Events

Submission Period: June 15, 2020 to June 19, 2020 Payment: 12.5 cents per word Theme: Fireside has two goals: to find and publish great stories regardless of genre, and to pay our writers and artists well. Fireside holds a submissions period for each upcoming issue of Fireside Quarterly. In 2020, Fireside will be open to submissions for short stories during the following periods: June 15, 2020 to June 19, 2020 Submissions period for the Spring 2021 Issue August 23, 2020 to August 27, 2020 Submissions period for the Summer 2021 Issue November 30, 2020 to December 4, 2020 Submissions period for the Autumn 2021 Issue Guidelines We welcome previously unpublished work (‘published’ includes work posted on Patreon or on a blog) in English or Spanish from all writers, and we are especially interested in seeing work from people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, members of religious minorities, and people outside the United States. We strongly encourage submissions from people of those backgrounds, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded. If you have any questions about how to submit please email us at: [email protected]. Accessibility We use an online form to gather submissions, but we understand that this may not be universally accessible to disabled people. If you have questions related to accessibility, please email us at [email protected] with the subject line: Accessibility Query. Accessibility Queries should only contain a request to submit by alternate means, and not be a submission. Any submissions sent via email will be deleted unread. Short Stories We accept short stories up to 3,000 words. Our budget allows us to pay for up to 7,000 words per month, which means we are always going to buy more shorter fiction than longer stories. Please submit: Stories in English or Spanish Stories that have never been published before. Short...

Deadline: June 22nd, 2020 Payment: An advance against royalties for either though novellas can be royalty only if preferred Theme: novels and novellas across the breadth of the horror genre—from the cosmic and Lovecraftian; to the beloved undead tropes of zombies, ghosts, and slashers; to the more uncanny and internal terrors of isolation, lost love, and aging. Note: My apologies for the short window, I just found this one! GAH! Nightfire Submission Guidelines Nightfire is open to submissions. Nightfire : Novellas Open Closes to submissions on June 22, 2020 4:00 AM (UTC) Nightfire : Novels Open Closes to submissions on June 22, 2020 4:00 AM (UTC) Welcome to the Nightfire submissions program. Please see our submissions guidelines to find out what we're looking for, or for more information on our program. « Back to Nightfire The following guidelines outline how to submit novels and novellas. Note: Tor/Forge Books’ submission information is here, and Tor.com’s submission information is here. To learn more about the Tor/Forge, Tor.com, and Nightfire editorial teams, check here. What We’re Looking For: The Nightfire team is looking for novels and novellas across the breadth of the horror genre—from the cosmic and Lovecraftian; to the beloved undead tropes of zombies, ghosts, and slashers; to the more uncanny and internal terrors of isolation, lost love, and aging. We are actively looking for 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 stories reflect the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and want our catalog to show that. We encourage you to listen to our free audio anthology, Come Join Us By the Fire, to get a sense of our vision and tastes. Good luck—we look forward to reading your work! What We’re Not...

Deadline: July 31st, 2020 Payment: 3.0 cents per word, contributors copy, $150 advance maximum on longer stories Theme: Fiction short stories and poetry in support of an election year theme “Dear Leader Tales” (DLT) anthology. We want stories of a humorous or satirical bent which illustrate or lampoon an emperor’s hubris (and lack of clothing). Note: Reprints allowed Theme:  We’re looking for original fiction short stories and poetry in support of an election year theme “Dear Leader Tales” (DLT) anthology. We want stories of a humorous or satirical bent which illustrate or lampoon an emperor’s hubris (and lack of clothing). In that spirit, we don’t want any real life current or past Dear Leaders named directly, but their known foibles are fair game. If you’re one of the oppressed, regardless of who’s in charge, this is your chance to deploy devastating humor, satire, wit, and sarcasm to bring them down a few notches. If nothing else, we can amuse ourselves in a trying time. Examples beyond the political include CEOs who constantly quote Sun Tzu or Machiavelli incorrectly, cats plotting to overthrow their human overlords, in short anywhere clueless oppressors operate. Rules: The stories can range from 1,000 to 5,000 words. First world rights are preferred. Reprint rights will be accepted if the story is good enough. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as well, provided prompt notice is given should the story be picked up elsewhere. Stories may exceed the 5K word count limit, if it merits, however the advances are limited to a maximum of $150 per story. Schedule: Submission period is July 1, 2020 through July 31, 2020, after which no further submittals will be accepted.The email address for submissions will only be active during that period. We plan to release the anthology in mid-September 2020. Team: The evaluation team will consist...

