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Taking Submissions: The Children of Clark Ashton Smith

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: One penny Sterling per word Note: Reprints allowed. Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) is my favourite fantasy author. I’ve had the pleasure of publishing several stories in the vein of CAS’s works. I’m very interested in publishing an anthology of stories, poems and prose poems in CAS’s vein. Whether the stories are based in Averoigne, Hyperboria, Poseidonis, Zothique or anywhere else, as long as it fits CAS’s mode of storytelling, I’ll be more than interested. If your story, etc. has been published elsewhere, please let me know where and when the work was published. I will pay one penny Sterling per word, with a minimum payment of £10 Sterling for poems and very, very short stories and prose poems. For illustrations, I will pay £30 for ‘header’ illustrations to a story, £100 for full page illustrations and £200 for the cover illustration. All rights are reserved by the author or artist. I would like to have all the material in by January 31st, 2019 so I can publish the anthology by June 2019. Contact me by email ([email protected] or [email protected]) or by post to Jon Harvey, 56 Mickle Hill, Sandhurst, Berkshire, GU47 8QU, UK. Via: Atlantean Publishing.

Taking Submissions: Black Labyrinth Anthology I : Possession

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: Contest with $2,000 Prize Pool - 1st Place: $800 2nd Place: $400 3rd place: $300 4th place: $200 5th place: $100 6th place: $100 7th place: $100 - Each winner receives author copies: 1 signed hardcover, 5 paperbacks and a digital copy of the book. Note: You must be a subscriber to the Dark Regions Press e-mail newsletter to qualify which is free to join at darkregions.com/newsletter Announcing Black Labyrinth Anthology I : Possession - Open Submissions Free to Enter Writing Contest with $2,000 Prize Pool! Dark Regions Press is excited to announce our new open submissions writing contest for 7 stories in the first anthology in the Black Labyrinth imprint with a $2,000 prize pool! Featuring original psychological horror stories based on individuals possessed by internal and/or external forces, this new book will be published in 2019 as the first anthology in our critically acclaimed Black Labyrinth imprint that has published original novellas by Tom Piccirilli, Joe R. Lansdale and Ramsey Campbell each illustrated by Santiago Caruso. You can support this writing contest by participating in the early preorder of Black Labyrinth Anthology I : Possession on our website and/or sponsoring the writing contest on the same page. A note to collectors:Black Labyrinth Anthology I : Possession will be published in a Flood Black Signed & Numbered Hardcover format designed to match other Black Labyrinth titles and it is available for preorder now on our website. Thanks to everyone who supports the contest! BLACK LABYRINTH ANTHOLOGY I : POSSESSION WRITING CONTEST GUIDELINES THEME: Psychological horror story of one or more individuals possessed by internal and/or external forces. WORD COUNT: 10 to 10,000 PAY: Contest with $2,000 Prize Pool - 1st Place: $800 2nd Place: $400 3rd place: $300 4th place: $200 5th place: $100 6th place: $100 7th place: $100 - Each winner receives...

Taking Submissions: To Seoul, from the World

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $.05 per word To Seoul, from the World Fiction Writers in Seoul is a creative writing community based in Seoul, South Korea. Since 2013, we have critiqued over 250 submissions by writers from all around the world. Though varying in themes and genres, together they represent a diverse voice of travelers and expats who have called Seoul their passion, their home. And now, our aim is to weave these stories into an anthology that promotes the unique perspective and creativity of the expat community in Seoul. How to Submit We are seeking unpublished short stories under 6000 words that are set in and/or about the city of Seoul. Writers are encouraged to interpret this broadly and freely; submissions of all genres are welcome. We are looking for stories that 1) provide a fresh and relatable insight into the city and its culture, and 2) are intensely engaging, with all the appeals of a traditional story. As a token of our dedication to quality, we will pay $.05 per word for accepted submissions. Please send your submission to [email protected] as an attachment. Multiple and simultaneous submissions are accepted, and there is no reading fee. Estimated response time is up to twelve weeks. The deadline is January 31st, 2019. Please note that the anthology will also be translated into Korean and pitched to traditional Korean publishers. Via: Fiction Writers in Seoul.

