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Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalties Note: Reprints Allowed. Call for Submissions – Mid-Century Murder Mid-Century Murder – cozy to cozy-noir crime stories set in the late forties through the very early sixties. We want stories that evoke the era, though its fashions, homes, furniture and furnishings, vehicles, restaurants, stores and products, music, movies, radio and television, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. For authors on Facebook, we suggest two groups that could be useful in grokking the era. The first is Mid-Century Advertising. You can learn a great deal about an era by studying the advertisements. On that group you will find an unending supply of such ads. Another Facebook group to check out is America in the 1950s. It leans a bit heavy toward sentimentality and nostalgia but you will find good information mixed in. Submission Period: October 15th, 2018 – March 31st, 2019 [email protected] Please put “Submission Mid-Century” and the name of your story in the subject line. Length: 2500 to 6000 words. Stories outside that range will be considered, but their length will work against inclusion. We admit to a preference for slightly longer work, with four to five thousand words in the sweet spot. We expect the anthology to have approximately seventy-five thousand words. Payment: Royalty Fifty percent of the gross royalties per calendar quarter will be distributed equally among the contributors. Contributor copies will not be offered. A limited number of review copies will be available. Previously Published: Reprints are fine, provided: You have the right to authorize us to publish your story The story has not been published more recently than 2017. We ask for the exclusive right to publish your story for one calendar year following contract signing, excluding publications of those previously published. Title subject to change. Via: Dark House Books.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: 50% royalties on all novels, novellas, and collections! Advances will be offered in some cases. Death’s Head Press is dedicated to publishing dark fiction in all its forms. Genres that fall into this category include Horror and all its sub-genres (gothic, splatterpunk, bizarro, etc.), Dark Erotica (think erotica with a supernatural or spooky twist), Dark Science Fiction (such as Alien or Event Horizon), and Dark Fantasy (like the works of Tanith Lee and Clive Barker). Crime and Adventure works may be considered, as long as they have a dark or twisted slant. We are looking for new and seasoned authors! If you’ve never been published before but you’ve got a damn good tale to tell, then we want to hear from you. If you have published numerous short stories and novels, and are just looking for a different outlet for your work, then we definitely want to hear from you. Death’s Head Press does not care about–nor will they make any decisions based upon–your race, gender, sexual orientation, or political stance. We care about the stories you write, period! In fact, if you feel the need to mention your race, gender, sexual orientation, political stance, or any other information not pertinent to your story or writing experience, then we’re going to assume you felt your writing alone was not strong enough to be accepted. With that said, here is what we’re looking for in novels, novellas, and collections: Death’s Head Press is seeking original novellas and novels 20,000 to 120,000 words in length that fit into the categories of dark fiction described above. We want striking, well-crafted manuscripts with original themes. Our readers expect unconventional stories that surprise, entertain, and frighten them in new ways. We are not afraid of topics that are offensive, violent, or horrific. Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy Death’s Head Press will be accepting submissions for Breaking Bizarro, an anthology of weirdness, starting December 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019 Have you watched Eraserhead? Have you read The Breast by Philip Roth? These things are WEIRD! Bizarro is a genre that thrives on absurdity and satire and often grotesqueness. It’s surreal and imaginative. Breaking Bizarro will scream weirdness to its readers. We predict an instant cult classic here! 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 BIZARRO FICTION. If you’re unsure what that means, look it up. Or read pretty much anything by Carlton Mellick III or Danger Slater. 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. We are not scared away by graphic content. Although, this anthology does not necessarily require such content. Whatever it is, make it weird! How to submit: Email your submission to [email protected] with the Subject line reading BREAKING BIZARRO 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 font in Times New Roman. Your author name, email address, book title, and word count should appear on the first page of your manuscript. All subsequent pages should have your name, title, and page number in the header. Get your work as clean of grammatical errors as possible. We don’t expect a perfect manuscript, but if it is riddled with one mistake after...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $0.01/word for previously published pieces, and $0.02/word for first run. All pieces under 500 words or 5 minutes are compensated at a $5 flat rate. Note: Reprints welcome. Note: LGBTQ+ authors only. A LGBTQ+ HORROR FICTION PODCAST Episode 21 - Ritual Sacred rites exact a menacing toll in this episode exploring belief and power. Submissions due April 21st, 2019. Submissions of fiction, poetry, music, art, and more are always accepted on a rolling basis. Late submissions can be sent up to a week after the formal deadline if you inform us ahead of time to expect a late piece. Upcoming episode themes, can be found below the calendar. Note: We try to respond to all readers and artists within 48 hours. We consider all piece lengths, but generally have difficulty accepting pieces over 20 pages long. No ableist, racist, transphobic, homophobic, sexist or otherwise oppressive work will be accepted. Lastly, we only accept work by self-identified LGBTQ+ artists! Thank you! To submit content: Fill out the following form HERE to submit content to us. Please specify if you are submitting for a specific episode and whether you would like editorial feedback! Submissions are compensated at $0.01/word for previously published pieces, and $0.02/word for first run. Music is compensated at $1/minute for previous released tracks, and $2/minute for music released through us. All pieces under 500 words or 5 minutes are compensated at a $5 flat rate. To read/act for us: If you would like to be a volunteer reader or voice actor, please fill out this form HERE. We will follow up via email to collect further information for our directory. Via: Monsters Out Of The Closet.

