Events

Taking Submissions: The Asterisk Anthology: Volume 2 – 3-In-1

Deadline: August 5th, 2018 Payment: First place: $120 | Second place: $80 | Third place: $40 3-IN-1 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 3 Themes—1 Submission Period PRIZES PER THEME: First place: $120 | Second place: $80 | Third place: $40  SUBMISSION PERIOD: July 1, 2018–August 5, 2018 4,000 to 8,000 words, with three winners selected from each theme. NO REPRINTS. The winners of each call will be published in the ASTERISK ANTHOLOGY VOLUME 2 releasing on Halloween 2018. THEMES: Southern Gothic Southern Gothic wallows like a feral hog in the ambiance of the Gothic macabre, fused with the dark underbelly of the American South. With its lingering themes of insanity, desperation and decay, the Southern Gothic exhumes the pervasive specters of bygone rituals and pervasive racial obsessions of the South in lushly lyrical fashion. Nosetouch Press welcomes original short stories of the Southern Gothic, and encourages writers to expand its frontiers, while embracing its terrifying traditions. Email entries to [email protected] | .doc or .rtf format • Please state “AA2-Southern Gothic” in your subject line. One entry per category, per person. ————————–————————–——– CREATURE FEATURES Monsters have always enticed people. They can embody larger than life, elemental forces that threaten the everyday, established order of nature, itself. The aberrant nature of monstrosity communicates a fundamental wrongness or evil. Nosetouch Press wants writers to summon unforgettable creatures in their stories, unique monsters that shake the ground and make waves, bringing terror wherever they go. Email entries to [email protected] | .doc or .rtf format • Please state “AA2-Creature Features” in your subject line. One entry per category, per person. ————————–————————–——– Cursed Things The history of cursed things—objects and places—is an ancient one. The supernatural threat implied in curses carries a special kind of narrative weight that can terrify and haunt anyone who encounters them. Nosetouch Press...

Early Announcement: Tor.com Will Soon Be Open For Novella Submissions!

Deadline: August 13th, 2018 Tor.com Publishing will soon be reopening to unsolicited novella submissions! Starting July 30, 2018, Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen will be reading and evaluating original novellas submitted by authors to https://tor.moksha.io/publication/tornovellas. You can find full guidelines here, and we highly recommend you read the guidelines before submitting. We will be open for two weeks beginning on July 30 around 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00) and ending on August 13 9:00 AM EST (UTC-1:00). For those of you who held off submitting in May, this is your moment! If you did submit in May and have not yet received a response, fear not: we are still reading and will be responding to every submission. Until the end of this open period, Tor.com Publishing will be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words in both the science fiction and fantasy genres. If it’s speculative and fits the bill, we want to take a look at it. Lee Harris, Carl Engle-Laird, and Ruoxi Chen all actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that. In addition to reviewing the guidelines, we also encourage you to take a look at our existing list to get a sense of the work our current authors are producing and Tor.com Publishing’s vision and tastes. Good luck—we look forward to reading your work. Via: Tor.com.

Taking Submissions: Sorry We’re Closed

Deadline: August 13th, 2018 Payment: $15 and contributor’s copy Theme: What we abandon begins to rot from the inside, while the outside succumbs to the ravages of nature and time. Unsightly creatures take root, protecting their new feeding grounds with ferocious antipathy. Darkness fills the debris-filled corridors, and in the darkness lurk all of the things that make our skin crawl. An abandoned building is a place of death and gloom. The living are not welcome there. But there they'll go. Because the living are nothing if not curious--and inimitably stupid. Simultaneous Submissions: Sure, but please let us know that it's a simultaneous submission and tell us immediately if it was accepted somewhere else. Multiple Submissions: Yes Reprints: Yes, but let us know where it has been previously printed and make sure you have the rights to have it reprinted. Word Count: Up to 10k words. Formatting: This is a very good guide if you have any questions. You can't really go wrong with it. But, if you don't feel like reading that, here's the down and dirty of it. Italicize italics. Do not underline Don't use spaces to lead paragraphs. Use tab or, even better, the formatting options to get the indent. For scene breaks, use either "#" or "***". Use an easy to read font, like Arial or Times New Roman in a reasonable size (about 12 point). Double space your work. Submission Please make sure to include a synopsis of the piece in your cover letter. If you're not sure how to do that, here's a good collection of articles to learn from. Yes, even it's poetry or flash. Just a quick line or two helps us out a lot. Aside from that, just be yourself. Tell us anything you think we should know about you or your work. What inspired you to write...

