Events

Deadline: May 16th, 2020 Payment: $30 Theme: The theme of ultimate sacrifice as key to heroism. A Heroic Anthology of Sacrifice Not every hero survives. All heroes pay a cost, some the ultimate sacrifice. We're examining that theme of ultimate sacrifice as key to heroism. Not only the willingness to sacrifice all, but the act of sacrifice for the greater 'cause,' whatever that may be. These are tales of loss. Death can be a cost of heroism--but it might not be the greater loss come story's end. Heroes die. And they lose things greater than life: Family. Freedom. Innocence. Faith. Ideals. Drastic change must happen to your hero by story's end. But this is not just a book of dead heroes. Death does not have to mean defeat. Loss does not always equal failure. We want stories across the spectrum, stories of apotheosis and of nihilism and of what lies between. Heroes die and legends are born. Or nothing changes and it is all moot. A battle is won, while a war lost . . . or a battle lost to win a war. This is character-driven storytelling, and we want to read it in all the 'Sword-and-' genres: Sword & Sorcery, Sword & Planet, Sword & Sandal, Sword & Soul, Sword & Six-gun. 11 week submission period. We will be accepting 13-15 stories, and stories should be 2k-9k words in length. Nothing shorter will be read, and our sweet spot is in the 5k-7k range. Publication is intended for Christmas 2020. Payment of $30 flat per story shall be rendered after publication, and authors will receive electronic copies and permanent discount on print purchases from RBE. Cover photography from Peter Gnas. As inspired by and foreword to be written by David Pitchford. Click the cover to enter the RB Submittable platform....

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: $100 Theme: Must take place in Omnipark (details linked below.) House Blackwood is putting together a brand-new anthology of original fiction, set in the world of OmniPark. This anthology will feature stories from Brian Evenson, Gemma Files, Orrin Grey, Jesse Bullington, and other leading lights of the weird fiction community. The deadline is June 30, 2020. You’ll find much more background information on the OmniPark Wiki, which documents all the park’s original Realms and attractions, as well as many of the personalities who shaped its development. We are paying $100 for short stories of 2,000 to 5,000 words, set in and around OmniPark. Send submissions as Word (.doc) files, formatted according to Shunn manuscript format, to: tales from omnipark @gmail.com (remove spaces) Only manuscripts submitted as Word docs, following Shunn format, will be considered. Via: House Blackwood.

Deadline: May 19th, 2020 Payment: Royalties Theme: Family Horror In these trying times the only thing we can rely on is family. Right? But what happens when the ones we love the most turn on us? In this open call, the amazing publishers at Nocturnal Sirens want horror writers to explore the themes of family. What secrets do they hide? What evil can they commit? Submission guidelines: Stories cannot be over 1000 words minimum is 300 words, send only 3 submissions at a time, wait for our editorial team to get back in touch with you. Evil aunt's, stepsons, vigilante families, any family member is allowed but we want to get alot of mother, father and child stories since this comes out between mother and father's day Disclaimer:. Unfortunately, sexual abuse is an all too common issue among families. While this is heartbreaking and one of the best motives for murdering a family member, we would like to steer away from sexual, incestuous situations. Pay is after taxes going to be 70% of royalties given to authors (divided evenly to all contributors) Send all stories to [email protected] Do NOT send any erotic or abusive stories. We don’t want pedophilia or incest in this collection. And join our fb page for full details and questions there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/372178610142234/

Deadline: May 20th 2020 Payment: $20 and a contributors copy Theme: A global pandemic of "Red Lungs" is going on. This book tells stories about how the rich have gathered together to weather the storm. Only, one of them is infected As a new virus rages on land the richest man in the world has invited over five hundred rich and privileged friends, acquaintances, influences and hangers-on to weather the sickness on his private luxury yacht. But one of them has brought a guest along. You guessed it! The Red Lungs virus. It starts like a cold, becomes a raging fever, then floods the lungs with blood. What we want: Snappy short stories with a minimum of 2000 words using our provided writing prompts. Punch everyone’s virus anxieties, fears; anger at inequality in the nuts with your contribution to this anthology! Use wit, gore, action or inaction, (of course, we always love us some good epistolary fiction) you can even throw some sharks in the mix if you want to. What we DON’T want: Torture, adult content, racism, hate mongering, preachiness, bigotry of any kind, sexism, turgid writing. What can help you: Read Masque of the Red Death by Poe And this helpful Pixar information on io9.Gizmodo. Deadline: May 20 2020 Publication: June 20th 2020 at the latest Payment: $20.00 on acceptance, one paperback copy, one digital copy, one audiobook copy. Submission guidelines: Use our provided prompts Final submission must be edited Rights For this collection. Exclusive, one year; first worldwide electronic, audio and print rights for one year and nonexclusive rights afterward. For reprints, we will ask for nonexclusive reprinting rights. Formatting The first page should have: Your name and pen name if you use your pen name. Contact information: Email, phone Title of story: Title of your manuscript 8.5″ × 11″ layout Times New Roman font....

