Events

Deadline: December 31st 2013 Payment: $10 per story Note: Female Authors Only Mocha Memoirs Press is pleased to announce that a new horror anthology featuring women writers is now open for submissions. Please read all of the information provided. Women in Horror Recognition Month (WiHM) assists underrepresented female genre artists in gaining opportunities, exposure, and education through altruistic events, printed material, articles, interviews, and online support. WiHM is a service provided by the Viscera Organization, a 501(c)3 non profit organization expanding opportunities for contemporary female genre artists by raising awareness about the changing roles for women in the industry. Submission Guidelines What We Want-The Grotesquerie will be an open themed horror anthology of short stories written by female authors, released as a digital book and as a paperback book. Your submission must be written to frighten or disturb to be considered. The subject matter is up to you. We want dark, creepy, atmospheric, unsettling, bizarre… as well as a beautifully crafted, original story. *For this anthology, we will only be accepting submissions from female authors. If there are any men reading this, we are still interested in reading your work, so please submit it – we’ll be happy to consider it for our Dark Bites series or for future events. Feel free to read our general submission guidelines for more information.* What We Don’t Want-We don’t want slasher horror or splatterpunk for this collection. We will reject any stories that contain rape, and the abuse of minors. Stories featuring wellworn tropes (vampires, zombies, werewolves) will need a new exciting twist to be considered. Violence and sex are acceptable but make them integral to the plot. Other than that, use your imagination—horror is nothing without imagination. Submissions Submit your work to mmphorror(at)gmail(dot)com with Grotesquerie Sub: Your Story Title_Your Last Name in the subject line....

Deadline:December 31st 2013 Payment: $10 “Lost in the Witching Hour”  Deadline – December 31st Ghost stories, the paranormal, with haunted houses and demonic possession. These can be your campground fire ghost stories or something else dealing with the paranormal.   Additional Tidbits and things to know: We do not specialize in splatter and gore for the sake of it. Intelligent, thought-provoking horror is favored over shock. Actual horror is creating a feeling and building atmosphere and writing just to make an audience squeamish is not all that is needed. That is not to say that the story can not have these elements, they just need to be used properly. We only accept email submissions. Please ensure that they are in .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf formats. Submissions can be emailed to [email protected] Important, please note: We expect a short cover email with synopsis, and a brief bio (including previous publication credits, if any). For written work, we DO NOT accept simultaneous submissions. However, we will consider reprints. We are looking for the following: *Short Stories/Novellas (up to 15,000 words), no more than three per submission; Submissions that are accepted will receive $10 for rights listed below*. All works that meet our specifications will receive a written letter by us as to acceptance as well as a short critique. We require one-time print/electronic rights and print/electronic archive rights. Many magazines will not publish pieces that have been published in print or on the web. Once your work has been published, it can only ever be re-marketed as a reprint severely limiting the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive. If you have any questions/queries, contact us at [email protected] *We pay $10 per 5,000 words. Short Stories under 5,000 words are paid with...

Deadline: December 31st 2013 Payment: Exposure Only We welcome short story submissions from authors of adult horror and dark fiction. What do we need? We do not accept submissions by post or courier. You must submit to us by email and the address is:[email protected] 1. In the subject line of your email please put: MAGSUB/YOUR NAME/TITLE OF YOUR WORK 2. Attach your work as a .doc .docx or .rtfattachment ONLY. Emails with other kinds of attachment (eg. Zipped files) will be deleted. Sorry, but this is for internet security. Manuscripts should be formatted in 12 point Times New Roman, double spaced with one inch margins. Please indent paragraphs do not TAB; no spaces between paragraphs – spaces should only be between scenes (yes, we know we can reformat them but it saves a lot of time). We are currently looking for short stories only – total word count 1,000 – 5,000. 3. In the body of the email tell us a bit about your background and your writing. Don’t fret over it – if your writing is good we won’t reject you on the basis of a lousy covering letter. We just want to know who you are and that you can follow basic instructions. Just be yourself. Oh, and give us links to your website or blog, Facebook, Twitter and so on if you have them (don’t go rushing off to sign up if you don’t – it isn’t make or break). When will you hear from us? At the moment we aim to reply within 60 days and often it is sooner. However, we reply to all submissions whether we are interested in taking them further or not; we think this is polite and it means you’re not left wondering. Can you submit to other publishers/agents at the same time? Of course. We think it’s unreasonable to demand exclusivity. All we ask is that you let us...

