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Deadline: January 8, 2013. Payment: The anthology is planned for release in print and eBook formats in the late spring of 2013. A royalty pool will be generated on print and eBook sales, with the royalty pool divided equally among the contributors and editor. Royalties for print are 10% of gross receipts received by SSP on sales retail and wholesale up to 1,000 copies, with an increase to 12 1/2% for every copy thereafter. eBook royalties are set at 50% of gross receipts received by SSP for sales of the digital version. Royalty statements and payments will be made bi-annually. All contributors will receive a complimentary trade paperback copy of the anthology. The stories for Perfect Flaw: Dystopian Stories can be up to 10,000 words and must be set within a society in a repressive and controlled state, which can be under the guise of a utopian society. The genre of the stories can be anything from Horror to Science Fiction, Fantasy, Steampunk and other forms of speculative ficiton This anthology is intended to be a book that is a exploration of society gone wrong. “Utopian” societies that mask the true, underlying controlled state. Stories of people fighting back against the repression in hopes of a better place for the average person. Groups forming to fight the fatal flaw that the people in charge strive to cover up to keep the masses in line. The editor for this project is Robin Blankenship. Submissions must be in by Midnight of January 8, 2013. Please provide a cover letter and use standard manuscript format. They can be emailed to: robin (at) seventhstarpress.com . The agreement on accepted stories will be for first print and digital rights, with exclusivity for one year from date of publication. After this time, authors are free to...

Deadline: January 15, 2013 Payment: None listed at this time, "usually" they offer a digital copy and royalties Step off the beaten path and explore the psychosis that defines the line between your average run-of-the-mill murder and the complex mind of a serial killer! Do you ever wonder what possesses someone to kill, and to kill in such a way that it creates a pattern? What proclivities do they possess on both the psychological and physiological levels that make them who they are, and different from the rest of us? How do they commit such grossly inhumane acts? Weave a story around the mind and actions of a serial killer; one who has a compulsion or a ritual. Spin a tale about what makes them do the things they do and what they get in return for their depraved deeds. Blood and gore are welcome, but the story must also be well thought out. Even axe murderers and maniacal doctors deserve to have their voices heard. What we will not be accepting are retellings of known serial killers; this is not a true crime anthology. We want fictional characters that you've brought to life - make them original, make them clever, and make them scary as hell. Your character's lives depend on it... *** Adults targeting children or stories containing a graphic depiction of sexual abuse will not be accepted under any circumstances. Deadline for Submissions: January 15, 2013 Word Count minimum: 4,000 words - nothing less will be reviewed.

Deadline: January 15th 2013 Payment: $120 upon publication and royalties on e-book sales. Short story anthology Black Apples is an anthology of gothic fairytales starring the classic fairytale princess – but her ending is maybe not so happy, her quest is perhaps more grim and the darkness of the tale might just come from within… The Princess might be someone we know, but she can also be a princess we’ve never heard of before. She may come from ancient times, or far into the future. She can be the heroine, or we might not see her on the pages at all – but the story must somehow evolve around the fairytale princess and/or her role as such – and have a dark twist… We’re looking for the beautiful, sensuous and sinister. Find fairytale inspiration our blog. Tags: Fairytale Friday and Black Apples. What we want: Originality is treasured, so is strong storytelling, clever plot and a polished manuscript. Don’t be afraid to experiment – we do like the strange. Read more about what we want here. What we do not want: Straight forward retelling of fairytales, pointless gore or splatter horror, plotless adult content (sex is ok – but all in good taste) or poetry. Submissions: We will accept submissions until January 15th 2013, e-mail submissions only. Submission should have a standard manuscript formatting and be attached as .doc, .rtf or .pdf. A few words about you in the body of the e-mail would be nice. You will hear back from us within 8 weeks. Length: 3 000 – 10 000 words. Language: We will read submissions in English, Norwegian and Swedish. Rights: We buy First Worldwide English language rights, First Worldwide Swedish language rights and First Worldwide Norwegian language rights. Publishing details: Print and e-book Publishing date: 2013 Payment:...

