concise is the way to go.

From our interview with Matthew G. Rees in issue 4:
“It’s important in a story not to go overboard with reams of description: a short story needs to get on with the business of telling its story. But meaningful, sensorial things need to be brought (economically) into play.”

Fiction.
Original, unpublished, never-broadcast short stories 1200-3500 words. Submit 1 or 2 stories for consideration. Please EDIT your work prior to submitting it.


Also non-paying* opportunities: PoetryFiction under 1200 words (includes flash fiction 400 – 1000 words, drabble (exactly 100 words), and microfiction 101-400 words. Submit up to 3 pieces for consideration.

FORMAT:
FICTION: single-spaced with double space between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Centred # for scene breaks. 12pt. Times New Roman.

POETRY: no uniquely formatted or shape poetry.

What we don’t want:

Do not send material that is offensive, promotes or describes hate, torture, or abuse, is excessively gory or violent. No sexually explicit content, religion, or politics. No fan fiction.

Hard sells: Space opera, ‘formula’ stories, epistolary fiction (story told via letters or diary/journal entry), derivative works, media tie-ins, or current events/pop culture references.
We have a strong aversion to name-dropping celebrities, media outlets, and corporations, and to product placement — generic descriptions work just as well as brand names.
(Like anything, there may be rare exceptions to this).

Payment
Frost Zone Zine does not charge reading or submission fees.
Payment is expected to increase with time, but as a small, self-funded publication, the following token payments are offered:

PAYING OPPORTUNITIES:

Short Story: (1200-2499 words) 7.00 CAD
(2500 words – 3500 words) 9.00 CAD

CAD = Canadian Dollars paid via Paypal.
Paypal will deduct fees from the amount, including exchange rate and transaction fees. Paypal Canada does not allow us to pay the fees for you — the rate of token payments has been raised over the first four issues to help cover those fees.
If you are unable to accept Paypal payments, you will not be compensated.
Canadian authors (who live in Canada and have a Canadian bank account) may opt to be paid via eTransfer.

Most short stories will be included in the online issue. When an author’s work is not shown online — a digital copy (PDF} of the issue will be available to the author at no cost.

NON-PAYING* OPPORTUNITIES:

Poetry
Fiction under 1200 words, includes:
Drabble: (exactly 100-word fiction)
Microfiction: (101-400 words)
Flash Fiction: (400 – 1000 words)
Interview: We cannot pay you to be interviewed by us.

*Non-payment in no way indicates the above pieces are inferior, but as a non-funded publication, we cannot offer token payments to all. Any piece that is not offered payment will be available to read for free on the website, or — if an author’s work is not shown online — a digital copy (PDF} of the issue will be available to the author at no cost.

Returning Authors

Anyone may submit for issue 5, which is a special, themed issue.
(Otherwise, it is the aim not to include any author in two consecutive issues.)

Submissions will always be chosen on the basis of quality writing and what suits the issue’s needs, not previous acceptances, nor any other association with the publication or the editor(s).

How to Submit

There is a link to our submissions manager at the bottom of this page. You will need to open an account with Green Submissions.

(There is now an additional link, to Duosuma submission manager).

Please include a cover letter mentioning:
(This can be added to the text box in the submission manager)

  • Type of submission: drabble, microfiction, flash fiction, short story, or poetry
  • Word count for fiction. Line count for poetry.
  • To which market you are submitting – in this case, Frost Zone Zine. Why? Because we have received submissions meant for other projects of Frost Zone Press, and vise versa.
  • Where you learned of this publication
  • Your physical location (City/Town/Country)

BIO: enter into the plain text box provided in the submission manager a brief bio (up to 50 words) written in the third person.
Include any social media or website links that you wish to be in your bio at the end of the bio; as part of the bio – otherwise, we would be guessing which accounts you want to be published, so no links will be included. The links will be live only on the website; one or more may be added in eBooks but will not be live links.

