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Deadline: November 6th, 2023 Payment: $75 first prize, $50 for each “prompt” prize. $5 for every “honorable mention” (10-12). Themes: Stocking Stuffer, Weird Christmas Special, Weird Cards (see below on all three of these for more details!) As climate change continues to plunge the world into an unending firestorm of hell, sweat, and humidity, why not ignore reality a bit more by helping me announce the always blissfully ignorant wish-fulfillment that is the SIXTH ANNUAL WEIRD CHRISTMAS FLASH FICTION CONTEST! As you might have guessed by the title, this is the sixth year of running this highly unprofitable but highly disturbing exercise in literary fatuousness. (Last year’s results show here.) The point, as always, is for you to come up with something that is deeply, concerningly, life-alteringly odd while at the same time making me feel cozy and festive, like the nuzzle of a favorite teddy bear that is suddenly leaking an ooze from its eyes that smells suspiciously like bile. This is a contest for flash fiction of no more than 350 words that’s both about Christmas (or any other winter holiday) and simultaneously weird. Exactly what that means is, of course, up to you because you’re the one with literary pretentions and a damaged psyche. All you have to do is make something about the Christmas season seem new and unsettling with a bit of that grinning like you’re not sure if it’s funny or creepy, and you make your fellow co-conspirators in this hell of existence a bit more bearable. There are three “Prompt Categories.” You have three ways to enter this year, and four ways to win a top prize. There will be one overall winner and then three winners in each of three separate categories: “Stocking Stuffer” – In this category, just write whatever the hell you want....

Deadline: November 10th, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: Darkest Endings SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: November 10th Theme: Darkest Endings The Crow's Quill is an online literary magazine, brought to you by Damon Barret Roe and the rest of Quill & Crow Publishing House's editorial team, that boasts stories horrific, dark, and defiantly macabre. Submissions Requirements Submissions will be read in the order they are received. Please only submit one previously unpublished story per month. You will receive notification within one week of your chosen month's submission end date. Please be sure to send in your best work; all submissions are final. Do not send us unrequested re-writes after your initial submission. Please note, we will not consider any submissions written, developed, or assisted by A.I. writing tools; please do not submit A.I. written stories to us. We are looking for a total of 4-8 stories per month, so please get your submission in as soon as possible. We are offering $20 per short story. Please attach your 1500-2000 word story in .docx format (12 pt Times/double spaced) to an email with a brief query. Please specify which month/theme you are submitting for. *Please include a trigger warning in your submissions email for any instances of child/animal death/abuse. Poetry Submissions Requirements Note: Poetry submissions close on the 20th of each month, 10 days after the story submissions close. Submissions will be read in the order they are received. Please only submit one previously unpublished poem per month. You will receive notification within one week of your chosen month's submission end date. Please send to the correct email. We are looking for a total of two poems per month, so please get your submissions in as soon as possible. We are offering $10 per poem. Please attach your 50 word minimum (maximum of 20 lines)...

Deadline: November 11th, 2023 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Infestation If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. (Vol 99) Infestation: deadline 11th November 2023 SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If this form isn’t working, please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. Title your email with the following syntax: “SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT”  (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) Submission Guidelines • Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) • Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you are confirming that you are the original creator of the story • We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when your story has been used elsewhere on the document • You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this at the end of your document, underneath the log line • Payment per accepted story is 15GBP • 2x entries per theme permitted   When will I hear if my story has been accepted or not? We carefully review every single submission that comes through our door. If you’ve...

Submission Window: September 1st – November 12th 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: Fantasy and Science Fiction stories that focus on character-driven stories in unreal and impossible worlds Empyreal Tree is a Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine that focuses on character-driven stories in unreal and impossible worlds. Our goal is to share stories that remind us of the hearth and warmth that comes from humanity, even within the dreary and lost. Our goal as of now is to release a magazine of four short fiction stories twice a year. We would love to read and delve deep into unique worlds that trigger excitement in our imaginations, while also sharing a genuine touch of people. The Empyreal Tree is a genre fiction magazine. Our main purpose is to share stories, populated in a strange new world, only connected by the similarities of character and emotions that entangles humanity together. Please check out the What We Are Looking For section to see the kind of stories we like.     We are looking to release 3 issues throughout the year, each issue containing 5 short stories. The submission period will be between: January 1 – March 12 May 1 – July 12 September 1 – November 12 The anthology will be released within two months after the submissions ended. (For example, if the submission periods ends in November 12, the issue should be released between November 13 and December 31). There will be a theme that ties the edition together, so please be on the lookout for that! In addition, please send a cover letter discussing how the theme ties into your story.     Rules:     Word Count: 1,000 – 15,000 words. Be aware that we’ll be strict with the word count, and if anyone sends a story over the word count, we hope the story...

