Events

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $50 and a contributor's copy Anthologies are a great way to get your stories noticed. Caffeinated Press sponsors an annual house anthology titled “Brewed Awakenings,” with a new volume released every autumn. The first volume, released on March 2, 2015, contains the work of eight invited authors from West Michigan who penned stories under the loose theme of “all goes dark.” The second volume shipped in September 2016; subsequent volumes will follow each October. The anthology ships in print format (vol. 1); print and ebook (vol. 2); print, ebook and audio book (vol. 3 and subsequent). We are currently in the reading window for vol. 4. The window closes 5/31/18. We recommend that you read the Q&A that follows, then visit our Query page to read our formal house editorial guidelines. The submission form for proposed Brewed Awakenings content is at the bottom of the Query page. It will be to your advantage to read both of these documents in their entirety before you consider whether you should submit to us. Q&A When can I submit stories? What’s the deadline? We accept stories year-round. The cutoff for each autumn’s volume is May 31. Submit before then, you’re in consideration for that year’s copy; submit after that, and you’re in the pile for the following year. You obtain neither benefit nor disability from submitting well in advance of the cutoff, but technical errors in the submission are more likely to be redirected to you for correction (instead of resulting in your manuscript being summarily excluded) if we have time to spot-check it before May 31. How much does it cost to submit? Nothing, silly. Reading fees are The Devil. Never, ever accept the premise that you must fork over some greenbacks to get a fair review of your manuscript. Who can submit? Anyone who is authorized to work in...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: 5¢ – 8¢ per word On Thanksgiving weekend 2009, we opened to our first anthology. Ten years later we plan to celebrate this long strange—and wonderful—trip, with our biggest anthology yet! Our “Best Of” will feature your favorite Blood Bound stories from the last decade upgraded in a limited edition, illustrated hardcover. The hardcover will also be loaded with brand new stories to lead us into the next decade of horror. That’s where you come in: What we’re looking for: Genres: All sub-genres of horror accepted—extreme, bizzaro, erotic, new weird, splatterpunk—if it’s dark, we want it! Stories must be previously unpublished in any form Email: [email protected] Length: 500 words up to 6K—query for longer works Deadline: May 31st 2018 Payment: 5¢ – 8¢ per word (We’re shooting for 8¢ if we get a few more Patreon supporters before contracts go out, but it will NEVER be lower than 5¢) Patreon rewards Via: Blood Bound Books.

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $50AUD A slight departure from the other anthologies, this one is calling out for dark Sci-Fi writers! Interpret that how you will, and read on… Submissions Deadline: End of May. Publication Date: July 2018 Website: www.ThingsInTheWell.webs.com/submissions Email: [email protected] when your story is complete, and as great as it can be! Theme: By all means draw inspiration from them, but I'm not looking Alien/Predator fan-fiction, or rehashes of old sci-fi classics. I want stories that areoutstanding, different, and memorable! I want something new and exciting! New psychological terrors involving time travel; new primal fears to threaten humanity, and new hopes that we may conquer them; new creatures that will make people want to go out and buy the Halloween mask; and new stories of the weird in the outer-reaches of time and space. If you need more ideas, take a look outside the typical Sci-Fi genre (perhaps read Clive Barker’s short story ‘The Skins of the Fathers’ or HPL’s ‘The Colour out of space,’ or go back further and look wider to William Hope Hodgson’s ‘The House on the Borderland’ or Brian Lumley’s ‘The House of Doors’ or ‘Necroscope’ series. So, something memorable, dark, and/or something that offers hope and/or despair for humanity… I envision the SciFi element as merely the stage for the story to unfold, cracking our world(s) open to reveal a truer story beyond the genre’s superfice. Gee, that sounds pompous, but you get my (space) drift. I anticipate a (star)fleet of top-notch submissions as usual, so I'm after memorable stories, a sense of dread, and some level of believability and internal consistency would be more important than a lengthy treatise or a quick shudder. Yes, space viruses and alien encounters can be believable if written well. Stop! Before putting fingers on keyboards (or pen to paper) you would do well to read...

