Events

This is a full color digital illustration of a book cover depicting skeletons. Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: 6c per word for original stories, 2c per word for reprints Theme: Speculative fiction about Pregnancy, Birth and Babies Note: AUS Authors only Note: Reprints accepted Deadline: 31 August 2020 Payment: 6c per word for original stories, 2c per word for reprints (Australian currency) Publisher: IFWG Publishing Australia (co-published in North America through the IFWG Publishing International imprint) Note: Open to Australian writers only (citizens, residents and ex-pats) To be edited by award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies will comprise stories from Australian writers obtained via commission and open callout. The commissioned writers are the multi-award-winning and bestselling authors Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren and Sean Williams. On-spec submissions are welcome from Australian writers of every persuasion including non-parents. Ideally, stories should be between 1500 and 5000 words, give or take. (Stories significantly longer than 5000 words would have to be outstanding.) Reprints will be considered, but must not be available for free anywhere online—the anthology will have only a small number of reprints, regardless. Artwork by commissioned Australian artists will complement selected stories. The anthology will be a visceral, frightening read. Each story must nominally tick the box of “body horror” but there is no restriction on subgenre: anything from sci-fi to fantasy to gothic to supernatural to psychological and beyond will be given equal consideration. Feel free to play with the theme and not take it too literally. Ideally, your story should make the reader feel uncomfortably aware of their physicality, morbidity or mortality. While graphic violence and swearing are acceptable, submissions must have a literary bent. Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies aims to deliver an elegant—and elevated—anthology of body horror. What to avoid: Gratuitous...

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: $5, royalties, and a contributors copy Theme: A story that must be funny and have supernatural/paranormal elements. This annual collection of funny paranormal stories is the press' flagship series. Your tale must be funny and have supernatural/paranormal elements. Examples of stories from previous collections: Homicide is summoned to a halfway house for the undead, a finger transplant from a serial killer leads to hilarious consequences, a mummy regrets hiring a cheap embalmer. Lovecraft humor is welcome; shaggy dog stories are not. Story length should be 2000-5000 words. If you sub something longer or shorter, it better be really funny. The submission window is August 1st - August 31st, 2020. Please do not sub sooner. Publication of SF VIII will take place in April/May 2021.  Send your submissions to [email protected] with “Strangely Funny” in the subject line. If we buy your story, you will receive a free print copy of the book and a $5 USD advance on royalties. For further information on royalties and publishing rights, please go to our Submission Guidelines page. Via: Mystery and Horror LLC.

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: Original Stories: $25.00, Reprint Stories: $15.00, Flash Fiction: 1 cent/word, Poems: $5.00 (for minimalist poetry such as scifaiku, etc., the rates for Scifaikuest apply) Theme: Original stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development. Note: Reprints welcome IT CAME FROM HER PURSE is a paperback anthology of stories, poems, and art, and will be published by Hiraeth Publishing. Editors for IT CAME FROM HER PURSE are Terrie Leigh Relf and Marcia Borell. IT CAME FROM HER PURSE is open to submissions as of 1 May 2020. We expect to close on 31 August 2020. We expect to publish on 1 January 2021. IT CAME FROM HER PURSE wants original stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development. Remember, if readers do not care what happens to your main character(s), they won’t read the story. The narrative should maintain a sense of wondering what’s going to happen next; of what’s lurking just around the corner. Showing is better than telling. Frex, instead of telling the reader that it’s cold, show your character shivering, stomping feet, or having ice form on beard or hair. The inner thoughts and emotions of your character(s) are just as important. ​ IMPORTANT NOTE: “Purse” is not limited to a bag one carries around. It can be a wallet, a billfold, a coin pouch, a sachet. It can even refer to the prize for winning a horse race. Avoid getting hung up on a bag with a strap. If you’re looking for inspiration, think Roger Corman and what he might have done with this. If you saw the movie My Step-Mother is an Alien, remember the purse in that one, which carried a living computer shaped like a snake. Stories submitted to IT CAME FROM HER PURSE should be between 4K...

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: $20 and contributors copy Theme: Lovecraftian Tales The guidelines are simple. The working anthology title is Strange Aeon: 2020 (Lovecraftian Tales). That alone tells you most of what you need to know. I want good, solid Lovecraftian stories. I specifically say Lovecraftian rather than Cthulu because I’d like stories across the entire Mythos including additions by the original group of Mythos authors like Robert Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Likewise, specific Mythos references are not as important as getting the right style and tone. For example, I would happily take Smith’s Seed From the Sepulcher over a Deep One tale. This style preference also applies to gore and sex: think early Weird Tales. Having said that, science fiction horror is strongly encouraged; this is not an anthology of period pieces. For this anthology I’m asking for non-exclusive rights and will happily take reprints. Simply tell me the publication history so that I can give proper copyright acknowledgement. Simultaneous and multiple submissions are acceptable (please do so in a professional manner.) Though I am not especially interested in non-fiction or poetry, I will consider it. At most only one non-fiction piece and one work of (long) poetry will be used. I’m not overly concerned about length. 2,500 to 10,000 words is preferable but I also know from personal experience that horror doesn’t always lend itself to a strict word count. I don’t care about submission formatting as long as it’s legible, clean copy. Electronically, I need the story either in the body of an email or an as RTF file. Please submit to the email address mkeatonauthor (at) gmail (dot) com with the word Submission in the header. The goal is a final book with about ten stories averaging 5,000 words apiece. I be receiving submissions...

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: $0.03 per word, minimum of $30.00 dollars for short stories. $30 per poem Theme: Satisfaction Note: This call doesn't officially open until the 15th but is going live early due to the short submission window Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year. February 15-28 May 15-31 August 15-31 November 15-30 Submissions received outside of posted open dates will be deleted unread. Our themes for 2020 will be: Experimentation (Submission period November 15-30, 2019 CLOSED, Published January 2020) Transfiguration (Submission period February 15-29, 2020, CLOSED Published April 2020) Redemption (Submission period May 15-31, 2020, CLOSED Published July 2020) Satisfaction (Submission period August 15-31, 2020, CLOSED Publishing October 2020) Our previous themes for 2019: Resistance (Published January 2019) – Ambition (Published April 2019) – Retribution (Published July 2019) – Euphoria (Published October 2019) for 2018: Apparition (Published January 2018) – Delusion (Published April 2018) – Vision (Published July 2018) – Diversion (Published October 2018) Apparition Lit also holds monthly flash fiction contests. These stories are published online only. We accept submissions for the flash fiction contest between the 1st and 15th of each month. Stories must be under 1k words and based on the theme for that month. You can see each month’s theme, and guidelines, in the flash fiction drop down below. For detailed submission guidelines, please see each category drop down below. PAYMENT: Apparition is a semi-pro rate magazine, paying $0.03 per word, minimum of $30.00 dollars for short stories (excluding flash contest. See details in the Flash Fiction dropdown for flash rates) and a flat fee of $30 per poem. 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: (Click on the sections to see detailed guidelines for each classification.) SHORT FICTION SHORT FICTION: We will only accept stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with...

