Events

Deadline: July 31st, 2021 Payment: $20, $5 for reprints Theme: Spooky, scary, gross, funny, dark, or demented tales about Halloween! Note: Reprints accepted Halloween Horror: Volume 3 It's time for another round of Halloween Horror! Same as last year, we're looking for spooky, scary, gross, funny, dark, or demented tales all about our favorite holiday, Halloween. We look forward to reading your stories about the horrors lurking in the dark on All Hallows' Eve. Deadline: July 31st, 2021 Payment: $20 plus electronic contributor copy. $5 plus electronic contributor copy for reprints. Word count: 2,000 - 15,000 (A little over or under is fine)   Important Bits · Include a bio or greeting with your email. We don't need a lot, but at least let us know who you are. · Please send all submissions as a .docx or .rtf attachment with the subject line of your email as: DBND - HH3 - Story Title.  · Stories sent after the submission deadline will be rejected unread. · Multiple submissions welcome. · Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if your submission is picked up elsewhere.   Send submissions to: [email protected] Via: DBND Publishing.

Submission Window: July 1st - July 31st, 2021 Payment: 8 cents/word and 4 cents/word for reprints Theme: Speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology Note: Reprints welcome Fiction Guidelines Technical details Stories can be up to 9000 words (thanks, Patreon supporters!). This is a hard limit--our submission system will enforce it. We pay 8 cents/word for original stories (or original translations of stories that have not previously appeared in English), and 4 cents/word for reprints (thanks again, Patreon!). Authors are paid once we've agreed on edits and signed a contract, prior to earliest publication (generally on our Patreon page). We are seeking 6 months' exclusive worldwide publication rights for original works (with exceptions for established Best of the Year anthologies), and non-exclusive worldwide print and electronic rights thereafter for both original works and reprints. We want to publish your story online in our webzine and keep it there indefinitely. We're also acquiring the right to offer ebook versions of the stories we publish, as Patreon rewards or for purchase; and to publish a print and ebook anthology of all the stories that appeared in the webzine over a given 1- or 2-year period. For original fiction, we want to be the only place publishing it for the first 6 months; after that, you're welcome to publish it anywhere else in any format you like. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. If multiple writers co-write a story, we consider each distinct group of writers a different submitter. In other words, if two people co-write a story, and they submit the co-written story, and each of them also submits a story written on their own, that would not violate our no multiple submissions policy. Submitting two stories co-written by the same two people would violate our no multiple submissions policy. Don't resubmit a story we've...

Submission Window: July 1 - July 31st, 2021 Payment: $50 Theme: Dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth. 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. Word Counts Short fiction from 1000 to 7500 words Poetry any style or length When We Publish We publish two issues per year, one in the spring (April) and one in the fall (November). Issues are hosted on this site as PDFs. Reading Period Our reading period for the Spring Issue is January 1-January 31. Our reading period for the Fall Issue is July 1-July 31. We only accept submissions, therefore, during January and July. Anything submitted to us outside those months will be deleted unread, and no response will be sent. Simultaneous Submissions Yes, we welcome and encourage them! Just notify us at [email protected] if it’s been accepted elsewhere as soon as you know. Multiple Submissions No. We only consider one piece of fiction per writer at a time. Poetry: you may send up to three at once as three separate documents attached to one email. Reprints No. We don’t accept anything from our open submissions call that has been previously published. How to Submit and Formatting Industry Standard (see Shunn), Times New Roman 12 point font/Double spaced Send as a .doc only (no docx, rtf, pdf) attachment to [email protected] Please note that if you send us anything but a .doc, your story will be automatically rejected unread. We will not be...

Submission Window: July 3rd - July 31st 2021 Payment: flash: 600-1000 $6.00 CAD, short story 1001-2499 words $10.00 CAD, short story 2500-3500 words 12.00 CAD poetry: 6.00 CAD per poem Theme: Halloween & Holiday Horrors issue Canadian eZine of Horror, Dark Fiction, and Poetry SUBMISSION GUIDELINES and TERMSfor Issue 5 Guidelines and terms change from issue to issue, so please read. To re-visit guidelines/terms as they were for issue 4 see here. NOTE: Beginning with this issue, Frost Zone Zine is an electronic publication: eZine, eBook, NO print copies. (There will be other print opportunities in the future, for different projects.) THEME for this issue: Halloween and Holiday Horrors Stories set on or near Halloween, Christmas, Yule, or other winter Holidays. Seasonal settings of autumn and early winter are also acceptable, as long as the season plays a significant role, otherwise please do not send general horror or poetry, all submissions must fit the theme to be considered.October through December holiday stories from the southern hemisphere (and with spring/summer settings) are also fine — but such stories must include Halloween, Christmas, or other holidays, otherwise they are general horror. SUBMISSIONS OPEN JULY 03 – JULY 17 What we want: Supernatural. Quiet Horror. Gothic. Paranormal. Eerie. Strange. Magic. Preferably 20th or 21st century, real-world settings. Clear and concise is the way to go. From our interview with Matthew G. Rees in issue 4:“It’s important in a story not to go overboard with reams of description: a short story needs to get on with the business of telling its story. But meaningful, sensorial things need to be brought (economically) into play.” Fiction.Original, unpublished, never-broadcast short stories 1200-3500 words. Submit 1 or 2 stories for consideration. Please EDIT your work prior to submitting it.Also non-paying* opportunities: Poetry, Fiction under 1200 words (includes flash fiction 400 – 1000 words, drabble (exactly 100 words), and microfiction 101-400 words. Submit...

