Events

Deadline: December 20th, 2014 Prizes: One lucky author will win a prize for best story ($15). Two-runners up will receive $10 and $5, respectively for second and third place. Note: This is a contest issue so while winners can receive payouts, not everyone will Shinigami Stories: Reaping the Harvest of Souls—CONTEST ISSUE. Stories about the Grim Reaper. Stories can be any genre, though horror might be the most common one concerning the God of Death. If you could craft me a shinigami story that has sci-fi or fantasy elements, that would make my inner genre-blender lover boogie. Also, consider making the reaper a woman. Neil Gaiman did and it worked wonders for him. But don’t copy his version of Death. Make it your own. Also, no “Bleach” fan-fic or fan-fic of any other previous works featuring shinigami or a death god. As this is going to be a contest issue, I won’t be accepting Poetry, Drabbles, or Microfiction for this one. I will be accepting Flash and Short Stories ONLY. I will accept reprints, as usual, if the rights have reverted back to the author. One lucky author will win a prize for best story ($15). Two-runners up will receive $10 and $5, respectively for second and third place. I’m a broke-ass college student, but I’m also an author, and I know what it’s like to not get paid for your hard work. It’s been awhile since I could afford to do a contest issue, so I’m glad I’m able to do one again. Unlike the last issue, which was a reader’s poll, I may want to have judges for this one.Also, I would like 3-6 judges for this one. You can not be a judge if you are submitting a story. I will not be judging but will be...

Deadline: December 31st, 2104 Payment: A minimum of 1-cent-per-word and 2 copies of the anthology for non-exclusive reprint rights. Submit to Year’s Best Weird Fiction Each volume of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction will feature a different editor. Weird fiction is a diverse and eclectic mode of literature, and we are excited to see varying viewpoints. In fact, we are confident that the volume will see little if any overlap with the various other “Best Of” anthologies. And we could think of no one better than Laird Barron to helm the inaugural volume. Along with up to 125,000 words of the finest strange fiction from the previous year, each volume will include an introduction from the editor, a year in review column, and a short list of other notable stories. The book will be available in trade-paperback format and as DRM-free ePub and Mobi eBooks. The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 1, is slated for publication in late summer/early fall of 2014. So … welcome to the Year’s Best Weird Fiction. What is weird fiction? The simple answer is that it is speculative in nature, chiefly derived from pulp fiction in the early 20th century, whose remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and featuring a helping of the outré. Weird fiction, at its best, is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the laws of Nature. It counts among its proponents older and newer writers alike: Robert Aickman, Laird Barron, Charles Beaumont, Ambrose Bierce, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, Angela Carter, Neil Gaiman, Shirley Jackson, Kathe Koja, John Langan, Thomas Ligotti, Kelly Link, H. P. Lovecraft, and many others. Weird fiction is not specifically horror or fantasy. And weird fiction is not new. It has always been present. That’s...

Deadline: December 31, 2014 Payment: $200, one copy each of the ebook formats, two copies of the paperback compilation. Villains, Inc. — An Anthology Call — Tired of goody-two-shoes? Why should those “glowing heroes of good” get all the glory? Villains! They can be antiheroes, misunderstood, or just people who love to cause chaos for the sheer madness of it all. LT3 is seeking stories where the focus is, for once, on the baddies. The badder the better! Please note, Less than Three has a strong policy against stories with themes of non-consent. THE DETAILS: Deadline is December 31, 2014 (give or take, we won’t kill you for sending it off the following morning). Stories should be at least 10,000 words and should not exceed approx 20,000 words in length. Stories may be any pairing except cisgender M/F (trans* M/F, M/M, F/F, poly, and all permutations thereof are acceptable). Stories must have a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) end. Any sub-genre is gladly accepted: sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, steampunk, etc. All usual LT3 submission guidelines apply. Villains, Inc. is a general release anthology, meaning stories will be sold as a compiled ebook in the LT3 book market. Payment will be $200 on acceptance of the story. Authors will receive one copy each of the ebook formats LT3 produces and two copies of the paperback compilation. Stories should be complete before submitting, and as edited as possible. They can be submitted in any format (doc, docx, rtf, odt, etc) preferably single spaced in an easy to read font (Times, Calibri, Arial) with no special formatting (no elaborate section separation, special fonts, etc). Additional formatting guidelines can be found here. IMPORTANT: This anthology is being coordinated and edited by one of LT3′s senior editors, Tan-ni Fan. To submit, please send your manuscript to [email protected]....