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: $5, royalties, and a contributors copy Theme: All stories must be centered around Mardi Gras and contain a crime. Back by Popular Demand: Mardi Gras Mysteries, a new Mardi Gras mystery anthology for 2021. All stories must be centered around Mardi Gras and contain a crime, up to and including murder.  Supernatural/occult content is allowed, as long as the story is a mystery. Please refrain from being too explicit with sex or gore in your story, although some detail is acceptable. The focus should be on the holiday and the mystery or crime. Women flashing their breasts for beads is one thing; detailed sexual acts are another. Man waking up naked in bed next to a dead body is acceptable; having sex with it 'on-screen' is not. Story length should be 2000-5000 words. The submission window is July 1st - August 31st, 2020. Please do not sub sooner. Publication of Mardi Gras Mysteries will take place in late December 2020/January 2021.  Send your submissions to [email protected] with “Mardi Gras Mysteries” in the subject line. If we buy your story, you will receive a free print copy of the book and a $5 USD advance on royalties. For further information on royalties and publishing rights, please go to our Submission Guidelines page.  Via: Mystery and Horror LLC.

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. In anthropological terms, liminality is the midpoint of a ritual: the threshold where a person is no longer quite who they were, not yet who they might become. In between masks, what face might you have? What might you be in transit? Where will you go? Everything is possible in that moment; change is its own goal. Liminality is the space between. Liminality is an online quarterly magazine of speculative poetry edited by Shira Lipkin (co-founded and co-edited through our third year by Mattie Joiner). We are very pleased to meet you. We’re looking for speculative literary poems that touch the heart as much as the head; poems of the liminal, the fluid, and the fantastic. We’d love to see work that shifts shape, refuses to be to be easily pinned down or categorised. We actively welcome diversity; we want to hear new as well as established voices. Tell us tales we thought we knew, the way only you can tell them. Give us new myths. Liminality pays $10 per poem, for first worldwide publication rights and non-exclusive anthology rights. We will be open: January 1-February 28 April 1 – May 31 July 1 – August 31 To submit, send up to five poems to liminalitypoetry AT gmail.com with the subject line “SUBMISSION – ”. Please include your poems in the body of the e-mail; if you have formatting that makes that untenable, you may attach the poem as an .rtf. You may send up to five poems per reading period. We do not accept reprints or simultaneous submissions. (If the poem has been publicly viewable online, yes, it would be a reprint.)  “Dear Editor”, “Dear Shira”, and “Dear Mx. Lipkin” are...

Deadline: August 31st, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: A Collection Of Viking Tales A Collection of Viking Tales Zimbell House is holding open submissions for short Viking tales that feature Reanna the Red. These tales must be about her leadership, heroics, and survival of her people. Your point of view character can be a bard telling of her exploits, her second in command explaining why they follow her, Reanna herself, or anyone that has witnessed her actions. However, once you pick a POV do not change it. Let your imagination roam and put our readers in the middle of the action. Our readers want to feel the cold, smell the sea-spray, hear the village sounds. Our readers want to understand the gods that are worshipped, have a true sense of what daily life is like and what the stakes are. 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 4,500 and the maximum word count is 19,500. This anthology is a great opportunity to showcase emerging writers and allow them to build their professional platforms. Submission Deadline: August 31, 2020, with a targeted release date of late October 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 4,500 words will be automatically disqualified for this anthology. The...

Deadline: September 1st, 2020 Payment: $20 Theme: We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine...

Deadline: September 1st, 2020 Payment: $30 with potentially more depending on Kickstarter and a contributors copy Theme: A feminist bicycle science fiction anthologies focusing on witchcraft We are accepting submissions now for the witchcraft-themed ninth volume of the Bikes in Space series of feminist bicycle science fiction anthologies, scheduled to come out at the beginning of 2022. Working title: Bicycles & Broomsticks Please submit your original short fiction that combines themes of witchcraft and bicycling, through a feminist lens. Both witchiness and bicycles must be inherent to accepted stories—ie, if you swapped these elements out for detectives and toasters, the stories would not work. The witchcraft can be informed by actual Paganism or another tradition, or be more along the lines of Kiki’s Delivery Service or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or something entirely new. Creative, subversive, feminist magic is key. Stories should have a feminist perspective, even if feminism and identity are not overt topics. We especially welcome submissions from queer, trans, disabled, and BIPOC authors and welcome stories that portray more diverse perspectives than are found in mainstream sff. All fantastical genres welcome: science fiction, fantasy, mythology, speculative fiction, climate punk, slipstream, supernatural horror, fractured fairy tales, or anything in between or beyond. No fanfic, poetry, or erotica for this series. Black and white comics and illustrations are also welcome. If you’re not sure what works, you may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with other books in the series. Word count: a 1,000 – 6,000 word range is typical, but make your story the length it needs to be, and if it’s right for the anthology, we’ll work it out in editorial. Format: Google doc or Word preferred; PDF or text documents are also fine. If submitting an illustration, please get in touch about format and dimensions before you start working on it. Payment: A portion of profits...

Deadline: September 2nd, 2020 Payment: Contributors copy Theme: Poetry CircleShow is currently interested in publishing the work of both known and unknown poets. Issues of CircleShow are posted online in free-to-read PDF format. Issues are also made available for purchase on-demand as trade paperbacks. Please note that while we do not offer monetary payment for accepted work, all contributors do receive a complimentary copy of the printed issue in which their work appears. To submit please send 1-5 previously unpublished poems in a single file (.doc, .docx or .pdf). Please put each poem on its own page with each title in bold. Include your name and email at the top of the first page. Title both your submission and the file name as "Poetry Submission-YourName." We are interested in all forms of poetry. By submitting to SCP you are agreeing to our Online Copyright Policy. Via: Seven Circle Press's Submittable.

Deadline: September 2nd, 2020 Payment: $5 Theme: Stories that expand our shared narratives of experience by recognizing and giving value to our greatest resource — each other TWD Magazine accepts original, unseen creative work in the following categories: Fiction Creative Nonfiction Poetry Art Photography Combined Work Work must be original and unseen. Please do not send work that has already been published or is pending publication. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. There is no creative limitation on the style of work submitted. There are no fees for submission. No work submitted by a third-party (i.e. a public relations firm) on a contributor’s behalf will be considered without an authorized release affidavit signed by the represented party. No exceptions. NEW: Accepted Contributors will receive a $5 payment for their work. A max of 2 Contributors per category will be featured. General Guidelines Submission Period: January 1st to March 1st (Summer Issue) Reading Period: March 2nd to April 30th Tentative Digital Magazine Release: June 30th** July 1st to September 1st (Winter Issue) Reading Period: September 2nd to October 30th Tentative Digital Magazine Release: December 31st** **Dates are subject to change due to volume of submissions received; may be delayed by a week or two. Cover Letter Subject: Name of Category, Your Full Name (Or Pen Name) Body: Brief introduction, short bio (300 words max) with publication links (if applicable). No bio picture. Please indicate if your submission is simultaneous and at what date it was first submitted elsewhere. PayPal to Accept $5 Payment: If work is accepted, please be prepared to provide a valid PayPal email address where you would like to receive your payment. Until further notice, only electronic payments via PayPal will be made; no paper checks will be issued. Complimentary Close: Your full name declares that your submission adheres to TWD Magazine submission guidelines. Attachments: Please read specific category guidelines. Specific Category...

Deadline: September 2nd, 2020 Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome     Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 6¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored.   We have tough standards but only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you’re new or established.  Submit only work you are proud of —...

Deadline: September 5th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: An amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging authors who are enthusiastic about the tradition of “pulp sword and sorcery.” Submissions: OPEN Submission deadline for Whetstone Issue 2: Saturday, September 5th, 2020, 11:59p. Editorial decisions: Saturday, October 3rd, 2020 Publication of inaugural issue: Saturday, December 5th, 2020 Length: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Style: We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. Publication, payment, and rights: Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur...