Deadline: January 31st 2014 Payment: 5 cents/word Lethe Press is seeking short stories and novellettes for its forthcoming anthology, Daughters of Frankenstein: Lesbian Mad Scientists! We're looking for more cinematic-style "mad science"--over-the-top vs. textbook--so everything from alchemy to steampunk to cloning in tanks is fine. The protagonist must be lesbian and her sexuality cannot be a stigma. While the mad scientist need not be the protagonist, she must be a three-dimensional character and her interest in (mad) science should have a natural rationale as in real life (though her desired ends to whatever experiment takes place as one of the story arcs need not be natural at all!). Our preference is stories that take place in 19th and 20th centuries, but we are open to other time periods and contemporary tales. This book would be shelved in SF/Fantasy. So this is not an erotica anthology. Elements of romance are fine and welcome as long as they are natural to the story. Stories should be 2,500 to 12,500 words. Payment is 5 cents a word upon publication, which will be in the fall of 2014. Deadline for all submissions is January 31st, 2014. Submissions must be sent as rtf files to [email protected] with the subject line DAUGHTERS OF FRANKENSTEIN. Feel free to query us.

Deadline:January 1st 2014 Payment: Unknown Now through January 1st, Dark Hall Press will be accepting submissions for a Cosmic Horror Anthology. Ten short stories will be selected for inclusion. Submissions should be under 5,000 words, in PDF format, and include a brief author bio. Please include "Cosmic Horror" in the email heading. We will not accept simultaneous submissions. Winners will be contacted in the month of January. Winners will split the profits of the collection evenly. Submit to: [email protected] Via: Dark Hall Press.

Deadline: January 1st, 2014 Payment: Authors of fiction chosen for the anthology will receive two free copies of the book as compensation. Poets will receive as compensation one contributor’s copy. Cairo by Gaslight Edited by Brandon Black Poetry Editor: Cathy Chandler Call For Submissions: This is a general call for poetry and fiction of a steampunk and gaslamp fantasy nature set within the city of Cairo, Egypt. Stories need not remain within the confines of Cairo for their entirety but those stories that are well-written and make use of the unique setting and culture of Cairo as a colorful backdrop will be more favorably regarded. Writers of fiction may send no more than two works unless they have published with Black Tome Books before (i.e., in the pages of New Orleans By Gaslight), in which case they may submit up to three stories. Novel excerpts are acceptable so long as they work independently as short stories. Poets may submit no more than five poems. While short stories are expected to be both steampunk (or gaslamp fantasy) and set in Cairo, our requirements for poetry are less stringent. Poems should be about 19th century Cairo, or steampunk themed or both. As we seek to publish the highest quality steampunk fiction and accept both traditional and experimental writing, we place no arbitrary limits on length. Writers, however, should be aware that short shorts and longer manuscripts, such as novelettes and novellas, will have to be exceptionally good to be accepted for publication. While writers are encouraged to present a nostalgic view of Victorian-era culture as such is in general keeping with the optimistic ethos of the steampunk genre, we encourage authors to present the various and sundry evils of Victorian-era society (religious persecution, slavery, classism, racism, poverty, a lack of child labor laws,...

Deadline: January 1st 2014 Payment: 5 cents per word March--A Night at the Villa Diodati During the Summer of Darkness in 1816, literary giants includng George Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Polidori embarked upon a contest to write the scariest story. The contest resulted in the writing of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Pollodori's lesser known tale The Vampyre. Both were the first novels to introduce two horror staples--the reanimated man and the vampire. So what does this have to do with Penumbra? We want an issue filled with stories that we could have told to these masters by candlelight, pausing occasionally to wet our throats with wine as we read the stories aloud. We want the 19th century elegance paired with the creation of new horror staples in the 21st century. We do NOT want to see stories about vampires, werewolves, re-animated humans/zombies. So channel Byron and Shelley, and write a story worthy of the Villa Diodati. CALL BEGINS NOVEMBER 1, 2013 CALL ENDS JANUARY 1, 2014     Penumbra is looking for original, unpublished stories of 3500 words or less. We prefer that writers use Standard Manuscript Format for submissions. (You can read this article by Chuck Rothman on the SFWA site on preparing a manuscript for submission if you are unfamiliar with SMF.) Please send your stories as file attachments in .rtf or .doc formats only. Please include a cover letter in the body of your email, with the manuscript title, you pen name if applicable, the exact word count of the story not including title and byline, and a publication history if applicable. Penumbra is a professional rates paying publisher, paying 5 cents per word. We will evaluate poetry submissions for each issue. We will also consider previously published stories with rights reverted...

