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Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: Contributor's Copy A Collection of Horrors Zimbell House is holding open submissions for short suspense-thriller horror stories about deadly games. Let your imagination roam and put our readers in the middle of the action. We want complete stories from the POV of the person that ends up dead. Start at the death, and work your way backward. What was the game? Why did the person agree to play? Who instigated the game? Was death really the stakes or just a terrible accident? Our readers want horror, but not gruesome details. The horror should come from the suspense, not the deeds. Please keep foul language to a minimum-it loses its punch if over-used. Dialogue needs to be believable, and please keep dialects/slang to a bare minimum if you must use them. No head-hopping or POV changes. Pick one point of view and stick with it. Please show more of the action than just telling the reader what happens. Submissions of both short stories and novellas to this anthology are welcome, please keep in mind the minimum word count is 4,000 and the maximum word count is 20,000. This anthology is a great opportunity to showcase emerging writers and allow them to build their professional platforms. Submission Deadline: January 15, 2020, with a targeted release date of mid-April 2020. Submit your best work. Poorly formatted and unedited work will be turned down. Please use Americanized English spellings. We will be doing light editing as necessary to fit the standards we strive to maintain. Submission Guidelines: Any work under 4,000 words will be automatically disqualified for this anthology. The work must not have appeared in print or online anywhere before. All submissions must be in English. Each author may submit up to three (3) unique works—please submit them separately. Work must be in...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: Contributor's Copy All manuscripts should be in 12-point type, preferably Times Roman. All poems should be submitted in a single document. Fiction must be double-spaced, poetry single-spaced. Please send us your work as a .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf file via the Submittable portal below. We do not accept submissions by post. After submission, please do not resubmit until after we have responded with a decision. Our reporting time is three months; if you have not heard from us by then, feel free to query us at [email protected]. The author's name, address, telephone number, email address, and approximate word count should be typed at the top of the first page; all other pages should include the page number and the author's last name in the header. Please include a third-person bio of seventy-five words or less for all fiction, poetry, and art and photography submissions. FictionWe are looking for excellently written fiction between 100 and 5,000 words in length. It should be surprising, relentlessly engaging, fun, and humming with vibrancy. Include compelling characters, lively but minimal dialogue, and plots charting the unexpected. Poetry The poetry that we prefer is alive and idiosyncratic and that opens new vistas to the reader. We stay away from rhyming poetry, conventional forms, and love poetry unless brilliantly revisited. Three poems may be submitted (as a single document) at a time, with a total maximum of twenty pages. Art and Photography Good visuals show what is little seen or never imagined. Re-vision the mundane. Surrealism, wit, or a combination thereof is especially appreciated. General Guidelines- We are interested only in work that has not appeared previously in either electronic or print format. - Submit only one story or three poems at one time. If you have material under consideration with THAT,...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: Contributor's Copy Submissions for our 2020 Brave New Girls anthology are now open! We're looking for volunteer authors willing to contribute their stories pro bono to this charity venture (proceeds from sales of all our anthologies are donated to the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund). We understand if this isn't for everyone! We're working on a shoestring budget (still stretching dollars from our initial crowdfunding campaign in 2014), with our editors donating their time and resources to keep this series going. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2020. The criteria are that stories must be: About a teen girl (14-18) with an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) Geared toward a tween/teen audience (10-18) PG in content, as many of our readers are very young, and we want parents/guardians/family friends to be comfortable giving these books to the children in their lives. No graphic sex ("sweet" romance with kissing and hand holding and such is fine), no graphic violence (bloodless comic-book-movie-style violence is fine), no swearing (biblical curse words, i.e. "hell" or "damn", and made-up sci-fi cursing, e.g. "frak" or "gorram", are fine) In the sci-fi category. We're open to any and all sub-genres (space opera, contemporary with speculative tech, historical with speculative tech, dystopia, cyberpunk, steampunk, solarpunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, silkpunk... all the punks) Between 2,500 and 10,000 words in length Standalone (no cliffhangers -- our readers don't seem to like them) We strive to be as inclusive as possible and encourage authors and characters from the whole range of human backgrounds, across race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, religion, national origin, ability, socioeconomic status, and more. Stories can be related to an existing world that you have the rights to (e.g. a spinoff to your novel), but must work independently so a new reader can come in...