Deadline: September 7th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word or $40 per poem Theme: Original fantasy and dark fantasy stories. All types of fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome. SUBMISSION PROCEDURES Submission Periods: Fantasy is open to submissions the first week of every month (1st-7th). Please do not query about submitting outside our open submission periods. Anonymous Submissions: Fantasy only accepts anonymous submissions. Do not include your name, address, phone number, or other similar identifiers on the manuscript. All original short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry submissions will be read anonymously on first read: moving out of slush depends on the merits of the story alone. Please make sure the title is on the manuscript. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. Please do not submit more than one set of poems at a time, more than one piece of flash fiction at a time, or more than one story at a time. You may, however, submit a single entry in each category at the same time: you can submit one batch of poems, one flash fiction piece, and one short story all at the same (or overlapping) time, and each category will be considered a separate submission. If we are already considering work in any given category, please wait until you have received an acceptance or rejection before submitting again in that same category. Instructions: All fiction must be submitted through our Moksha online submission system. Please do not email your submissions. If one of the Submission Type options is grayed out, that means we are currently closed to that Submission Type. Questions/Problems: Email [email protected] for all submission-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system. Please do not email your submissions to this address. All submissions must be submitted via our Moksha online submission system. Rejections/Response Times: Be aware that we expect to receive...

Deadline: September 9th, 2020 Payment: .10 per word Theme: Passionate, diverse SF/F fiction and poetry from writers from every conceivable background. Uncanny Magazine is currently OPEN to regular short story submissions and CLOSED to poetry submissions. We will close again at the end of the day (that’s Midnight, Central) on Wednesday, September 9th. Please follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter to get all submission updates.  Editors-in-Chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas Uncanny Magazine is seeking passionate, diverse SF/F fiction and poetry from writers from every conceivable background.  We want  intricate, experimental stories and poems with gorgeous prose, verve, and imagination that elicit strong emotions and challenge beliefs. Uncanny believes there’s still plenty of room in the genre for tales that make you feel. Uncanny Magazine is a Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Qualifying Professional Market. Fiction Guidelines Uncanny is looking for original, unpublished speculative fiction stories between 750-6000 words. Payment is $.10 per word (including audio rights). We will reject any story that doesn’t follow our guidelines and procedures. You may not resubmit a rejected story. If you aren’t sure if your story counts as unpublished, please query us. Submission procedures: 1- NEW! Please submit your story via Uncanny‘s Moksha submission system. 2- All stories should be in Modern Manuscript Format and attached in .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX formats. Please feel free to include your pronouns (optional) along with your name and email address in the upper left corner of your manuscript. Note, you do not need to add your mailing address or legal name to your manuscript. We will only ask for that information if your story is chosen for publication. 3- Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your significant publishing history and awards, and information that might be relevant to that specific submission. 4- Please do not send multiple submissions at once. 5- We try to respond to...

Deadline: September 10th, 2020 Payment: $20 Theme: Your interpretation of the harvest What do you pull from your body? What do you pull from the ground? What do you grow? Do you reap what you sow? For Longleaf’s fall issue, we’re looking for your interpretation of the harvest. Harvest as a cornucopia that brings people together—across a dining room table or across screens in times of crisis. Harvest as a terror—zombies in search of brains and bones, body snatchers in a graveyard. Harvest as a life — after loss, grief, sorrow, betrayal, illness, agony; an invitation to the underworld with Hades.We want your comfort and your terror, your sacrifices and your offerings. When you hear tapping at your window late at night, is this the prelude to a reaping? Give us taste and texture; the excitement of the planting; the growing; the bloodlust; the hunger. Give us fallow fields and baskets overflowing. Give us walls teeming with unwanted life and tongues red with poison berries. We want to explore harvest as fantasy, as memory, as danger or desire. We want to read about the ways we lay claim to things—through collection, through curation. We want the hunter and the hunted, the invited and unwelcome. At a time when fear looms large and small comforts mean more than usual, we want to know what you’re gathering into your arms and what you wish you could cast off. In preparation for this themed call, our staff will be running a series of 20-minute bursts of creativity through Zoom. To sign up for our first one, on August 8, 2020, please click here. We will be open for submissions September 1-10. Please read our general guidelines and submit below. Submission Period Submissions will open from September 1 to 10. You can generally expect a response time of 2-3 months. We consider each...

Deadline: September 10th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: Work that constitutes the ever-moving edge of its kind, as a place between light and dark, consciousness and un, today and tomorrow; work exhibiting the strange, the bizarre, that which is not of the world we know, but more of a twilight realm or even altogether alien place. Note: Penumbric was previously an ongoing market and now has deadlines. We will post updated calls to the magazine at each open period. Submission window: The submission window for fiction and poetry will be closing 10 September 2020 and will reopen 10 December 2020. The submission window for art, animation, and music remains open. In general ... I would love to see submissions representing not only multiple cultures but subcultures, exploring issues of race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, and many things I haven't thought of. Does this mean you have to represent everybody and everything in 1000 words? Of course not. But be aware that we are creating a magazine that overall reaches and represents the true diversity of the world we live in. In terms of genre, I am looking for work that constitutes the ever-moving edge of its kind, as a place between light and dark, consciousness and un, today and tomorrow; work exhibiting the strange, the bizarre, that which is not of the world we know, but more of a twilight realm or even altogether alien place. Not necessarily science fiction, not necessarily fantasy, not necessarily horror, and not necessarily not these things. In short, ideally edgy. Maybe even idealistically edgy. I am NOT looking for adult content. Penumbric generally accepts submissions in the following categories: fiction, poetry, illustration, graphic narrative, animation, music, or combinations of these (e.g., a spoken-word version of a poem). If you have something that fits some other category that can be displayed to...

Deadline: September 10, 2020 Payment: $15 Theme: Historical fantasy with characters who work in illegal or unsavory positions Editing Mee is looking for original stories from new and seasoned writers to submit to our first fantasy anthology. We are looking for works between 2,000 - 5,000 words about characters who work in illegal or unsavory positions. This will be historical fantasy. You may submit up to two original works as electronic submissions in DOC/DOCX, RTF, or Pages format. The story should be double-spaced and in 12pt Courier, Times New Roman, or Arial. We ask for first rights to publish. Submissions will be reviewed by blind judges. When you send your story, please don’t put your name anywhere on the document. However, you are fine to put your contact information in the body of the email, as the judges will not see this. They will only view the stories. Accepted submissions will receive $15. If your story is put in the anthology, we require the submission not to be published anywhere else for a period of 90 days after the anthology’s publication. Please note: Your submission will automatically be rejected if your story is racist, sexist, or harmful to another group. Due to Covid-19, I will be extending the deadline to September 10, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. Publication is planned for the summer of 2021. SUBMIT STORY Via: Editing Mee.

Deadline: September 13th, 2020 Payment: $15 ($10 for Flash fiction) & one contributor copy Theme: Gritty, well written short stories. All stories must involve an Indiana crime or Hoosiers involved in a crime. Hoosier Noir is seeking gritty, well written short stories. All stories must involve an Indiana crime or Hoosiers involved in a crime. All stories should be 2,000 to 5,000 words. We’re also accepting flash fiction with a max of 1,000 words. Please, put your name and the title of your story in the subject line. Include a cover letter in the body of the email as well as a brief (100 word) third-person biography. No reprints. Please, proofread your work. No simultaneous submissions. Allow up to 3 to 4 weeks after the end of the posted reading period before querying about the status of your submission. Send your story in standard manuscript format, double spaced as an attached Microsoft Word document (.doc or .rtf) to hoosiernoir (at) gmail (dot) com. Rights: Hoosier Noir claims the following publication rights: First English-language Rights, English-language Periodical Rights, World Periodical Rights, and Electronic Distribution Rights. All rights revert back to the author six months after initial publication. Payment: Each selected author will receive a payment of $15 ($10 for Flash fiction) & one contributor copy. Submissions will close September 13th 2020 at midnight. Submissions for our 4:20 Noir (Special Issue) Open September 15th 2020. This will not be limited to Indiana Crime Fiction. We are looking for your best marijuana related crime fiction. All regular submissions guidelines and payment details remain the same. Via: First City Books.