The Contest: Write a story of 5,000 words or less about the myth below. Deadline: March 31 2019 by midnight Entry Fee: FREE! Prize: $300 * Let’s talk about Medusa. There are multiple versions of this myth, and layers upon layers of potential meanings. I’ll start with the version that most of us are familiar with. In this version, Medusa was a beautiful mortal woman. So beautiful, that she was desired by Poseidon. Medusa didn’t reciprocate his desire, but Poseidon was a Greek God, and brother of Zeus, by damnit. He decided to have his way. Medusa fled. She went to Athena’s temple for protection, but it didn’t help. Poseidon caught up with her and raped her—right there in Athena’s temple. Now, Athena is a “virgin goddess” (a term popularized by Jean Shinoda Bolen), who does not have lovers. If we’re talking archetypes, Athena is actually a friend of the patriarchy. This archetype tends to ally herself with powerful men, and even serve them at times. Think of the high-performing executive assistant, offering advice to her boss to help him close huge deals that grow the company. She tends to be conservative in temperament. Her main attribute is strategy—strategy on the battlefield, strategy in the courtroom, strategy when it comes to being craftsy (she is a goddess of weavers and artists), strategy when it comes to wisdom. Athena is a thinker, not a lover. She was known to support Zeus staunchly, and her archetype is a man’s woman. When Athena saw this act of fornication in her temple, she was seriously offended. How dare this upstart, self-important mortal woman have sex in her inviolate virgin’s temple? She punished Medusa by turning her into a hideous gorgon, half-snake and half-woman, with serpents for hair and a gaze that could turn men to stone. Try attracting...

Deadline: March 31st 2019 Payment: Contributor's Copy if from Australia You’ll find current and upcoming Micro Fiction anthology calls, here. Please be sure to read and adhere to all Submission Guidelines carefully before submitting, or your story may be deleted, unread! PLEASE NOTE: If an anthology fills prior to its Deadline, then the anthology will close to Submissions early and continue on through the Publication process. Similarly, if an anthology is slower to fill, its Deadline may be extended. Series: Tiny Tales – Volume I Name: Curses & Cauldrons Theme: Witches Word Count: 100 words (Exactly! Title not included.) Deadline: 31/03/2019 or until Full Publication: eBook/Paperback TBA Compensation: Australia – Contributor’s Copy (paperback) International – Contributor’s Copy (digital) Reprints: Yes, as long as the rights have reverted to you. Multiple Submissions: Yes, up to a maximum of 10 per author will be accepted. About: This is the first of hopefully several volumes of micro fiction, each with it’s own unique theme! Submissions for this call must be Speculative and be about witches in some way. Think about the witches themselves, their coven, their familiars, their magic, the seasonal celebrations, summoning, tarot, crystals, candle magic, curses, sacrifice, blood debts… if it’s dark and it features a witch, we want to read it! Via: Blood Song Books.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $0.01/word (1 cent a word) USD. For poetry, we offer a flat rate of $5 USD per accepted piece Kaleidotrope is currently open to submissions until April 1, 2019. Kaleidotrope tends very heavily towards the speculative — towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror — but we like an eclectic mix and are therefore interested to read compelling work that blurs these lines, falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all. We’d suggest looking through the archives to familiarize yourself with the zine, and/or checking out other work by our past contributors, to get a sense of what we’re looking for and what we like. In the end, what we want is interesting, sometimes unconventional work, well-written stories and poems that surprise and amuse us, shock and disturb us, that tell us things we didn’t know or reveal old truths in brand new ways. We want strange visions of distant shores, of imaginary countries and ordinary people, and work that doesn’t lose sight of entertainment and the joy of good writing. We are also interested in publishing diverse writers. Kaleidotrope welcome writers of color and other groups, as well as work that represents the diversity of characters we want to see more of. Fiction We have no maximum word limit, although anything over 10,000 words is definitely going to be a tougher sell. We do like well-crafted flash fiction, too, although preferably not under 250 words. Poetry We will consider all forms. Humor is encouraged, if tricky. Rhyming is not actively discouraged — done well, it can be terrific — but be careful about overly simple, sing-song-like structures. Individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell. Nonfiction We do...