Deadline: May 20th, 2020 Payment: $25 or $40 depending on the length and 3 contributors copies. Theme: Stories that take place in the world of Adrian's Undead Diary The world of Adrian Ring welcomes you again. Dead Lucky is the third anthology of short stories set in the zombie-ridden Adrian Ring universe and this is the call for submission. I am looking for stories that feature strong main characters that are put into situations where luck rears its head. Call it the Jinx Fairy, call it good fortune, but all stories should feature moments where the storyline hinges on moments of good or bad luck. Maybe your hero runs to the pickup parked outside the farmhouse with a horde on their heels, and when they drop the visor, the keys descend into the lap. Maybe those keys are for the mower. Perhaps your character gets bitten, and when they get into their safe house, they realize they have one bullet left, so they can take care of themselves, and protect their friends and family. Maybe your story features a pilot who has just enough fuel to put their plane down before they have to ditch in a zombie-infested city. It’s your story. Tell it to me so I can help tell it to the world. Dead Lucky will be divided into three sections that are AUD-universe timeline-based. The first section of stories will cover incidents on “That Day.” The second will cover the period of story between that day, and the conclusion of Book Eight. The final portion of the book will cover events after book eight. I will be writing at least three stories, one set in each of the anthology’s time periods. Dead Lucky will be released in eBook format on the Kindle, in print, and in audio...

Deadline: May 23rd, 2020 Prizes: $40 each Theme: A Limerick set in 2020 Special Note for Mini-Contest #45: We're doing just one mini-contest between regular short story contests this time, but it's a doozy. Instead of the usual $25/$15/$10 for first/second/third, we're awarding ten prizes of $40 each. That's a total of $400 in prize money. Why? Because even though $40 isn't much money, it might make more of a difference in someone's life than it will to our relatively small annual OTP budget.  Premise: Life isn't much fun right now, anywhere in the world. The pandemic has touched everybody to some degree. Wrap up how you feel about life today--the good, the bad, the ugly, the inspiring, the awful, the funny, the not funny--and because this is a contest challenge, send it to us in the form of a limerick. The limerick doesn't have to be funny, but it does have to evoke thoughts and feelings in us like everything else we ask of you. For those of you who want to take political themes, please remember our audience is literally world-wide, though it definitely leans Western. Still, jokes requiring a deep understanding of the Hong Kong anti-China protests or some of the subtler points of Brexit might not translate for all of our thousands of readers, so aim for a broad audience. If you're wondering what the exact definition of a limerick is, this source should be a big help: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/limerick-examples.html Deadline: Saturday, May 23, 2020, 11:59 PM Eastern US time. Publication: Winners will be published on or around Sunday, June 7, 2020, when the next contest launches. Length: It's a limerick, so limit it to five lines of text. The first, second, and fifth line should have 7 to 10 syllables, and the third and fourth lines should have 5 to 7. No...

Deadline: May 29th, 2020 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy Theme: An apocalyptic tale of epic proportions Open submissions being accepted for “Fill The Void”. 3/30/20- 5/29/20 D&T Publishing proudly presents Fill The Void. An apocalyptic tale of epic proportions. A journey where the beginning is given to you and it is up to you to write the next chapter. One book, one group of authors, one magnificent and horrifying tale. Specific information: - To submit, write a one paragraph story about an apocalypse. I want to be intrigued and scared in the shortest words possible. If it is more than one paragraph, it will not be read. Send it in the body of an email to [email protected] - A confirmation email will be sent to you within 24 hours of receipt. - Acceptance emails will be sent out no later than 6/1/20. - 10-15 authors will be chosen - For your email, please use Fill The Void as the title. - If you received an acceptance email, a link will be provided to you for a Facebook group and all other information will be provided to you at that time. - This will pay $25 plus one paperback contributor copy. We look forward to your submissions. Via: D&T Publishing's Facebook.

