Events

Taking Submissions: Cosmic Horror Monthly July 2024 Window (Early Listing)

Cosmic Horror Monthly

Submission Window: July 1st - 17th, 2024 Payment: 3 cents per word for fiction and non-fiction, $20 for interior artwork and $100 for cover art Theme: Weird and cosmic fiction What do we want? Weird and cosmic fiction under 5,000 words When do we want it? Twice a year: January 1-7 and July 1-17 How do we want it? Submitted via email to [email protected] as a .doc or .docx file. Please also include a short cover letter with some background information about you, the word count of the story, and a brief synopsis. Other Stuff! Please only submit your work once, and please only submit one work per submission period. Please only resubmit works that have already been rejected if invited to do so. We believe that the horror genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues. We are especially interested in hearing from those whose voices are underrepresented in the cosmic/weird. If comfortable, feel free to drop this information in your cover letter. We strongly favor stories that use contemporary narrative styles. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please withdraw immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We pay 3 cents (USD) per word for original fiction. We do not take unsolicited reprints. What we don’t want: We do not take any work that used AI in its creation, work that uses established genre tropes in a standard way, and queries. Work written in an antiquated, Lovecraftian style is a hard sell. Authors we love: Mike Allen, Paula D. Ashe, Mona Awad, Laird Barron, Nadia Bulkin, Nicole Cushing, Brian Evenson, Gemma Files, John Langan, Thomas Ligotti, Preemee Mohamed, Jon Padgett, Hailey Piper Submissions (Non-Fiction) OPEN What do we want? Non-fiction essays that explore weird and cosmic horror concepts under 5,000 words When do...

Taking Submissions: Astrolabe Summer 2024 Window

Astrolabe

Submission Window: June 20th to July 20th, 2024 Payment: $50 upon publication Theme: Stories about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection in all genres with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit Please read below for details about our next submission window, guidelines, honorariums, and rights. At Astrolabe, we’re looking for work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another. And then, once we find one other, the myths we make. We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky. We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit. Read about Astrolabe for details on our mission and what we’re doing with the Universe. The details We pay a $50 honorarium upon publication of one or more pieces from your submission. To help fund those payments, we alternate between free and paid submission periods throughout the year. Our free periods begin the day we publish new work—on the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and winter solstice—and stay open for a month. Here are the free periods for 2024: March 20th to April 20th June 20st to July 20st September 22nd to October 22nd December 21st to Jan 21, 2025 Some additional details: We currently accept three types of work: fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography & art. See below for genre-specific instructions. We’re not a market for lineated poetry at the moment. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work was accepted for...

Taking Submissions: Witch House #4

Witch House Magazine

Deadline: July 21st, 2024 Payment: $10 Theme: Horror with a focus on pulp fiction tradition of a modern gothic literature called "cosmic horror. WITCH HOUSE is an amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging horror authors who are enthusiastic about the pulp fiction tradition of a modern gothic literature called "cosmic horror." Writers in this tradition include (but are not limited to) the following: Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Shirley Jackson, Karl Edward Wagner, Thomas Ligotti, Stephen King, and many more. "Cosmic horror" emphasizes helpless protagonists, unexplainable monstrous menaces, and fictional occult themes such as forbidden lore and evil conspiracy. Some "cosmic horror" blurs the lines separating mystery/noir, crime fiction, and horror, but it is distinguished by a dramatic deviation from the reality principle. At Witch House, we prefer lyrical, literary, and artful terror of the sublime that unsettles subtly rather than gross-out gore. Published by Spiral Tower Press. Read previous issues of Witch House here! • Submission deadline for our 4th issue: Sunday, 21 July 2024 by 11:59 PM EDT. • Editorial decisions: Sunday, 8 September 2024. • Publication of issue: Sunday, 27 October 2024. Fiction Guidelines: We seek short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives spanning 1500 to 2500 words (entirety of entry excluding title and author / byline). No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets. At this time, only a single submission (either prose or poetry) per author can be considered for a given issue...

Taking Submissions: Diabolical Plots July 2024 Window

Diabolical Plots

Deadline: July 22nd, 2024 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Speculative Fiction Next window: July 8-22, 2024 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 have a personal goal to join SFWA, making a sale here would help you toward that goal. If you have already read our guidelines and are ready to submit, you can SUBMIT HERE. FICTION Accessibility Note:  We recognize our submission form may not be accessible to all users. Please send us a message at our contact form or email editordiabolicalplotscom and we will make sure you can submit your story. Genres:  science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have a speculative element, even horror). Word count:  3500 words or less.  This is a firm limit.  If you submit a longer story, it will be rejected unread and that will count as a submission.  Do not query to ask permission to submit something longer–the answer will be no. Pay rate: 10 cents per word.  Paying by PayPal is preferred by us, but we can mail a US bank check if you live in the US, and if you live somewhere where neither of these things are options, we are exploring other options.  We don’t want unavailability of payment apps for you to be a deterrent to you submitting! Multiple submissions:  No.  In the past, Diabolical Plots accepted two submissions per author per window, but now we ask that you only send one submission per window.  Even if you receive a rejection before the window has ended, we ask that you wait until our next window to submit a new story. Simultaneous submissions: Yes!  We strive to respond in a timely fashion anyway, but you can...

