Events

Deadline: October 15th, 2021 Payment: $20 per story Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. Fiction Submission Guidelines   submissions at electricspec (dot) comPlease don't query us about your story submission. We don't have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it's not possible. A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval. Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary. We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions. February closes January 15 May closes April 15 August closes July 15 November closes October 15 Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time. We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don't accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us...

Deadline: October 15th, 2021 Payment: $100 and a 1-year subscription tot he magazine Theme: Science fiction, science fantasy or fantasy tales where at least one scene takes place in outer space or another planet. Sexy Fantastic Magazine features the absolute highest quality of fiction, comics, book and movie reviews, articles, photos of sexy fantastic heroines, and other cultural delights by top professionals and award-winning authors and artists. CURRENT ISSUE GUIDELINES We are currently accepting stories for Issue 5: Interplanetary. Science fiction, science fantasy or fantasy tales where at least one scene takes place in outer space or another planet. What We Want The absolute best literature possible in the field of fantastic stories. The greatest emphasis of this magazine is the quality of writing. Whether an orthodox narrative tale, a dreamlike vignette, or a poetical prose scene, a story should be comprehensible on some level, stay truthful to the literary world that the author has created, and be pleasing or satisfying. Any type of story with fantastic elements is acceptable, such as a metaphysical or surreal modern tale, magic realism, a dark fantasy thriller, science fiction satire, historical legend, an imaginary world fantasy adventure, etc. The fantastic element may be blatant or only perceived or hinted at. We are simply looking for great literature. We have published stories that would be considered mainstream science fiction or fantasy, but also at least one story that would be considered literary with no “fantastic” element. We do favor stories that are either fantastic or deal with eroticism or romantic relationships. In terms of quality and style, some examples would be stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Fritz Leiber, Catherine Lucille Moore, Gore Vidal, Lawrence Durrell, John Fowles, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, Jody Scott, Robert Heinlein, Carlos Fuentes, Anne Rice, Robert Aickman, Jack...

Deadline: October 15th, 2021 Payment: 6¢/word on acceptance. Theme: A fairy tale involving a mirror MIRROR, MIRROR: Modern Myths Executive Editors: Kevin J. Anderson and Allyson Longueira   When you’re alone with your reflection, are you prepared for what you see? A prince in disguise? A monster revealed? An alien race? Mirrors can be truth-tellers, wish-granters, face-concealers, illusion-makers, even monster-summoners. Maybe the mirror shows an evil twin, or an echo of the life that should have been. Or a portal to another world. What happens when it shatters? Once upon a time, no one knew the phrase “Once upon a time.” You’ve read the classic stories. Now write the lore you’ve always wanted to read. Reflect in your own creative mirror, informed by your roots, culture, and background. Imagine a canon of diverse characters for today’s readers to love and loathe. Tell us new stories, fables, folklore, and fairy tales about mirrors, real or metaphorical. What do you see, and what looks back at you? We are looking for original short stories (prose poems will also be considered), to include a mix of fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical, history, and romance elements. Classic or genre-bending, grim or whimsical, as long as it is new and fresh. Must be appropriate for a “PG-13” audience. Please, no copyrighted characters. Previously unpublished stories only. Women, BIPOCs, LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse individuals, and other minorities are strongly encouraged to submit. Length: up to 5000 words (firm limit) Rate: 6¢/word on acceptance. Rights: First Anthology Rights and audio rights as part of the anthology; rights revert to author one month after publication; publisher retains non-exclusive right to include in the anthology as a whole. Due: We are open to submissions from August 30 through October 15, 2021.   Submit: A Microsoft Word or RTF file in standard manuscript...