* Deadline: January 1st 2014 Payment: $20 and contributor's copy CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS My shadowy but sensational small press Mega Thump Publishing** is now accepting Short Stories to be considered for its upcoming Horror/Science Fiction Hybrid Anthology (title TBA), to be edited by yours truly. Submission Details: Mega Thump Publishing is looking for quality short stories that mix both science fictionand horror elements. Evil robots, mad scientists, bloodthirsty aliens, and haunted spaceships would all qualify. Think of films like ALIEN, THE THING, EVENT HORIZON,INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE BLOB, PHANTASM, and FROM BEYOND. As long as they fit the above criteria, stories can be horrifically humorous or dead serious in tone. They can be completely over-the-top in gore, sex, and any nastiness you can think of (no YA stuff here). They can even be thought-provoking. Most importantly, all stories must be well-written and entertaining. Submission Guidelines: Stories should range between 1,000-15,000 words. Stories must be written in English. Stories should be submitted as an MS Word doc/docx. Stories must be received in proper manuscript format. See example HERE. Stories must be original to author. Persons submitting must hold copyright to the material, or have legal authority to submit work on behalf of author. Stories previously published in magazines, on websites, or in other periodicals are eligible; however, they cannot have before appeared in another published anthology or collection of works. Selected authors will grant one-time anthology rights for publication in the English language throughout the world, with no publication elsewhere for 12 months after acknowledging Author/Publisher Agreement, upon which time rights revert back to the author. Authors of stories accepted for this anthology will receive as compensation $20.00 USD and a free copy of the book (your choice of print or digital). Deadline for submitting is JANUARY 1, 2014. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected] Use “H/SF Anthology – Your...

Deadline: January 1st 2013 Payment: This will be our first anthology and all profit (if any) will be evenly distributed to the contributors on a quarterly basis. December is the final month to submit for our upcoming Anthology. The Theme for this one is supernatural horror. The dead-line for submissions is January 1st. Stories should be within the horror genre and have a supernatural element. All lengths will be considered, by primarily looking for short stories that are between 2000 and 5000 words. If you have a masterpiece that's over 5000 words, please submit it. This will be our first anthology and all profit (if any) will be evenly distributed to the contributors on a quarterly basis. If you contribute, it is in your best interest to promote it...a lot... See how smart we are :P Submit at: Submittables.

Deadline: January 1, 2014 Payment: Royalties Submissions are now OPEN for Big Bad 2 – An Anthology of Evil Volume 2 The immediate success of The Big Bad has been mind-blowing, and Dark Oak has signed us on to do it all over again! Emily Lavin Leverett and I are back to create another anthology of the greatest bad guy stories we can find. This is a mixed anthology, which means that there have been some folks invited to participate, and we will accept some stories through open calls. The invitations have gone out, and we have ten open slots, so we expect the competition to be fierce. Send us your best short story (3,000 – 9,000 words, if it has to be longer contact me first) that features a bad guy or evil character as the protagonist. It can be fantasy, urban fantasy, superhero, sci-fi, horror, whatever. Just send us your best bad guy story. We’re taking ten. That’s right, there are only ten slots available in this anthology. Email submissions to johnhartness AT gmail DOT com, as a .doc or .docx attachment. Include a brief author’s bio, please. Please do not send RTF files. I hate them and will delete them unread. Please single-space in Times New Roman 12 point. Please label the file NAME.TITLE.doc and include “Big Bad Submission” in the email header. This is a royalty-based anthology, with exclusive rights for one year. This is not a “for the love” antho – Dark Oak is a real publisher that sends out real royalty checks. I should know, I’ve already received one for Big Bad 1. After the first year we retain rights to publish electronically in the anthology only, and in print in this anthology only, but you can take it and sell it somewhere else,...