Deadline: January 15th, 2019 Payment: $20 per story Please don't query us about your story submission. We don't have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it's not possible. A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story. Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary. We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions. February closes January 15 May closes April 15 August closes July 15 November closes October 15 Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time. We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don't accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know up front and tell us as soon as it's accepted elsewhere. We do not publish reprints, including anything that has appeared on a website. We pay $20 for each story we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months....

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy unpredictable, fearless, glistening, innovative… GREAT great weather for MEDIA seeks poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction for our annual print anthology. Submissions are open from October 15th through January 15th every year. Need a reminder? Sign up to our monthly newsletter. Our focus is on the edgy, fearless, and experimental but we do not have a set theme for our anthologies. We highly recommend reading one of our previous collections to get a feel for the type of work we are interested in. Our latest anthology is Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea. We are based in New York City and welcome submissions from both national and international writers. 1-4 poems of any length. If you are submitting more than one poem, include them all in a single document. Do not submit multiple poems in separate files. Single-spaced please, or how it should appear on the printed page. Start each poem on a new page. 1 prose/creative nonfiction piece, 2 if under 500 words. Maximum word count: 2,500. Multiple submissions (in the same genre) are not accepted and will not be read. Please wait until you receive a response from us before submitting again. Simultaneous submissions are fine – just notify us with your good news immediately. If you wish to withdraw individual pieces from consideration, click on the title of your submission in Submittable, click on Active, and add a note listing the title(s) to be withdrawn. If you wish to withdraw your entire submission, please use the Withdraw button. Please don't send revisions. You can always add a note to your submissions if there is something you need to let us know about. Payment: One contributor copy, plus $10 for writers based in USA. To help towards shipping costs, international writers receive one copy. We...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $15 The New Gothic Review aims to cultivate thought-provoking short fiction that embraces the tradition of gothic literature and reimagines the genre for the 21st century. Aspects of gothic literature are alive and well in various other genres (Horror, Thriller, and Speculative Fiction). However, we believe that modern gothic tales, with their intellectual exploration of the macabre, the unexplainable, and the psychological, deserve a platform of appreciation entirely of their own. We’re currently accepting submissions for our first issue Deadline: 1/15/20   What we’re looking for: Original short fiction that has not been published anywhere else online or in print. We’re looking for literary-standard writing of stories that deeply embrace the atmospheric, the unknown, and the “dark.” Genre stories with a strong literary bend. Eerie atmosphere is key. Stories with Horror and Weird elements are welcome. Light Science Fiction elements OK. Original, modern fairytales are welcome. What we’re not looking for: Stories that contain gruesome violence, gore, or explicit sexual content. Fantasy. True Crime. Perspectives from serial killers. Word count: 2,000 – 7,500 words (though we keep an open mind) Rights: We want authors to retain all the rights to their work. We ask for non-exclusive rights, meaning you are free to take your work elsewhere even after we publish it. Payment: While this project is a labor of love, we believe that writers should receive payment for their work. Upon publication, we currently pay $15 for short stories we publish. In this early stage, we acknowledge that this payment is merely a token; however, as we grow, increasing our compensation for writers is our highest priority. How to submit: Whether you’re widely published or have never shared your writing with anyone, we want to hear from you. Please submit your work to [email protected], using the subject line (Submission-). In the body of the email please...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy Note: Submissions are free in their open call Window, be sure to choose the prose that doesn't require a tip jar unpredictable, fearless, glistening, innovative… GREAT great weather for MEDIA seeks poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction for our annual print anthology. Submissions are open from October 15th through January 15th every year. Need a reminder? Sign up to our monthly newsletter. Our focus is on the edgy, fearless, and experimental but we do not have a set theme for our anthologies. We highly recommend reading one of our previous collections to get a feel for the type of work we are interested in. Our latest anthology is Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea. We are based in New York City and welcome submissions from both national and international writers. 1-4 poems of any length. If you are submitting more than one poem, include them all in a single document. Do not submit multiple poems in separate files. Single-spaced please, or how it should appear on the printed page. Start each poem on a new page. 1 prose/creative nonfiction piece, 2 if under 500 words. Maximum word count: 2,500. Multiple submissions (in the same genre) are not accepted and will not be read. Please wait until you receive a response from us before submitting again. Simultaneous submissions are fine – just notify us with your good news immediately. If you wish to withdraw individual pieces from consideration, click on the title of your submission in Submittable, click on Active, and add a note listing the title(s) to be withdrawn. If you wish to withdraw your entire submission, please use the Withdraw button. Please don't send revisions. You can always add a note to your submissions if there is something you need to let us know about. Payment:...