Deadline: May 31st, 2020 Payment: $10 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $20 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $150 and 2 contributor's copies We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form—poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written. When to submit AGNI welcomes manuscripts between September 1st and May 31st. Submissions mailed in June, July, or August will be returned unread, provided sufficient return postage is included. Things to know when submitting Nearly everything we publish is unsolicited. We encourage submissions from writers of all identities, living anywhere, published and unpublished. We will not consider writing that has already been published in English, whether in a book, magazine, newspaper, or on an app, a website, a social media feed, or a publicly accessible online community. We consider only work written in English or translated into English. We have no word limits, though space is at a premium and length sometimes affects our decisions. We do not publish genre romance, horror, mystery, or science fiction; however, we are open to writing that borrows elements from any of these. We will consider excerpts if they read as if they were meant to stand alone. We are interested in personal essays, think-pieces, memoir, prose poems, formal poems, blank verse, free verse, short stories, and short shorts; we do not publish academic essays or purely journalistic writing. Though we rely on student interns for many things, they are not involved in considering submissions. All manuscripts are read by masthead editors. Our blog features posts by writers...

Deadline: May 31st, 2020 Payment: $50 Theme: Memorable, dark fiction/horror stories that could only happen (or be told) here in Australia or New Zealand. Note: Australian and New Zealand authors only What We’re After: We’re limiting this callout to current or former Australian or New Zealand residents and citizens. We want memorable, dark fiction/horror stories that could only happen (or be told) here in Australia or New Zealand. Be inspired by the people, country, history, geography, cultures, myths and legends, but please be culturally sensitive. I’m not accepting reprints for this anthology. Story Length: 4,000 – 8,000 words is the sweet spot, but it’s quality that will count. Avoid: We will not accept stories where bigotry or violence of any kind is portrayed in a positive light, or where there is a focus on violence and gore rather than story. We will not accept any form of ‘typing’ of people that could be portrayed as negative, alienating, or offensive to groups of people. No reprints for this one, sorry… Generally, I prefer supernatural and psychological (I’m a huge Ramsey Campbell fan), as well as creature features. Also stories within stories, stories with subtexts and several layers. I steer clear of body horror and gore, but if written well, I can stomach it. Remember, I’m a huge fan of Clive Barker. Submission Deadline: Our deadline for this general callout is end of May, 2020. We recommend you submit early to allow time for feedback and perhaps allow you to resubmit. We will have a number of ‘anchor’ authors already pre-selected, and we aim to have it all completed and published in time for Worldcon 20 in Wellington. Payment Rate: This will be a flat rate payment of $50. Can I Help? If you’d like to offer assistance in publicising and marketing the book, arranging interviews...

Deadline: May 31st, 2020 Payment: $500 and 25 contributors copies Theme: literary fiction Submission Periods: January 15th - May 31st | September 8th - November 14th What kinds of stories is One Story looking for? One Story is seeking literary fiction. Because of our format, we can only accept stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. They can be any style and on any subject as long as they are good. We are looking for stories that leave readers feeling satisfied and are strong enough to stand alone. Does One Story pay? Yes. One Story pays $500 and 25 contributors copies for First Serial North American rights. All rights will revert to the author following publication. Does One Story accept previously published material? No. One Story is looking for previously unpublished material. However, if a story has been published in print outside of North America, it will be considered. Stories previously published online—on blogs, personal websites, online literary magazines, or forums—will not be accepted. Does One Story accept simultaneous submissions? Yes, but please notify us immediately if your submission is accepted for publication elsewhere. What file types can I submit? We accept PDF, RTF, and TXT files that are less than 500KB. Please include the story title and all writer contact info on the first page of the submitted file. Will you send me comments on my story? No. One Story receives close to 100 submissions each week. Please understand that we do not have time to comment on individual stories. Can I change the story I submitted with an updated draft? No. Do you consider translations? Yes. Please include the name of the original author and language, as well as the name of the translator on the first page of your submission. How do I submit to One Story? We have an automated system for you to send us your work. It will securely send our editors your...