Deadline: September 14th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: Political horror stories Note: Deadline extended Open submissions being accepted for “After the Kool-Aid is Gone.” 8/1/20 - 8/31/20 D&T Publishing proudly presents After the Kool-Aid is Gone . A horror anthology with a political twist. In the world we live in today, what is more horrific than true life? Seems everyone has a view and a stance. So, what will happen after the kool-aid is gone, when decisions have been made and eyes have been opened? Send us the most political horror story you can imagine. Specific information: - Stories should be 3,000 - 5,000 word count. - No excessive or gratuitous violence or sex just for shock value. - Single spaced, new times Roman is preferred. Clean, edited copy. No weird fonts or formats. Please submit in .doc or .docx format to [email protected] - A confirmation email will be sent to you within 24 hours of receipt of your submission. Please make sure that your name is on your submission. - Acceptance emails will be sent out no later than 9/6/20 for an October release. - For your email, please use ATKIG as the subject. - If you receive an acceptance email, a link will be provided to you for a Facebook group and all other information will be provided to you at that time. You can also find submission details on our Facebook page @d&tpublishing. - This will pay $10 per accepted story. - Only one submission per person. We look forward to your submissions. Via: D&T Publishing's Facebook.

Deadline: September 15th, 2020 Payment: $130, and 2 contributors copies Theme: Well mannered criminals! (to be published by Mango Publishing Group, USA) What I’m looking for: Good manners and polite behavior don’t usually spring to mind when we think of criminals. Yet some of the most beloved criminals in books and film have been the ones that broke the mold: the smooth-talking charmers, the underdogs, the rebels with a cause. Their polite manners, their adherence to a cause, their code of ethics that often makes sense only to themselves—this is what sets them apart from the rest. These are the types of criminals I’m interested in. Con artists, embezzlers, fraudsters, mobsters, burglars, garden-variety robbers and thieves, plus anything else that might fit the bill. For this third volume in my series, I’m aiming to provide a lighter and more entertaining read with less of an emphasis on violent crime and murder. Well-known, lesser-known, and obscure subjects are welcome. Add something new to the story, a different viewpoint or angle. First-person accounts are always welcome from writers with a connection to the cases. Stories can take place anywhere in the world and during any time frame. Material must be meticulously fact-checked before submission, including dates, names, locations, etc. This is a non-fiction book, so please make sure that everything is 100% correct. No reprints accepted. To get an idea of the quality and variety of material I accept, please refer to the previous books in this series, The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers and The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns. Word count: 4,000-7,000 words One-time payment per story: USD $130, and 2 print copies of the book. Contributor fees paid approximately 1 month after publication. (Preferred payment method: PayPal.) For: Non-exclusive rights with one-year’s exclusivity from date of publication. Deadline for submissions: Sept 15, 2020...

Deadline: September 15th, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: Horror We will be OPEN to submissions from JULY 15-SEPTEMBER 15 2020 ONLY.  Note: Manuscripts received outside the official  submission window will be deleted unread. Guidelines for all submissions: We want horror in all its forms—from literary to weird, Gothic to psychological, and (almost) everything in between. We’re looking for amazing stories from amazing authors, regardless of race, gender, religion—if you’ve got something good, we want it. (Please do not submit romance, erotica, or religious fiction.) Need a firm idea of what we’re looking for? Check out the JournalStone website. The title of your email subject line and file name should read: “--”. For example: King – Carrie – Novel. This should also be the title of your manuscript document. In the body of your email, please give us the word count, genre, and a brief synopsis (300-500 words) of the plot. Submissions without this information will be automatically deleted. Do not include your synopsis as an attachment. Submissions should be sent to [email protected]. Attach the full manuscript as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file (no PDFs). Do not paste your manuscript in the body of the email. For proper formatting of your manuscript, please follow the Shunn way. Minimum word count for novels and fiction collections: 50,000. Minimum word count for novellas: 20,000. We consider the quality of the editing in our review process. Please fully proofread and edit manuscripts prior to submission. Do not submit sample chapters or a work in progress. We accept only completed works. Allow six to eight months for a response to your submission. We may respond more quickly, but we cannot guarantee timing. Please do not send follow up e-mails. We will notify you when we place your work in the queue, and will contact you when we have completed our review. Submissions are free. We do not charge any...

Deadline: September 15th, 2020 Payment: $3 Theme: Cold weather horror short stories Shiver Anthology will be a collection of cold weather horror short stories. Give me your creature features, vampires, female villains, ghosts, killer yetis and whatever else you can conjure! As long as the story takes place in the cold, Iet your imagination run wild. For inspiration, think of The Thing, Let Me In, The Shining, 30 Days of Night, Blood Glacier, Infested. This anthology is open to all writers. Stories must be between 1,000 - 4,000 words. Please stick to these guidelines. Only one submission per author. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please no re-prints. If your story is accepted elsewhere, please withdrawal it from consideration. Open for submissions August 15, 2020 - September 15, 2020 Decisions will be announced by October 15, 2020 Anthology will be published by early 2021 Please include an author bio up to 100 words and no more than two links that will accompany your story if published. I will not accept stories depicting rape, pedophilia, or views that promote bigotry, racism, sexism, or homophobia. FORMAT Please send a doc/docx attachment. Any stories sent within the body of the email or as any other format will not be considered. Please send submission to [email protected] Include your name and title in the subject heading. Please include your word count somewhere in the body of the email or on the submission. PAYMENT A one time payment of $3.00 for a short story after contract signing and final edits, and a free e-book copy of the anthology provided by the publisher. RIGHTS I ask for Exclusive First Worldwide Publication and Electronic Rights for three months, and non-exclusive rights thereafter. Via: Nico Bell.

Deadline: September 15th, 2020 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: Modern folktales with a LGBTQ experience Correct manuscript format. 12 pt Times New Roman, Calibri, or Courier New font, double-spaced, First page has name, address and email address in the upper left corner and word count in the upper right corner. Reference the Shunn format at https://www.shunn.net/format/story/. NOT USING THE CORRECT FORMAT WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REJECTION. 1000 to 5000 words ONLY. Shorter or longer pieces will result in immediate rejection. Document types: doc, docx, pdf, or rtf documents only. Include an author bio in your cover letter, including any social media links. All stories must contain some LGBTQ element. We prefer LGBTQ authors, however all stories that fit the submission criteria will be considered. Include the title and a 100-word description of the underlying folktale you are using for your story. A link to the story in addition to the requirements is acceptable, though not necessary. Correct grammar, syntax and punctuation. English language stories only. Stories translated into English by a professional translator are also allowed. Electronic submissions only, via the form on this website. No multiple submissions and no simultaneous submissions. WE WILL NOT ACCEPT extreme horror, fan fiction, erotica, graphic sex, manga-type stories, standard romance except in the context of the original folktale, overtly political pieces, or morals that are degrading to any person or persons of any type. Submissions will be read within three months from the date submitted. You will receive an acceptance or rejection email within that time. QUERIES ABOUT YOUR STORY WILL NOT BE ANSWERED. Due to volume of submissions, we won’t be able to explain to you why a story won’t work for our anthology other than basic issues such as wrong manuscript format or grammar problems. Payment will be 1 cent/word. Payment will be rendered before publication. Use the form on this website to submit your stories. Submissions open on...