Deadline:       January 15, 2020 Payment:        .01 a word up to 7000 words Bring us your blossoming sociopaths, your creepy ironies, your ruthlessly ambitious characters yearning to breathe free. We want to second guess that character’s mental stability. We want a closer glimpse at the dark corner of the brightly lit kitchen. We want an insider’s view of the method in the madness. We want the unreliable narrators, the psychological breakdowns, the dangerous fixations, but leave the fantasy elements at the door: vampires, ghosts, zombies, and magic are on hiatus for this one; we are looking for realistic dark fiction. Think Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado,” O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Oates’ “The Corn Maiden,” and King’s “Apt Pupil.” We want to hear your Session 9. We can’t wait to see your Audition. Word count:     2000-7000 words, a little under or over is fine (but payment is capped at 7000) Response time:  Decisions will be emailed before March 15 Don’t sit on your submission until the deadline. Submit early. Call may be closed early if the anthology reaches its maximum word count. Multiple submissions:           No, thank you. Please send your one best story. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere, and if we select your tale, we ask that you remove it from consideration elsewhere immediately. No reprints; work must not have been printing elsewhere, including a blog or personal webpage. Publication date:       Fall 2020 Submission guidelines: •       Please use traditional Shunn manuscript format •       Include a biography of 50-150 words on the same document as your story. Previous publication is not a requirement for acceptance; we just want to know...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $20usd for original work, $10 for reprints. Note: Reprints Welcome Genre: Mystery/suspense   Publisher: Superior Shores Press   Editor: Judy Penz Sheluk   Deadlines: January 15, 2020. Late submissions will not be considered. All submissions will be acknowledged. Acceptance/rejections will be emailed to all submitting authors on or before April 1, 2020. Please, no simultaneous submissions.   Publication Date: *June 18, 2020 (trade paperback/Kindle; Kobo, Nook, Apple to follow at publisher’s discretion)   *The Publisher reserves the right to postpone and/or cancel due to unforeseen circumstances or if an insufficient number of qualified stories are submitted/accepted.   Description: A multi-author anthology of 21 short stories of mystery and suspense, with an overarching theme of Heartbreaks and half-truths. Estimated length: 250-300 printed pages in trade paperback format. An introduction, acknowledgments, and author bios will be included.   Submission Guidelines: Both previously published and unpublished authors are welcome to submit. There is no entry fee.   Authors may submit 1 (one) reprint or 1 (one) previously unpublished short story, ideally ranging between 1,500 to 5,000 words (though great stories falling “slightly” outside this range will be considered). Preference will be given to new material; reprint material will not exceed 30% of the collection.   Note: Authors of new material will be expected to work with the Editor promptly on any requested revisions to ensure the timeline for release is met without delay. Failure to do so will result in exclusion from the anthology.   For Reprints: Author must own the print and digital copyright and provide complete details of any previous publication(s), including website/blogs. Stories must not currently be available online in any format. Any online availability will immediately disqualify the submission.   Sub Genres: Traditional, locked room, noir, historical and suspense will be considered; however, do...