Taking Submissions: The Big Ones: Stories of an Alternate WWII

Raconteur Press

Deadline: July 26th, 2024 Payment: Royalties Theme: Alternate histories of WWII that are also realistic to the time period The Big Ones: Stories of an Alternate WWII With Guest Editor Dr. James Young The short story must involve some aspect of World War II. Think “What if Force Z had fighter escort?” to “Trinity ends with a ‘click’…then silence.” The only stipulation is the point of deviation has to be realistic to the technology of the time. If you’re giving the U.S.S. Nevada rail guns at Pearl Harbor, this is the wrong anthology for you. Opens: 5/26/24 Closes: 7/26/24 Contracts: 8/10/24 Publication: 9/6/24 5,000 to 8,000 words. Length and genre are negotiable, as long as the story fits the concept, and is entertaining.   Any submission must be in Times New Roman, 12PT, double spaced, with your name, title of the story, and your email on it. Please name the file as -— Send in a .docx format.  Please attach the file to your email, no links. Please see the submission guideline graphic on the Raconteur Press Facebook page. Raconteur Press will hold the rights for one year after publication, after one year the rights will revert to the author, but we continue to pay you as long as the anthology is selling. Authors receive an equal percentage share of the proceeds from the anthology, along with the Press, our editors, and administration. Yes, you read that right. We don’t take 80% off the top and split the 20% left over between all the authors. We’re all in this together. This is why our anthologies are limited to ten stories. IMPORTANT: PLEASE do NOT submit stories until the date the call opens. We don’t want to hang on to your piece for longer than necessary. You might find another market for it, or it decides...

Taking Submissions: Astral 2024 Second Window

Astral Alien Fiction

Submission Window: July 7th – 28th, 2024 Payment: $20 per accepted story Theme: Stories that are told from an alien perspective Here you will find all you need to send us your stories. We look forward to reading them. As a reminder: we only publish five stories per issue. Magazines like ours generally receive submissions numbering in the hundreds. Don't be too hard on yourself if we do not take yours. There is a lot of competition and it mostly comes down to individual editor opinion (which is unpredictable and not a reflection of quality of writing necessarily). We know the submission process is hard and we wish you the very best in your writing. When to Submit Submissions are currently closed Submissions are open: January 7th–28th (closing at 10pm PST on the 28th) July 7th–28th (closing at 10pm PST on the 28th) What to Submit Astral publishes short stories ranging from 1,000–7,000 words. We want stories that are told from an alien perspective. By alien we usually mean extraterrestrial... but other perspectives can also qualify, such as Lovecraftian horrors, plants, bacteria, etc. Send us weird and surreal stories that challenge our notions about ourselves and the universe. We are, broadly, wanting to read stories from non-humanoid points of view. Submitted stories can feature humans, but the main perspective should be alien or should have a narrative focus that interacts with alien consciousness as much as possible. We imagine most of the stories we will be sent will fall into the science fiction category, but we also welcome horror and fantasy stories (particularly if they are "other world" fantasy stories). If you are unsure if your story fits: send it. Don't self-censor (so long as you believe there is some legitimate possiblity that we would be interested in the piece given the above...

Taking Submissions: Astral Alien Fiction Second 2024 Window

Astral Alien Fiction

Submission Window: July 7th – 28th, 2024 Theme: Stories that are told from an alien perspective (See below for more details.) Payment: $20 per story Here you will find all you need to send us your stories. We look forward to reading them. As a reminder: we only publish five stories per issue. Magazines like ours generally receive submissions numbering in the hundreds. Don't be too hard on yourself if we do not take yours. There is a lot of competition and it mostly comes down to individual editor opinion (which is unpredictable and not a reflection of quality of writing necessarily). We know the submission process is hard and we wish you the very best in your writing. When to Submit Submissions are open: January 7th–28th (closing at 10pm PST on the 28th) July 7th–28th (closing at 10pm PST on the 28th) What to Submit Astral publishes short stories ranging from 1,000–7,000 words. We want stories that are told from an alien perspective. By alien we usually mean extraterrestrial... but other perspectives can also qualify, such as Lovecraftian horrors, plants, bacteria, etc. Send us weird and surreal stories that challenge our notions about ourselves and the universe. We are, broadly, wanting to read stories from non-humanoid points of view. Submitted stories can feature humans, but the main perspective should be alien or should have a narrative focus that interacts with alien consciousness as much as possible. We imagine most of the stories we will be sent will fall into the science fiction category, but we also welcome horror and fantasy stories (particularly if they are "other world" fantasy stories). If you are unsure if your story fits: send it. Don't self-censor (so long as you believe there is some legitimate possiblity that we would be interested in the piece given the above...

