Deadline: May 31st, 2022
Payment: Charity anthology that pays: £25
Theme: Horror-themed fictional stories that simply feature a house that was once somewhere, but is no longer.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘜𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘦 𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘒-𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺.”

We are now officially open for submissions to our third anthology and our first charity anthology, titled There Used to Be a House Here. This anthology is raising money in support of the UK-based charity, Shelter, which strives to tackle poor housing and homelessness across the country. Our cover art will be finalised and uploaded to this page in the near future.

If this has piqued your interest, please scroll down for the full details!

What are We Looking For?

We are looking for horror-themed fictional stories that simply feature a house that was once somewhere, but is no longer. Why the house no longer stands where it once did is up to you; perhaps it was simply torn down, or maybe it was sucked into another dimension entirely. Setting and theme-wise, we are open to any approach; classic haunted house stories, tales of gentrification or displacement, or maybe the house isn’t even a physical object at all—how you interpret the premise of this anthology is really up to you. We are also open to poetry pieces for this anthology too, provided they fit the general concept of the anthology.

IMPORTANT: This is a charity anthology. 100% of proceeds from the sale of this anthology will be going directly to the UK-based charity, Shelter. Shelter is a charity that does terrific work across England and Scotland to help combat poor housing conditions and homelessness. Charities of this nature have struggled more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can find out more about the charity here:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/

We think it is a fantastic and worthy cause to support, and we hope that you will consider joining us in this project to raise money for the charity. Night Terror Novels will be posting periodic updates of donations made on both here on the site and our social media accounts.

We are not the squeamish sort, so be as wild and grotesque as you wish. Erotic content is fine too and will be considered, so long as it exists to serve the narrative. More or less anything goes, though as always if your story is blatantly racist or homophobic it will be instantly rejected. We also encourage submissions from female, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors, as we’re striving to offer a range of experiences and perspectives in this series.

The anthology will be edited, and the stories selected, by J. D. Keown. He can be found on both Instagram and Twitter @JDKAuthor, and we can be found on Instagram @nightterrornovels. All updates and announcements regarding this project will be posted on each of those accounts, so give us a follow if you want to get the latest news.

The window to submit will run from the 1st December, 2021 (1/12/2021) to the 31st May, 2022 (31/05/2022). As with our previous anthology, the deadline we have set is subject to change based upon the volume of submissions we receive, but any changes will be posted both here and on our social media accounts, and any selected contributors will be informed immediately. In total, we are expecting to select around fifteen stories (perhaps more, if we receive a large volume of poetry pieces) for inclusion in this anthology. See below for all relevant guidelines and details, and please read them carefully before submitting.

Title: There Used to Be a House Here

Payment: Flat rate of £25 via PayPal upon acceptance, and a digital e-Book contributor copy upon release.

Guidelines (please read carefully):

• .doc, .docx or .odt formats preferred. No .pdfs, please.
• Single OR Double-spaced, 12pt font, preferably Times New Roman, though provided the text is clearly legible, the font doesn’t matter too much. Please format indentation for paragraphs, don’t just use the spacebar or tab keys. See Shunn’s guidelines for reference on how your manuscript should look.
• Document should contain the story title, the author’s preferred pen name, and the story’s word count, but ideally should NOT contain any headers or footers.
• Original work only, please. No reprints, no stories published elsewhere (such as on personal blogs, social medias, or other websites). Simultaneous submissions are more than welcome, but please inform us as soon as possible if your story is accepted elsewhere.
• The only rights Night Terror Novels Publishing are seeking is first print rights on our website, and the non-exclusive right to collect the stories into an anthology, published in 2022, and sold thereafter. No exclusivity is sought. Authors retain all rights to their works after publication.
• Authors may submit up to two (2) works of short fiction, and/or up to three (3) works of poetry, at any one time for consideration.

Word Count: Between 2,500 and 8,000 words for short fiction. Stories slightly shorter or longer will also be considered, but ideally the word count will fall within this range.

Submissions Open: From 1st December, 2021 (1/12/2021).

Submissions Close: 31st May, 2022 (31/05/2021). All authors will be sent an email of acknowledgement of their submission, and we will be aiming to notify everyone of either acceptance or rejection within one month of the closing date. If you have not heard from us by then, please feel free to chase us up via the email address below.

Anticipated Release Date: TBD, 2022.

Please send all submissions in an attached document to our email address, [email protected], with the following subject line:

[your name] – [story title] – [approx. word count]

(an example email: Submission for There Used to Be a House Here: My Name – My Story – 4,000 words)

In the body of the email, please also include a brief third-person author bio, ideally three to four sentences long, which may include up to two links to either your social media accounts or personal websites.

And that’s pretty much it. We cannot wait to read your submissions, and best of luck to you all!

Via: Night Terror Novels.