Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $35 and a contributors copy
Theme: Short horror fiction inspired by early morning kids TV

Send us your best short horror fiction inspired by early morning kids TV for our next anthology, Saturday Mourning Television. Tune us in to something scary based on any decade you like: the educational/bizarre 1960’s & 70’s, the advert-packed 80’s, the radical 90’s, the wayward & wacky 2000’s or anything beyond. Even web-based entertainment is fair game. And don’t limit yourself to tales involving kids, what about parents, or performers & hosts, workers behind the scenes, even animated creations. Let your imagination go wild, and remember not to sit too close to the screen!

What we’re looking for:

• All submissions must be in the horror genre. Bizarro, splatterpunk and extreme horror are welcome.

• Preference will be given to submissions from LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC authors. If you don’t like this, don’t submit.

• All submissions must be original. We will not accept reprints, or stories/poetry published elsewhere, including on blogs, social media etc.

• We realise this is a TV-related call but no fanfic or direct use of real-life persons please!

• No AI/machine generated anything– any AI/machine generated submissions (including covering emails) will be deleted without reply, and the submitter will be blacklisted from any future submission calls, grant programmes & other services offered by Sliced Up Press.

• Please try to avoid simultaneous submissions.

• Submit your work in modern or classic manuscript format (as outlined on www.shunn.net/format. Poems may be submitted in whatever form best suits the piece.

• Please send your submission as an MS Word .doc or .docx attachment. Anything sent in a different file type will be rejected without reply.

• You do not need to include your postal/mailing address or full birth name anywhere in your submission. These will only be requested if your submission is successful, and only where required to allow for payment & physical contributor copies to be sent.

• Authors may submit 1 (one) story and 1 (one) poem maximum for consideration – if you want to send both, please send them in separate emails. Do not send more than one story or poem unless we ask you to, additional submissions will be rejected without reply!

• Do not re-send stories/poems that have been rejected for previous calls to Sliced Up Press anthologies unless you have been sent an invite to resubmit. Sending the same thing we’ve rejected before without an invite will result in rejection without reply.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & TERMS:

Please email submissions to [email protected] using the following format in the email subject line:

Submission for SMT: [author’s name] – [story/poem title] – [approx word count / line count for poems]

This means your email subject line should look like this: Submission for SMT: Your Name – Story/Poem title – 1,500 words / 50 lines

In the body of the email, please include an author bio of 3-4 sentences maximum along with any social media links and your PayPal ID. Publication history is not required up front (new writers are more than welcome!), and nor is your given birth name, or your physical/mailing address.

Anything which does not follow the submission guidelines may be deleted without reply.

Payment: $35 flat rate per story/poem (or local equivalent), paid via PayPal, plus 1 x paperback contributor copy following publication

Length: Fiction: 1,000 words minimum, 4,000 words maximum – longer pieces will be rejected without reply. Poetry:No minimum/maximum word count.

Deadline for submissions: 30^th June 2025

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 31^st July 2025 at the very latest. We cannot guarantee feedback on every submission.

If you have not heard back by 31^st July 2025, your submission has more than likely been rejected because it did not follow the submission guidelines, so please remember to check them (and your spam folder!) carefully.

Please do not email after submitting unless you want to withdraw your submission. Any responses to feedback/chases for a decision etc. will be deleted without reply.

No exclusivity will be sought. Authors retain all rights to their works after publication.

We are not looking for artwork submissions at this time.

Reminder for all sub calls: We will not consider any submissons which are AI or machine generated.

Sliced Up Press is not open to unsolicited submissions – we will only consider stories/poems etc. for any open call/s detailed above.

Any unsolicited submissions which do not relate to an open call will be rejected without reply.

Via: Sliced Up Press.