Submission Window: November 6th to 12th, 2023 Payment: $100 for stories of up to 1,000 words Theme: Fantastical and speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, myth, fairy-story, magic realism, literary fabulism, and genre/subgenre remixes. The Fabulist Flash, a new flash-fiction project from The Fabulist Words & Art, welcomes submissions from November 6-12 for fantastical and speculative writings of up to 1,000 words. The Fabulist Flash will debut in 2024, and run in parallel to our current short-fiction programming. See below for program details. Word Count & Rate • We’re offering a flat fee of $100 for stories of up to 1,000 words (the equivalent of an SFWA-qualifying rate of $0.10/word), payable upon contracted acceptance. • Going above the word count is fine if you need a little headroom to take the story home, but it’s in your interest to keep it tight, as the flat fee is firm. • You can review our flash-fiction contract here. What We’re Looking For • Fantastical and speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, myth, fairy-story, magic realism, literary fabulism, and genre/subgenre remixes. • Evocative and intriguing scenes, settings, places. • Clear, efficacious writing that doesn’t shy away from the poetry within prose. • Wide-ranging human (or sentient) experiences that we care about, or at least feel. • Yeah: Odysseys, revelation, transformation, dilemma/struggle, fluid dualities. • Nah: Grimdark, military, cops, vengeance, power trips. • Exploded/deconstructed cliches of any of the foregoing … If you’re not sure where your story lands in these various target zones — just send us your best. Great work will shine through. Please Think Twice, We’ve Really Seen Quite Enough Of • Zombies, zombie apocalypse, teen vampire/werewolf romance, cute Cthulhu/nice baby Elder God, etc. • Splatter/gore/brutality • Virtual-reality visitations with the beloved deceased • Mundane fantasies of revenge, sex, financial and business success, etc. • “Another Friday Night at the Elftown Police Station” — or really anything that takes fantastical archetypes...

Deadline: November 14th, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Unthemed horror anthology A New Collection of Horror Stories We are very excited to open submissions for this new anthology, edited by Mark Morris ("...one of the finest horror writers at work today" – Clive Barker)! Elemental Forces is the fifth book in Mark Morris’s ABC of Horror, and follows Darkness Beckons, which is out now! Mark has once again approached an impressive range of authors but we've reserved space for four new stories from the online submissions. This is a prestigious anthology and will be published worldwide in hardcover and paperback. The first book in the series, After Sundown, was nominated for both Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy awards, so we’re looking forward to finding more unthemed horror stories for this fifth collection. 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. We will not accept reprints for consideration for this anthology. We would prefer to pay for the selected stories via PAYPAL because bank charges to the US and Canada, in particular, can be very high for all concerned. Payment for the chosen stories will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website flametreepublishing.com for details), although some may be paid earlier than that. Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel. Please submit in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats, double-spaced, with your name and email address in the footer or header of each page. We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the submission deadline. The anthology will be published worldwide, available online and to bookstores worldwide, in print and ebook formats....

Deadline: November 15th, 2023 (Extended) Payment: Royalties Theme: An alternate history of Antarctica Antarctica. The White Continent. The last continent reached by humans. The unexplored frontier of alternate history.   Following on from the Alternate Australias anthology, this is a call for alternate history short stories in an Antarctica-themed anthology, Alternate Antarcticas (working title). This anthology will be edited by Jared Kavanagh, who also edited Alternate Australias.   Stories should be set in, or very strongly connected to, Antarctica. The neighbouring sub-antarctic islands and polar seas also count as part of Antarctica for these purposes. Stories need to include a meaningful alternate history element—that is, they must be set in a history different to our own and that difference should be relevant to the story.   The other general guidelines are:   Seeking around 10-12 stories with a target length of 60,000 words (+/- 5000 words) Optimum length for stories is in the 3000-7000 word range. Stories shorter or longer than that may still be considered but most chosen stories will be within that range. Any author may submit up to two (2) stories. Reprints will be considered if they fit the theme, but seeking the majority to be original stories. Overtly supernatural stories are not excluded, but will be a hard sell. Ambiguously supernatural stories (eg a ghost story where it’s not clear whether the ghost is real or part of a character’s imagination) will be an easier sell. Querying beforehand is encouraged, though not mandatory. If you are planning to use one of the possible story prompts below, querying first would be strongly recommended since only one story based on each prompt will be accepted, so it may be helpful to know which prompts are already being used. Submissions close on 31 July 2023, unless a prior extension...

