Events

Deadline: April 30th, 2017 Payment:1 cent per word Punk is dead, or so we keep hearing. And zombies are overdone, right? Well f*ck it, now punk is undead. Zombie Punks F*ck Off will be a collection of zombie punk short stories. We’re looking for short stories where zombies and punks collide. More than just that, though, is the inclusion of the wide variety of punk subcultures and authenticity. Anyone can write a story about cartoonish, neon haired people fighting zombies; we want people writing about punks who know something about punks. We want punk pluralism, all subgenres and varieties encouraged. We want crusties and straight-edge hardcore kids, deathrockers and riot grrls, queer punks and nihilistic 70’s punks, vegan peace punks and LA glitter punks, proto-punks and post-punks, and everything else, too. Take us to different time periods and all the corners of the world where punk finds a foothold. We want our zombies weird. Like punk did to rock and roll, let’s f*cking do that to zombies. Rip it apart and reassemble it. Give ‘em teeth again. Strip it down and f*ck it up. Make it weird, make it unique, and make it new. Slow, fast, mutated, hybridized with other things, not of this world, from the grave, government experiments, the chilling work of mad scientists, ancient religions – whatever it is, mix it up and make that putrid rot smell fresh again. Zombie Punks F*ck Off will be edited by Sam Richard (co-editor of both Hybrid Moments: A Literary Tribute to the Misfits and Blood For You: A Literary Tribute to GG Allin) and published by Weirdpunk Books (publisher of both aforementioned anthologies). Follow standard manuscript format. We will reject your story if you don’t. Why should we care about your story if you don’t care enough about it...

Deadline: Deadline: May 1, 2017 Payment: ½ cent per word. Hitchhiking is the art of traveling through getting free rides from folks. You stick out your thumb and gamble on if you’ll make it to the next stop or if you’re walking further than you had planned. Passing Through is seeking short stories with anthropomorphic characters on the road. Cash, Grass, or Ass, give us your best hitchhiking tales! Stories must contain anthropomorphic animals (humanized animals). This is a furry anthology, keep this in mind when submitting. We are not accepting reprints for this anthology. Rights: Non-exclusive printing and publishing rights while the anthology is active. Rights will revert back to the author upon publication. We will ask that if your story is accepted elsewhere after Passing Through has been published that you inform the new publication of your story’s original appearance. This anthology will have a limited print run (unlike our past anthologies that are always active). Payment: ½ cent per word. Deadline: May 1, 2017 ​ Rating: PG - R You may submit up to 3 stories through our submittable. We will not accept any submissions through email, unless you are having serious technical issues. Stories must be either a DOC or DOCX. We ask that you refrain from submitting any other file types. Word count: up to 10, 000 words. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. It is YOUR responsibility to inform us if your story has been accepted elsewhere. ​ Submit: https://weaselpress.submittable.com/submit/68208/passing-through Via: Weasel Press.

Deadline: May 1st, 2017 Payment: Royalties (See details below.) Season One Currently we are seeking science fiction with a deep space theme. A galaxy far, far way…if you will. Season One Submission Deadline: May 1st, 2017 How to submit: At the moment, we are accepting submissions through our Online Submission Form. Only submissions through the online submission form will be accepted. What we’re looking for: We will be publishing 3 SEASONS of genre anthologies each year. Each Season will have its own theme. See the SEASONS page to see what seasons we are currently looking for and what seasons have past. We will also be publishing other anthologies, so feel free to send us work at anytime. We will post if and when we have themes for other anthologies. We publish anthologies with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror themes. Please note that we do not consider novel excerpts, or anything with illustrations or photographs. Our anthologies will be available in paperback and ebook formats exclusively through Amazon. What’s the deadline? Check the SEASONS page for each seasons deadline. Otherwise, please feel to send us other work that may be great for another anthology as we will be publishing others. International submissions: We’re based in the US but we accept submissions from authors all over the English-speaking world. Rights We ask for first serial rights on any story we publish. This means that the story should not have appeared anywhere else, either in print or online. (This includes publication on an author’s own website.) When we publish a story, we ask for a brief period of exclusivity (roughly 18 to 24 months), and the right to keep the story in print. We do not place any limits on what you can do with your story after the exclusivity period. Word count We are...

Deadline: May 1st, 2017 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry and contributor's copy Summer: The plan suddenly made sense. Due date: May 1, 2017 We love the fact 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 two to three 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.) 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 we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories must be written with the...

Deadline: May 1st, 2017 Payment: $10 flat fee per story Note: Female authors only We will be creating an anthology titled My American Nightmare. It will be a collection of fictional short stories in which the protagonist will be between the ages of 13-19 (we’re aiming for the YA horror genre), the setting MUST take place in the United States (hence the title of the anthology), AND the author submitting MUST BE FEMALE. The author must retain full rights to the work intended for our consideration and that the work itself is complete and not published anywhere else (including personal websites or social media). Having been previously published isn’t a requirement, if you have a compelling story, send it to us! The short stories must also be inspired by horror stories drawn from literature, television, film, or music, to create a unique spin on classic tales of terror (please include the source of inspiration of the short story at the end). Think Slasher Girls and Monster Boys YA anthology to get an idea of what we’re looking for. Requirements: Stories must NOT exceed 8,000 words. Format: Word doc, 12 font, double space Arial or Times New Roman. Not a reprint. We are asking for exclusive first worldwide electronic and print rights for 18 months and the right to keep the story in print, and nonexclusive right to continue to publish for the life of the anthology. We do not place any limits on what the author does with the story after the exclusivity period. We are not looking for poetry or screenplays. Submission method: Please send story as an attachment (.doc or docx. Only) to azzurranoxyahoo.com Please include the following with your submission: Author (Legal Name) Pen name (if applicable) Email Story Title Word Count Source of inspiration behind story...

