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Deadline: October 1st, 2022 Payment: US: $40 + author copy/non-US: $45 Theme: Dark fiction that invoke the nefarious spirit of the dark wizard Quill & Crow Publishing House is pleased to open submissions for another surprise anthology for 2022, Rituals & Grimoires: Gothic Tales of Dark Magic & Wizardry. For this collection, we are looking for short stories (5,000 - 8,000 words) of dark fiction that invoke the nefarious spirit of the dark wizard. We'd love to see diverse characters, male witches, and stories that turn tired tropes right on their heads. Give us haunted corridors, wayward spellcasters, and secret societies. Give us tales that explore the mortal grays in witchcraft. ​ Also, we are well aware of a certain YA book series that this theme may bring to mind. As a proudly inclusive publishing house that fully supports the trans community, we understand if this anthology brings to mind the betrayal many of us experienced with a childhood favorite. Part of our mission is to preserve the quality of independent literature/storytelling, but it's also to take back things often ruined by bigotries and act as a voice for those who have been oppressed. We'd be honored if you'd help us take back these themes and make them into something better.  Notes: We will be open to explorations of dark academia, but this is an adult fiction anthology. If you do choose to write a dark fiction story with dark academia vibes, please keep the prose and themes mature.  ​ ​ Things we are looking for:  dark fiction dark magical fantasy magical horror historical horror dark themes Gothic elements literary horror fantasy/horror blends dark academia (see above) Things we ARE NOT looking for: ​​ young adult stories extreme horror/extreme erotica  rape/child abuse sci-fi  overtly modern stories ​​ Submission Requirements  Please note: Submissions that...

Deadline: October 1st, 2022 Payment: $100 Theme: Literary fiction, personal essays, or Well-written genre-writing, especially mysteries, sci-fi and westerns. Submission Guidelines: We are happy to publish work that celebrates the joy of reading and writing across different reading preferences. The marketplace can divide us based on our reading tastes, but riddlebird can strive to make a space for more diversity (of interest, of authorship, of meaning).  Please carefully read what we are looking for below, and follow the submission guidelines. We are interested in three categories. Literary Fiction — Our favorite writers include authors like George Saunders, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and E.C. Osondu. Personal Essays — We like a memoirist’s essay that has achieved some distance and allows us to share a newfound insight. Think of Vivian Gornick’s idea of “the situation and the story.” Literary Genre Fiction — Our mission is to include a place for well-written genre-writing, especially mysteries, sci-fi and westerns. To take westerns as an example, think of Charles Portis. Riddlebird is not interested in publishing work that is demeaning. Racist, homophobic, or xenophobic prose will be promptly rejected. We will publish 6 pieces online twice a year (Jan and July) and compensate authors $100. We publish a hardcopy of all pieces once a year. We will select 6 pieces a year to submit on your behalf to the Pushcart Prize. We do accept simultaneous submissions; please inform us if (happily!) your work is accepted somewhere else. Information will be posted shortly to submit on Duotrope. Please include your name, including contact information, and your title. Include a very brief cover letter in the body of the e-mail. Include a short bio in third person, and do not send previously published work. Our goal is to celebrate your work. Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram @riddlebirdmag. We...

Deadline: October 2nd, 2022 Payment: Non-fiction pays $0.08/word. Creative works earn $0.04/word, with short stories capped at $75. Comics pay $30/page, capped at $150.   Theme: Submit co-authored stories in any genre. Submit co-authored stories in any genre. Also looking for non-fiction commentary and experiences with co-created projects. Co-authoring is rising in popularity, both as a way to satiate the ravenous demand of readers more quickly, and to leverage team imaginative advantages. We're curious about the pros and cons of this strategy. Naturally, we also host a Devil's Advocate column to whoever provides the best cautionary advice regarding cooperative labor. Short stories: 500 - 2,800 words Non-fiction articles: 200 - 1,200 words Graphic-style stories and comics are especially welcome! (Limit = 8 pages. Please submit in color) Rough storyboard pitches welcome -- due April 7th. Terms & Process Mythulu eMagazine pays an average of $0.06/word or $15/page. Non-fiction pays 0.08/word. Creative works earn 0.04/word, with short stories capped at $75. Comics pay $30/page, capped at $150. We edit aggressively to create a dense, entertaining, high-quality publication. Non-fiction articles, especially, receive heavy edits. We may cut, rearrange, paraphrase, or even recommend additional content to maximize article quality, then send it back for your approval. We don't guarantee that an article we edit with you will be published. Author earnings listed above are based on final published word count, not your initial submission. Preview full terms here: www.mythulu.com/emag-terms Thank you for contributing! Laura Crenshaw Creator of Mythulu Terms of Publication Mythulu eMagazine pays an average of $0.06/word or $15/page. Non-fiction pays $0.08/word. Creative works earn $0.04/word, with short stories capped at $75. We strongly encourage contributors to boost their earnings through our contributor-exclusive affiliate program. We edit aggressively to create a dense, entertaining, high-quality publication. Non-fiction articles, especially, receive heavy edits. We may cut, rearrange,...