Submission Window: October 1-November 15. Payment: Royalties Theme: Cold. That can mean anything you want but it must revolve around the theme of COLD. This is a horror anthology so I should be feeling a sense of dread; some sex is fine so long as it is not the main focus of the story. Abuse, if handled respectfully, is fine. Gore is fine so long as it’s not gore for gore’s sake (there are plans for a future publication along those lines). Many people don’t like to read about killing children, so avoid it whenever possible. If reading the story makes me sick rather than jumping at shadows, expect the story to be rejected (again, that’s for a different book). M Presents is looking for submissions for its next anthology book, The Dread of Winter, expected to be released in January 2024. The book will be published through Amazon and OneBookShelf. Payments are equal to each author’s percentage of the book (if you write 10% of the book, you get 10% of the net earnings of the book) and are for the life of the book. Authors retain publishing rights to their work (meaning that you can do with it what you will after the book is released) but M Presents seeks first publication rights for each story. You can submit your work to other publishers at the same time, but if another publisher accepts your work I need to know ASAP. Publication: 13 stories will be published in the month of January. Submissions should be between 3,000 and 7,000 words, new and established authors are welcome; nobody gets preferential treatment. Theme: Cold. That can mean anything you want but it must revolve around the theme of COLD. This is a horror anthology so I should be feeling a sense...

Deadline: November 15th, 2023 Payment: 1.5 cents per word Theme: Stories that 'rebel' and also use two somehow. Two points of view, two locations, etc etc. Note: Apologies for the late posting, this went live last month but we only ran across it today. The theme for our second anthology is “Two For the Show”. Two times the trouble. Two times the love. Two locations. Dual POVs. Dual time lines. We’re expecting things to get a little complicated this year, but we still want stories that excite us. Our goal is to introduce our readers to stories that could be mind bending, but also clear and easy to read. A short, sweet and simple story is good too! What we’re looking for: All fiction genres English language stories Stories that REBEL in some way Authentic artists who want to be paid for their work but aren’t in it for the money (We ARE paying, btw) Super Short Stories (1,500 or less) Short Stories (1,500 – 10k) What we’re not looking for: Previously published work, though we may make some exceptions. Please email our EIC to discuss details – Tiffany at RebellionLIT.com AI generated content. Non-Fiction. We’re not ready for that yet. Fully erotic stories. Heavy petting is cool, but not too many details… Poetry. We’re planning a full anthology for that. One moment, please! Anything that can get you or us arrested. Anything that is legal but will ruin our reputation. We’re only accepting submissions from authors with mailing addresses in the United States at this time. No international submissions. Payment The publisher will contract for publishing rights. First rights are not required but preferred (contact our EIC for details about previously published work). Authors will receive no royalties for book sales but will receive a semi-pro rate (details here) for the contracting of your work...

Deadline: November 30th, 2023 Payment: Royalties or $20 Theme: Murder mysteries, detectives noir, cozy, and humorous Submission Period: September 1, 2023 to November 31, 2023 Theme: Detectives, Sleuths, and Nosy Neighbors – we’re searching for the murder mysteries, detectives noir, cozy, and humorous. This is our Mystery anthology and if you think it comes close to the genre, give us a shot. There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story. However, we’ll be seriously impressed if you can work within Sci-Fi or Fantasy, but they won’t be the bulk of the accepted submissions. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Suspense and thrillers are encouraged over horror for this anthology, but a great horror story may rise to the top. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: September 1, 2023 to November 31, 2023 Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no reprints, no simultaneous submissions; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 8,000 words Submission Guidelines: Anonymous submission with no author name in document; 12 pt Times or Arial; .Doc or .Docx; double-space; first line indent; no tabs used. Genres: Mystery with accepted sub-genres of Fantasy, Sci-Fi as well Anticipated Pay: Option: Royalty share of D2D sales, or $20.00 If D2D royalty share selected, then each story will receive a share, as will the publisher, from the sales on the D2D platform. This does not include Kickstarter funds unless detailed in the Stretch goals, wholesale to authors, or retail outlets. Timeline Projections: Submissions close: November 2023 Review: December 2023 Acceptance / Rejection: January 2024 Edits: February 2024 Production: March 2024 Published: April 2024 Upon acceptance, the author is expected to work with the editor on at least one round of...