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Deadline: May 31st, 2022 Payment: 8 cents per word (there is also a contest to win $3,000 though it has submission fees.) Theme: Open Road Write a story involving roads, and a glove. Does the road call to you? To some, it offers freedom, adventure, and opportunity. To others, injury and death. Or, as you slow for the shadowed hitchhiker, you wonder if the risks aren’t more sinister… Roadtrips, van life, and fugitives on the run. From deserts to coastline to deep-shadowed forests, the open road has a place in our hearts. Whether it calls you to drift or confronts you with the long road home, it’s undeniably a place of self-discovery. Of new faces and new attitudes. Just don’t take a wrong turn, blow a tire, or stop in ghost towns. Beware the long grass and mutant bikers. Don’t roll down the window for strangers, but do give them a lift. Travel by horse and buggy, sneaker and bag, or get behind the wheel, but hit the dusty trail and head into the unknown. Our Mission: Help new talent go pro, award life-changing prize money, and promote fiction writers worldwide. HOW IT WORKS Each month we hold a contest based on a short fiction prompt. You write a wonderful story and enter the contest. We choose the winner who receives the grand prize. We also choose the best stories, pay the authors above-professional rates, and publish them in our magazine. WHO CAN ENTER? Anyone can submit work to the magazine for free, but you must be an Elegant+ Member to enter the contests and win prizes. Membership is $10/month and includes over $250 in exclusive discounts from our partners like Scrivener, ProWritingAid, Novel Factory, and more. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? The odds depend on the number of members who...

Deadline: May 31st, 2022 Payment: Royalties on 4k+ stories Theme: Pirate stories that involve but don't focus on famous pirates. Title: The Call of the Sea Opens: 1 February 2022 Closes: 31 May 2022, 11:59 EST Theme: Gather round, ye bilge rats, and send the landlubbers back whence they came! These tales are for the strong of heart, the courageous corsairs, adventurous scallywags, and lads and lasses loyal to the lawlessness of the sea. Give us ADVENTURE, searches for treasure, sea battles, the perils of loving a Jack Tar, and the dangers of the briny deep. You can use any of the big names in your story (Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Ching Shih, Sir Francis Drake, Black Bart, etc.), but they should be secondary characters, with your MC as an ordinary, unknown person. These are the stories that created legends. Word Limit: 2-8k Author Eligibility: Open to all Reprints: Allowed if rights belong to author, royalty paid at a lower percentage Simultaneous Submissions: Not allowed Multiple Submissions: Max of 2 acceptances Author Compensation: One digital copy and wordcount-based royalty split Send your story and up to a 100-word author bio with 2 (two) links as a Word doc attachment to: [email protected] Please include the Anthology Title, Story Title, and Author name in your email subject line, with your document file name as: Author Name - Story Title. Via: Black Ink Fiction.

Deadline: May 31st, 2022 Payment: $0.03 per word for the winner, and 2 cents per word and 1 cent for second and third place respectively Theme: Open Water Your June theme is... ...Open Water. Whether it’s lost at sea, trapped in a boat, being a stowaway, kidnapped, going down with the ship, etc. But keep it dark and psychologically disturbing. Bonus challenge: write the story in a pre-21st century setting. The winner will receive $0.03 per word, publication, and an Author Spotlight on our newsletter and Patreon page. Since we’ve reached out goal of 180 patrons, we can once again offer $0.02 a word to 2nd and $0.01 per word to third place respectively. Submission guidelines: -Max 1,500 words -Submit your entry in the body of an email to [email protected] (no attachments) -The email subject line should be the story’s title and your author name / pseudonym -The deadline is midnight at the end of May, wherever in the world you may reside. -No multiple submissions (only your best story) Please take note… You do not need to be a Crystal Lake Patreon patron to enter. This is a contest and only the top three placing stories will receive payment. I'll personally read all the email submissions and post the best 10 to 20 stories on the Crystal Lake Publishing Patreon page (to our $5 a month and higher tiers). Our patrons will then read all the entries, posted one per day, and vote for a winner. Some editors/publishers may consider having your story posted on a subscription-based platform, like Patreon, as a first publication. If your story does not win, we will remove it upon request.   Via: Crystal Lake Publishing's Patreon.