Deadline: May 1st 2017 Payment: $25cad Where Evil Blooms in the Shadows   Reaper has a hobby – gardening. In a garden sowed by the seeds of the damned, Reaper tends to the plant’s every need. These black seeds bloom in the shadows, petals unfolding as the vile, mortifying tale takes root in your mind. Like Mandrake, you only need touch it and the poison absorbs into your skin, penetrating your soul; and like mandrake, these tales should be locked up – never to be told – but we disagree. Put on your protective gloves and delve into this garden of prose. Add your own black seed, your tale that would not be shared elsewhere. Dig deep into your darkness and come back with a tale you may be too afraid or ashamed to admit came from you, do your worst. Just remember... you reap what you sow.   This is a Lycan Valley Press BLACK BOOK series, Volume 1. It is different from our other anthology titles as we are granting much more leniency to our writers’ imaginations, and taking a much bigger risk due to content. Gore and cursing are fine. Implied reference to rape, child harm, and sensitive material are permitted as long as they are crucial to character or story development. Reaper is looking for extreme horror stories.   Down to business: Open until May 1st 2017 (Publication date TBA) Rights required are First North American Anthology Rights with one year exclusivity. Payment is $25.00 CAD and a digital copy. A discount code will be available for print copies. (This Series may add print with pay in the future – if we survive.) Please refer to Shunn’s standard short story formatting. (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html) Email as an attachment in .doc or .docx format to: [email protected] Subject line should...

Deadline: May 1st, 2017 Payment: $75 plus two contributor’s copies For the vampire erotica anthology Blood in the Rain 3, available October 2017, we seek short stories of 2000–7000 words with both a vampire and an erotic element—anything from a sexy tease to hardcore adult content (we lean toward adult content!). We encourage stories nonstereotypically including people of color, people who are LGBTQIA, and people over 18. Most of all, we want compelling characters having hot sex, with a story that draws us in. And a vampire. Make us horny! We pay within 30 days of publication: $75 plus two contributor’s copies. Stories are due May 1, 2017.  See the nitty-gritty details to submit. Via: Blood in the Rain.

Deadline: May 5th, 2017 Payment: $10, contributor's copy, and royalties We're going a little bit different for our summer anthology versus our winter one. Think Evil Dead or Shaun of the Dead. Dark with a humorous, tongue-in-cheek, or ironic bent. We don't need to be rolling on the floor laughing when we read your submission. Getting a chuckle or an eye roll out of us will do. As usual, this is a non-themed dark fiction anthology. WHAT WE WANT: 100% original short stories. We are not accepting reprints. We are purchasing the exclusive world-wide first print and electronic rights to your work. Minimum 1,000 words. Maximum 5,000 words. Anything above or under these guidelines will be discarded, unless you get a written exception from us. Stories can be set in any time period you choose and any genre you choose, except romance, erotica, hard science fiction, historical fiction, extreme horror/splatterpunk. Characters and plots that are three-dimensional. Neither are required to be likeable, but they are required to be believable. Immerse us in your characters' lives and fictional world. We want to see pieces from all background and experience level. Having diverse characters is a plus for us, too. We support diversity every chance we get. This anthology project is no different! Manuscripts must be in .DOC or .DOCX file format and formatted in standard manuscript format. We will not accept RTF files. We will discard any story that doesn't follow the standard manuscript format outlined here:  http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html. No exceptions. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but we ask that you let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere as soon as possible. WHAT WE DON'T WANT: No parts of novels or novellas. The story you submit must have a defined beginning and end. No multiple submissions. No trunk (unfinished) stories. We...

Deadline: May 10th, 2017 Payment: $20 CAD Note: Reprints ONLY For The First Issue WHAT IS THE PREVIEW ISSUE? The Augur Preview Issue will be a collection of fiction, poetry, and graphic fiction reprints, featuring at least 75% Canadian content. We aim to create an issue that sets a precedent for the voice and tone we’re looking for in future original submissions. Why reprints? We want to show how Augur Magazine will bring together voices that can be found in a variety of disparate publications, forming a cohesive tone that explores the line between the real and unreal. That said, we know that doing a call for reprints limits the kinds of work we’ll get and authors we’ll hear from—so we’re happy to accept submissions that have previously been published on blogs, in student magazines and journals, in unpaid publications, and in any other form of publication. The Preview Issue will be released for early access when we launch our crowdfunding campaign as a sample of our future work. Afterwards, it will be available for free so prospective writers and artists can see what we’re about—we want to take down a the barricade of writers having to purchase subscriptions to every magazine they’re interested in contributing to, and this is where that project starts. WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? (Although we always love surprises) We’re looking for reprints of uncanny or dreamlike realist fiction, literary speculative fiction, and magical realism. Our perfect submission defies categorization—pieces that could be “too speculative” for canlit or “not speculative enough” for spec magazines (although we’re open to stories on both these sides as well). At this time, we offer a small honorarium payment (specified in the category breakdowns) in CAD, and are working to improve them. We also accept multiple submissions (specified in the...

Deadline: May 14th, 2017 Payment: 6 cents per word Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, Sword & Sorceress 27, Sword & Sorceress 28, Sword & Sorceress 29, and Sword & Sorceress 30, (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we don't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story. No reprints. No simultaneous submissions. With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second submission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years). If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us. Reading period: Monday, April 24 to Sunday, May 14, 2017. Stories received before or after this period will be deleted unread. Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or...