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalty Split Note: Reprints Accepted John Wayne Gacy. Pennywise. Juggalos. The Great Clown Panic of 2016. That birthday party you went to when you were four. Society is full of people being scared of clowns. But what are clowns scared of? I’m looking for tales about that, tales where the clown in the room isn’t the real threat. From the high horror of an evil from before time to the tawdry prejudice of those who ‘know what sort of man likes playing with children’, give me stories about clowns with a reason to be scared. Genre: Horror/Dark/Thriller/&c. Probably not literary; I want to see something creepy, weird, or unsettling, rather than a clown overcoming his fear of rejection. Word Count: 1,000 – 10,000 words. I don’t want to miss your story just because it’s a bit longer than the traditional short story. Submission Window: 1 February — 31 March 2019. Reprints? Yes. If you have something that fits, I’ll give it equal consideration. Just let me know where it’s previously appeared. Simultaneous Submissions? Yes. Please tell me if your story is accepted by someone else first. Multiple Submissions? Yes. Within reason. Please send each one in a separate email. Payment: All successful contributors will receive a share of royalties paid via PayPal. Submissions: Email the story as an attachment to [email protected] with the subject FEARS OF A CLOWN – Your Name – Story Name. Stories should be a ODT/DOC/DOCX file. They don’t have to be in standard manuscript format but if I struggle to read them then they probably won’t be selected, so use a sensible typeface and layout (someone has already asked if I want them in Comic Sans; so, you’ve missed your chance to do that “joke”). Cover letters are optional; feel free...

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Payment: $25 In 2012 we published our first book, Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels, an anthology featuring 29 tales of crime from authors like Frank Bill, Chris F. Holm, and Kieron Shea. We continued with two additional volumes in 2013 and 2015, Reloaded and Locked and Loaded. All three were general crime, noir and mystery compilations. All three are still in circulation and are a good indicator of the kinds of stories we like. In late 2019, we’re going to do it again and are actively looking for submissions for Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4, yet to be titled. Deadline for submissions is Sunday March 31, 2019. Please consider and follow our guidelines No Simultaneous Submission1 No Multiple Submissions2 Word count must be between 1000 and 5000 words. Genre is Crime, Noir, or Hard-boiled3 No content that could be deemed as condoning or promoting: sexual abuse child abuse animal abuse No romance, fetish, or adult content fiction Shotgun Honey Presents pays a token payment of $25 upon publication. All fiction published by Shotgun Honey is the copyright of the author. If you do submit a story to multiple markets please let us know in advance, and if your story has been picked up elsewhere let us know as soon as possible. We attempt to read and review submissions within 2-4 weeks of receipt. Submit only one story at a time. You may submit a new story as soon as your current submission is either accepted or rejected. We are not looking for any mob or crime syndicate related stories. We love stories about regular Joes put into hard situations, whether as criminals by necessity or victims of crimes. Click the link below to submit: Shotgun Honey.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: 4 cents per word Send us your best female predator. We're looking for a new take. Villain and hero. Mother and femme fatale. Sinner and saint. Any time, any place, any genre. Petticoats not required. No adult content, erotica, poetry, excessive violence. Requirements: (Stories that don't fit these won't be read.) No reprints accepted. Accepting short stories between 4000-7000 words and flash fiction under 1000 words. Attach story as a Word .doc, .docx or .rtf Filrename must start with Author-last-name Subject line: PiP: story title Include a brief bio and contact information in your email. Send submissions to [email protected] Deadline March 31st 2019 Author payment is planned at 4 cents per word with successful completion of our soon-to-be-announced Kickstarter Via: Prospective Press.