Taking Submissions: Resisting Fascism

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: $0.07 per word and contributor's copy Born from a desire to produce high quality, pertinent publications – small collections of relevant excellence – Crossed Genres is trying something new. It’s a pop-up anthology: 7-10 stories plus original cover art, published very quickly. We’re open to fiction submissions NOW; submissions will close in ONE MONTH, on August 15. There will be a short crowdfunding project, and assuming it’s successful, we will publish the micro-anthology shortly before US election day on Tuesday November 6, 2018, less than 4 months from now! For our first microanthology, we’re looking for science fiction and fantasy stories about Resisting Fascism – a subject already appearing in many writers’ recent works. Whatever that may look like, small scale rebellion or worldwide revolution; set in any time period past, present or future, or even in alternate universes.   FICTION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Word Count: 250-8000 .doc, .docx or .rtf files only Standard Manuscript Format preferred No Courier font Name, contact information and submission word count on the first page No simultaneous submissions. No reprints. Email your submission to [email protected]. Be sure to put “Story Submission” in the subject line. DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15   PAY RATE & RIGHTS Pay will be $0.07 per word (possibly more depending on crowdfunded stretch goals). Authors will also receive a gratis print and ebook copy of the anthology. Crossed Genres takes first worldwide English-language ebook and print rights, exclusively for one (1) year, and non-exclusively for an addition four (4) years. There will be an option to extend the non-exclusive rights for additional compensation. QUESTIONS Please email [email protected] with any questions regarding the anthology or your submission. Via: Crossed Genres.

Taking Submissions: Weird Mask: Planetary Romance

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy if you need to know what Planetary Romance is, you can click here. Max of 3,000 words As a monthly zine, we are always looking for short stories, flash fiction and even artwork. Genre fiction is a PLUS! Normally the weirder the better, but that isn’t always true. Short stories should be around the 3k word mark. Flash fiction could be as short as you want. As of now, the only payment we can offer is contributor copy. We hope to change that in the near future. If you are wanting to submit a serialized story, please message us first with a small pitch and how many issues you would need to tell the story and we will get back to you promptly. The submissions page can be found here. Via: Weird Mask.

(Limited Time Frame) Taking Submissions: Robot Dinosaurs

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: $60 RAWR! Do you like robot dinosaurs and want to join our amazing line-up?  Well, have we got awesomsaurus news for you! August 1st thru 15th, 2018, we will be open to general fiction submissions!  (Please do not send any stories before the open submissions period, as they will not be read.) Want a sneak peak at the guidelines? Read on! WHAT IS THIS? An open call for ROBOT DINOSAURS! stories (we will be accepting between 3 to 4). These stories will be ebook/print anthology exclusive—they will not be immediately available online, though you are welcome to sell reprint rights after a three-month exclusivity period of the anthology’s publication in ebook and print. RIGHTS: three-month exclusivity upon publication, and non-exclusive archival rights for the anthology (ebook and print) thereafter. All other rights (audio, film, etc) are yours. We will ask to use excerpt from your story as promotional material on the website (usually a few paragraphs at most). DETAILS: Payment is $60 USD (payable via PayPal, preferably, and check if in the US). Story must feature a robot dinosaur of some kind. Stories must be written in English, original, and unpublished. Story must be between 750 and 1,200 words long. (You may query for longer works, but the flat fee remains the same. We will not consider anything over 2k.) Strong language, sexual content, and violence are fine–please no erotica. We prefer PG-13 stories to match the general tone of the project. Story must be original and not use copyrighted or franchised characters or settings. Simultaneous and multiple submissions: yes! Sim subs (sending the story to ROBOT DINOSAURS and another market at the same time) are fine, so long as you let us know if the story is accepted elsewhere as soon as possible. Multiple submissions (up to three per author) are also fine, but please...

Taking Submissions: Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly Autumn 2018

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: Contributor's Copy Submitting to Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly As the name suggests, submissions to OPQ have a quarterly window. Deadline is February 15th for Submissions for Spring Quarter (Ostara and Beltane) Deadline is May 15th for Submissions for Summer Quarter (Litha and Lugnhasadh) Deadline is August 15th for Submission for Autumn Quarter (Mabon and Samhain) Deadline is November 15th for Submission for Winter Quarter (Yule and Imbolc)   General Submissions Guidelines: Please send your submission in an email where the subject line is Submission: Title, where Title is the name of your article or piece, to [email protected].  Note that our submissions can often become backed up due to the number of people on staff, so please allow up to four weeks for us to respond.  If queries or submissions have been unanswered after six weeks, please send us an email with ‘QUERY’ in the subject line. Please indicate which prospective issue your piece is being submitted for. What We Are Looking For: Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly is looking for non-fiction and fiction submissions for our new quarterly publication. OPQ is a quarterly magazine dedicated to folk religion, spirituality, and paganism of all paths and stripes. Whether your article is over Witchcraft, Fey Work, Reiki, Heathenry, or other equally important paths, we would love to feature the independent voices of our community.  Though we are located in Oklahoma and as a result are focused on our local community, we also want to hear from those in other states, locations, and countries. Part of the appeal of Paganism and other nontraditional paths is the diversity of thought and culture inherent in our worship and way of life. To that end, we will not accept work that is derogatory, violent, or condemnatory of other ways, walks, or paths in life. We will not judge submissions based on the client’s gender, gender identity, religion, age, spirituality, ethnicity, race,...