Deadline: May 31st 2018 Payment: £10 per story and £5 per poem. Eibonvale Press will be open for submissions for a new anthology edited by Allen Ashley and Sarah Doyle. “Humanagerie” will showcase both poetry and short fiction on the theme of animals. The book will not be about animals as such, but will instead be inspired by the characteristics that animals possess, and the points at which these intersect with – and manifest in – humanity. It will also be based on the strange and beautiful adjectives used to describe such traits, such as: Aquiline – eagle Chelonian – tortoise or turtle Leporine – hare Ostracine – oyster Pieridine / Pierine – butterfly Vespine – wasp / hornet and many many more. You will find a much larger list in the guidelines. We are interested in shifting states, in scenarios that explore duality, hybridity, and liminality. We are asking writers to consider how animalistic attributes might manifest in the human psyche – or vice versa. We want hints of scales, tails, fur and fins… gills, claws, paws and spines… glimpses of horns, tusks, teeth and tongues… stalking, slinking, slithering and stomping… roars, whimpers, howls and song. We want breath, heat, musk. We want landscapes ranging from urban wastelands to frozen tundra, from bedsits to coastlines, from suburbia to savannah – and the imagined worlds between. We want water and we want fish out of water. We want the visceral and the vulnerable, the slippery and the synaesthetic, emergence and extinction. The submissions window will run from March 1st until May 31st 2018. The word limits are up to 60 lines for poetry and 4,000 words for fiction. Download the guidelines here. Via: Eibonvale Press.

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $50AUD and a contributor's copy This will be the 5th anthology in the Things in the Well series, to be published in July 2018. Submissions Deadline: end of May Email: [email protected] when your story is complete, and as good as it can be! ~ Note By all means draw inspiration from them, but I'm not looking Alien/Predator fan-fiction, or rehashes of old sci-fi classics (I'm looking at you, Asimov-fans...) I want stories that are outstanding, different, and memorable! I want something new and exciting! New psychological terrors involving time travel; primal fears triggered by something new that threatens humanity, and new hopes that we may conquer them; new creatures that will make people want to go out and buy the Halloween mask; and new stories of the weird in the outer-reaches of time and space. If you need more ideas, take a look outside the typical Sci-Fi genre... Read Clive Barker’s short story ‘The Skins of the Fathers’ or HPL’s ‘The Colour out of space,’ or go back further and look wider to William Hope Hodgson’s ‘The House on the Borderland,’ or Brian Lumley’s ‘The House of Doors’ and ‘Necroscope’ series. So, something memorable, dark, and/or something that offers hope and/or despair for humanity… I envision the SciFi element as merely the stage for the story to unfold, cracking our world(s) open to reveal a truer story beyond the genre’s superfice. Gee, that sounds pompous, but you get my (space) drift. I anticipate a (star)fleet of top-notch submissions as usual, so I'm after memorable stories, a sense of dread, and some level of believability and internal consistency would be more important than a lengthy treatise or a quick shudder. And yes, alien viruses, space pirates and cosmic encounters can be believable if written well.  -Steve Dillon Stop! Before putting fingers on keyboards (or...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $50 Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents is seeking the following addressing the theme of "Ice Culture": Nonfiction -- Not to exceed 2,000 words Poetry -- Not to exceed three poems Fiction -- Not to exceed 2,000 words Visual Art -- Up to 3 works Photography -- Up to 3 works Music -- Up to 3 songs Artists, writers, scientists, travelers, and musicians are invited to submit work that explores ice-related themes. We are seeking work that features the physical and spiritual beauty of our world's ice, explores the life of the people and cultures that are connected to the ice from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, and addresses important political issues related to ice. As climate change affects the weather and composition of our planet, our ice is melting. Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents wants to address the importance of ice; focus on its beauty; and learn from the people who study, live near, and love it. For literature, please submit only works in English. For other work (visual art or music), please submit an English translation. Artists with selected work will be provided with a $50 (U.S.) honorarium. All payments will be made by PayPal. Recipient must be able to receive payments via PayPal. Accepted works will be published online and in a print version of the publication. Artists will be asked to grant permission for publication with Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents (both online and in print), and will thereafter retain copyright of their work. Submission deadline: May 31, 2018. Submissions will be accepted using Submittable.  Via: Black Coffee & Vinyl.