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: Royalties Lethal Impact (Rated R) Deadline – June 30th, 2020 Publication – September 2020 Word Count – 5,000-15,000 Theme – In this post-apocalyptic anthology, nothing matters except survival. In a world full of humans pitted against each other, how can there be anyone left to trust? After receiving edits back, the author has two weeks to return the submission for formatting. View our blog post on the topic of how to submit to a publisher.   Rating – Check each anthologies‘ rating. Word count – Check each anthologies‘ word count requirements. E-mail address to submit to – [email protected]   NOTICE –  Failure to submit correctly will result in refusal of submission. Via: Dragon Soul Press.

Deadline June 30th,2020 Payment: 80/20 split. 80% will go to the contributing authors to be paid within 10 days of Amazon payments for the book. Are you an Edgar Alan Poe fan? Would you like to be in an Anthology dedicated to his style of writing? Stories are to be in the fashion of Poe's writing. 5k can be a little bit over. Completed stories must be edited, but not formatted. Deadline June 30,2020 Release: July 2020 No buy-in. Published by Heart's On Fire Publishing, LLC https://www.facebook.com/groups/1172927172906061/ Payment will be an 80/20 split. 80% will go to the contributing authors to be paid within 10 days of Amazon payments for the book. 20% goes to the publisher for the cost of the cover, formatting, and an extra round of edits on all stories. Each author will receive a .mobi copy of the anthology to use specifically for giveaways. Paperbacks will be able to be bought from the publisher at cost. Stories should be submitted to [email protected]. Please put Poe in the comments of the email. Thank you!!  

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: $40 and a contributors copy Theme: Silence is the theme of this anthology. From tales of what lurks in a world without sound to characters whose voice are taken or go unheard, we want them all. Open for Submissions until June 30th 2020 Sonorous silence Silence is the theme of this anthology. From tales of what lurks in a world without sound to characters whose voice are taken or go unheard, we want them all. ​ We hope to keep the theme loose to allow the author creative freedom. If you think an idea fits, let us have it. ​ The word count for short stories should be between 2k and 10k. Formatting When submitting, please format your works using the industry standard. You can find a lovely guide here. ​ Basically:        -Courier or Times New Roman (The former is preferred)        -12pt font        -Double Spaced        -Include a header with your legal name, address, and e-mail        -Give us a word count on the first page        -Subsequent pages should be numbered and labelled with the author's last name ​ ​ ​ ​ Submissions should be made to:       [email protected] ​        -In the subject line tell us the submission type and title.         (ex. "Anthology- Book Title") ​ ​ ​ ​ Pay Since we are new and will be paying for expenses out of our own pocket for the time being, pay isn't going to be as great as we'd like. In time, we hope to be able to offer our authors more. For now, rates are as follows. ​ ​ Short Stories:        A flat rate of $40 + contributor copy Via: Pavor Press.

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: Contributor's Copy Theme: How did the elves vanish? A Collection of Short Tales Zimbell House is holding open submissions for short tales about how the elves vanished. Let your imagination roam and put our readers in the middle of the action. We want complete stories that explain the last war of the elven race. Who was it between? How did it start? Where did the elves go after the war ended? What realm was the war fought on? What was life like before the war, and then show us the after-effects. Please keep foul language to a minimum-it loses its punch if over-used. Dialogue needs to be believable, and please keep dialects/slang to a bare minimum if you must use them. No head-hopping or POV changes. Pick one point of view and stick with it. Please show more of the action than just telling the reader what happens. Submissions of both short stories and novellas to this anthology are welcome, please keep in mind the minimum word count is 4,500 and the maximum word count is 19,500. This anthology is a great opportunity to showcase emerging writers and allow them to build their professional platforms. Submission Deadline: June 30, 2020, with a targeted release date of late August 2020. Submit your best work. Poorly formatted and unedited work will be turned down. Please use Americanized English spellings. We will be doing light editing as necessary to fit the standards we strive to maintain. Submission Guidelines: Any work under 4,500 words will be automatically disqualified for this anthology. The work must not have appeared in print or online anywhere before. All submissions must be in English. Each author may submit up to three (3) unique works—please submit them separately. Work must be in Microsoft Word or RTF, double-spaced, 12-point font-no headers/footers....