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: Royalties Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse is looking for short stories about, well cats and their women – their badass women. It’s time to turn the “man and his dog wandering through a dystopian world” trope on its head, and tell the stories about cats and their women in appropriately dystopian settings. We’re looking for stories that feature a strong woman with at least one cat, in tales that bring hope in the darkest of times. The “cat lady” in your story can be anyone who identifies as female and loves cats – and we welcome stories featuring older, wiser protagonists. “Hope” can range from a single person reminded that their life can improve to changing the course of the dark, dystopian world. However you tell the tale, we want vivid descriptions, engaging characters, and unique takes on the kinds of missions cats and their women would take on in a broken world. To Submit: Title: Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse Length: 4000 – 8000 words NOTE: We WILL consider reprints previously published prior to Jan 1, 2019, for which you have reprint rights. Please include the original publication information with your submission. Deadline: January 15, 2020 Anticipated release: late March, 2020 Exclusivity/Reversion of rights: We distribute our anthologies in both paper and ebook formats across multiple retailers. We ask for 6 months exclusivity post-publication, after which we continue to market the anthology, but you have the right to submit the story elsewhere, publish it yourself, etc., as you wish. Pay: Royalty-Share, via PayPal NOTE: A royalty-share anthology is only successful if all of the participants help with the promotion. We will provide art and marketing copy, and promote the anthology as we are able; but if you submit, you should also be prepared to promote the anthology to your readers – and share...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $20 and a contributor paperback copy Note: Reprints welcome but original stories preferred Death’s Head Press will be accepting submissions for Dark Stars, an anthology of sci-fi horror, starting December 1, 2019 through January 15, 2020 What we’re looking for: Death’s Head Press is seeking short stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. The short stories MUST HAVE ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND HORROR. Think the Alien movies or Event Horizon or Pandorum. 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. We can handle all the blood, guts, and sex you can dish out. Just remember, this is not an erotica or splatterpunk anthology. While we won’t turn your story away based on those elements, they aren’t necessary for acceptance either. How to submit: Email your submission to [email protected] with the Subject line reading DARK STARS ANTHOLOGY. Consider the body of your email the cover letter and tell us whatever you like. Just remember what was mentioned above: we don’t care about you, we care about your story. Then give us a brief description of your work (2-5 sentences). Let me repeat that, GIVE US A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR WORK. 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 another,...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $0.10 CAD per word (with a minimum of $20 for very short tales) Submission Guidelines (fiction) It’s AE Micro time again. We give you a theme. You send us a very short story. We pick the best and publish a microzine. This year’s theme is “stars“. Become a galactic idol, journey to a white dwarf, or follow your horoscope. We will select a minimum of five entries for publication in the microzine: three Canadian stories and two international. As always, we publish science fiction, though our interpretation of the genre is broad and ‘speculative’ fiction without a science-y feel is welcome. The word limit for this one is a minuscule 200 words. Requirements and details: Submissions must be previously unpublished (in print or online) and should stand alone (i.e., no excerpts from a larger work). Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know if your piece is selected elsewhere. Please submit no more than two micro submissions at a time. We buy First Serial and First Electronic rights and non-exclusive Audio rights. AE is proud to offer all fiction authors reimbursement of $0.10 CAD per word (with a minimum of $20 for very short tales), paid within 60 days of acceptance. Licensing: All content in AE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives license upon publication. We believe in the Creative Commons mission and feel that it benefits both authors and their readers by allowing creators to reach the widest possible audience. Note that the use of the Creative Commons license has no effect on the ability or right of the author to sell reprint rights, film rights or other secondary rights in the future. Copyright remains at all times with the author, and commercial reproduction is prohibited. Response Time: we aim to respond to all queries and submissions promptly....