Deadline: September 15th, 2020 Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Unicorn stories for middle-grade readers Chipper Press is looking for short stories about Unicorns. Tell our middle-grade readers about how the unicorn came into being, and if they still exist. If they are now extinct, what happened? Is their horn magical? If so, what magic does it do? Where did they come from? How do you tame one? Do they talk? What is/was their life like? Who else inhabits their world? Wizards and Mages? Or do they communicate with Elves? Entertain our readers with complete stories that show more of the action than simply telling. Submissions of both short stories and novellas to this anthology are welcome, please keep in mind the minimum word count is 4,500 and the maximum word count is 17,000. 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. (Your submission will be declined if there is head-hopping.) Please show more of the action than just telling the reader what happens. Characters need to be fully developed and the stories need to be complete-not just a scene. This anthology is a great opportunity to showcase emerging writers and allow them to build their professional platforms. Submission Deadline: September 15, 2020, with a targeted release date of late November 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 4,500 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...

Deadline: September 16th, 2020 Payment: $0.06/word or $15/page Theme: A new way to use the themes of dragons without actually using a dragon In fantasy, dragons are more common than trees—even crossing lines into other genres—and yet, they fall short of obligatory. As dragons grow in popularity, they’re falling in the dangerous zone between staple and soulless stereotype. Therefore, Mythulu’s October 2020 issue will be entirely dedicated to challenging use of dragons in literature. Please confront the following question: "What do dragons contribute to a story? Is there a way to accomplish the same thing without using dragons at all?" Short Stories WITHOUT DRAGONS. Use other storytelling and worldbuilding mechanics to fulfill the story needs usually filled by dragons. All genres welcome. Cartoons Any size from single panel up to two-pages of spread. Our magazine is produced in standard letter size (8.5 x 11" with 1" margin). Cartoons and graphic shorts pay at twice the normal per-page rate. Non-Fiction Articles Insightful discussion of the theme, extraordinary storycraft, or business topics for artistic entreprenuers. Art For this issue, we are especially interested in monsters that have one dragon-like quality and are otherwise unique. If your drawing was inspired by Mythulu Cards, let us know. Advertisements $80 for a full page. Subject to approval. We only publish ads that we believe are in the best interest of our audience, and we limit ads to 4 slots/issue. Letters to the Editor CURRENT EVENTS TOPIC: Because of Covid, all conventions are currently online-only. Normally, in-person encounters build deep, personal relationships between authors and fans. What ideas do you have for making online-conventions an opportunity instead of a barrier? RATES: For the October 2020 issue, Mythulu eMagazine will pay an average of $0.06/word or $15/page. Non-fiction pays $0.08/word. Creative works earn $0.04/word, with short stories...

Deadline: September 20th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for each word for new stories and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints Theme: Ghastly castles, haunted mansions, shadowy forests and long, dark corridors Note: Reprints allowed Gothic Fantasy Short Stories Terrifying Ghosts Anthology Ghastly castles, haunted mansions, shadowy forests and long, dark corridors... This new addition to the Gothic Fantasy series will be packed with tales of terror, bringing together the new and the familiar, the unusual and the unexpected. Terrifying Ghosts Short Stories will deliver a satisfying read for anyone fascinated by glimpses of the beyond: master storytellers featured include A.C. Benson, E.F. Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Marjorie Bowen, Francis Marion Crawford, Charles Dickens, Sheridan Le Fanu, William Hope Hodgson, Henry James, M.R. James, Bram Stoker and Edith Wharton. Formal Call for Submissions (2020) We are looking for new and recent short stories. We do not require exclusivity. You hold copyright, licensing us just for this publication. We don’t mind if your story has been previously published online or in print (though we do need to know publication and date). Simultaneous submissions are fine, but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology. Word length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range. Please submit in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats, double spaced, with your name and email address in the footer or header of each page. Submit stories by email to [email protected] Fees, Copyright and Other Terms We pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence for each word for new stories and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. We would prefer to pay via PAYPAL because bank charges to the US and Canada in particular can be crippling for all concerned. Payment for the...

Deadline: September 21st, 2020 Payment: 8 cents a word Theme: Original horror and dark fantasy stories. All types of horror and dark fantasy are welcome. Nightmare is a horror & dark fantasy magazine edited by John Joseph Adams (current editor) & Wendy N. Wagner (incoming editor, starting Issue 101). All submissions from Aug. 2020 onward will be considered by Wagner for Issue 101 & beyond. GENERAL PROCEDURES Instructions for submitting to Nightmare follow. Please read everything on this page and read the magazine before submitting. NOTE: If Nightmare is currently closed to submissions, please do not query asking when we'll be opening again. When we know when we're opening, we'll make that information available on this page and spread it widely. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. You may make one submission to The Horror Lab category (or in the case of poetry, a batch of  up to 5 poems in one document) and one submission to our Short Story category every seven days (i.e., after submitting a short story you must wait seven days before you can submit another, but you can submit a piece of flash fiction to the Horror Lab before those seven days are up). Instructions:  All fiction must be submitted through our Moksha online submission system. Please do not email your submissions. If one of the Submission Type options is grayed out, that means we are currently closed to that Submission Type. Questions/Problems: Email [email protected] for all submission-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system. Please do not email your submissions to this address. All submissions must be submitted via our Moksha online submission system. Rejections/Response Times: Be aware that we expect to receive several hundred submissions during our submissions periods. As such, we cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. If we say “send more” it means we...

Deadline: September 22nd, 2020 Payment: eight cents a word for prose, thirty dollars a page for poetry Theme: Creative writing about environmental justice We’re currently reading for Reckoning 5! Please refer to the specific calls from poetry editor Leah Bobet and fiction/nonfiction editor Cécile Cristofari! To understand what we’re looking for, try reading Reckoning 3, Reckoning 2, Reckoning 1, the interviews, the Reckoning twitter, or LCRW 33. The short version: creative writing about environmental justice. Fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art leaning away from the pulpy heavily towards the political. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth. We are actively seeking work from Indigenous writers and artists, writers and artists of color, queer and transgender writers and artists, and anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world. And we’re actively seeking new ways to reach all of the above. Seriously, if you know of a way we can do that, please share. We’d love to publish work in translation! We’re currently open to considering writing in Spanish, French or Swedish for potential translation, and work already translated into English, for which we pay the same rate to both author and translator. We don’t publish work we perceive to be prejudiced in any form, including sexism, racism, ableism, ageism. We reserve the right to point it out—respectfully—when we see it, though we’re as prone to mistakes and misunderstanding as anyone else. We’re no longer accepting submissions by email; queries are ok. Simultaneous submissions...

