Events

Deadline: January 15th, 2024 Payment: $15, 5 contributors copies, "future earning opportunities" (this part is unclear) Theme: Zombie-themed stories of a short novella length to be released in collections “Sometimes I think we’re all corpses. Just rotting upright.” (George Orwell, “Keep the Aspidistra Flying”) Campfire Publishing is excited to announce that we are currently accepting submissions for, “Rotting Upright, Volume 1”, the first in our collection of Zombie themed horror stories! Please read below to ensure that your story will be a good fit, and feel free to reach out to us–via the form located on our main page or by sending an email to [email protected]–if you have any questions. “Rotting Upright” is the first volume in a horror collection dedicated to Zombie- themed horror stories. Campfire Publishing aspires to publish multiple volumes in the “Rotting Upright” collection, along with collections specific to a variety of themes in the horror genre. What are we looking for? We are looking for WELL-EDITED stories between 15,000-20,000 words that offer a horrific, bloody, or unique lens to view the subject of Zombies— there’s no ‘wrong’ way to answer the question “what is a zombie?” or “where do they originate?” “what is their objective?” Maybe you feel there’s zombies among us right now. Feel free to journey wherever your creativity leads you! Campfire Publishing is keeping its eye out for a wide range of chilling voices from seasoned to novice that offer unique perspectives into the chilling and often post-apocalyptic world of “Zombies”. We want twists and turns, thrills and chills; make us want to sleep with the lights turned on at night. Show us excitement, culture, and blood-curdling screams! What are we NOT looking for? We don’t want works that promote hate speech; and while a romantic note or two or many is fine and...

Deadline: January 15th, 2025 Payment: $20 per story or artwork 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 Guidelinessubmissions at electricspec (dot) com 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 We do not consider stories or art created, or partially created, by A.I. We consider stories 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 know up front and tell us as soon as it's accepted elsewhere. We do not publish reprints, including anything that has appeared on a website. We pay $20 for each story we publish. We buy first-printing world exclusive rights for four months. Payment will be made shortly after publication using PayPal. We encourage our authors to establish a PayPal account if they don't already have one. We prefer to read submissions in traditional manuscript format. This means indented paragraphs instead of left justification, and Courier or Times New Roman font in 12 pt, double-spaced. Also, please include the title, your name, address, and word length on the first page of your story. To submit your...

Submission Window: November 1st - January 15th, 2025 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Fantasy stories of queer heroes forged and tempered in the fire, fighting dark stars and bright suns, and overthrowing tyranny in all its forms. Sword and sorcery, sweat and sandals, souls and stars. The anthology, edited by dave ring, will include pulp heroism in conversation with Samuel R. Delany's Nevèrÿon, Conan and Red Sonja, Imaro and Xena. Check out the crowdfund here. The compensation level for original stories accepted to this anthology is $0.08/word. Submit stories on Submittable between November 1st, 2024 and January 15th, 2025. Please contact us if there are any accessibility concerns for any reason and we’ll work with you. We are looking for: Wordcount: Under 6,000 words. 1-4,000 words is probably the sweet spot. Concept: Stories of queer heroes forged and tempered in the fire, fighting dark stars and bright suns, and overthrowing tyranny in all its forms. Sword and sorcery, sweat and sandals, souls and stars. What we want to see: We are looking primarily for fantasy stories on the gritty, un-epic side of things. We expect there will be a seam of the occult and cosmic horror running through the book. We’ll also probably include a couple sword and planet stories, but that won’t be the focus. We’re using the most inclusive definition of queer. Queer, trans, ace, undefinable. Throughout, we’re looking for rich, varied and nuanced understandings of gender, family and ethnicity. What we don’t want to see: We’re not interested in work which focuses on unexamined bigotry or sexual violence. While this is a darker-themed anthology, we intend to handle these subjects with care. Further vibe-check notes after getting some questions about what we are looking for: We’re probably not looking for stories set on Earth. We’re probably not...