Deadline: January 31st, 2013 Payment: By line, one electronic copy, and one paperback copy, or $5.00 without paperback copy. (Per author, not poem.) Deadline ~ January 31st, 2013 It matters not what hides behind the eyes, as long as it remains seperate from the soul. Deep within us all, in our darkest place, dwells secrets we would rather keep hidden. Bring forth your monsters of the mind, and bask in the strange, the beautiful, the dark, and the macabre, as those secrets scorch minds and ooze down the pages of "In Darkness Dwells." Format: No more than 40 lines, any poetry style, size 12 font. Must be dark! Cross some lines if you must, and give us your best. Up to five poems per author. No reprints! New works only. Payment: By line, one electronic copy, and one paperback copy, or $5.00 without paperback copy. (Per author, not poem.) Send your submissions to: [email protected]. In the subject line please put: Poetry_your first poem title_last name. Please attach your submissions. Do not put them in the body of the email. Dig deep, and share your dark side.

Deadline: January 31, 2013 Payment: 5 cents per word The Wily Writers site publishes two short stories per month in both audio and text formats. We host a celebrity editor for each of them, and they choose the stories along with the producer (Angel Leigh McCoy). We publish only short fiction that falls under the genre umbrella of speculative fiction: horror, fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal romance / mystery / adventure. We have specific themes that we’re asking you to follow. THEME: Body Horror Submissions need to follow the guidelines listed below. IMPORTANT: Name your file so that it makes sense. An impressive filename for a fiction submission is: (lastname)-(word from title).RTF Word count: 1000 – 4000 (Firm. Do not query). Use standard manuscript formatting. (more info) No simultaneous submissions to other publishers. Multiple submissions okay, but only one story per theme. Story must have a speculative fiction element. Gore, sex, and adult language okay, but make sure it improves the story. We do not edit, so make sure you use good grammar, have double-checked the punctuation, and have done a spell-check. We prefer Chicago Manual of Style rules, and we will reject it if it’s a mess, even if it’s an amazing story. We may request revisions, so if you’re not open to the idea, then let us know in your cover letter. It will save us all some time by communicating that up-front. We will accept reprints. Make double sure that the rights have reverted to you. By submitting it to us, you affirm that it has been freed from all other commitments that conflict with the rights you give us. We reserve the right to change these guidelines without notice. Response Time: We will respond within 90 days after the appropriate issue’s deadline. Pay: Starting with the...

Deadline: January 15 to February 15, 2013 Payment: 5 cents per word and 2 contributor's copies and an ebook copy Sword and Mythos is an anthology paying professional rates (5 cents per word) looking for short fiction of up to 5,000 words which combines the pulp genres of Cthulhu Mythos and sword and sorcery. What we want Sword and Mythos. This includes any element of the Cthulhu Mythos (creatures such as shoggoths, characters like the King in Yellow, locations like Leng) combined with sword and sorcery (heroic fantasy). Stories can be told from the viewpoint of sorcerers or other non-traditional heroic characters, although fighters with brawn and brains will also be accepted. We are looking for a variety of settings and characters (Yes, we are GLBT-friendly). Although much sword and sorcery has utilized a proto-European setting, we’d like to see stories that take place in settings inspired by Middle Eastern, African, Asian, Prehispanic, and other cultures. We will accept secondary world stories and stories set in historical settings with magical elements. For example, Robert E. Howard set his Mythos-inspired “Worms of the Earth” in real-life Great Britain. We might also consider some sword and planet stories. But no copyrighted characters, please. We can’t afford the lawsuits. There are many famous sword and sorcery male characters, but we’d also like to see women hacking tentacles. Or summoning Mythos creatures. Overall, we want to be surprised and inspired to read beyond the first page. Scenarios which might be fun: A Mayan warrior faces Cthulhu’s own daughter, Cthylla. A crafty thief steals more than she bargained for when she takes a statuette from a Tamil temple. A Kurdish mercenary is hired to rescue the son of a rich merchant from the clutches of a sorcerer in medieval Cairo. An acolyte of Dagon grows...

Deadline: February 20th, 2013 Payment: Exposure only Flash fiction & Short Stories (1,000 – 3,000 words) Poetry accepted. Eternal life, what does it mean to live forever? What is the cost of such a prize, and is it worth the price? The scope of such a topic brings forth boundless notions for the budding author. Tales of the undead, and those who cheat the reaper give hope to a readership, or can just as easily take it away. I want stories of Eternal life. Give me deals with the devil, illegal experiments, and mysterious miracles. Zombies, Vampires, and Spirits are welcome. Make them dark, make them decadent, make them scary – these should be the kind of stories that wouldn’t usually see daylight. No taboos, just let your imagination run wild. Dark fairytales, bizarre, horror, surrealism, dark science-fiction are all cool here. Submission guidelines: Deadline for submissions – February 20, 2013. Word Count: 1,000 – 3,000 words. Please submit your manuscript as a *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact me prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.) Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing. Please format the document to 1st line indentation of 3″. The page margin should be set to .5″ (1.27cm) on all sides. Please check grammar. Only stories previously unpublished may be submitted. Upon acceptance into the anthology, you agree that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology. This title will be available as an E-book, and as a quality trade paperback Nathan J.D.L....