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $60 for each poem, illustration, or photograph, $80 for each flash piece (fiction or nonfiction), and $100 for each essay accepted for publication Theme: Writing and art that explores the unintended side effects or consequences of scientific advancement, including but not limited to the areas of biology, physics, chemistry, and geology. Issue 2: The Dark Side of Science (to be published on February 1st) Submissions Deadline: January 15, 2020 We’re looking for writing and art that explores the unintended side effects or consequences of scientific advancement, including but not limited to the areas of biology, physics, chemistry, and geology. An example of a piece that fits this criteria, and which we will be publishing in February, is artwork on the topic of human-created lead pollution, its history and its implications. If you have questions about the Issue 2 prompt, please contact us at [email protected] Poetry For this issue, we are accepting the following forms of poetry: experimental/hybrid, traditional, prose poetry, found poetry and poetry written in a non-English language, with the requirement that an English translation accompany the original. We aren’t considering long form, haiku, micro poetry or erasure poetry for this submission call. Send up to 4 poems in one Word document (.doc/.docx). Flash fiction/flash nonfiction Min: 500 words. Max: 1,000 words. Send up to 2 flash pieces in one Word document (.doc/.docx). Essay Min: 1,000 words. Max: 2,500 words. Send up to 2 essays in one Word document (.doc/.docx). Original illustrations and photography We're accepting all styles of illustration (including visual poetry) and photography. By submitting art, you are agreeing to a resized version of the art being published, to suit the online layout and aesthetic of the magazine. Send up to 5 pieces of art for consideration. Rights By submitting to Kanstellation Magazine, you...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $0.08 per word Theme: — Stories must play in some fashion on the idea of magic pens. Not just about writing. About magic pens. Thank you for your interest in the Community of Magic Pens anthology. Bottom line: — Send your unpublished, original, beautifully authentic story of 1-3000 words to [email protected] between 15 December 2019 and 15 January 2020 with the subject “Magic Pens Submission”. Format: — Please submit your story in text or Word format. As long as I can read and edit it (for purposes of feedback only), it’s fine. Not trying to stress people out about submission format. — Sorry, I’m using email for submissions again. I wanted to use a submission program this time, but the fees have gone up and I want to concentrate all our resources toward paying professional rates. — Include your: name, writing as, country (please specify if your residence is different than the country that claims you for taxes), and pronouns. If you are not familiar with specifying pronouns, this is not about the story (e.g. first/third person) this is about you: how we should refer to you (e.g. she/her). — Include the story’s: title, number of words, and primary genre(s) (e.g. romance, fantasy, contemporary, mystery). The genre designation isn’t important; just gives me an idea how you view the story. — Optionally, tell us anything else we should know: your background, whether the story has special meaning to you, etc. Please stay brief. — We are not trying to stress out writers with the guidelines. Not looking to get people on technicalities. If you have any accessibility needs beyond what we are providing, please let me know. — We are interested in new content crafted specifically for this anthology. We are not interested in reprints...

Deadline: January 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 Hello fellow travelers, We are now officially open for submissions for the fifth issue of Underbelly Magazine! If you're a writer looking for a place for your strange and disturbing fiction, check out our Submission Guidelines page and get in contact with us. If you're interested in seeing the kinds of things we're looking to publish, our first four issues are available for free here. The deadline for submissions is January 15th, 2020, so get writing and/or submitting! We look forward to exploring the Underbelly with you once more... What We Want: We are a semi-annual zine interested in Extreme Horror, Splatterpunk, Bizarro, LGBTIQ+, Adult Content freaky fantasy worlds and futures, ridiculous mash-ups, or anything just plain weird. Dark, twisted, and disturbing stories that push the envelope and explore the far reaching limits of the unnerving side of humanity. The things that people won’t talk about in polite company. The things that we all think about but refuse to acknowledge. Bring it to the light, let us look at it directly in the eye, and if we like what we see, we want it. What We Don’t Want: Don’t mistake permissiveness for blithe acceptance. We don’t want your gross-out rape fantasies, sick fantasies, unless there’s a good reason for it. We want art! Length/Payment/Legal Stuff: We’re interested in a wide range of lengths, from 1,000 word flash pieces up to 7,500 words. We would also be willing to accept longer stories on a case-by-case basis. A token payment of $10 will be issued upon publication. Be aware if you publish with us that any future submission of your story to another publication will be as a reprint, which can hurt its future value. We retain worldwide first publishing rights on your story for both electronic...