
Taking Submissions: Medieval Horror Novel Proposals
April 30
Deadline: April 30th, 2025
Payment: $2,000 advance with 25% Royalties upon completion and final approval of the manuscript
Theme: Medieval Horror
Medieval Horror Novel Proposals
Sentinel Creatives is now accepting book proposals for 2025 in the genre of Medieval Horror.
Deadline for Submissions: 30 April 2025
Proposal Pagecount: 1–2 pages
Remuneration: $2,000 advance with 25% Royalties upon completion and final approval of the manuscript
Novel Length: 50,000–75,000 words
We do not expect the proposed novel to be completed or even started yet. This is an opportunity to pitch your idea and work with us to bring it to life.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
We’re looking for original weird tales set in the medieval period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror.
WHAT TO INCLUDE
- A 1–2 page pitch for your novel.
- A 2–3 page sample of your writing (from a current work-in-
progress or a previously published piece). - A list of books and/or movies you think your novel might be similar to, draw inspiration from, or share an audience with.
Some Ideas to Explore:
- A co-mingling of plague and cosmic horror
- A Lovecraftian twist on the numinous (what exactly were those voices Joan of Arc was hearing?)
- Go epic in scale: The Crusader States at War/The Norman Conquest/The Wendish Crusade
- Adapting folklore & myth: Prester John and his mythical kingdom of Christians amidst pagans and Muslims in the East… with a twist.
- An ill-fated incident during the Children’s Crusade—what happened to those who followed a goat into the dark forests of Europe, never to be heard from again?
While we are looking for innovative, fresh ideas, don’t be afraid to adopt some more familiar horror tropes as a springboard for your story. The “small town horror” or Stephen King’s “The Peculiar Little Town” trope hasn’t been widely explored in medieval horror literature (though it has seen some use in cinema, with films like Black Death (2010)). We’d love to see a story full of secrets, a protagonist intent on uncovering them, and the horror they unearth when all is revealed. The protagonist might be a stranger to the town and/or setting, confronted by customs and practices they do not understand, or they might be returning home after years away, only to find that they no longer recognise it—something is wrong.
It would be nearly impossible to ground a story in the Middle Ages without invoking religion in some way. The horror might stem directly from religious themes, or it might explore how people turn to religion for answers, using it as a lens to comprehend the horrors that befall them. Sometimes religion might offer solutions, or it might further complicate things.
Cosmic horror is another tool we’d love to see incorporated into the proposed novels. With humanity as the playthings of incomprehensible beings, how might this intersect with religious horror?
Fire and Brimstone – On the Use of Demons and Hell
While overt use of demons and Hell might seem like the obvious approach to a medieval horror story, it’ll take something special to outdo the best in the genre. For this reason, we prefer any allusion to Hell and its fiends to be more subtle. We’ve read about demons ravaging towns and cities, hunting their inhabitants, and driving villages to madness. We’ve read novels, short stories and anthologies that, in our opinion, have exhausted this approach.
That’s not to say that demons and heretical priests are entirely off-limits. Rather, we’re looking for subtlety in their use—or, if not subtlety, then a novel twist on the trope.

Weird: The term “weird” should be understood to mean a certain sense of breathless and unexplainable dread, of outer, unknown forces present, a suggestion of the defeat or suspension of the laws of nature which have hitherto served to protect our minds and bodies (and souls) from the assault of chaos. By its very nature, weird fiction should invoke in the reader a sense of profound uneasiness and dread, it should hint at the inability of the human mind to comprehend the true nature of existence, and it should cause us to question the stability of our faith in the established laws of nature.
Medieval: The term “medieval” denotes the period in Europe lasting from around 500AD to 1500AD and is typically divided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. There is a temptation here that often proves too powerful to ignore, to view Europe through a monist lens: to see all of Europe as Christian, white, and “Western”. But this is a strange way to view a continent and a period that saw so much strife and upheaval precisely because of the differences of those living within its borders. These are the differences—the tensions—that create the opportunity for compelling storytelling.Horror: It now feels trite to say, but good horror is about trespass and transgression more so than it is about transcendence. It confronts themes, images, and ideas that people would rather avoid than confront but elicits in the reader a sense that they cannot look away.
Send your submissions to: [email protected] with the subject “MEDIEVAL HORROR PITCH”. All submissions should be sent as a word document. Our preference is for Times New Roman or another clearly legible text.
In the body of your email, please include a setting, year or decade, a brief description of the proposed plot, a short bio, and a list of any previously published works. If you have a mailing list or author socials, let us know! If not, we’ll build these with you if your pitch is selected.
We’re looking for original works that have not been previously published!











About Us
If you’re unfamiliar with Sentinel Creatives, we’re an indie publishing and production house based in Cape Town, South Africa. We maintain a weekly Substack profile, a monthly podcast show, as well as more traditional publishing roles! Though our focus is on books, we have moved into the audiobook and radio-play sphere, and our larger projects include various other creative endeavours (illustration, sculpting, painting, composing etc.)