Deadline: February 20th 2013 Payment: One-time payment in the range of USD $50-70 (payable on publication) and 2 copies of the anthology. International call for original short story submissions Love, Lust and Zombies — an original anthology edited by Mitzi Szereto A trade paperback to be published by Cleis Press, USA Publication date: Autumn 2013 Let’s face it: zombies are hot, and baby, they’re getting hotter. Although not the most traditional of sex symbols, zombies are truly coming into their own, even landing on the silver screen in romantic roles, not to mention ambling and shambling across the pages of novels and television screens. Gone are those one-dimensional gut-munching characters from George Romero’s grim and gruesome flick Night of the Living Dead. Zombies now have a lot more to offer, and thank heavens we non-zombies are finally beginning to recognise this. From the bestselling novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the hit TV series The Walking Dead, zombies are infiltrating and enriching our daily lives. So isn’t it about time they had their more…err… romantic and sexy sides showcased? It’s my goal as editor of Love, Lust and Zombies to help make this happen. And here’s how you can help. I want you to write some fun and steamy stories featuring sexy zombie characters and send them over for me to chew on (in a literary sense, that is). Can zombies be sexy? Why the hell not? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. So can you do it without grossing us out too much or being too gory? Sure you can. And you know you want to! Submission deadline: Feb 20, 2013 (I’ll be selecting stories on a rolling basis, therefore earlier submissions are strongly encouraged, thoughI’ll still consider stories that make it in by...

Deadline: February 24th 2013 Payment: Digital copy and exposure 99 Penny Dreadful is a project intended to showcase some of the best short stories from authors of offbeat fiction. The kind of tales that may struggle to find a home elsewhere. This e-book is a homage to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, without which the world may have never heard of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, and Robert E. Howard. Whether it's horror, crime, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, or any kind of unusual tale, we'd love to see it. We aren't concerned about whether your story has been published before. The mission statement of 99 Penny Dreadful is to expose innovative short fiction writers to the widest possible audience. Please feel free to put your best foot forward. It can be something that has been published before, or that hidden gem that hasn't found the right home until now. Nor do we demand exclusivity or any kind of ownership. Merely the right to publish your submission in 99 Penny Dreadful. Ideally, submissions should be 2000 to 8000 words, as we are looking for punchy reads for the bus or the train. This e-book will be priced at a modest 99 cents in the spirit of the title, so we are in it for love rather than money. Contributors will however receive a kindle copy. Please send submissions to the email address below by the 24th of February. Best of luck, and good writing! [email protected]

Deadline: February 28, 2013 Payment: Unlisted, possibly exposure only Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, coeditors of the World Fantasy Award and British Fantasy Award winning anthology The Weird, are pleased to announce a call for submissions for a new mega-reprint anthology. The Time Traveler’s Almanac will function as its own time machine: the ultimate treasury of time travel stories, presented in an imaginative way, with illustrations and some nonfiction in addition to the stories. The anthology will cover millions of years of Earth’s history—from the age of the dinosaurs to strange and fascinating futures, through to the end of Time itself. The Time Traveler’s Almanac will reacquaint readers with beloved classics and introduce them to thrilling contemporary examples of the time travel genre. The UK publisher is Head of Zeus and our editor Nic Cheetham, who also was our editor on the award-winning The Weird. The US publisher will be announced soon. Although we already material in mind we also know that we can’t see everything so we are asking for submissions as well as suggestions. If in doubt, send it. We will read submissions between January 15, 2013 and February 28, 2013. Any English-language story (or translation into English) previously published on a website, non-self-published ebook anthology, or in a print publication is eligible for consideration. Looking for REPRINTS ONLY (standard reprint rates apply). No nonfiction. Prefer works under 10,000 words. Willing to look at all kinds of Time Travel fiction, but mainly interested in work that pushes the boundaries, that is truly unique to the genre. FANTASY AND HORROR incorporating time travel are just as welcome as pure science fiction. Surreal isn’t bad either. Submissions up to 10,000 words should be sent in a Word or RTF document attachment to [email protected]. Please cut-and-paste the first three paragraphs into the...