Deadline June 30th, 2020 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy Theme: A strong female Main Character who will do whatever it takes to protect/avenge those she loves and must be written in the horror genre Do you want your story to appear in the next volume? IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE: Volume 3 Submission Guidelines Below ​ Please read carefully. Submissions that don't meet the guidelines will be automatically rejected. All submissions will be reviewed after the submission deadline and chosen stories will be published in IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE- TALES OF DEADLY WOMEN AND RETRIBUTION - The Better Off Dead Series Volume 3, which will be released in the fall of 2020 Submissions must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words Title, submitter's name, pen name (if different), word count and email address must be centered at the top of your submission Submissions must be 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double spaced with special first-line indentation of 0.5" Submissions must be in .Docx format with 1" margins all around Submissions should be clean and edited Submissions must be have a strong female Main Character who will do whatever it takes to protect/avenge those she loves and must be written in the horror genre Submissions cannot contain graphic sexual or rape scenes Submissions must not have been published elsewhere before in any medium The number of stories published will depend on word count of the chosen stories, but will be no less than ten stories and no more than twenty Authors may submit as many stories as they want for review, however, there will be a limit of one published story per author The deadline for submission is June 30th, 2020 Authors will be notified by July 31st, 2020 if their story was selected Authors That Are Selected For Inclusion...

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: AUD$80 per accepted story as our standard rate Theme: Climate Change Bushland is burning. Forecasts say the Arctic will be ice-free in the summers to come. Oceans are swelling with the run-off, and heaving with plastics and endocrine disruptors. Coral is dying, and the knock-on effects have barely begun. Climate change is here. Now what are we going to do about it? Do we need to help the environment change as fast as the climate? Release chemical mutagens into the ecosystem to drive natural selection at a hundred miles an hour so we can see what survives on the other side? Is it time to reinvent our social, political, and economic systems from the top down – or the bottom up? Our current lifestyles could become as alien to the next generation as the Aztec civilisation now is to us. In a world of guerrilla-style eco warriors, or digitised barter economies, or robot socialism, or ageographical nation states, what will we preserve? Which threads will we weave forward? Or could it be that a more gradual transformation of our destructive policies is the way to safety, taking each set of problems one box at a time? Our future could look much like our present, but with supercharged carbon sequestration, genetically modified bacteria safely breaking down plastics, and next-generation smart phones. How does it start? What drives it onward? Or do we need to move backwards? Our answers may not lie in the new, but in the old. Perhaps our best future is a radical rebuilding of history, and all we need to decide on is whose. And Lately, The Sun explores such ideas in a short story anthology slated for publication in November 2020. We are currently calling for submissions until midnight (GMT) on the 30th of...

Deadline: June 30th, 2020 Payment: $25 advance, royalties, 2 contributors copies Theme: A horror wester anthology Six Guns Straight From Hell was a western horror anthology first published by Science Fiction Trails in 2010.  A second volume came out in 2014. We’re going to bring a third volume in late 2020. The project is being edited by David B. Riley and J. A. Campbell. We are looking for original western horror.  Look at the title. Scare us or shoot somebody. Better yet, do some of both.  We’re not requiring gunplay, but it would help.  The preference will be for active stories. Any type of horror is okay, including dark fantasy, although we’re not fans of excessive sex or gore.  Have some sense of danger or peril.  Unlikely heroes or villains are especially wanted.  Above all else, give us a flavor of the Wild West along with whatever supernatural elements you bring to the table. Stories should take place in the western United States between 1850 and 1900. This can include western Canada and northern Mexico. Preferred length is 1k to 5k words, although we will accept stories to 8k words. We tend to see too many sheriff stories. There were plenty of other people out west, including merchants, photographers, reporters, ranchers, Indians, miners, soldiers, telegraph operators, saloon keepers and prostitutes. We encourage stories involving these folks.  If you do feel the need for a lawman, make that person interesting—not simply a walking badge. Over the years, we’ve noticed some common mistakes a lot of writers make.  We thought we’d mention a few of them. Ships. The names of ships are italicized.  Yep, they are. A lot of folks don’t seem to realize this. Short stories: Titles of short stories are not underlined. They should be put in quotation marks.  Names...