Events

Deadline: October 1st, 2024 Payment: Contributor's Copy Theme: The author must do a tarot reading and the results of that must affect the writing, in any genre, in some way The Light from Albemuth is a print and electronic anthology that utilizes a tool of divination in a unique way: before sitting down to write a submission, be it story, poem or essay, the author is to do a tarot reading, with the intention that it affects the writing in some way, and then write. Any genre is acceptable, but nothing NC-17, please. Tarot and/or divination do not need to factor into the work itself when it comes to content. Accompanying the piece should be a short ‘about the author’ blurb, and an explanation of the reading that was done before the author wrote the piece – and how they interpret it. This will be included in the anthology as well, so that as a whole, the book will be two things. First, a collection of short stories, poetry and essays. Second, a peek into how and whether Tarot can guide creativity. Length: Prose of 1,000 – 7,000 words Poetry not more than 25 lines Compensation: One contributor’s copy. Copyright will be retained by author of work, and once a year from publication has passed, they can have it reprinted anywhere they desire. Publisher only gets first print and first digital publication rights in English, and can only include it in this specific anthology. Send submissions in .docx format to: [email protected] Submissions are open now (July 7, 2024) and will close October 1, 2024, with an expected live date of December 31, 2024. Via: The Light from Albemuth Substack.

Submission Window: October 1st - 2nd, 2024 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 The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. 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 – 8¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 per line, and for reprints we pay 50¢ a line  We’re looking for poems up to 40 lines. We’ll consider longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 8¢ per word. We sponsor 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 aboutThe 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, from a minimum of 1000 words on up.   All else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored, and we have yet to find a story over about 9-10,000 words we...

Deadline: October 4th, 2024 Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Circus-themed horror So you thought you might like to go to the show... ​ The Dionysian Public Library is now OPEN for submissions for our second annual horror anthology, Spectacular, Spectacular!: An Anthology of Circensian Horror, a collection of circus-themed tales of terror.  Contortionists and clowns, ringmasters and roaring beasts, fortune tellers and flying trapezes... Let your imagination run wild and your nightmares take to the stage. The theme may be interpreted however you wish, and if you're not quite sure if it fits, give it a try anyway; we love to be surprised. There is no limit on content or hard word limit, but somewhere around 8,000 words is a good ballpark for the maximum—that said, if you have something a bit longer, feel free to shoot it our way and we'll be happy to take a look. We are also open to poetry, black and white visual art, and nonfiction writing on the theme. ​​ This anthology will be edited by  v.f. thompson. At this point, we are only able to offer contributor's copies as compensation, but hope to be able to change that with ancillary fundraising as the project progresses. Submissions are open now through October 4th, for release on October 31st, 2024. General Submission Guidelines Prose, poetry, and other written work should be submitted as either a .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Prose should be formatted in something approaching Shunn Manuscript Format, though deviations from this format will not disqualify you. After all, who are we to tell you what to do with your work. We have no guidelines or restrictions on content, and in fact hope to see your most challenging work, should you trust us with it. Other than that, we're pretty loosey-goosey with what we're hoping to see. ​ Please...

Deadline: October 5th, 2024 Payment: Royalties Theme: Cowboys... In Space! Space Cowboys 6 This anthology series hit a nerve with the reading public. Something about the rugged individualism of the cowboy strikes a chord in us all. A certain romanticism exists in the feeling that cowboys inhabit a simpler world; one that’s clearer, brighter and makes more sense than our day to day existence. Cowboys have a certain reckless reputation and that doesn’t fade away when you move them into space and onto alien worlds. Men and women who face hardships and rope a living out of an unforgiving landscape without waiting for orders from a distant authority. They do what needs to be done and take care of their animals, their people, and themselves. Opens: 8/4/24 Closes: 10/5/24 Contracts: 10/26/24 Publication: 11/22/24 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 (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...