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Payment: $10 Theme: Dark fantasy and horror by disabled artists featuring disabled protagonists. Looking for 1,500 to 5,500 words in length short horror and dark fantasy by disabled authors. Paying $10 flat and an eBook copy, plus offering unlimited at-cost print books to authors in the anthology.  Previously unpublished original work preferred, but reprints will be considered if the work is no longer in print or the work is older than ten years in age. Please let us know if it is a re-print. No simultaneous submissions. We will want exclusive e-publication rights for one year (first publication rights if it’s unpublished). Please submit it as a .doc or .rtf or .txt document, double spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman or similar, to [email protected] Deadline: March 31, 2019 Cover art by Lillian Rose Asterios Via: Sumiko Saulson.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalties The Writers’ Co-op invites submissions of short stories (and poems) for the second edition of our yearly anthology, The Rabbit Hole. Volume one was released in November last year, volume two is scheduled for September 2019. This year, we are looking for weird stories dealing with the following themes: entertainment, weather or science. (If you want to combine all three, we’re very open to stories about a group of scientists on their way to the theatre when they’re caught in a freak snowstorm.) However, there will also be a section Weird At Large for stories that don’t fit the specific themes suggested. There is a maximum word count of 5000. This is more a guideline than a strict limit – quality is the main criterion, not length. So a great story will be accepted, whether it’s 6000 words or 200 (flash fiction is welcome). But we’re looking for short stories, not novellas or extracts from novels – the story should be complete in itself. Though the anthology will be comprised mostly of stories, there will also be room for some poems or pieces of an experimental nature. The deadline is 31st March 2019. Submissions should be sent in an attached file to curtis.bausse(at)outlook.com with the subject ‘Co-op submission’. They may have been previously published on personal websites (or elsewhere) but authors must have full rights to them when submitting. Authors will retain said rights after the story or poem is published in the Writers’ Co-op anthology. Writers whose stories are selected will have the choice between keeping their share of the royalties or donating them to the Against Malaria Foundation. What is meant by ‘weird’? Like many categories, it’s fuzzy, because it stands in distinction to ‘normal’, and there’s no common acceptance of what is normal. Not all writers will approach it the same way,...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Contributor's Copy Swinging Dick's Saloon, the kind of dive that has way better beers on tap than a hole in the wall like it should have. Like this one It's the kind of place that doesn't have to say it's a dive bar because everyone knows just by looking at the place. Also, any bar that advertises itself as a dive bar is not a dive bar. This is not Swinging Dicks Saloon   It's the kind of place where the owner (Dick though he tells people to call him, Richard) is often the drunkest guy in the place, though sometimes he drinks in the bar down the street because the barmaids are hotter. This is not Dick but he is a regular It's the kind of place where the barmaids wear skimpy outfits even when they shouldn't. They do wear more than her but not much more It's the kind of place where the bartender never remembers what your drink of choice is but he believes he does. Not my drink of choice but still pretty good They have live bands on the weekends and occasionally they're even good. Like the Graveyard Rats or Yvette It's the kind of place where great stories are told. All kinds of stories - Crime, sci-fi, horror, often with a distinct grindhouse feel and a dark sense of humor. Shotgun-toting Jesus wants  you to submit (a story) You can't tell such a story at Dick's over a few cold ones, because Swinging Dick's Saloon doesn't actually exist. However, you can send them us and if we like them we'll publish them in an awesome bit of pulp fiction called A Night at Swinging Dick's Saloon. That's right, send us your best story about Dicks (the saloon, not actual dicks). Send...

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: 2 cents per word We are currently OPEN to submissions for I Didn’t Break the Lamp from March 1-31, 2019. (We will reopen to standard submissions in June 2019.) Special Call for Submissions We will be creating an anthology titled I Didn’t Break the Lamp: Historical Accounts of Imaginary Acquaintances. It will be a collection of fictional stories about imaginary friends, imaginary enemies, and imaginary entities that fall somewhere in between. For this anthology, our pay will be 2 cents per word. We are particularly looking for stories from authors who are underrepresented in fiction: people of color, LGBTQ, non-Western religions and cultures. Each story is written from the perspective of someone who has been or been near the imaginary acquaintance in question. Like our regular magazine, this narrator will also have a bio. Be certain that your story meets these requirements: First person 500-8,000 words in length Focuses on an imaginary acquaintance Not a reprint Here are some ideas that we pitched when we made our Kickstarter, but this is meant to be inspirational and not definitive. A monster under the bed or in the closet who helps or hinders the person they watch over. An imaginary friend who always gets their person into or out of trouble … but to what end? A creature that no one believes is real, until they prove their impact. DO NOT send us poetry or screenplays. Submissions should be in Standard Manuscript Format (Here’s an explanation of what that means) and sent via Submittable. As with our regular submissions, we are asking for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for one year. Via: Mad Scientist's Journal.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: $25 Note: Our apologies for the short submission window, just saw this one! As has been announced on the SFFWorld Forums, we are now open for submissions for the 2019 SFFWorld Anthology. The theme is “Dying Earth” (as voted for by members) and submissions are open from now until 31st March 2019. To summarise: Theme: DYING EARTH Genre: sf/f/h, any and all subgenres, plus inventive mash-ups from outside that include them Length: 1000-7500 word hard limit, 2000-5000 words preferred File type: DOCX files for preference Formatting: no need for any special hi-jinks (use italics if you want, don’t underline instead). Any non-standard cleverness regarding the appearance of the text should be essential to the story – no font switching, as that won’t carry over into the ebook easily. Legalese: No fan-fic or other use of existing characters – all work must be the author’s own. Payment: $25/story – flat rate and comp (digital) copies of the anthology. Via: SFF World.