Deadline: October 2nd, 2022 Payment: 6 cents a word and one contributor copy Theme: Harc sci-fi and speculative fictoin SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN READING FOR ISSUE #16 UNTIL OCTOBER 2ND Planet Scumm accepts submissions from writers across the world. (Our HQ is a roving meteor-sized space station—Earth’s borders mean nothing to us. We want to hear from writers of every race, nationality, and gender identity. WHAT TO SUBMIT Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Basically anything that pleases Scummy, our megaphone-toting slime buddy, will be considered for entry to the interstellar archive aboard Scummy’s saucer HOW TO SUBMIT Include submissions as a .doc or .docx attachment to [email protected] along with a brief cover letter in the email body. Please attach only your story (no images, do not put your story in the body text of the email). Stories, or collections of flash fiction, should be no more than 5,000 words in length, and submitted in standard manuscript format. Submit only one previously unpublished short story or flash collection. We do not accept multiple submissions from the same author in one reading period. Simultaneous submissions are okay, as long as you promptly withdraw a story accepted elsewhere. SCHEDULE, RIGHTS, AND PAYMENT Accepted authors receive 6 cents a word and one contributor copy. Our publication operates in print, e-book, and audiobook. Some accepted stories will also be published on our website. We purchase exclusive English language print, audio, and electronic publishing rights for six months, with non-exclusive rights thereafter. Authors will receive payment within 3 months of signing their contract.   Via: Planet Scumm.

Submission Window: October 1st-2nd, 2022 Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used. Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome     Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 8¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces...

Deadline: October 3rd, 2022 Payment: 50% are split evenly among contributors Theme: Halloween Note: Reprints Welcome Black Widow Press, is publishing a Halloween Anthology titled Halloween Horrors. Submission Guidelines - Deadline: October 3rd - Stories must be 1000-5000 words and at least loosely related to Halloween - Send story in any format to [email protected] - No extreme violence/extreme sexual content/other offensive content - It's fine if the story has been published in a book before, but check your contract to make sure the rights are available for us to print it. Most anthology contracts lock up a particular story for 1 year. - We're generally looking for creepy/spooky/chilling/suspenseful tales than gruesome/violent/disturbing ones, but all submissions will be considered! Payment/Usage Details - No payment upfront. - 50% of royalties go to publisher, the other 50% are split evenly among contributors (not proportional to word count of story.) -"Royalties" means gross royalties, not net profit. All costs for marketing, cover, etc. are paid by publisher. - The book will NOT have "exclusive" rights to your story for any length of time; you retain all copyright to the story you submit; etc. This will be outlined in the contract.

Deadline: October 4th, 2022 Payment: 3 USD cents/word, 1 USD cents/word for reprints Theme: Science Fiction and Tarot Note: Reprints Welcome The Science Fiction Tarot will contain 22 stories, one tale standing in for each of the cards of the major arcana and placing the anthologies word count at approximately 90-110K words. Stories of up to 7,500 words will be considered, but please be advised that submissions of 5,000 words and under will have the best chance to be selected. Each author will be expected to submit a 1-3 word science fiction concept for a card, along with a story that exhibits that idea through character, plot or theme. Please have a clear archetype, setting, or SF subgenre and center your submission around the concept: the focus of the tale should be the idea conveyed, not tarot cards themselves. For example, take the following images. They are followed by possible sample submission details (our form will ask for a few more things, naturally): Tarot Concept: A.I Story Title: Mechanized Justice Number of words: 3,500 Tarot Concept: The Geneticist Story Title: The Vats of Dr. Qualim Number of words: 5,000 Be advised the above are examples—both 'A.I' and 'Geneticist' are not taken and could be open options for your story, complete with new, different illustrations (although another author might potentially try the same.) Other concepts might be a general location, such as a colony, or even a subgenre, such as post-apocalypse—anything that might be distilled down into a tarot card. Wow us with your ideas! Upon acceptance, an artist will be commissioned to work on a black & white illustration of the author's card concept to accompany their published story. Based on selections made, we may reach out to chosen authors concerning their card concepts. Your story will always be your story, full-stop, but your submitted card choice may require adjustment....