Submission Window: October 1st-15th, 2021 Payment: 1 winner each month will win $10 Canadian Theme: A story at exactly 50-words If you’d like to have a 50-word story that you wrote featured on FiftyWordStories.com, first make sure that you understand exactly what a 50-word story is, and then read the submission requirements below closely. Submissions System Each month, submissions will be open between days 1 and 15 of that month. Any stories received on days 16 to 31 of a month will be deleted, but can be resubmitted the following month. You may only submit one story per month. From the stories received in those 15 days, the best stories will be selected to be published that same month. Only enough stories will be selected to publish two stories per weekday. There is no payment associated with stories. However, each month a “Story of the Month” is selected, and receives a prize of $10 Canadian. Stories that were not selected will not be published, will not roll over into the following month, and cannot be resubmitted in following months. Authors will be notified whether their story has been selected or not once all stories from the month’s submissions have been reviewed. How to Submit Please email your submission to [email protected]. Paste the story into the body of the email. Please include a title, your name, and a brief third-person bio. Feel free to include a link to your website! If you are submitting a story related to a specific date or holiday, please include that information in the Subject line of your submission. You can also send your story in using the form at the bottom of this page. Tips and Guides Looking for help with writing microfiction? Check out Bob Thurber’s Anatomy of a Microfiction page. Terms and Conditions Please keep the content of your submissions appropriate for...

Submission Window: October 1st-15th, 2021 Payment: $10 Theme: Un-themed, general horror flash fiction. Preference to dread-inducing stories. Submissions OPEN (Monthly, 1st – 15th). Un-themed, general horror flash fiction. Preference to dread-inducing stories. Length: 500 – 1,000 words. Firm. Author Compensation: $10, paid via PayPal. Publication: Dread Stone Press website (Dose of Dread). Reading Periods: Monthly, 1st to 15th. Any stories submitted outside of each reading period will not be read. Two (2) stories will be selected out of each reading period for publication the following month. Rights: First World Electronic Rights. Non-exclusive rights thereafter. No reprint restrictions after publication. Original stories ONLY. No reprints. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but NO multiple submissions. You may submit again the next month if rejected. If your story is accepted, please sit out one reading period before submitting again. Please, for everyone’s sake, no rough drafts. Successful pieces will require little to no proofreading edits. Email your submission as a Word document attachment to [email protected] with “DOSE – – ” in the subject line. Please see the General Submission Guidelines below for additional formatting information. General Submission Guidelines Rejections for Dose of Dread submissions will be sent by the end of the month submitted. If you have not received a reply by then, feel free to follow-up. All rejections will be form rejections. It’s not personal, promise. Which also means please don’t respond to rejections. It’s unnecessary. For Dose of Dread submissions, please send your work by email to [email protected] with the subject line format: “DOSE – – ”. Address your email to “Editor” or “Alex”. Please provide a brief cover letter in the body of the email (title, word count, relevant info, etc). Do not stress over or overthink this. Please include an author bio of 100 words or less, written in third person, plus any links (e.g. to a website / Twitter) if you wish to...

Deadline: October 15, 2021 Payment: $10 usd Theme: Deals involving the devil Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its eighth volume of its HOWLERS series, Devilish Deals. Deadline: October 15, 2021 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable What do Needful Things, the state of Georgia, and details have in common? They all have the Devil. And in two of those, the Devil is known for making deals... This anthology challenges you to come up with stories where people make unique deals with the Dark Lord. I want to see people summoning Satan so they can have a once-in-a-lifetime orgy in hell. I want to see people doing unspeakable things in order to just pass a college chemistry test. I want to see Baphomet making deals with humans just so he can have a chance to try kimchi for the first time. Horrific. Erotic. Comedic. As long as it's unique and has that Satanic deal! Submit at Submittable! We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot me an email at [email protected].(restrictions borrowed from Voice: https://t.co/MWykJ6RY36) You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any). Reprints are fine, but you have to own full permission of the work in order for us to consider it. We will not accept simultaneous submissions. Payment: Authors will receive 10 USD. Via: Weasel Press.