Taking Submissions: Death’s Head Press Untitled Revenge Anthology

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy Death’s Head Press will be accepting submissions for an unnamed REVENGE anthology starting October 1, 2018 through January 31, 2019 Have you ever been done wrong and wanted payback BIG TIME? Remember when that driver cut you off on the interstate and you had to slam on the brakes, which resulted in you spilling hot coffee on your crotch, blistering your nether regions? Remember when that girl from down the street decided it would be just fine to sleep with your boyfriend? What would you like to do to these people? What would you like to do to any of those people who have ever screwed you over? We want revenge stories! Payback is the name of the game. What we’re looking for: Death’s Head Press is seeking short stories between 3,000 to 8,000 words. The short stories MUST BE ABOUT REVENGE. If it does not have an element of revenge to it, then, well, what are you doing? We will only accept one submission per author for this anthology. So, send us your best! Simultaneous submissions are fine, but let us know if another publisher picks up your story before us. This is a no-holds-barred anthology! We want to see how brutal your revenge can get. If you think you can offend us, gross us out, or otherwise make us wince at your story, give it a shot! How to submit: Email your submission to [email protected] with the Subject line reading REVENGE ANTHOLOGY. Consider the body of your email the cover letter. Give us a brief description of your work (3-6 sentences), list any previous published works, and tell us any relevant information about yourself. Attach your entire manuscript to the email in .doc, .docx, or .rtf formats. Use 12 pt...

Taking Submissions: Penny Fiction 2019

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $3 Haunted Waters Press seeks exceptionally small works of flash fiction to be showcased in Penny Fiction, a regular feature of the literary journal, From the Depths. Stories will also appear in the Penny Fiction Poster Collection. Tell us a story in exactly 19 words—no more, no less. Extra points will be awarded for those writers who adhere to the guidelines. Not really. There are no points. Just read the guidelines below and impress Penny with your ability to follow instructions. WORKS CONSIDERED We seek flash fiction stories told in exactly 19 words—no more, no less. Original fiction only. No poetry, taglines, or jokes. Please include a title for each story submitted. One active Penny Fiction submission per author, per reading period. Multiple stories per submission encouraged. One is fine. Four is cool. Twenty is borderline obnoxious...we like obnoxious! No previously published works. Need inspiration? Follow Penny Fiction on Facebook for tips and prompts. THE DREADED COVER LETTER Include one interesting fact about yourself in 13 words or less. Undertakers and cat herders earn extra points. If we do not find you interesting, we reserve the right to make you appear more interesting. No long lists of previously published works. No cut ‘n paste author bios. Confused? Check out The Lovely Penny bios from any past issue. COMPENSATION $3.00 per published piece. (That’s a professional rate of .15 cents per word— enough for a hot cup of coffee to sip on while you pen your next brilliant work of incredibly short fiction!) THE DETAILS Free to submit. Accepting submissions in the months of December/January, March/April, June/July Limited to 200 submissions per month. Submit early! Notifications to be sent as decisions are made or within 60 days of closing. Please review full guidelines prior to submitting,...

Taking Submissions: PTSD Related Fiction Stories

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: 6 cents per word Note: This market is only open to veterans TWO BIRDS WITH ONE DIAMOND Aftermath by Artist Ari B. Bernabei, San Diego, CA, Publisher, veteran, recovered alcoholic and substance abuser, James Musgrave, is looking for veterans of the United States Military to write stories about conquering post-traumatic stress. Each author will be featured inside this anthology with a tailored illustration by an artist (see featured drawing in this post). In addition, the author will receive a professional rate of .06 cents per word (up to 5,000 words maximum). Each vet author must provide a scan of his/her military ID or a copy of his/her DD214 discharge paper along with his/her submission. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this volume will be going to organizations that assist veterans in coping with their PTSD, such as suicide prevention, medical and psychological care facilities, and dog companion services. To get an idea of what the publisher is looking for in this volume, please read a copy of the title story at the author’s Google Doc website (you must join Google Doc to read–it’s free). Each author will also provide a short bio and photo. One of the giveaways at the Kickstarter campaign will be a signed copy featuring all the authors in the volume. The publisher is looking for stories that are realistic and human. The emphasis will be to show dialogue and the juxtaposed reality of how psychological “flashbacks” can enter the present and must be coped with to survive on a daily basis. As you can see in the title story, the pathos was fictionalized by using the dialogue between a vet on a suicide hotline talking to a veteran’s daughter who wants to join her father in death. PTSD...