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $300-$400 (depending on length) signing bonus against royalties, which will be paid before publication., 35-40% (depending on length) net royalties, paid either monthly or bi-monthly. WHAT WE WANT We are seeking three novellas (15,000 to 40,000 Words FIRM). The genres we are looking for are in the realms of cosmic horror and weird fiction. We want novellas that surprise us, that haunt our dreams. Speculative fiction with elegant prose and original concepts. Stories that make us think, that catch our attention from the first page and keep us glued to the story all the way to the end. WHAT WE DON'T WANT Fiction that isn't speculative. We don't want any stories that could possibly be based in reality. All fiction must be otherworldly, supernatural, etc. Novellas that employ the second person narrative voice. Novellas that have been previously published. NO REPRINTS. Erotica, fan fiction, or stories with heavy sexual content. Fiction that is unoriginal or uses recycled themes. Surprise us! As always, the most taboo topics are fine, as long as they are used professionally and respectably. Anything with overuse of vulgarity or purposely gross language for the sake of being gross will not be considered. NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS. NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS UNLESS YOU QUERY FIRST. Stories with numerous errors. This should be a given. Always read through your work or have your editor or a friend read through it before sending it anywhere. Artwork submissions. We have already hired the artists for the covers. Anything that has been rejected previously for a separate submissions call. Submit fiction in proper manuscript format. If you need help regarding the formatting, follow this link. We cannot state how severely it will affect your chances if your story has poor formatting. We are expecting a massive volume of submissions for this call, and if...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: 2 cents per word, minimum of $150 and maximum of $300, which will be paid before publication. Whereas the novellas will be standalone, we are seeking novelettes for our Hinnom Magazine spin-off publication, Tales From Gehenna. Each month Hinnom Magazineis not published, we will release a volume of Tales, which will include a single novelette with original illustrations throughout the story. Think Tales From the Crypt but much spookier! WHAT WE WANT We are seeking six novelettes (7,500 to 15,000 Words FIRM). The genres we are looking for are in the realms of cosmic horror and weird fiction. We want novelettes that surprise us, that haunt our dreams. Speculative fiction with elegant prose and original concepts. Stories that make us think, that catch our attention from the first page and keep us glued to the story all the way to the end. WHAT WE DON'T WANT Fiction that isn't speculative. We don't want any stories that could possibly be based in reality. All fiction must be otherworldly, supernatural, etc. Novelettes that employ the second person narrative voice. Novelettes that have been previously published. NO REPRINTS. Erotica, fan fiction, or stories with heavy sexual content. Fiction that is unoriginal or uses recycled themes. Surprise us! As always, the most taboo topics are fine, as long as they are used professionally and respectably. Anything with overuse of vulgarity or purposely gross language for the sake of being gross will not be considered. NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS. NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS UNLESS YOU QUERY FIRST. Stories with numerous errors. This should be a given. Always read through your work or have your editor or a friend read through it before sending it anywhere. Artwork submissions. We have already hired the artists for the covers. Anything that has been rejected previously for a separate submissions call. Submit fiction in proper manuscript format. If...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: 2 cents per word, minimum of $30 and maximum of $100, which will be paid before publication. Each chapbook will have a specific theme, and we are seeking 3-4 short stories for each publication. THEMES: CHAPBOOK 1: NIGHTSCAPES -- Three to four tales of nightmares, night terrors, the unfathomable dreams. All stories for this chapbook must fit into the previously mentioned concepts. Think the fiction of Thomas Ligotti and Jon Padgett meeting the artwork of Zdzisław Beksiński. WHAT WE WANT We are seeking three to four short stories (1,500 to 5,000 Words FIRM). We want your most trippy, disturbing tales that question our notions of reality. Shock us with your imagination, show us how unique and weird your nightmares really are. CHAPBOOK 2: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A PORTAL? -- Three to four tales of inter-dimensional horror. Portals, gateways, archaic and ancient worlds. All stories submitted must follow these themes. Think The Void meets Event Horizon with a little Lovecraft and Barker tossed into the mix. WHAT WE WANT We are seeking three to four short stories (1,500 to 5,000 Words FIRM). We want your most otherworldly tales. Show us dimensions made of nightmares, ancient god-like entities breaking into our world, mankind unlocking denizens of ethereal planes. Enthrall us with the horrors that lie beyond our universe. CHAPBOOK 3: VOID BECKONING -- Three to four tales of deep space horror. Terrifying monstrosities on ancient moons, malevolent spirits aboard spaceships, mining facilities on other worlds uncovering ancient evils, infectious body-morphing diseases plaguing orbital stations. Think Dead Space meets Alien and Prometheus. WHAT WE WANT We are seeking three to four short stories (1,500 to 5,000 Words FIRM). We want your cautionary tales of deep space travel, what could possibly lie ahead in the cosmos. Thrill us with the claustrophobia of space in the event of invading creatures, terrify us with tales of ancient evils found deep in...