Taking Submissions: Atlas of Deep Ones

Obsidian Butterfly

Submission Window: June 1st, 2024 to July 30th, 2024 Payment: Contributors copy and Story: $25, Poems: $15. Non-fiction: $15, Query for art submissions Theme: Stories about Deep Ones A cultural, geographic and unnatural history Dive Deep into the Weird The stories we are looking for are all about Deep Ones. But not just “I met a Deep One and I fainted because the Innsmouth Look is just that jarring to my fragile psyche.” We want stories that are truly about Deep Ones: Deep One pirates willing to raid some truly unusual ships, beach bums sharing a smoke with a new friend. How do you handle the call to the sea when you live in Kansas? How did encounters with Romans, Vikings, and rum runners play out? Maybe they were the Sea People leading to the Bronze Age Collapse. Did they sink the White Ship that messed up English Royal succession? Or what or a more distant, perhaps primordial past? The “non-fiction” should be articles about aspects of Deep One culture, biology, history and everything in-between. Nothing from New England or South Pacific seas unless you give us a time period we haven’t seen before. Dive deep and grasp the Weird. Submissions window: June 1, 2024-July 30, 2024 Publication target: Summer 2025 Length: Stories: 500-6000 words. Poems: No more then 2 pages please Non-fiction: 500-1000 words Pay Rate for original works, via PayPal: Story: $25 Poems: $15 Non-fiction: $15 Query for art submissions Plus an author's copy and the ability to purchase copies at a reduced rate. (Please contact us for reprint pay rate.) Technical Details: Submit a docx with Modern Shunn Format using the Google form here: If there is an issue with the form, please let us know. DO NOT submit via email; email submissions will be ignored. Editors: Gevera Bert Piedmont Author of...

Taking Submissions: Mythaxis July 2024 Submission Period (Early Listing)

Mythaxis Magazine

Submission Window: July 23rd-30th, 2024 Payment: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum. Theme: Diverse sci-fi and fantasy fiction. We are open to submissions within the following periods: January 23rd-30th April 23rd-30th July 23rd-30th October 23rd-30th Submissions received outside of these dates will unfortunately be lost and therefore not responded to. When open, we seek and offer the following: Length: 1,000-5,000 words. These are firm limits. Shorter or longer works will be considered, but the further a story goes outside these bounds the more it will need to impress. Compensation: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum. Please be aware that payment is via PayPal only. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours of submission, please get in touch. We aim to accept or reject within 14 days of acknowledgment, but rl (real life) and rl (reading load) can get in the way. If you do not hear from us after 30 days, feel free to query. REQUIREMENTS Mythaxis seeks speculative fiction (sf/f/h) of all stripes for our first three issues each year. We are also interested in submissions of crime fiction for our end-of-year “all crime” issue. All these genres are equally welcome in each submission window. We acquire First Print and Digital rights with a six month period of exclusivity from the date of publication, and will discuss the possibility of an audio format release with interested contributors. We also ask permission to potentially include accepted pieces in future anthologies; in event of agreement, an additional payment and digital copy will be offered in compensation. All other rights remain entirely with the author. See here for an overview of our editorial process. Simultaneous submissions are not only accepted, they are encouraged. Please tell us if you sim-sub, and we merely ask that you notify us of acceptance at another market as soon as possible. In...

Taking Submissions: Madam Don’t Forget Your Sword

Dead Fish Books

Deadline: July 30th, 2024 Payment: $5 and royalties Theme: The story of a hero or villain's sidekick Madame, Don’t Forget Your Sword Length: the target range is between 2000-6000 words. Time: June 1st - July 30th Pay per story: $5 + royalties This anthology is dedicated to all the minions, sidekicks, and henchpeople: the ones responsible for getting the takeout, picking up the kids, and making sure that the evil plan actually works. The ones dedicated to showing how the monster works before the hero comes to save the day! Give them their spotlight: What drama happens when you work HR for a mad scientist? What happens if the sidekicks unionize? What if the red shirts accidentally don’t die? We welcome new authors, and will work with all authors to bring their stories into the vision of the book. The final draft will be sent to the author for final approval. Authors retain the right to retract their stories up until the contract is signed. Please note that response times are likely to be slower than normal this year. Da Mama is getting her knee chopped off and reinstalled with a more workable (or at least less likely to collapse entirely) version, and has no idea how this will go. Potential publication date will be late November, depending on how getting the other knee chopped off goes. Guidelines (common sense guidelines, but stated as clearly as we can): 1) Submit your story as an *.rtf file attached to your cover letter. (Go to "Save As" and click on Rich Text Format or rtf.) 2) One-inch margins, double-spaced text is preferred. 3) Please do not use tabs. Please use the paragraph formatting tool to indent the paragraphs, and either use CENTER to place your section dividers, or just leave them on...