Taking Submissions: Welcome to the Alpaca-lypse

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $10.00 Description Animal-themed apocalypse stories. The apocalypse can be big or small (the larger scale the better), but it must include an animal as a major part of the story. The animal can be the cause of the apocalypse, the salvation from the apocalypse, or the pet that helps the one hero get through it all. It can even be from the animals point of view. Payment Information Accepted submissions will receive: Payment: $10.00 40% discount on paperback book purchases. E-book copy of the completed anthology. Protection from any animal related apocalypse in the next 20 years.* (*Protection not guaranteed in the case of bird flu, wolverines, dragons, or pretty much any other apocalypse situations*) Submission Period 10/20/2018 - 1/31/2019 Deadline:  38 days Multiple Submissions:  Yes Submission Requirements We are looking for animal themed apocalypse stories. The animals can be the cause of the apocalypse, the salvation from the apocalypse, or just the pet that really helps someone survive as the world falls around them. The story can even be from the animals point of view. We will be lose with the definition of apocalypse, but know that we prefer larger scale apocalypse stories for this anthology. The main key is that the story is amazing, compelling, with great characters, and is focused on an animal and an apocalypse of some kind.   Wordcount: 2,000 - 7,000 Content Restrictions: Keep the content at a PG-13 rating or lower. No explicit sexual content or gore, and minimal cursing (absolutely no "S" or "F" words). Formatting Guidelines: Use an easy to read font (Times New Roman, Calibri, Garamond, etc) (Do not use Courier New) 12 point, double spaced. No spaces for paragraph indents. No double spaces after periods. Extra Information: Please do not include your name or Author Bio in the manuscript to ensure that all submissions are read...

Taking Submissions: Hidden Histories

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: 6 cents per wrod Hidden Histories - A secret history (or shadow history) is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars. Your tale can be based in the real world, past, present, or future, as long as it has a speculative fiction element. We're not exactly looking for alternate history, but there can be a fork in the road timewise. Reading period: January 1-31, 2019 Writer deadline: January 31, 2019 Publication date: April 15, 2019 Third Flatiron Publishing is based in Boulder, Colorado, and Ayr, Scotland. We are looking for submissions to our (approximately) quarterly themed anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We want tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. Light horror is acceptable, provided it fits the theme. Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Inquire if longer. Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today. For each anthology, we will also accept  a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy bent is preferred. See the "Submissions" tab for preferred formats, etc. Continuing with Third...

Taking Submissions: Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: 6 cents per word Submissions to this anthology must follow our No-Harm Guidelines. Please read these guidelines prior to writing or submitting a story. One purpose of these guidelines is to ensure the collection is friendly to a diverse set of potential readers. No-Harm Guidelines (pdf) 81.34 KB Download Submission Guidelines Originally Posted 15 September 2018 Last Updated 01 December 2018 Thank you for your interest in the Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove anthology. Bottom line: Send your unpublished story of 1-4000 words to [email protected] by the end of January 2019, with the subject “Stormcove Submission.” Format: Please submit your story as a Word document. Include your: name, writing as, country, and primary pronoun (e.g. she/he/they/e). Include the story’s: title, number of words, and primary genre (e.g. romance, fantasy, contemporary, mystery). Include for the subtitle, the: year (e.g. 2018, c1100), location (e.g. Room 102, Room 845, Ballroom, Lobby), and start time of the five minutes (e.g. 9:32 PM, 2315, sunrise). If the day or time of year is relevant (e.g. New Year’s Day or November), please include that information. For this collection, we are not interested in reprints or works submitted simultaneously for other publication. Please only submit unpublished content. Theme goals: Feature unique, original, diverse, artistic content from authors across fiction genres. Provide an anthology theme that is workable within many genres. Provide guidelines that will generate original content but are flexible enough, that if a story is not included, can still be used elsewhere with small tweaks. Allow authors, editors, and readers all to have a little fun with the collection. Payment and legal: The anthology will be published by Atthis Arts, LLC. All accepted submissions will require a signed contract with Atthis Arts, LLC — we believe in pay, respect, and autonomy for authors, so we’ve done our...

