Taking Submissions: Untitled Sword & Sorcery Anthology
Howdy Dude PaperbacksDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: $10 and a contributors copy Theme: Sword and sorcery stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words What we Want: Good sword and sorcery stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words for our upcoming anthology. No science fiction or horror. What we Don’t Want: We don’t want splatterpunk or porn. No poetry. We don’t want pure romance stories, but of course you can have romance in the story (You know what we mean). If you don’t have a clue, then just send it anyway. As long as it has magic, heroes with swords, or involves mythical adventures, we’ll read it. Payment: Royalties are $10 for the story and one free copy of the anthology when it’s printed. Deadline: August 1, 2025. Rules and Guidelines: Story submissions must be under 8,000 words or we will not read it. Also, only one submission per author. If we want more than one submission from you, we will reach out to you and ask. How to Submit: Email submissions to [email protected] with a story attached in Microsoft Word. We will try to reply to your submission within 4 to 6 weeks. Please put EXACTLY the following in the subject line: ATTN: SORCERY. Via: Howdy Dude Paperbacks.
Taking Submissions: Untitled Science Fiction Anthology
Howdy Dude PaperbacksDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: $10 and a contributors copy Theme: Pure science fiction stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words What we Want: Good science fiction stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words for our upcoming anthology. No fantasy or horror. We will read any science fiction stories. What we Don’t Want: We don’t want porn. No poetry. We don’t want pure romance stories, but of course you can have romance in the story (You know what we mean). If you don’t have a clue then just send it anyway, I reckon. Payment: Royalties are $10 for the story and one free copy of the anthology when it’s printed. Deadline: August 1, 2025. Rules and Guidelines: Story submissions must be under 8,000 words or we will not read it. Also, only one submission per author. If we want more than one submission from you, we will reach out to you and ask. How to Submit: Email submissions to [email protected] with a story attached in Microsoft Word. We will try to reply to your submission within 4 to 6 weeks. Please put EXACTLY the following in the subject line: ATTN: SCIENCE. Via: Howdy Dude Paperbacks.
Taking Submissions: NonBinary Review #41
NonBinary ReviewDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $10 for poetry, $25 for artwork or $50 for cover artwork Theme: Solarpunk Note: Reprints Welcome NonBinary Review is currently open for submissions on the theme of SOLARPUNK. We want your rusting Teslas still chugging along for a hundred years. Your wooden bicycles pulling hitches rigged with wind turbines. Your crumbling brutalist towers, softened by time, now home to moss, mushrooms, and grizzly bears. Solarpunk is not just about sustainability, it is about adaptation, resilience, and the beauty of a world where humanity and nature thrive together. If you are looking for inspiration, think Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers; Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky; or the quiet satisfaction of making coffee with a Chemex, dumping the used grounds in your compost, and watching the worms enjoy their breakfast too. We are NOT looking for “climate change is a myth, stop worrying!” stories, sexual coming-of-age narratives, or anything that does not fit within the speculative genre. IMPORTANT NOTICE Zoetic Press does not accept AI generated content. If our editors judge that your content is AI-generated, it will be declined. All submissions must have a clear relationship to our theme, and be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or they will be rejected. NonBinary Review pays 1¢ per word for prose with a limit of 3000 words. If your work was accepted for Issue #39: Mistaken Identity or is accepted Issue #40: Epiphany, we're sorry, but we cannot accept your work at this time (see our general guidelines.) Zoetic Press publishes the best in speculative lit - experimental, interstitial, luminous. We welcome submissions from EVERYONE. The only requirement is that they be in English, or translated into English (we love a translation). If your writing is outstanding, no matter who you are, we...