Taking Submissions: A Punk Rock Future

Deadline: August 15th, 2018 Payment: 6 cents per word Welcome to A Punk Rock Future. Get ready for an anthology from Zsenon Publishing that will feature flash fiction as fast as a punk rock song as well as longer stories, all with a gut punch and revealing a punk rock future. You may ask yourself: Are we already in this punk rock future or did it die in the late 1970s? Or is it still coming? We’ll find out soon in this anthology… So you may have thought Punk Rock was going to change the world. That Punk RULES. Or are we still here with… Either way, we’re looking for stories from you that will explore this future, whether it’s near or far away. We’d like to see dystopias, utopias, or something in-between; anything with a punk rock sensibility/ethos; alternative history; the promise of punk; the failure of punk; music-inspired stories; science fiction; fantasy; or horror. No matter the genre label, stories must have a speculative element. This isn’t an anthology of steampunk, solarpunk, silkpunk, ecopunk (those are all fine genres), or whatever punk. We won’t rule out stories that touch on those niches but be warned: Stories should be the real deal, punk punk. Surprise and amaze us. A punk strain runs through SFFH so we know that great stories are out there. Want a recent fantastic example? The Big So-So by Erica Satifka. Unfortunately, you can’t get Satifka’s short story online but you might pick up this issue of Interzone to see what we like. Or read Sarah Pinsker’s 2015 Nebula Award winner Our Lady of the Open Road, published in Asimov’s. It, too, has the vibe we want. In A Punk Rock Future, the shortest of these stories will be confined to the 350-500 word range, which...

Taking Submissions: Colp: Sky’s The Limit

Deadline: August 21st, 2018 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words Colp is our 'anything goes' anthology collection. Expect to see a little bit of this and a little bit of that within each issue, so feel free to submit stories from any genre. Current theme: Sky's The Limit The sky's the limit when it comes to Colp's sophomore collection. We are looking for stories that take the reader and their imagination up, up and away. An ill-fated plane trip? Inexplicable cloud formations? Star-crossed lovers enjoying a romantic sunset? Feel free to take us anywhere within the realm of Earth's atmosphere, but please try to avoid ending up in outer space. Colp is for everyone and therefore we are willing to read stories that fall into any genre. So, no matter whether your story is a horror, romance, sci-fi or historical fiction piece, please send it on through. We also encourage new and unpublished writers to take the leap and get in touch. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines below and if there are specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: 'Colp -  Sky's The Limit - *Story Title*'. Word count: 1000 - 5000 words (we're willing to consider longer or shorter if the story is good) Deadline: August 21 2018 Payment:  AU$5.00 for stories under 2000 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2000 words General guidelines: Please no extreme erotica or stories that feature excessive violence or vulgarity (unless otherwise specified). All stories should be formatted appropriately. Please see here for more details. Ensure that your name, address, and email contact and word count...

Taking Submissions: Three Crows Magazine

Deadline: August 22nd, 2018 Payment: $25 We at Three Crows want your stories set in dark, weird, and gritty fantasy, horror, and sci-fi setting, with complex characters making morally ambiguous decisions. Think of a lovechild of Andjei Sapkowski, Naomi Novik, Joe Abercombie, Geroge R.R. Martin, H.P. Lovecraft, and China Mieville. All submitted works must be: previously unpublished stories at a maximum of 4,000 words In English, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and German in a non-exhausted (think - LotR, GoT, Shannara and etc.) fantasy or sci-fi setting Slavic folklore and setting are of highest priority of the highest possible quality must be submitted in Standard Manuscript Format submitted electronically in .doc or .docx format No simultaneous and no multiple submissions until the next submission cycle. Send your work to editor (at) threecrowsmagazine (dot) com with the following in the subject line: Short Fiction Submission: <Story Title> In the body of the email (address it to Alex), tell us the following: Story Title. Word count. A 1-2 sentence summary of the story. A list of works published in any other paid markets (no self-published works). A 1-2 sentence about yourself for the bio. PAYMENT Since we are only starting the payment won't be in line with SFWA guidelines yet, but we pay $25 (USD) per story. ART GUIDELINES Technically we expect artwork to be available in a 300dpi .tif. Portrait 5.5" wide by 8.5 high. Artwork for covers must include a 1/4" bleed. It shouldn't be outright genre-ish. We prefer 2-d digital and traditional painting. No photography or photorealistic paintings. If you're interested - leave a link to a gallery or send your images to editor at threecrowsmagazine dot com and we well evaluate if it is a good fit for the issue and discuss the rates. LEGAL We are buying first world-exclusive serial and electronic rights, Ukrainian and Russian translation...