Taking Submissions: Unnerving Magazine

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $0.03/word original $0.01/word reprint Unnerving Magazine accepts short story submissions of horror, dark science fiction (light), dark fantasy, crime, thriller, and suspense. Generally leaning toward horror over other genres. Sex, gore and violence are welcome in moderation (nothing gratuitous). The same goes for bizarro works, nothing too far gone (whatever that means). Please no hard science fiction, sword and sorcery fantasy, erotica, romance, humor that isn’t sinister or literary works that venture so far into experimental that they become nonsense, no cop dramas unless hard boiled gumshoe vs. supernatural, no fan fiction, no war stories, no stories where rape is the lead character's motivator, and no blatant rip-offs. No Lovecraft characters, locations, or wording. Moving forward, I am less interested in quiet horror, though still will print it, as there are significantly more paying markets for dark literary and dark weird than thrilling and commercial horror. Payment is 3¢/word for original fiction and 1¢/word reprint fiction. I ask for three months exclusivity from publication date and non-exclusive print-on-demand rights for five years. Submit only one story at a time. Submit in .docx, .doc or .odt only. Double-spaced. No tabs. No extra spaces after periods. Please use common sense when formatting. Everything hard on the eyes will be rejected automatically. Allow for up to 6 months before querying. Simultaneous submissions are welcome (which means submitting to other publications, not sending me every story you've ever written). Open to authors from any country. Payment by PayPal only within 30 days of publication. If accepted, wait six issues to submit again. Only stories from 800-4,000 (FIRM! DO! NOT! ASK! TO! SUBMIT! OTHER! LENGTHS!) words will be considered with preference leaning toward stories around 2,500 words. Via: Unnerving Magazine.

Taking Submissions: Red Sun Magazine

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: 3 cents per word Red Sun Magazine publishes science-fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative, and military science fiction. All writers and authors of these genres are welcome to submit their work.   We’ll consider R-rated material but no erotica or anything graphically or sexually explicit.   Word count for fiction is 500 words or more. Pay is capped at 3,000 words. Payment: $.03 a word.   In addition to fiction, Red Sun publishes interviews, articles, and reviews that are relevant to the genres the magazine publishes, to include role-playing games, comic books, board games, movies, television, etc. Word count: 1,000-2,500 words. Payment: $25.   No poetry.   No multiple submissions. No reprints. Simultaneous submissions are okay. If your submission is accepted elsewhere, let us know.   IMPORTANT: We use an anonymous judging system to choose the work we publish.   Do not include your name anywhere in the manuscript. In addition to excluding your name from your manuscript, your submission must be double-spaced, written in Courier or Times New Roman, and submitted as an .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX file.   Red Sun will reject outright any work that has the author’s name in the manuscript, is not double-spaced and written in Courier or Times New Roman, and/or is not submitted as an .RTF, .DOC or DOCX file.   Email your submission as an attachment to [email protected].   For Fiction: In the subject line, type “Fiction Submission,” the name of your story, the genre, and your name. Ex: Fiction Submission – The Forever War – Military Science Fiction – Joe Haldeman.   For Non-fiction: In the subject line, type “Non-fiction Submission,” the name of your article, the type of article, and your name. Ex: Non-fiction Submission – Is Fantasy Hocus Without Pocus? – Literary Criticism – Karen M....