Deadline: July 31st, 2021 Payment: $.005 per word. Theme: Stories of workplace horror In “Executive Dread” we seek stories of workplace horror. We've all had the terrible boss. Also, the great boss, but the corporate creeps atop him or her that drop all the bullshit. The crazy coworker. The obsessed client. The workplace farter who coughs all over everything. The theft of your food from the office refrigerator. There are a million more things. We seek stories that take place at the office. Before many of us started working from home due to COVID-19. That’s a whole other anthology. Please no stories focusing solely on sexual harassment or discrimination. Those are troubling real-life work horror stories, but not ones we want to feature in this anthology. "Executive Dread" Guidelines Here are a couple of tips to put your story in better position to be accepted. 1. Fit the theme. Office. Horror. Scare us and make us wanna retire immediately. 2. Be within our word count guidelines (for “Executive Dread”, 2000 to 5000) or query us for shorter/longer. 3. No matter how good your story is, if it hasn't been edited, there is a big chance we won't accept it. In the past, we've accepted stories that needed a lot of editing work, but it took so much effort to make them presentable. We aren't doing that anymore. If within a page or two of reading the story we find a bunch of editing issues, it's going to be rejected. 4. Be unique. No matter what the theme of the anthology is, you should always be unique. If it's a stalker anthology for example, and your ex or some guy you work with is your stalker, it's trite. If your grandma is stalking your fiancée, well, that's unique. 5. At Jolly Horror Press, we prefer subtle horror. We generally don't like gruesome...

Deadline: July 31st, 2021 Payment: $10 Theme: Something or someone beautiful that will enslave or destroy you Theme: The discovery of and entrapment within hidden, magical realms. Beautiful, magical lands that draw you in and rip you apart. Gorgeous men and women that enchant then enslave or poison you. Deadline: July 31, 2021 or until full Word count : 2,500 – 5,000 words Author eligibility : All authors are eligible Reprints : Not allowed Multiple Submissions: Maximum of two submissions per author Simultaneous Submissions : Not allowed Author Compensation: $10 per accepted story How to submit : Please follow classic Shunn formatting guidelines. Send your story as a Word format attachment to [email protected]. The file name must include your pen name and story title. Your email subject should be “ – – ” The body of the email must contain the name of the anthology, the word count, the author’s real name, and the author’s pen name. We will notify you of our decision no later than 4 weeks after the submission deadline date. Thank you! Via: Mad House Book

Deadline: July 31st, 2021 Payment: £10 Theme: K is for Kidnap Being kidnapped must be a pretty terrifying ordeal – we’re looking for stories that convey that feeling of terror but we’re also looking for diversity. Think about who is being taken and by whom, are the kidnappers even human? 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...

Deadline: August 1st, 2021 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: "What should we do with the body?" We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually three to four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories...

Deadline: August 1st, 2021 Payment: $10 Theme: Crime Fiction. Guilty publishes crime fiction. The term covers a wide range of potential topics and styles, so we are interested in seeing your take on the theme. However, there are some things we will not consider: Cozies. Police procedurals. Anything with a speculative element. Anything that glories in violence for the sake of violence, particularly against women, children, minorities or animals. Violence can be an element of many types of crime stories, but it must be an integral part of the story. Detective stories will be a hard sell, not because we don't like them, but because they are not typically crime stories, per se, but have more in common with the police procedural rather than other types of crime story.  For fiction: Stories from 1,000 to 6,000 words will be considered. This is firm. Stories below or above that range will be rejected. A flat ten dollar ($10) payment will be made for all stories, regardless of length, via PayPal after signature of contract. Stories must be original and previously unpublished in any format, including your personal blog, social media, etc.  Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions will not be considered. Guilty acquires First World Rights, with a period of exclusivity of one year after publication. For non-fiction: Guilty will consider non-fiction articles of up to 1,500 words. Pitch first for articles. A flat five dollar ($5) payment will be made for all articles, regardless of length, via PayPal after signature of contract. Articles must be original and previously unpublished in any format, including your personal blog, social media, etc.  Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions will not be considered. Guilty acquires First World Rights, with a period of exclusivity of one year after publication. For art and photography: Guilty will consider artwork and photography for both cover art and interior use, depending on current needs. A flat fifteen dollar ($15) payment will be made for selected...

Deadline: August 1st, 2021 Payment Details: 2 contributor's copies Theme: Demonic Vacations - Humorous horror, thriller. The Pitch: Our collection continues with dark humor, bizarre, and creepy vibes. We often need a vacation. Heck, sometimes you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation. We invite authors to submit 2,500-5,000 words of vacations from the cabin getaway, to Auntie’s house down south, to even that free cruise you won tickets from…. huh, I don’t remember entering anything? Make us laugh, make us do double takes, and make us regret spending our time on a “dream” vacation from hell. Deadline AUGUST 1st, 2021 at Midnight EST (Extended) Publications OCTOBER 1st 2021 Rights & Payments 2 complimentary copy Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. This only covers publishing for this particular volume. This will be sold wide – Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, and beyond. Retail price to be determined at a later time. Formatting Requirements: 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman Double-spaced throughout (without extra spaces between paragraphs) Indented for new paragraphs 1-inch margin all around Include a title page with: First and last name Title of work Series name Blurb/Pitch Header with last name, title, and page number in top right-hand corner. 2,500 – 5,000 words To submit, go to the source link below: Via: 4 Horsemen Publications.