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $20-$75 according to the category and length of their submission. Submissions are open from April 2 – May 31. Speculative City publishes provocative works that are centered within a cityscape. Although all are welcome to submit, special consideration is given to creators and characters often underrepresented in speculative fiction, such as people of color, queer people, working-class people, and people with disabilities (this list is not exhaustive and acts as an example of the types of voices we wish to hear and show). We are looking for fiction, poetry, and essays within the theme of the magazine’s upcoming issue (game, see below). Writers published will be paid $20-$75 according to the category and length of their submission. We would be hard-pressed to include submissions with a length exceeding 5500 words. All submissions should be the original, unpublished work of the submitter. We will accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us if the submission has been accepted by another publication. We do not accept multiple submissions for fiction or essays. Please submit word (.doc, .docx) or rich text format (.rtf) files and format your submission according to our format guide. Please send all inquiries to info @ speculativecity .com . We try to respond to all submissions within 60 days. All submissions should be sent through Green Submissions. Green Submissions requires users to create an account. Please see link to sign up and submit at https://greensubmissions.com/1024/speculative-city/index.php. Before submitting work, please also be familiar with our contract. THEME game noun, verb | \gām\ Definition of GAME noun a rule-based activity one engages in for amusement or competition determined by one’s skill, strength, or luck verb to exploit, connive At Speculative City, a game is not limited to the tabletop or screen. We conceptually play games everyday, whether...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: 1000-3000 words will receive $5, $10 for longer stories. Also a contributor's copy. Unfading Daydream is looking for unique and exceptional fiction to be showcased in our quarterly literary magazine. We strive to feature stories within the genres that have inspired us (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc) as well as stories that feature LGBTQ+ themes. We are currently not seeking submissions – but our next reading period starts in May which is for Issue 5 (published in July 2018). Issue 5’s theme is ‘mecha.’ So stories will require some aspect of giant robots like Gundam, Pacific Rim, or Transformers. They don’t necessarily have to be hard sci-fi, we both think seeing a magic powered mech would be pretty awesome! Basic Details We are open to established and new, emerging authors. In terms of length, we’re looking for stories between 1000 and 7000 words. Shorter or longer stories will be evaluated on a case by case basis. No previously published works. Please no simultaneous submissions Reading periods are May, August, November, and February. All submissions must be in by 11:59pm CST on the last day of the reading period (May, August, November, or February) Please do not send submissions outside of our reading periods. Submissions received outside of reading periods will not be considered. Expect a decision within four weeks See full guidelines below Payment Stories that are between 1000-3000 words will receive $5. Stories that are longer than that will receive $10. All contributors receive a hard copy of the magazine. In time, we would like to pay contributors more! Submissions We accept submissions only by email. Free to submit! Please send your submission to submit unfadingdaydream com with the title of ‘Unfading Daydream Submission’. Full Guidelines We want to see your unique sci-fi, fantasy, horror,...

Deadline: May 31st, 2018 Payment: $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 Our themes for 2018 will be: Apparition (Published January 2018) Delusion (Published April 2018) Vision (opens for submissions May 15-31, 2018, publishing July 2018) Diversion (opens for submissions August 15-31, 2018, publishing October 2018) Payment: Apparition is a token rate magazine, paying $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 dollars (excluding flash contest, a flat rate of 5.00 dollars to the winning flash). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. What we’re looking for: Short Fiction: We will only accept stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,200 words will automatically be rejected. Payment: Apparition is a token-rate magazine, paying $0.01 per word, minimum of 10.00 dollars (excluding flash contest). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. How to Submit: Format the story using the Shunn manuscript Please retain all proper formatting marks. Keep font italicized and bolded. We’re not in the typewriter age anymore. Please only use Times New Roman or Arial font in your document Save as an RTF file and attach to an email In the text of the email, provide a brief cover letter that includes your name, the title of the short story, word count, and any relevant publications Edit the email’s subject line so it reads: SUBMISSION: Title of Your Story Email your formatted email and short story manuscript to [email protected] Add Apparition Lit to your Safe Senders list so you can...