Payment: $10 per story Deadline: December 31st What We Want: Avast Ye Airships! will be an open themed Steampunk anthology of short stories, released as a digital book and as a paperback book. We are looking for Steampunk featuring airships—and pirates would be nice, but aren’t mandatory—as well as a beautifully crafted, original story. Feel free to read our general submission guidelines for more information. What We Don’t Want: We will reject any stories that contain rape, and the abuse of minors. Violence and sex are acceptable but make them integral to the plot. Other than that, use your imagination—Steampunk is nothing without imagination. Submissions: Submit your work to mmpsteampunk(at)gmail(dot)com with Avast Ye Airships Sub: Your Story Title_Your Last Name in the subject line. Attach your story as a DOC or DOCX file. Submissions sent in the body of the email will not be read. We prefer to see submissions using something approaching Standard Manuscript Format, which can be found here: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html The only exception is that italics MUST appear as they will be used; no underlining. Include a brief cover letter in the body of your email stating your name, pen name (if using one), story title with word count, address, website or blog, and any professional publication credits you think might interest us. We will accept works of 1,500-6,000 words. Please query if you wish to submit outside of these guidelines. No simultaneous submissions, please. We ask that you don’t submit a story to us and to another market at the same time. Multiple submissions—sending more than one story for consideration—are okay. If sending more than one story, please send them in separate emails. We’re not accepting reprints for this anthology. We will pay a flat $10 per story via Paypal only. Payment will be made within 45 days of...

Deadline: December 31, 2014 Payment: AUD4c/word and one contributor copy in each format released SNAFU II: Survival of the Fittest SNAFU brought the pain. SNAFU II will bring even more. For this anthology, we want survival horror featuring soldiers. Survival horror says it all. Resident Evil… Silent Hill… with soldiers. Straining to make that one clip of rounds last. Making sure not to waste a single bullet. Lost in the shadows, low on ammo, only edged weapons, and/or wounded, fighting to survive, the last remnants of the mission team trying to make sense of where they had gone wrong, and how to make it out alive with next-to-no resources. We still want military combat from any period, don’t get me wrong, but we also want fear… we want suspense and tension… we want originality in the monster/antagonist, and how they are finally overcome. To allow for this building of atmosphere and tension, we have upped the word limit to 10,000. And then, we want something jaw-droppingly amazing. We STRONGLY suggest you read the first and/or second SNAFU volume to see what it is we like. SNAFU – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNXHLJG SNAFU: Heroes – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MSVEY2Y SNAFU II will hold novellas by some best-selling authors, with announcements to come soon. Edited by Geoff Brown and Amanda J Spedding Payment: AUD4c/word and one contributor copy in each format released Wordcount range: 1,000 – 10,000 words (query for shorter or longer) Submission window: October 1 – December 31, 2014 (anything submitted outside of this window will be deleted without being read) Projected publication date: Second Quarter 2015  Please follow these guidelines when submitting to us: 1. Please put your full contact details on the first page of the manuscript top left, with word count top right. 2. Standard submission format, with minimal document formatting. 3. Courier or Times New Roman set at 12pt. Italics as they...

Deadline: December, 31, 2014 Payment: 1¢ per word for the first 4,000 words Submissions start on: 2014-09-30 Deadline: December, 31, 2014 Theme: NA Accepted genres:Urban Fantasy Minimum number of words: 1000 Maximum Number of Words: 17500 Accepted types:Flash Fiction, Novelettes, Novellas, Short Stories Accepted languages:English Infinite Urban Fantasy One will be a collection of  urban fantasy short stories. We are looking for great UF that breaks away from the tired tropes of the genre. Think Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes or The Skyscraper Throne Trilogy by Tom Pollock. Sure, throw your vampires at us, but have you seen the sheer number of stories (good and bad) about them--they damn well be special if we're going to consider using them ourselves. Same goes for werewolves, witches, and little faeries living in Bon Temps. The following is a list (far from exhaustive) of things that'll get us excited about your submission: The mythology is of your own making, i.e. you're not borrowing from Bram Stoker You're not sending us Horror stories or SF stories (worry not, though; their time will come) You didn't forget the 'urban' part of urban fantasy, i.e. your characters evolve in contemporary settings. If your mythology isn't of your own making, it's at least something that moves away from the ordinary. Think Kitsunes (à la Teen Wolf) or some African monster/deity or if you're very well acquainted with Western mythology, delve deeper; show us something we haven't seen a dozen times. If you do decide to show us something we've seen a dozen times, you've approached it from a dazzling angle. There are more of course, but these will give you cookie points and will put a smile on our faces. Of course, nothing trumps story and great writing, and that's chiefly what we'll be looking for when we start processing...