Deadline: May 31st, 2022 Payment: £10 Theme: Earth Song—Stories of animal or ecological-themed horror, or of Mother Nature’s wrath, in support of World Environment Greetings boils, ghouls, and other creatures of the night! Starting in December, 2021, we are open for submissions of flash fiction horror stories on a different theme each month. We will be seeking horror fiction of all forms and flavours to be published as part of a new and ongoing series from Night Terror Novels Publishing, titled The Theatre Phantasmagoria. If this has piqued your interest, please scroll down for the full details! What are We Looking For? Each month, a new theme will be announced, and we will be accepting flash fiction submissions based around this theme. From these submissions, four stories will be chosen to be published each Friday of the subsequent month, and at the end of the year, these forty-eight pieces will appear in a similarly titled anthology. As always, if your story is blatantly racist or homophobic it will be instantly rejected. We also encourage submissions from female, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors, as we’re striving to offer a range of experiences and perspectives in this series. Our current lineup for The Theatre Phantasmagoria, January to April, includes Mia Dalia, Paul Wilson, Angela Sylvaine, Yvonne Lang, Mark Robinson, James Van Pelt, D. Matthew Urban, Ali Seay, Alex Ebenstein, Nikki R. Leigh, Andrew Jackson, Safia Mlani, Michael H. Hanson, Matt Bliss, Megan Kiekel Anderson, Andrew Gehlsen, and Samuel M. Hallam. If you want to see your name alongside these terrific writers, then send a piece our way! The anthology will be edited, and the stories selected, by J. D. Keown. He can be found on both Instagram and Twitter @JDKAuthor, and we can be found on Instagram @nightterrornovels. All updates and announcements regarding this project will be posted on each of those accounts, so give us a follow...

Deadline: May 31st, 2022 Payment: £10 Theme: A non-zombie outbreak O is for Outbreak – Submissions open April 1st. Deadline May 31st. Think outside the box for this one, and no zombies please! We’re sure Book 26 will cover that! We are currently calling for submissions for a series of horror anthologies – The A-Z of Horror. The series will be based on a variety of themes and will consist of twenty-six books in total. We are looking for short horror stories, between 4000 and 8000 words, on each of the themes listed below. You may submit to more than one book, but we will only include a maximum of one story from each author, in each book. Being accepted into one book does not guarantee acceptance into one of the others. The story must be your own work, to which you hold the rights. The story must not be available elsewhere and, if accepted, we will hold the rights to it for three months from the date of publication. After that time, you may use the story however you wish. Any sub-genre of horror is suitable, even extreme, so long as the story fits the theme of that book and does not include anything which may unnecessarily cause offence (glorification of child abuse, rape, etc.). Payment for the story will be £10, to be paid by PayPal, as well as a contributor’s e-book of the finished book. Please send submissions in a Word document (ideally Times New Roman 12pt, single spaced) to [email protected] with the title of the book you are submitting to in the subject line. Please ensure you have included your name on the Word document. If you have any queries, feel free to get in touch using the Contact page. We aim to respond to submissions within 2 weeks...

Deadline: June 1st, 2022 Payment: $20 Theme: We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine...

Deadline: June 1st, 2022 Payment: 2 cents per word and a contributor's copy Theme: Texas Horror By Texas Writers Death's Head Press is pleased to announce plans for the 2022 edition of Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol. 7. Author Wiliam Jensen will serve as editor, and he's looking for original horror stores 1,500-10,000 words in length. The stories must be written and submitted by Texas authors and must be set (based) here - hence the title. Two cents per word and contributing writers will receive one free copy and a 50% discounted wholesale price on any copies of the book that he or she purchases to carry and sell on their own. Writer stipends will look something like this: 10,000 words - $200, 7,500 words - $150, 5,000 words - $100, 2,500 words - $50, 1,500 words - $30. All payments will be made upon official acceptance, and when acceptance is communicated each author will need to send a short bio. Death's Head will be requesting two-year non-exclusive rights. This means we will use your story in this anthology and we can print excerpts of it online and otherwise (for promotional purposes, etc), but two years down the road you can do with it what you like. The Submission Period begins on March 1. The deadline to turn in stories is June 1, 2022, and our intent is to have the book printed and available by October 15, 2022, in plenty of time for Halloween. Please send submissions to [email protected] Via: Death's Head Press.