Deadline: September 25th, 2020 Payment: $3 Theme: Halloween Holiday Horror Book 5 - Halloween Well, we've done Christmas, Valentines, Summer Solstice and have Celebration in progress, so it's about time we had a Halloween to add to the awesome holiday horror collection ;) Short submission window, so don't miss out! - Word count is between 100-500 words - Submissions must be edited to the best of your ability - Limited to five acceptances per author, seven submissions allowed. - Google docs or Word, no weird fonts or formatting. - Include your real name, author name, and title on your submission - Pay is $2 per accepting story and authors may purchase paperback copies at cost All Submissions must be sent to [email protected] to be considered. Submissions close September 25th in anticipation of a very early October release. Cover reveal coming soon. xx The Macabre Ladies Eleanor Merry and Cassandra Angler

Deadline: September 28th, 2020 Payment: Short Fiction (4,001-8,000 Words) – $5 Theme: Horror, thriller, and science fiction SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FORMAT: All submissions should follow proper manuscript format. Please attach all submissions in .doc or .docx format. We will not accept submissions embedded in the body of an email. Please adhere to standard manuscript guidelines (12-point font, Times New Roman, double spaced, etc). EMAIL: Please send your submissions to [email protected] Include what book your submitting for, your name, and your story title. WHAT WE WANT: We are primarily interested in Flash Fiction or Short Fiction submissions but are open to novellas and novels. We currently want short fiction work for our upcoming digest series. PAYMENT: Please understand that LDB is a very small publishing brand but because of that we put greater consideration into the stories submitted. Flash Fiction (1,500-4,000 Words) – FREE DIGITAL COPY Short Fiction (4,001-8,000 Words) – $5 + FREE DIGITAL COPY Anything larger than the Short Fiction format will be handled on a case-by-case basis. All contributors will receive a free digital or physical copy of their choosing for the books their work is featured in. RIGHTS: Little Demon Books will retain first publishing rights to short stories but the original creative copyright will remain with the author. The author is allowed to reprint their original work six months after first printing. Via: Little Demon Books.

Deadline: September 29th, 2020 Payment: $40.00 and contributors copy Theme: Stories must feature nightmare creatures and must be written in the horror genre. Do you want your story to appear in the next volume of the Better Off Dead Series? IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE: Volume 4 Submission Guidelines ​ Please read carefully. Submissions that don't meet the guidelines will be automatically rejected. ​ All submissions will be reviewed after the submission deadline and chosen stories will be published in IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE- TALES OF NIGHTMARE CREATURES - The Better Off Dead Series Volume 4, which will be released in the Spring of 2021 Submissions must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words Title, submitter's name, pen name (if different), word count and email address must be centered at the top of your submission Submissions must be 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double spaced with special first-line indentation of 0.5" Submissions must be in .Docx format with 1" margins all around Submissions should be clean and edited Submissions must feature nightmare creatures and must be written in the horror genre. Creatures can be classic creatures, like werewolves, vampires, or mummies, or can be entirely unique or fresh/new. Submissions cannot contain graphic sexual or rape scenes Submissions must not have been published elsewhere before in any medium The number of stories published will depend on word count of the chosen stories, but will be no less than ten stories and no more than twenty Authors may submit as many stories as they want for review, however, there will be a limit of one published story per author Simultaneous submissions are okay The deadline for submission is September 29th, 2020 Authors will be notified by October 31st, 2020 if their story was selected DON'T END UP IN THE SLUSH PILE! You worked...

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: $5 Theme: Well-written, spine-tingling tales of horror infused with black humor The ultimate creep fest! Compiled and edited by Gerri R. Gray (Graveyard Girls, Blood & Blasphemy), and published by Hellbound Books Publishing, this anthology is looking for well-written, spine-tingling tales of horror infused with black humor (gallows humor). We are open to all categories of horror: gore, psychological, killers, monsters, and occult/paranormal. Twisted and tacky is a plus. Undiscovered writers, as well as established voices, are welcome to submit their work. If you can creep us out and give us a laugh at the same time, we want to hear from you! Contributors are invited to send a bio (up to 250 words) with their submission. Multiple and simultaneous submissions are okay. PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * 2.5K - 8K word count * Write 'MADAME GRAY' along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. To submit, email your polished story to [email protected] - Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: September 30th, 2020 NO REPRINTS - ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY Payment: $5.00 for First Rights Capped at 120K words in total. Via: HellBound Books Publishing.

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: The future of the East Asia region in an optimistic, positive way. We’re currently open to fiction submissions ONLY in the following categories: Open themed submissions call – open to all authors. For this call we’re seeking science fiction stories that envision the future of the East Asia region in an optimistic, positive way. No dystopias, please. You can interpret this widely, but the theme has to be at the core of the story. It isn’t enough that the story be merely set in the region. This call is open to all authors, other than that please follow all the guidelines below. Please mark the submissions as an “East Asia issue submission” in email subject line or cover letter. Deadline: September 30, 2020 We consider fiction of 500-10,000 words (under 5,000 words strongly preferred.) Translated fiction. Author or authorized translator may submit fiction  that has been previously published in source language but not in English. Fiction written by authors for whom English is not their first language and who reside outside of the following primarily English-speaking countries: – United States – United Kingdom – Canada – Australia – New Zealand – Ireland Please include the author’s primary language/country of residence and/or original publication info for translations in the cover letter. Submissions that do not include this information will not be read. We’re currently CLOSED to other unsolicited fiction submissions, but will eventually open to those as well. Please do not query regarding this; we will post an update here when a general reading window opens. We seek science fiction stories (no horror, fantasy, fan fiction, or erotica) of up to 10,000 words. Stories must not have appeared anywhere in English, including your personal blog, social media, or Patreon page. We acquire first world rights in the...

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: $5 Theme: Erotic Halloween with a happily ever after Halloween at home. Curled up on the couch with the lights down low. Mini horror movie marathons. Sexting with your partner(s) instead of Netflix and chill. It’s all going to look a little different this year. Too early, you say? Never. Halloween is every day for this editor. So in the spirit of getting a jump on things – pun intended – I’m putting out the 2020 Circlet Press Halloween Microfictions call for submissions a little early this year. The same rules apply with one little twist. Since everything is a hell fire this year let’s try and keep things positive. That means every submission needs to have either a HEA (Happily Ever After), or at least hint at an HEA. But they must still fit into the theme of Halloween/Autumn/October/Horror, and also be erotic as well as story/character driven. If you are unfamiliar with Circlet Press please have a look around our website to get a sense of what we do. As always, I especially encourage marginalized voices to send a submission. BIPOC, disabled, neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ folks especially, though all are welcome to submit. Word count limit is 1,500. No fan fiction. No reprints. All characters must be of legal age to consent and consent must be clear within the story. Multiple submissions are okay. Please send as a Word doc or RTF (or in the body of the email) and follow standard manuscript formatting guidelines. The deadline is September 30th. Payment will be $5 and the author retains all rights. Please include a short bio with your submission. Send submissions to [email protected] Via: Circlet Press.

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: Based on word count: 5,000-8,000 – $75, 8,000-12,000 – $100, 12,000-15000: $125 Theme: How to fix our broken world The world is broken. Fires, hurricanes, famine and disease haunt the and. We all need a little hope. For this anthology, we’re looking for stories that depict a (near) future Earth that’s somehow better than this one, Show us a world post-climate change, where we made peace with the planet. Or a world where we moved past racism and into a broader understanding of the connectedness of all the races of humanity. How about one where gender no longer matters? Or where borders are no more. We’re not looking for preachy. We want realistic depictions of the Earth that could be, even it it’s not perfect. Whatever fix you choose does not have to be the main plot – in fact, it’s probably better if it isn’t. But it should be very clear in the story – how we got from here to there. The Details: Length: Minimum 5,000, Maximum 15,000 words Payment: Flat Fee: 5,000-8,000 – $75 8,000-12,000 – $100 12,000-15000: $125 Rights: 12 months exclusive print rights; additional 24 months non-exclusive. Sunsets at 36 months and all rights revert to author. Due Date: Closes September 30th, 2020 Publication Date: Winter 2020-21 Format: Please use standard manuscript formatting: 1 Inch Margins Font: Times New Roman 12 Point Double spaced Half inch indent at start of each paragraph (please do not use tabs for this) Otherwise we’re not all that picky. No cover letter is needed. Please include a short one paragraph summary of what your “fix” is. Please, no simultaneous submissions. Send your submissions to [email protected] with the subject line: Submission: Fix the World If you have any questions, email us at the link above. Via: Other Worlds Ink.