Deadline: March 31st, 2019 Payment: Royalties Note: My apologies on the short window, just came across this one. Organic Ink: Volume One (Poetry) (Not Rated) Deadline – March 31st, 2019 Publication – June 30th, 2019 Word Count – Word count limit has been revoked. Theme – There is no theme for this anthology. Poetry about love, hate, greed, depression, etc. Haikus, epics, etc. After receiving edits back, the author has two weeks to return the submission for formatting. View our blog post on the topic of how to submit to a publisher.   Rating – Check each anthologies‘ rating. Word count – Check each anthologies‘ word count requirements. E-mail address to submit to – [email protected]   NOTICE –  Failure to submit correctly will result in refusal of submission. Via: Dragon Soul Press</a..

Deadline: March 31st ,2019 Payment: Fiction: $25 for stories under 1,000 words, $50 for stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words, $75 for stories between 5,000 and 7,500 words and $100, for stories of 7,500 words and over. Poetry: $25 Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is generally open to fiction and poetry submissions four months per year. The months you can submit are: March June September December (we are closed to submissions in December, 2018) If you submit fiction or poetry in any other month, you will receive an auto-response and your tale will not be reviewed.   * * * As its name suggests, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is a quarterly ezine dedicated to publishing heroic fantasy — in both prose and poetry. We are unrepentant in our goal of elevating unapologetic sword and sorcery to a rightful high place. We pay $100 for stories and $25 for poems, upon publication.  (Scroll down for info on art submissions.) We purchase first world English language electronic rights, electronic rights for 90 days, archival rights for twelve months, and excerpt rights. Our fiction word limit is a soft 10,000 words, although we are willing to serialize at a maximum of 50,000 words over four issues. You may submit up to three poems, with a cumulative maximum of 30 pages. While we don’t have iron-clad rules regarding our fiction payment, we roughly pay $25 for stories under 1,000 words, $50 for stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words, $75 for stories between 5,000 and 7,500 words and $100, for stories of 7,500 words and over. Tolkienesque (as in really long) poetry epics/sagas/vedas will most likely be treated — and paid — like fiction. Similarly, prose pieces of fewer than 1,000 words will be paid at poetry’s standard rate of $25.   Art: HFQ is looking for quality banner art to accompany each...

Deadline: March 31st 2019 Payment: 1 cent a word and a print contributor copy David Cronenberg is one of the greatest cult-film directors of all time. Through his varied and highly influential career, he has managed to forge a path through cinema that includes films of horror, crime, psychological period pieces, and even a straightforward car-racing movie. His name is synonymous with Body-Horror, and for good reason. Our aim is to celebrate the man with an anthology of short stories influenced by his body of work. If you write weird fiction, horror, bizarro, crime, transgressive, or otherwise dark fiction and you love the films (and single novel!) of David Cronenberg, we would love to see a story from you. There’s a reason the term ‘Cronenbergian’ exists, we want stories that fit that vibe. - Submissions close March 31st 2019 - Submissions should be sent to: [email protected] - Please format the email subject as: Submission - The New Flesh - “Name of story” - Please attach as a .doc or .docx file. Do not include your submission as the body of the email. If you do this we will delete your submission without reading it. - Stories should be between 2,000-5,000 words with 3,000 being the sweet spot. - Please use a standard font at a 10/12 point and do not double-space after your periods. - We are seeking stories that are emotionally driven, narratives that are impactful, and stories that are well put together. We want characters with depth and life, characters with pathos. We also want goopy slime, visceral gore, surreal elements, and things that simply should not be. Some of the obvious elements we are looking for include: body-horror, shadowy organizations pulling the character’s strings, explorations of where the body and technology collide, philosophical and psychological subtexts, and...