Taking Submissions: Starship Blunder 2
Starship BlunderDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: $35 Theme: Shared Universe set on the Starship Blunder, most genres welcome, you DO need to read the guidelines for details and characters Galactic Misadventure Continues! Freshly promoted Commander Sarah Hawkins has been assigned to the brand-new Starship Wonder. The rest of her crew, however, have taken to calling their recently acquired vessel Starship Blunder. No new parts were fabricated specifically for the Wonder—it was assembled using extra pieces, cast-off parts, and old components removed from other, nicer crafts. The Conglomeracy hopes the spiffy name of the untested starship will inspire the crew to achieve something, anything. It doesn’t work. Just like its predecessor, the Starship Wonder struggles even to take off, let alone complete a mission. Can the crew find it in themselves to at least successfully deliver an unimportant package, or will the namesake “Blunder” stick with them forever? Although the original vessel Starship Blunder blew up in fantastical fashion at the end of the first anthology, the characters you know and love are back at it again! As soon as the Starship Wonder goes on her inaugural mission, it becomes clear to her crew that there’s nothing wonderful about the new starship. They immediately start referring to their new ship as Starship Blunder as they wonder, did the Conglomeracy commission a new starship because the fleet needed another vessel, or because they just wanted somewhere to stuff the misfit crew away from the more elite spacecraft? Whatever the reason, Commander Sarah Hawkins, Mechanic Xylo, Daycare Teacher Luna Knight, and Chef Bluebottle make the best of a less-than-stellar situation as they embark on another year of missions and misfortune. Submission Guidelines WHAT WE WANT: Theme: This is a shared universe anthology. Stories should be set in the Starship Blunder universe. Embrace humor, delve into deeper themes, or spin a romantic tale under the stars. Include some diverse characters...
Taking Submissions: Fearmoji: Queer Emoji Horror
Slashic Horror PressDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: $25 USD and a contributors copy Theme: Adult queer body horror that somehow strongly incorporates the use of emoji Emojis carry a lot of weight in contemporary societies drenched by social media interactions. This theme is very open, but must feature emojis as the primary driving force of the narrative. Give me sentient emojis, cursed emojis, a secret combination of emojis that unlocks a demon, a serial killer whose signature is the love heart reaction, disaffected youths whose use of the shrug emoji comes back to haunt them, a coder with an emoji axe to grind… The potential here is limitless. What I want: Adult queer horror body horror. I will also accept horrormance, splatterpunk, and extreme. As long as your story revolves around emojis (any emoji, I don’t care), has the body horror element, and is queer, I am in. I want believable, authentic characters, and crazy fucking scenarios. Please edit to the best of your ability before submission. I edit everything anyway, but help out and make things are easy for me as you can. What I will not accept: No rape, bestiality or pedophilia. No gender or sexuality-based phobia unless you’re doing revenge horror or something where it’s actually needed. Vampires and werewolves are done to death now, so if you are doing that, make it really unique. Important information, please read: Word Count: 4000–7500 (anything outside this range won’t be read and won’t be considered). Submissions open: May 1, 2025 Submission deadline: August 1, 2025 (don’t worry about timezones, please. If your calendar says August 1, it’s August 1). Expected publication: December 2025 Payment: $25 USD + paperback + ebook Submission email: [email protected] In your submission email, just title it as: Fearmoji Sub + + A note about queerness— Slashic publishes...
Taking Submissions: The First Line – Fall 2025
The First Line P.O. Box 250382, PlanoDeadline: August 1st, 2025 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease. Fall: Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease. Due date: August 1, 2025 We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or...
Taking Submissions: The Quiet Ones 2025 Window
The Quiet Ones PO Box 193, Burnt HillsSubmission Window: July 1st - August 1st, 2025 Payment: $25 Theme: Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction Accepting: Short Stories up to 3000 Words Flash and Micro Fiction up to 1200 Words Fiction-in-Verse up to 1200 Words Author Compensation: $25.00 (USD) per piece Rights: We request first worldwide and digital rights for four months following publication. Thereafter all rights revert to the author. All copyright remains with the author. Genre: Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction (see our updated FAQ page for more on how we define Quiet Horror and Intimate Dystopia). Call Status: CLOSED Publication: Digital Format (PDF) Submission Period: July 01, 2025 – August 01, 2025 Decisions By: September 15, 2025 Release Date: October 30, 2025 Submission Process: During our open submission period, a form will be available at the bottom of this page through which you can submit your work. Continue below to read submission rules and guidelines. Submission Guidelines For all open calls, submit your work through our submission form below with the subject line formatted as such: (ex. 2024 – “Vampires Of Mars” – Emily Young – Adult). Please submit your work as file in .doc/.docx format. Authors may submit up to two pieces per issue. We request that each piece be submitted via its own individual form submission. Annual issues of The Quiet Ones do not have a specific theme, but keep in mind that your submission should be within the realms of quiet horror and/or intimate dystopia. (View FAQs for how we define those genres.) Ensure your document contains your story title, your name (or pen name), and an approximate word count. In the event that your story is selected for publication, we will need your legal name for the contract. Please include a header on each page of your document with your...