Deadline: October 4th, 2022 Payment: 3 USD cents/word, reprints will pay 1 USD cent/word. Theme: SF Stories in for each of the cards of the major arcana Note: Reprints Welcome The Science Fiction Tarot will contain 22 stories, one tale standing in for each of the cards of the major arcana and placing the anthologies word count at approximately 90-110K words. Stories of up to 7,500 words will be considered, but please be advised that submissions of 5,000 words and under will have the best chance to be selected. Each author will be expected to submit a 1-3 word science fiction concept for a card, along with a story that exhibits that idea through character, plot or theme. Please have a clear archetype, setting, or SF subgenre and center your submission around the concept: the focus of the tale should be the idea conveyed, not tarot cards themselves. For example, take the following images. They are followed by possible sample submission details (our form will ask for a few more things, naturally): Tarot Concept: A.I Story Title: Mechanized Justice Number of words: 3,500 Tarot Concept: The Geneticist Story Title: The Vats of Dr. Qualim Number of words: 5,000 Be advised the above are examples—both 'A.I' and 'Geneticist' are not taken and could be open options for your story, complete with new, different illustrations (although another author might potentially try the same.) Other concepts might be a general location, such as a colony, or even a subgenre, such as post-apocalypse—anything that might be distilled down into a tarot card. Wow us with your ideas! Upon acceptance, an artist will be commissioned to work on a black & white illustration of the author's card concept to accompany their published story. Based on selections made, we may reach out to chosen authors concerning their card concepts. Your story will always be your story, full-stop,...

Submission Window: August 31st, 2022 - October 7th, 2022 Payment: 6¢/word Theme: Original “dark mermaid” short stories and poetry SUBMISSIONS OPEN AUGUST 31 Old sailors tried to warn us. You can find their stories in water-stained journals and letters throughout histories and cultures. People of the land laughed at them, calling their stories mere legends and fairy tales. Now it’s your turn to tell the real stories behind these tails found in the deep, the dangers in dark waters.   MERCILESS MERMAIDS: Tails from the Deep Think deep—the deep of the sea, the deep of space, the deep of our souls, our fears, ourselves. Here, it’s not the monsters under your bed; it’s the mermaids under your boat. Can you see the shapes in the waters that watch you? Can you hear the mermaid’s call? Old sailors tried to warn us. You can find their stories in water-stained journals and letters throughout histories and cultures. People of the land laughed at them, calling their stories mere legends and fairy tales. Now it’s your turn to tell the real stories behind these tails found in the deep, the dangers in dark waters. Will the merfolk prey on humans once the land-bound civilizations fall? Do they snatch men for research? What of the siren who is wildly tone deaf? Does your merman surface on some faraway planet, stare through mists at the newcomers and think Never. Again. We're sounding the ship's bell for stories about malevolent and merciless merfolk of all kinds. Give us your mermaids who fought for the wrong reasons, made tough by their circumstances or by their own choices. Show us their schemes and villainous wiles, the fairytales that end in blood. Or laughter. Tempt us with their twisted workings across time and space, colors and creeds. Deep down you...

Submission Window: October 1st - 7th, 2022 Payment: 8 cents per word for fiction. $40 per poem. $75 per essay. Theme: Original fantasy and dark fantasy stories. All types of fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome. Note: This is an early listing to give you some time to plan ahead for next month or to remember to finish revising your story for the upcoming month! Note: We are trusting that the submission windows listed in the ongoing call are valid for this publisher. If they are not, please let us know and we'll look into revising accordingly. Instructions for submitting to Fantasy Magazine follow. Please read everything on this page and read the magazine before submitting. SUBMISSION PROCEDURES Submission Periods: Fantasy is open to submissions the first week of every month (1st-7th). Please do not query about submitting outside our open submission periods. Anonymous Submissions: Fantasy only accepts anonymous submissions. Do not include your name, address, phone number, or other similar identifiers on the manuscript. All original short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry submissions will be read anonymously on first read: moving out of slush depends on the merits of the story alone. Please make sure the title is on the manuscript. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. Please do not submit more than one set of poems at a time, more than one piece of flash fiction at a time, or more than one story at a time. You may, however, submit a single entry in each category at the same time: you can submit one batch of poems, one flash fiction piece, and one short story all at the same (or overlapping) time, and each category will be considered a separate submission. If we are already considering work in any given category, please wait until you have received an acceptance or rejection before...