Deadline: October 20th, 2021 Payment: 1 cent per word ($10 for every 1,000 words prorated, $50 for every 5,000 words prorated, and so on) Theme: Short horror stories with a focus on ghosts, the supernatural, paranormal, monsters, and dark tales. Scare Street is accepting submissions for short horror stories with a focus on ghosts, the supernatural, paranormal, monsters, and dark tales. Unpublished short stories must be 3,000-7,000 words and will be included in our Night Terrors anthologies consisting of ~65,000 words each. These stories will be published in e-book, print, and audio formats in English within 6 months after the submissions close date. Based on reader reception, we may also publish them in e-book, print, and audio formats in German and Spanish. WHO ARE WE? Scare Street is a horror publishing company dedicated to helping fellow horror lovers experience sleepless nights. We’ve been around since September 2015 and have published 200+ e-book and paperback titles along with 150+ audiobooks (and counting!). WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU? Get visibility from thousands of horror readers. We will promote your work on our email list (12,000+ subscribers), Facebook Page (30,000+ followers), Facebook Group (12,000+ members), Pinterest (nearly 200k+ monthly views) and the rest of our social media channels. Afterwards, thousands of readers on Amazon and other retailers will organically find your stories. Our first few volumes clenched the top 3 new release spots in horror anthologies category and continue to be found on the first page of various horror categories. Work with an experienced publisher. We’ve been publishing high-quality manuscripts, non-stop for 5+ years. We’ve ironed out the kinks and know what it takes to bring stories to the masses, operationally. And we know a few things about getting your stories read, too! Distribution in e-book, print, and audio formats, in various languages. You’ll also receive a...

Deadline: October 21st, 2021 Payment: $80 Theme: A story that somehow includes the concept of one hundred Note: Reprints Welcome In January 2022, we’ll be celebrating our 100th issue of Flash Fiction Online! As part of our celebration, we’re looking for stories on the theme of “ONE HUNDRED.” Give us stories of centenarians on adventures! Tell us tales of a hundred-year storm! Raise the temperature to 100 degrees (Fahrenheit? Celsius?)! Write us a story that takes place in 100 seconds! The possibilities are endless — they just have to somehow involve the number 100 in a way that’s integral to the story. This submission window will be open during the same time frames as our regular monthly window (1st-21st) until October 21. Submissions will be evaluated each month and receive either a rejection or a hold notice. Final decisions on these second-round stories will be made in early November. Multiple submissions are allowed for this call so long as each story fits the theme, and you may submit to this call while also submitting an ORIGINAL and a REPRINT submission. SUBMIT YOUR STORIES HERE! Via: Flash Fiction Online.

Submission Window: October 7th – 21st, 2021 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Stories of food, dining, and cookery Diabolical Plots is pleased to announce our first themed issue ⁠— stories of food, dining, and cookery, which we couldn’t resist titling “Diabolical Pots”! (Actual pots optional.) We’ll be accepting submissions for this special issue from October 7th – 21st, 2021. In addition to being centered around food, stories must have a speculative element. Pay rate, format, and submission restrictions (no reprints, no resubmits, etc.) will follow our general submission guidelines. So, how can food be integrated into your story? Any way you want! Maybe a crew of space pirates is about to score big on some outer-planet delicacies. Or a tense family dinner gets tenser when the youngest child insists they hear scratching sounds in the wall. Or two witches both reach for the last bundle of herbs and their eyes meet and… For this themed issue, our assistant editor, Kel Coleman, will be taking the wheel and making final selections. Of course, your story should still be a good fit for Diabolical Plots—check out our general guidelines for an idea of what that means—but what might win you extra points with Kel? Well, Kel would love to see: Lush descriptions of food Immersive worldbuilding—food is never just food. Food is love, food is culture, food is survival Science fiction that’s high on emotional resonance, low on unexamined imperialism Any kind of prose—it can be ornate, experimental in structure or tone, or punchy and simple, as long as it is intentional and serves the story David Steffen is the editor, who you may also know from reading The Long List Anthology series or from the Submission Grinder, which you can use to find markets for your writing and track your submissions.  Diabolical Plots is a SFWA-qualifying market, so if you...

Deadline: October 30th, 2021 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words Theme: Horror, By the Seaside Many times, we’ve been lucky enough to live near the seaside. There is something about falling asleep to the churn of waves that just can’t be beaten. But with the ocean comes issues… scares… especially down here in Australia, where anything may be lurking beneath the surface. For this collection, we request your stories about life by the seaside. Tales of sand and surf and all the things that may come with it. Be inventive, and take us away on a horrific holiday. Thuggish Itch is our horror, sci-fi and speculative fiction collection. Please make sure that your story falls within one of these genres. Be original. We also encourage new and unpublished writers to take the leap and get in touch. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any 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: Thuggish Itch - Seaside - Story Title. Word count: 1000 - 5000 words Deadline: October 30 2021 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.