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: £10 Theme: Genies G is for Genies – Submissions open August 1st. Deadline September 30th. Forget the Genie from Aladdin. Think about wishes gone wrong, a disobedient genie, or even from the perspective of a disgruntled Djinn. SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR A-Z OF HORROR We are currently calling for submissions for a series of horror anthologies – The A-Z of Horror. The series will be based on a variety of themes and will consist of twenty-six books in total. We are looking for short horror stories, between 4000 and 8000 words, on each of the themes listed below. You may submit to more than one book, but we will only include a maximum of one story from each author, in each book. Being accepted into one book does not guarantee acceptance into one of the others. The story must be your own work, to which you hold the rights. The story must not be available elsewhere and, if accepted, we will hold the rights to it for three months from the date of publication. After that time, you may use the story however you wish. Any sub-genre of horror is suitable, even extreme, so long as the story fits the theme of that book and does not include anything which may unnecessarily cause offence (glorification of child abuse, rape, etc.). Payment for the story will be £10, to be paid by PayPal, as well as a contributor’s e-book of the finished book. Please send submissions in a Word document (ideally Times New Roman 12pt, single spaced) to [email protected] with the title of the book you are submitting to in the subject line. Please ensure you have included your name on the Word document. If you have any queries, feel free to get in touch using the Contact page. We...

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: Contributor's copy and an original book cover Note: I think I got to this call before it was fully formatted as some of the language in it is a bit awkward, unlike their previous call. Why are we doing this Anthology? My father used to say Well said, O, Toothless One as one of those typical dad jokes. When my dad for the second time with I knew I wanted to put something out into the world to celebrate my father. My dad is dyslexic like I am but he always supported me in my writing. I'm hoping he will get to see a few of these in the time he has left. Those judging the entries will be my sister who is my editor and my mother who along with being my Alpha reader is also a writer herself. I will also be part of the judging process and along with my sister will edit the anthology. When to submit? Submissions are open from now to the 3oth of September 2020. on 11th November 2020. What are we looking for? The genre is loose but Science fiction or Fantasy would fit fine with what I'm looking for but I will accept other genres as long as it fits in with the tone of the Anthology. The theme for 2019 is westerns. in a typical wild west setting or in a new frontier. If you can fit a nice guy winning and diversity those are things that appeal to me. It will be my family who will the stories as we want to pick stories that either reflects our father or something that would amuse him. So dad jokes allowed. jokes encouraged. Humour after in your piece. Keep it PG 13. Swearing and sex can but ....

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: A "strange mystery" about a holiday of your choice! It's tentatively titled "Strange Holiday Mysteries." Like most of our "Strange Mysteries" series, it will contain some 20 stories, each 3000 words. Submissions are open July, August and September, ending September 30. We hope to publish the book in October. What's different about this "Strange Mysteries" collection is that you writers choose which holiday on which you wish to base your story. As Associate Editor Arthur Sanchez says, "It doesn't have to be a major holiday. If your favorite is National Taco Day, go with it!" Send your submissions to [email protected]. . Be sure to include your email address and 50-100 word bio on your submission. We are paying (the usual) $10 per story. We can't consider submissions without a return email address. Happy writing! We offer here a selection from our Whortleberry Press Stylebook: (A stylebook is a collection of information setting out how a variety of language choices should be made in this publication.) Manuscript Submission: Please send manuscripts to [email protected]. Please put your email address at the upper left corner of your manuscript. Please put your name on your manuscript. Word count: 3000 words. (Yes, it used to be 5000, but we find readers like shorter stories.) Please re-read your story before sending it. You would be surprised at the number of stories rejected because of too many typos, indicating they were not read before being sent. Please do not use double spacing. Single is satisfactory. Please add your 50-100 word bio at the end of your story. Numerals: We spell out one through ten; after that, all are numerals. Thanks for reading our stylebook. We will now read your story with our best attention.. --Jean and Arthur Via: Whortleberry Press.

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: $75 Theme: The holiday season In Krampus Tales: A Killer Anthology, the holidays have lost their cheer. Evergreen boughs hang brown and brittle. Sweets taste bitter. The little ones are restless and will not sleep. There’s something stirring in the dark, but only the bravest writers will explore what horrors stalk across the rooftops. It could be a tempestuous ghost seeking its stolen past. Maybe it’s a malevolent shadow come for its sworn promises. Krampus might be lying in wait for his chance to punish the wicked children. The only way to find out is to brave the dark and tell the story of what you find. We will be accepting the twelve best submissions for inclusion in this anthology. Stories must take place during the holiday season and be part of the horror genre, but no excessive gore or adult content. Think YA or PG-13 horror rather than adult or R-rated horror. Please carefully consider your submission before you send it to us. Check for simple errors. Have a beta reader comb through it. Do everything you can to make us say yes. We are looking forward to seeing what you found in the dark. Submission Guidelines 1. Submissions are due on or before 11:59 a.m. PST on September 30, 2020. Please submit all stories to [email protected] with subject line JHP Krampus Tales Anthology and the title of your work. 2. All submissions must be in English and double spaced with 12-pt TNR font. 3. Please submit your story as a .docx file. Your name, the work’s title, and the work’s word count must be on the front page. Please also include a 50- to 100-word author’s bio with your submission. 4. Story length is 6,000 to 9,000 words. Your story must meet the minimum word count. Submissions below 6,000 words...

Deadline: September 30th, 2020 Payment: Roughly $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. Theme: sword and sorcery Heroic Fantasy Quarterly will be OPEN for submissions in September, 2020! 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  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.   No simultaneous submissions, please. 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...

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: This erotic horror anthology challenges you to come with a creepy but sexual narrative of furry characters transforming into objects. Swept Under the Fur Rug Deadline: October 1, 2020 Editor: Thurston Howl Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable Furries and transformation narratives go hand in hand. Look at Bill Kieffer’s The Goat or Ajax Coriander’s Altered States for samples. But what is seldom written about are furry characters transforming into objects. This erotic horror anthology challenges you to come with a creepy but sexual narrative of furry characters transforming into objects. We want to see characters turned into fur rugs where the ex screws their new partner on top of them, toppy wolves who are too aggressive turned into living adult toys for their partner’s pleasure at choosing the pace, and homophobic furs who refuse to touch their partner’s dick turned into a chastity cage. The possibilities are endless! TIP FROM THE EDITOR: When I’m selecting the stories, the first thing I’ll do is weed out pieces that don’t match the brief. So make sure what you’ve written is 1. horrific, 2. erotic, 3. furry, and 4. involving a transformation from a furry to an object. Then I’ll select from there. So make sure you have all the required elements before submitting. Or else...you might be swept under the rug yourself. We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot...