Submission Window: April 15th – May 15th 2022 UPDATE: New deadline is June 1st, 2022 Payment: 5 cents per word Theme: Mothers Weird Little Worlds Press is looking for contributors to its second Kickstarter science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthology. Bring your weird and help us tell the scariest and most interesting mother stories you’ve ever imagined. LENGTH 1,000-3,000 REPRINTS No PAYMENT .05 per word .50 per line   MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS No DEADLINE Apr. 15 – May 15, 2022 SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS Yes There is no one with more power and control over the fate of the world than a mother. Whether it’s an evil stepmother or a virtuous mother-to-be, there are stories inherent in the acts of mothering and being mothered. In these stories and poems, mothers become heroes and villains. The concept of motherhood is examined and stretched to its ultimate limits across time, space, gender, location, and concept. Deliciously dark, each tale forces us to examine the depth and breadth of what motherhood is and what a mother will do for her offspring. With brand new stories from: Gemma Files • Donyae Coles • Brian Evenson Ai Jiang • Sarah Read • Nadia Bulkin John Langan • S.P. Miskowski • Shane Hawk Steve Toase • Christina Sng • Steve Rasnic Tem Hailey Piper • Gabino Iglesias • Mercedes M. Yardley and many more The Details: Deadline: April 15 – May 15th Length: 1000 – 3000 words (5000 if stretch goals are met) Pay: .05 (.06 if we can unlock our $10k stretch goal) Poetry: $.50 per line up to 50 lines (Up to $2 if stretch goals unlocked) Rights: We retain full rights of the story for 12 months after publication at which they revert back to you. This includes audio and reprint permissions. Format: Shunn Manuscript, BLIND SUBMISSION....

Deadline: June 1st, 2022 Payment: US: $40 and a contributor's copy, non-US: $45 Theme: Cosmic/eldritch horror, based on the prompt below. Basically, stories that take place in or about Brackish Harbor Welcome to Brackish Harbor. Settled in the 1920s on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, it was once a booming fishing town that attracted tourists who longed for a quiet retreat. Even when the island was plunged into isolation during the winter months, the townspeople persevered. It was a community. A promise. A home. Until... ​ The fishing industry that sustained the small town dried up, and over time, the tourists lost interest. Many loyal villagers relocated. But most were forced to remain, scraping by amidst the dilapidated buildings, docked fishing boats, and vestiges of better days. ​ There are many unanswered questions in Brackish Harbor,  as well as many untold stories. It's up to you to tell them.   Quill & Crow Publishing House is pleased to open submissions for our surprise anthology for 2022, Tales from Brackish Harbor: An Anthology of Eldritch Horror. For this collection, we are looking for short stories (5,000 - 8,000 words) of cosmic/eldritch horror, based on the prompt above. Stories can be from whatever time period, but must tell the tale of the doomed village and it's mysterious secrets. We are really interested to see if anyone is up to the task of blending the genres of Gothic horror (our first love) and the weirdly wonderful cosmic horror. ​ Notes regarding the theme: Don't worry about the continuity details. Follow the information and theme and, upon submission approval, we will adjust as necessary. Above all, tell us a good story. Things we are looking for: cosmic/eldritch horror historical horror dark themes Gothic elements literary horror historical sci-fi/horror blends Things we ARE NOT...

Deadline: June 1st, 2022 Payment: $10 and a contributor's copy - proceeds will be donated to the literacy charity First Book Theme: "Monsters" from authors with active BookTube or AuthorTube channels Note: Reprints Welcome Note: Apologies for the short window, stumbled across this one recently as we didn't get an e-mail for this volume Seeking submissions from authors with active BookTube or AuthorTube channels for the next HorrorTube Anthology. Again, we are looking for a diverse group of authors with active BookTube and/or AuthorTube channels (no channel too small) so please do not hesitate to submit. Genre: Classic Horror! *Please, no horror erotica, paranormal romance, or romantic suspense. Theme: MONSTERS! Monsters can be human or inhuman, but for this anthology, we’re seeking horror stories of a gorier nature, so don’t hold back! But please, no graphic depictions of sexual assault, child or animal abuse. Supernatural stories depicting unique monsters are encouraged. Contact Regina at [email protected] with any questions. *See FAQs below. Length: 1,000 – 5,000 words Deadline: June 1, 2022 Details: Please submit your story as a separate attachment (word doc) along with a short cover letter including a clean link to your YouTube channel to [email protected]. Please use the standard submission format. For guidance see https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html. Please submit only your best, most polished work. Reprints are okay. The terms include the nonexclusive right to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit and sell digital and print reproductions of your story worldwide. English language only. Payment for accepted submissions: $10 honorarium, print and digital copy. All proceeds will be donated to the literacy charity First Book. Deadline: June 1, 2022 Release Date: October 2022 Cover Design: Cameron Roubique Edited by Regina Saint Claire with a  foreword by Steve Donoghue. Frequently Asked Questions What is considered an “active” booktube/authortube channel?  Your channel should have recent uploads (at least once a month) and include bookish and/or writerly content. Why is my story rejected? The biggest reason...