Deadline: December 31st, 2014 Payment: 3 cents per word Call to action! Dark Recesses Press is now accepting short novella length submissions for A COLLECTION OF UNTIMELY HOURS. Between four to six stories will be selected for this themed anthology. The theme is time.  The genre is dark fiction. A broad spectrum, we know, but what we mean by this is truly the dark spectrum – from horror to supernatural, to slipstream  – and all points in between. That said, Splatterpunk and Bizarro fiction are probably not the right fit for this gathering. This is also not the venue for high fantasy or hard sci-fi, but if you have a shadowy urban fantasy or a dark tale that happens to take place upon a space freighter, that’s fine. Just make sure there’s no need to learn a new language in order to read the story. Seriously. The key here is to offer our readers a cool creep, a sense of dread, and the tension of time from which they can’t escape. It’s your world. Build it, and drag the reader through it with the seconds ticking at their heels. Of course we have the standard caveat of Gore for Gore’s sake and overused tropes are not going to fly.  But you’re professionals and you don’t see a need to resort to cheap parlor tricks, or taking the easy road to reach nirvana. One more important NO :  No Sexual Abuse of Children, direct or implied.  Period.  It’s not a flexible point.  If you’re unsure, query at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to clarify and save you time or frustration. Now for the nitty-gritties: Submission deadline: December 31st, 2014 Word count: 15,000 –  25,000 firm Pay:  3 cents / word Reprints:  No Rights: First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) and Electronic Rights to distribute the text in...

Deadline: December 31st 2014 Payment: 4% royalties per story published in ebook and paperback form and you will receive a contributor’s ebook copy Published by KnightWatch Press, Challenger Unbound will be an anthology of ACD’s Professor Challenger stories with a supernatural, cryptid or monstrous background. With permission to gather together an anthology by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate, we are looking for stories which are true to the eponymous hero. If you don’t know who Challenger is, you need not apply. All submissions should: Be between 2,000 and 6,000 words in Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). Be typed in Courier or Times New Roman 12 Include your full details (name/address/telephone number/email address) at the top of your document. Be sent to [email protected] as .doc or .rtf documents with the email subject header “SURNAME/ACD/WORDCOUNT”. Previously published stories WILL be considered for this anthology. Authors will retain copyright. Multiple submissions up to a maximum of two stories per author can be submitted. We will write to you within approximately four to eight weeks of the submission deadline to let you know if you have been successful. We will pay royalties per story published in ebook and paperback form and you will receive a contributor’s ebook copy only. Failure to comply will result in . . . total anhiliation. Via: Knightwatch Press.

Deadline: December 31st, 2014 Payment: 3 cents per word Another Dimension Magazine is the evolution of Wily Writers Speculative Fiction Podcast. It has a more focused theme, that of classic-style Horror and Dark Fantasy, as seen on the television shows Night Gallery and The Twilight Zone, produced and often written by Rod Serling. We are doing blatant homage to these wonderful contributions to these genres. We'll release issues quarterly in both text and audio formats. What We're Looking For We've identified elements that we're looking for in the stories we'll buy: An interesting and well-thought-out lead character, first and foremost. Supernatural elements or alternate reality/history. The genres of either Horror or Dark Fantasy. The various subgenres of Horror are perfectly acceptable, such as SciFi Horror. A commentary on the world we live in (however metaphorically). Say something with your story. A surprising climax. Take us by surprise, if you can. Impressive imagination -- show us a different culture or an alternate world. Submission Requirements Submissions need to follow the guidelines listed below. IMPORTANT: Name your file so that it makes sense. An impressive filename for a fiction submission is: (lastname)-(word from title).RTF Word count: 1000 - 3000 (Firm. Do not query). Use standard manuscript formatting. (more info) Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are okay. Do not submit more than once to the same issue. You may submit only one story to each issue. Gore, sex, and adult language okay, but make sure it improves the story. Use good grammar, double-check your punctuation, and run a spell-check. We prefer Chicago Manual of Style rules, and we will reject it if it's a mess, even if it's an amazing story. If you're bad at grammar and spelling, then hire an editor or bribe a friend with cookies to help you before you...

Deadline: December 31st Payment: 3 cents per word (or 1 cent per word for reprints), paid within 90 days after publication. Plus contributor copy of print and e-book Apotheosis – Stories of human survival and defiance in a world subjugated by the return of the Elder Gods. Humanity struggled to grow and evolve as a species for thousands of years forever caught in the shadow of a dread threat known only to a devoted few. When the stars are right, the Old Ones will return to claim utter dominion of the world.Lovecraft Mythos stories often climax at the moment of the fateful return of the Elder Gods and the audience is left to ponder what might happen next. This anthology features stories about humanity under the reign of the Elder Gods and ancient terrors. What do we mean by Lovecraft Mythos stories in relation to Apotheosis? We’re looking for stories inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft and associated writers such as August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smit , Robert E. Howard , Robert Bloch , Henry Kuttner, and Frank Belknap Long.   We’re also interested in writers that inspired Lovecraft such as Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and Lord Dunsany. We’re interested in classic mythos gods and monsters and originals that have inspired by the mythos. Good Fiction Examples: “Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette “A Colder War” by Charlie Stross In the Hall of the Yellow King by Peter Rawlik What type of stories are we looking for? We’re looking for character-driven stories set during a time in the future where the ancient terrors that once ruled the Earth have claimed complete and utter dominion of the Earth. We’re less concerned about the strict interpretation of the Elder Gods than good stories that deal with real human concerns.  How do...