Deadline: January 15th, 2025 Payment: $20 for original stories, $15 for reprints, $40 to their favorite short Theme: Extreme horror Note: Reprints Welcome Dancing Griffin Press is seeking extreme horror stories for the upcoming anthology UNHOLY ADMISSIONS. We are looking for stories with limited characters and locations that feature extremely dark elements. Blood, guts, gore, etc. is more than welcome as nothing is off limits except excessive depictions of sexual violence. Violence towards children is acceptable, though we are not necessarily looking for stories with children as the main characters. Get creative! Your story can be about a newlywed couple who get attacked by a pack of rabid zombie skunks on their honeymoon or it can be about a mechanic who comes home from work and randomly snaps and kills his whole family. Gross-out stories are very much encouraged as well. Just have fun, and make sure to bring the violence. Length: Between 3,500 and 7,500 words Pay: $20 for original stories, $15 for reprints, $40 if your original story is our absolute favorite Window: November 15th - January 15th Expected publication date: March 15th, 2025 Please email stories to [email protected] with the subject “Unholy Admissions,” and attach your story or stories as .docx files. Include a short bio of yourself in the body of the email. You may enter up to three stories. Reprints of course are welcome, but please do not send us more than two reprints for consideration.  Simultaneous submissions are fine, but let us know immediately if your entry needs to be pulled for any reason. Please do not use AI. Do not stress about the format – fonts, font sizes, line spacing and layouts do not matter as all of that will be changed anyway if your story is accepted. You own the rights to your story always.

Deadline: January 15th, 2025 Payment: $10 per story or 1 cent/word rounded to the nearest 100 words, up to a maximum of $25. Theme: Speculative Fiction up to 2500 words Effective December 1, 2024, we are open for submissions for our spring 2025 issue, planned for publication on or about March 15, 2025. We anticipate the issue will contain ten stories. Our primary mission is to provide readers with speculative fiction, broadly defined. We like character-driven stories that take us to the boundary where imagination and reality collide. If in doubt, please submit your story. We will enjoy reading it, even if it doesn’t quite fit with our mission. We will remain open for submissions until January 15, 2025. We will make final decisions on acceptance not later than Febuary 15, 2025, after which all authors will recieve final notification on the status of their submission. Please do not query prior to December 1. We prefer stories between 1000 and 2000 words. In exceptional cases, we will consider longer or shorter stories of high quality that fit with our mission. We welcome submissions from under-represented groups who bring their lived experience to their fiction. We also welcome submissions from first-time, unpublished authors. We welcome submissions from any location. However, our mission includes providing a market for authors from the region of the Crosstimbers Forest–which includes Oklahoma and surrounding states–so we especially encourage authors from this region to submit. Please do not send mulitiple submissions, simultaneous submissions, or previously published stories. If considered for publication, we will ask authors to disclose the extent, if any, to which they have used generative AI in their stories. Payment will be the larger of $10 per story or 1 cent/word rounded to the nearest 100 words, up to a maximum of $25. Payment will be rendered via Paypal at the time...

Deadline: January 15th, 2025 Payment: $50 Theme: Dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth. We’re not genre-specific; we just like scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad What We Publish At 34 Orchard, we like dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth. We’re not genre-specific; we just like scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad. We like things we can’t put down and things that make us go “wow” when we’ve finished. But our main goal here at 34 Orchard is to publish the stuff we like to read, and you’re not in our heads. So don’t over think it. Just submit. We are an international journal and welcome submissions from everyone, all over the world. As of our 2024 issues, we have published work from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. OUR 2024 SUBMISSIONS WINDOW IS NOW CLOSED. Please note that we will not be open in July of 2024. Once our January 2024 window has closed, we will be open for submissions again from January 1, 12:01 am EST — January 15, 2025, 11:59 pm EST Word Counts Short fiction from 1000 to 5000 words Poetry any style or length When We Publish We publish two issues per year, one in the spring (April) and one in the autumn (November). Issues are hosted on this site as PDFs. Submissions Window Our submissions window for BOTH 2024 issues is January 1-January 15. Please only send submissions between January 1 and January 15. Submissions received before or after these dates will be deleted unread. Please note that we will not be open in July of 2024. Once our January 2024 window has closed, we will be open for submissions again from January 1,...

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: $5 usd Theme: Splatter Friendly Horror Taking Submissions: Carnage House Issue 6 Deadline: January 19, 2025 Release Date: April 1st, 2025 Format: Online Pay: $5.00 upon publication We want solid, entertaining writing that evokes feelings. Carnage House is a splatter friendly web ’zine—so nothing against cozy, but cozy, we’re not. We’re looking for gore, extreme horror, splatterpunk, and horror with sexual elements to it. For a better understanding of what we’ll take, think of the Hot Blood book series or Love in Vein. Or, as a more practical proposition, read our back issues at carnagehouse.com. We invite LGBTQIA and BIPOC themes, and we encourage authors from diverse backgrounds to submit to us. Hard NOs: NO sex with children, NO sexualization of children, and NO child rape. If you’re writing a story about a child predator who gets what’s coming to him—great. But we don’t want to read about that predator violating his victims. We won’t publish anything supporting a racist, transphobic, or homophobic agenda, so don’t try it. No stories written by AI; all work must be 100 percent original. We seek only original, unpublished work. No reprints, please. Also please send only one submission per issue. Our description includes the words “splatter” and “friendly” for a reason. We love splatter, and we’re super friendly. Carnage House is about supporting writers and entertaining readers, and we’re dedicated to both in equal measure. “SplatterPUNK” also contains the word “Punk.” Punk has an ethic. Punk is antifascist, anti-conservative, and anti-establishment. We are for free speech, pro-choice, freedom of expression, the freedom to read, the freedom to be weird, and the expression of political ideas in art. We look forward to reading your work in all its splattertastic glory. The Editors [email protected] Submissions: We want solid entertaining writing. That...

