Deadline: July 31st, 2019

Payment: 3 cents per word and a contributor’s copy.

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest horror movies of all time: Alien. Yes, it is a horror movie, but set in space. There are also plans for a new branch of the military — in space.

We’ve explored loneliness, isolation, and solitude in our first anthology. We Put the Love Back in Lovecraft in our second anthology. We explored the creatures of cryptozoology in our recent pair of anthologies. Now we will go where all good series eventually go…

…to space.

What We Want:

Finely crafted works of Dark Speculative fiction which feature one (or more) classic monsters. Vampires, mummies, creatures built from dead body parts, lycanthropes, mad scientists, and zombies — yes, even zombies — but we want to see them in space.

We want to see these creatures floating around in zero g, attacking astronauts and colonists, and generally menacing those brave enough to go beyond the confines of our pale blue dot.

Each story must take place somewhere other than the Earth. It can happen on a spaceship, on a colony, on a new terraformed planet. There should be humans involved, but they do not have to be the protagonists.

Each story must also feature (at least) one classic monster. We are looking for new takes on the old classics. Feel free to explore, but they should still be recognizable to the average reader.

What We Don’t Want:

Actual characters from other books or films. As much as we love the idea of Dracula in Space, we are pretty sure that Universal owns the rights to that particular vampire. The vampire doesn’t have to be Dracula in particular (for example: Bubba Ho-Tep has a great mummy, but not THE mummy).

We don’t like being sued.

Retreads of Alien/Aliens/etc. We love the Xenomorph, but we are looking for new interpretations of old monsters. The Xeno is only 40. That’s not old.

On a related note, stories where small bands of humans have to fend off a horde of creatures are going to be a hard sell. We love Aliens, but it’s really more of a sci-fi action movie. We’re looking for horror. We want you to evoke that sense of fear that will make us want to turn on a light and pull the covers up.

Important Note: We are looking for monsterial diversity. In other words, we don’t want a whole anthology filled with the same creatures. Two of the same may work, but not more than that. The earlier you submit, the earlier you can nail down that monster.

The Specifics: We are looking for short fiction up to 6,000 words. While we prefer original material, we will consider reprints. Please query before submitting reprints ([email protected]). Naturally, we will only consider stories which you retain the rights to. Please provide original publication information for all reprints. Fan Fiction, Slash Fiction, and any other material containing characters or setting which you did not create, are not acceptable. Submissions should follow standard format. For an example of what we are looking for in terms of formatting, please visit link. The only addendum to this is that the editor prefers Times New Roman.

Please edit your material carefully. Common spelling errors (they’re/their/there, your/you’re) may be acceptable in social media posts, but not in works submitted for publication.

Word (.doc/.docx) format is preferred, but we will also accept submissions in Open Office (.odt), Pages (pages), and Rich Text Format (.rtf). Send your stories to [email protected]. In the subject line of your e-mail list “Monster in Space,” the title of your story, and your last name. For example:

Monsters in Space / Really Awesome Story / I. M. N. Alien

E-mails which do not follow this format will be deleted unread.

Provide a short (500 words or less) biography in the body of your e-mail. Also, feel free to describe why you chose the particular monster that you did.

We are looking for North American Print and Digital Rights. Rights revert back to the author upon publication. Submissions accepted until 31 July 2019 or until filled. Our previous anthologies have each closed to submissions a month or more before the deadline. For this book, we are only looking for 13 – 15 stories. Don’t delay, start writing today!

Please wait four weeks before querying.

Multiple submissions are OK, but please wait until you have received a response on your first piece before submitting your second. Simultaneous submissions: no.

Estimated publication date Fall 2019 via POD (KDP) and on various digital formats.

At this time payment is one cent per word ($0.03/word) plus one contributor’s copy and one digital version in the format of the author’s choosing. We will be running a crowd sourcing campaign with the goal of providing higher monetary recompense to our authors. As with our previous anthologies, this is a charity anthology to raise money for the canine rescue organization Last Day Dog Rescue.

Note to New Authors: Most publications seek First North American Rights. While you may be able to sell your story again as a reprint, publication in this anthology may limit your story’s future marketability and may affect the amount of money you will be able to receive from other markets. Please take this into consideration before submitting.

Via: The Dragon Roost