Taking Submissions: Nightscript Volume 5

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: $20 and one contributor copy. Nightscript is published annually, during grand October, in both trade and electronic editions, and will feature contemporary fictions ranging in length from 2,000 to 7,000 words. Note: I am OPEN to submissions for Vol. 5. (For the month of January only.) N. is a venue for ‘strange tales’, a term used to describe fictions supernatural, uncanny, weird, and so forth. In other words, I am looking for subtle and darksome literary horror. If you feel that your work has been inspired in no small part by authors such as Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson, Dennis Etchison, Flannery O’Connor, Terry Lamsley, Lisa Tuttle, Thomas Owen, Mary Shelley, Arthur Machen, then N. is probably the venue for you. Authors are asked to submit their original tales via the email provided below and should allow 1 to 8 week(s) for a response. (If a submission is held for longer than two weeks this typically means that it is being considered.) Submit .doc files to: [email protected] (Please send only one story per reading period. No simultaneous submissions, please.) Payment is $20 and one contributor copy. N. is a labor of love, and as such I shall endeavor to produce an aesthetically pleasing product for which all contributors can feel proud. That said, I look forward to reading your work! Thank you kindly for your interest. C.M. Muller, editor & publisher To keep up-to-date with all things N., please consider following its Facebook page. Via: Cthonic Matter

Taking Submissions: Mysterion

Deadline: January 31st, 2018 Payment: 6 cents per word for original work and 3 cents per word for reprints. Note: Reprints allowed Open to fiction submissions each year during the months of January and July. Open to art submissions year-round. We are looking for speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology, and for artwork for this site. Fiction Guidelines Technical details Stories can be up to 8000 9000 words (thanks, Patreon supporters!). This is a hard limit--our submission system will enforce it. We pay 6 cents/word for original stories (or original translations of stories that have not previously appeared in English), and 3 cents/word for reprints. Authors are paid once we've agreed on edits and signed a contract, prior to earliest publication (generally on our Patreon page). We are seeking 6 months' exclusive worldwide publication rights for original works (with exceptions for established Best of the Year anthologies), and non-exclusive worldwide print and electronic rights thereafter for both original works and reprints. We want to publish your story online in our webzine and keep it there indefinitely. We're also acquiring the right to offer ebook versions of the stories we publish, as Patreon rewards or for purchase; and to publish a print and ebook anthology of all the stories that appeared in the webzine over a given 1- or 2-year period. For original fiction, we want to be the only place publishing it for the first 6 months; after that, you're welcome to publish it anywhere else in any format you like. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. If multiple writers co-write a story, we consider each distinct group of writers a different submitter. In other words, if two people co-write a story, and they submit the co-written story, and each of them submit a story written on...

Taking Submissions: Alchemy Press Book of Horrors Vol. 2

Deadline: January 31st, 2019 Payment: 1.0p a word (£40 for 4,000 words) and a contributor's copy 2019 sees the second volume of the Alchemy Press Book of Horrors to be edited by Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards. The first volume includes 25 original stories by amazing authors including Ramsey Campbell, Storm Constantine, Stan Nicholls, John Grant, Samantha Lee, Stephen Laws and many more. We are looking for horror stories … but not just horror. We want tales that can be described as “weird”, “strange”, “amazing” and “peculiar”: stories that would have found a home in Weird Tales, Unknown Worlds, Fantastic and Fantasy Tales among other illustrious publications. We also like subtlety, ambiguity… It would be nice to see a few more supernatural/ghost stories this time (but avoid Jamesian pastiches). Your story can be set in almost any era, any place, but should also give a glimpse at and pervert the usual perceptions of reality – and unreality. We do not want stories that deal with common horror tropes without stretching boundaries. Avoid zombies unless they are tackled in an unexpected and strange fashion. No urban romance – you know, heroine falling for a vampire and so forth. Nor do we want to see religious tracts, adult content, and we really, really do not want gross-out horror tales. Read previous Alchemy Press anthologies to give you a sense of what it is that we are looking for. We also suggest you take a look at volume one of Horrors (it will be published on 1 November 2018 in print and eBook formats). Send your stories in a standard manuscript format (3,000-6,000 words ) to [email protected] to arrive between 1st January and 31st January 2019. Payment: 1.0p a word (£40 for 4,000 words) plus a copy of the book. This is a...