Your submission: you can enter the text into the plain text field provided, especially desired for drabbles, micro fiction, short poems, and flash fiction. For files: only .doc or .docx are accepted formats.

Terms

Upon acceptance of your work, you are granting Frost Zone Zine First Worldwide Electronic Serial Rights, meaning that the piece(s) should not appear in any online, print, or digital publication, or any broadcast, before the release of all formats (online, electronic) of the issue in which your work appears.​ We request three months’ exclusivity from the date of publication,. (please do not have the piece(s) published elsewhere until three months have passed.)  and non-exclusive rights thereafter for your piece(s) published on the website, and in electronic formats/eBooks.

Acceptance is not firm until a simple release form is signed. We reserve the right to retract an acceptance if the author fails to promptly sign the form.

All rights revert to the author upon publication. We request that the work is not published elsewhere until three months post-publication. Please mention that your piece(s) was/were first published in Frost Zone Zine, including issue# and date, should it/they later be published as (a) reprint(s).

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please mention if it is. If your submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it through our submissions manager. This is only possible while your submission is pending with us. If your submission has been moved on to a second reading, you will need to contact us to withdraw your submission. If we accept your submission, withdraw the piece immediately from other publications.

When a submission is moved to ‘second reading’ or when a submission is ‘declined’, please log in to your Green Submissions account to check if there are any notes from the editor posted.

By submitting your work for consideration, you agree to the following:

  • You confirm that the work you submit to Frost Zone Zine for consideration is your own, original writing.
  • You confirm that the work has not been previously published, whether, in print, digital, online, or any other form, and the work has not been previously broadcast (podcast, video, etc.).
  • You agree not to hold Frost Zone Zine, Frost Zone Press, or the editor(s) liable for any damages, perceived or real, arising from your submission and/or the publication of your submission.
  • You confirm that the characters in the fiction you submit are fictitious.
  • You have read and agree to the payment terms as applicable to writers in your location.
  • You confirm that you are 18 years of age or older at the time of submitting work to us.

Retraction: We reserve the right to retract any acceptance of your work, even after a release form has been signed by you. There are only a few reasons why this retraction might occur, including but not limited to:

  • You misrepresented yourself or the work you submitted.
  • In light of learned information, we decide that publishing your work may cause controversy or harm to our publication.
  • Unable to reach author/no communication.

Declination

If your submission is not accepted:

  • It is not personal – there is limited space and pieces that suit the issue best will be selected
  • Your piece may work well in another market; try submitting it elsewhere
  • Please do not contact us about our decision
  • Do not send another submission during the same submission period unless we have asked for one.
  • Do not send a rejected piece in the next submission period, unless we have suggested ways to revise, and you are submitting a greatly updated version.

Acceptance
You will be notified within one month after the submission close date — if not sooner, whether or not your submission is accepted to be published in the upcoming issue. We reserve the right to make necessary edits without your consent.  Please read the more information page to see what type of editing may be required. You will be notified of any major changes that need to be made, and on some occasions asked for your input on minor changes.

The release form will be sent for you to sign electronically. This form must be signed before your acceptance is considered firm.

Refer to the this page for helpful information before submitting your work.

Ready to submit? Sign up is quick and easy:

Two submissions managers available, no submission fees.

Submit here: Green Submissions

  • You will have to open an account with Green Submissions.
  • Note: there is no option to set up auto-response emails informing you that your submission has been received, so watch for the highlighted words: ‘Your submission has been successful’ on the page after submitting.
  • You will be able to track or withdraw your submission through the submission manager.

Alternately, you can also submit through Duosuma (Duotrope’s submissions manager):

Duosuma

Note: Duosuma auto-closes by time zone. Our listing is set to UTC-0500 Eastern Time (US & Canada) but it may possibly auto-close earlier. Submit early — once it auto-closes it cannot be re-opened.

If the call is closed on Duosuma, you will still be able to use Green Submissions.

​​Thank you for your interest in contributing to Frost Zone Zine.

Via: Front Zone Zine.

Details

Date:
July 31, 2021