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word. Theme: Folk Horror that deals with what it means to be a witch. Read on for more! We're delighted to let you know this new call for submissions is open! Please read through the submission details carefully as we’ve changed some of our guidelines and it could result in your submission not being acknowledged if you do not follow them. Witch Craft A New Collection of Folk Tales & Horror Stories We are very excited to give you advance notice of a new call for submissions on the theme of Witch Craft, for our Beyond & Within series. We’re looking for around four stories to join the selection curated by the team who brought you Folk Horror: Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. The call is open to all, though we expect to see a greater proportion of stories by authors identifying as women. We expect the stories to deal with what it means to be ‘witch’, and the rediscovery and reclaiming of that power, its links to nature – and the exploration of whether a witch is drawn to 'good' or 'bad', and why. Stories should be in the horror and folk horror veins, and we’d like to see as wide a range as possible – the history, stigma and varying interpretations from around the world that feed into this concept should yield some exciting results... Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane are the award-winning authors and editors of many books. Together they have co-edited anthologies such as The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration, A  Carnivàle  of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, Exit Wounds, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist), Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never, featuring authors such as Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Dean Koontz, Catriona Ward and Stephen King. They have also been involved in organizing conventions for twenty years, co-chairing ChillerCon in Scarborough in May...

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: Royalties Theme: Retro-future adventures Plasma Pulp! Edited by LawDog Ultronic supersonic tales of retro-future adventure! We’re looking for science fiction pulpy goodness that hearken back to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Evil intergalactic warlords face off against ray gun-slinging heroes! You can call it raypunk, if you like—we’re calling it Plasma Pulp! Your homework for this anthology. Opens: 11/17/24 Closes: 01/19/25 Contracts: 02/08/25 Publication: 03/07/25 Guidelines for all our anthologies (psst! this is important!): 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 (preferred, but you can use Georgian or other readable font), 12PT, double-spaced, with your name, title of the story, and your email on it. Name the file as -—. Send it in a .docx format as an attachment—no links. Refer to the submission guideline graphic below for how to format your story—It has all the information you need! Feel free to download it for reference. 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 to grow into a novel,...

Deadline: January 20th, 2025 Payment: 2 cents per word, 1 cent per word for reprints Theme: Stories that center around a craft, recipe, or ritual AND each author will provide a set of instructions to make/enact the craft, recipe, or ritual that was featured in their story Note: This is a vegan magazine. They will not generally publish mentions of leather/animal-products, meat/animal consumption, etc. and will request that they be changed to a vegan alternative during the edit process Note: Reprints welcome Reading periods/When to send Submissions are currently open. They will close on January 20th, 2025 @ 10pm PST. About the Anthology Welcome to the Hearth Stories Springtime Fair! In this anthology we will be featuring stories that center around a craft, recipe, or ritual (see below for specifics). In addition to the story, each author will provide a set of instructions to make/enact the craft, recipe, or ritual that was featured in their story. The idea is that this will let readers enjoy a great story while also learning something and engaging with the story in an interesting way. The story and the instructions should be firmly related (not just a random thing to make, paired with a random story). So, what are we talking about when we talk about crafts, recipes, and rituals? Here are some examples, but you are by no means limited to these: Crafts Crochet, Knitting, Sewing, Weaving, Macrame Basketry Woodworking Smithing Jewelry Making Recipes (Vegan Only) Baking (bread, pastry, etc) Cooking (soups, sides, mains) Remedies, Medicines, Tinctures Rituals Magic or Spellcraft Meditation Yoga, Qi-Gong, Tai-Chi, etc. Ceremonies When using the above suggestions keep in mind that you can be very specific—a specific knitting pattern, for example—or you can be fairly general—an introduction to knitting, for example. Either is fine. For the most part we are...