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: Horror! - shipwrecks, your lost passengers and mysterious creatures. Tantalize me with gripping tales of horror and drown me in tears of sorrow as we discover what lies within the deepest crevasses of the ocean or in the innocent creek. It Calls From The Sea Submission Open: July 1, 2020 Submission Close: October 01, 2020 2:00 a.m. EST Publishing timeline: December 2020 Theme: Bring me your shipwrecks, your lost passengers and mysterious creatures. Tantalize me with gripping tales of horror and drown me in tears of sorrow as we discover what lies within the deepest crevasses of the ocean or in the innocent creek. ​ As with all our "It Calls From" Series this one is HORROR, so I want to be scared. Be it real or mythological creatures of lore that attacks, make our hearts race and our nightmares come alive. We also want it to be within our reality, so please keep your stories on our earth. If you are doing a future earth story, we would still like it within our relative timeline, so don't go too far into the future. ​ The ocean is deep, dark and vast. There are real dangers lurk not only below but above. Raging storms or unrelenting heat can create madness. ​ Storm drains and murky creek beds are also a great source of inspiration. ​ Word count: 1000 - 10000 (preferably over 2k under 8k but we will read all within these) ​ Compensation: Equal royalty split per story. Digital copy emailed to you. ​ Formatting guidelines: See our Submission Format guide below All fiction manuscripts should be in standard manuscript format. Most important: Pen name, title and email on top, double-spaced, 12 pt standard font (e.g. Times, Arial, Courier), and page numbers. ​ How to submit: CLICK THE VIA LINK BELOW AND USE...

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: One cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) Theme: Fantastic Fiction You really NEED to read the description below. The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we're interested in stories by writers who write about what they don't know, take us places we couldn't possibly go, and don't try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, "What is irrealism?") pages on this web site. We accept unsolicited fiction up to 2,000 words in length. Translations are welcome. There is no minimum length. We accept only electronic submissions via e-mail at [email protected]. We cannot, due to the various computer viruses and worms, accept attachments anymore, so please paste your story into the body of the e-mail. Also include your name, address, e-mail address, and a short bio in the text of the submission; please put the word "submission" in the subject heading of the e-mail to ensure that your submission doesn't get lost among all the spam. We pay an honorarium of one cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) to buy first-time internet rights (the story will then be archived). Payment is made upon publication. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DON'T ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and are only interested in reprints in unusual cases (e.g., the story has appeared in print but...

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: $25 and a contributor's copy Theme: Horror which takes place in Kentucky   NEW ANTHOLOGY FROM NIGHTMARE PRESS: KENTUCKY FRIED HORROR!!! Nightmare Press is now taking short story submissions for KENTUCKY FRIED HORROR. The theme is simple: short horror stories that take place in Kentucky, and you'll get bonus points if it reflects Kentucky culture. Anybody can submit - you don't have to be from the Bluegrass State to participate. Here are the details: What we want: Horror shorts that take place in Kentucky, 1000-5000 words, send it in a word doc or docx file attached to the email. Do not paste it in the body of the email. In the subject line, write KENTUCKY FRIED HORROR <title> <your name>. No more than one submission per person. Reprints are fine as long as you own the publishing rights to the story. What you get: $25 if accepted, a contributor's copy of the book, the opportunity to purchase copies at cost (including shipping and taxes). When and where: You have time for this one. The deadline is October 1st. Email your submissions to [email protected]. Two other points: We will not ask for exclusivity for more than 30 days after publication. Also, if your story is a reprint and has previously been edited elsewhere, we reserve the right to edit the story again. We know some authors have issue with reprints being re-edited because they want the story to remain the same across all publications, so if that is a problem, do not submit your reprint. If you are okay with Nightmare Press re-editing the story, then by all means, please submit it. We look forward to seeing how frightening you all can make Kentucky.

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: $50 Theme: Essays on Mary Shelley’s work I’m inviting 9 authors to contribute 5,000 (max) word essays on Mary Shelley’s work (not limited to Frankenstein), and her life. This can also include others in her life, for example her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, or her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and how they influenced her work. I am also looking for internal artwork related to the theme (I’m hoping for 5 pieces to accompany the chapters). Payment will be $50 per essay and per artwork, respectively. This will be a book similar to ‘The Body Horror Book’, in that I will compile and edit each chapter. Submissions are open, and close October 1st; the book will be published in December. Contributors will receive an ebook and paperback copy. William Shunn manuscript format preferred. Please send any inquiries and submissions to [email protected] Good luck!

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: $0.01 / word and potential royalties Theme: Short fiction that veers into the numinous, the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird UNDERLAND ARCANA is published four times a year, and is looking for previously unpublished short fiction that veers into the numinous, the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird. We like these stories to be mildly speculative, fantastic, mysterious, and/or horrific (if you prefer genre tags). We’re not terribly keen on stories that splash through gore, but we don’t mind the grotesque. We prefer character-driven pieces, but will pause and admire works that are exceptionally experimental in tone, style, and presentation. We are actively interested in submissions from writers of underrepresented communities, including, but in no way limited to, writers of any gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, nationality, class, and physical or mental ability. We believe in the rich potential and diversity of humanity, and seek to have that belief reflected in the stories published in the ARCANA. In more concrete terms: stories should be under 5k in length, but special consideration will be given to longer pieces should the writing demand such attention. Please query before sending anything novella length. Submissions should be in .doc or .rtf formation. Stories must be compatible to both an online presentation and a print publication. Please submit your stories to [email protected], along with a brief cover letter that hits the highlights of your recent publishing adventures. READING PERIOD:  In parallel with our publication schedule, we will only be considering submissions during one of our open reading periods. The current reading period closes on October 1st, 2020. The next reading period is scheduled to open early in 2021. PAYMENT: Underland Arcana is paying $0.01 / word—up to 5,000 words—for publication on the website. Additional publication in other formats (ebook and collected print editions, for...

Deadline: October 1st, 2020 Payment: 5% of the gross profit will be paid for each accepted story. These payments will be issued to you at quarterly intervals. Stories under 1,500 words will only receive 4% of the gross profit. Theme: Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the Arthurian world. Note: Reprints welcome “They were the pointed Saxon minuscules of the eighth or ninth century A.D., and brought with them memories of an uncouth time when under a fresh Christian veneer ancient faiths and ancient rites stirred stealthily, and the pale moon of Britain looked sometimes on strange deeds in the Roman ruins of Caerleon and Hexham, and by the towers along Hadrian’s crumbling wall.” —H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward   The stars are right over Camelot. Despite Merlin’s arts, and the goodness of the land, the stars are right. Dread things rise up from the sea, worse than any Saxon. The ground grows cursed with strange colors. Strange cults proliferate through Logres. Shadows rise over Avalon. WHAT WE WANT Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the Arthurian world. THE ARTHURIAN “Arthur’s Kingdom, the Realm of Logres, the model of chivalry and right striving against the barbarism and evil which surrounded it and, at length, engulfed it” (Roger Lancelyn Green). We do, of course, want stories about the primary characters of the Arthurian world: Arthur, Merlin, Morgan, and the others. But we’re also interested in stories focusing on the less well-known personalities. In particular, we’d love stories about Bleys, Bors, Bertilak the Green Knight, Galahad, Kay, Palamedes, and Percival. When and where is the Arthurian world? Logres and its capitol, Camelot, are centered somewhere either in Wales or southern Britain—and extend up toward what we would today recognize as Scotland. It is somewhere roughly between 400-600 A.D. The cultural and technological level can...

Deadline: October 2nd, 2020 Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome     Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 6¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored.   We have tough standards but only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you’re new or established.  Submit only work you are proud of —...