Deadline: October 7th, 2024 Payment: 6 cents per word Theme: Speculative fiction stories where Love Goes Awry Love is in the air…or is it? Sometimes Cupid’s arrow finds the wrong target, or the right target at the wrong time. Those stupid Cupids can sure make a mess of things! Freefall into a world where love, magic, and wonder can devolve into chaos and confusion. Confounding Cupids: When Love Goes Awry is your chance to take aim at your favorite romance tropes and have a fantastical time. Look past Cupid’s bow, and show us the beautiful chaos of love. Confound your Cupids with unexpected results, hilarious mistakes, and terrifying consequences. This is the sixth anthology put together by the Publishing masters degree students at Western Colorado University, taught by bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira, funded by Draft2Digital. Previous anthologies include Monsters, Movies, and Mayhem; Unmasked; Gilded Glass; Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep; and the just-released Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars. See the examples at https://wordfirepress.com/collections/western-colorado-university-grad-program-in-creative-writing-anthologies Submission Guidelines for Confounding Cupids: When Love Goes Awry   CONFOUNDING CUPIDS When Love Goes Awry Submissions Open August 31–October 7   Love is in the air…or is it? Sometimes Cupid’s arrow finds the wrong target, or the right target at the wrong time. Those stupid Cupids can sure make a mess of things! Freefall into a world where love, magic, and wonder can devolve into chaos and confusion. Confounding Cupids: When Love Goes Awry is your chance to take aim at your favorite romance tropes and have a fantastical time. Romance can blossom in an ancient castle, at a local café, or on an interstellar generation ship. What happens when a love story suffers from hexes, alien technology, or missed connections? How do you file a complaint with Cupid? Who do you call when you're ghosted by a ghost? What if your spouse turns...

Deadline: October 13th, 2024 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word Theme: Dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror In the tradition of Poe’s ‘A Tell-tale Heart’ and Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, This Way Lies Madness (publishing September 2025) will bring together a twisted tangle of dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror. In these pages, readers should expect to find madness in all its forms, without the tired stigmatising tropes. Instead, these tales of deep-rooted terror will draw on metaphor, symbolism, imagery, structural innovation, and close introspection to challenge stigma and promote understanding around mental illness, reflecting broader cultural, generational, and societal impacts with authenticity and insight. Think of horrific scenarios as metaphors for mental illness: trauma is the creature that drags its prey into its deep, dark lair; the hopelessness of depression is the person lost in a labyrinthine underworld, suicidal ideation is a person living in the belly of a great beast, addiction is the two-sided mirror, or the persecuted werewolf is the representation of a person’s struggle against the duality of bi-polar disorder. Writers are asked to be bold and inventive, to challenge convention, while being sensitive to the stigmatising constructs of mental illness in current society. Up to 10 stories will be selected from this submissions route, and we welcome fresh interpretations and perspectives from diverse voices. Each selected story will be accompanied by a c. 300-word introduction by the author on their reflections / personal experience that inspired the story. Once selected, authors will be contacted to supply this additional text. This Way Lies Madness will be curated by Lee Murray and Dave Jeffery, award-winning author-editors with lived experience of mental illness and advocacy.   Lee Murray is from Aotearoa-New Zealand and is a Shirley...

Submission Window: October 1st - 14th, 2024 Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: One poem of up to three pages ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished Theme: Works that stir readers with themes of defiance, change, and achievement Submissions are currently closed. Our next and final submission windows for 2024 will be open from October 1-14, 2024. Our 2025 submission schedule will be released by the end of summer 2024. (Note: At the moment, our nonfiction department is always open for submissions. If the fiction, poetry, and art portals are closed and you submit those through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be automatically rejected without being considered.) All submissions to Solarpunk Magazine are done via Moksha. Any submissions received via email will be deleted without a response. Please don’t email us to describe your story and ask if it’s something we’d be interested in before submitting. We appreciate the consideration, but its easier if you just submit the story through Moksha. In 2024, we are particularly looking for stories between 1,500 and 3,000 words. While our word limit remains 7,500, stories that fall between 1,500 and 3,000 will have a better chance of being selected for at least the first few submission periods in 2024. Please read the full submission guidelines on down below or on our Moksha page before submitting your work. All submission periods end at 11:59 pm PST on the 14th of their given month. 2024 Submission Window Schedule: January 1-14 April 1-14 July 1-14 October 1-14 2024 Issue Release Schedule: Issue #13 – January 10 Issue #14 – March 12 Issue #15 – May 14 (delayed to May 21) Issue #16 –...

Submission Window: October 1st-14th, 2024 Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: One poem of up to three pages ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished Theme: Speculative fiction works that stir readers with themes of defiance, change, and achievement Submissions are currently closed. Our next and final submission windows for 2024 will be open from October 1-14, 2024. Our 2025 submission schedule will be released by the end of summer 2024. (Note: At the moment, our nonfiction department is always open for submissions. If the fiction, poetry, and art portals are closed and you submit those through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be automatically rejected without being considered.) All submissions to Solarpunk Magazine are done via Moksha. Any submissions received via email will be deleted without a response. Please don’t email us to describe your story and ask if it’s something we’d be interested in before submitting. We appreciate the consideration, but its easier if you just submit the story through Moksha. In 2024, we are particularly looking for stories between 1,500 and 3,000 words. While our word limit remains 7,500, stories that fall between 1,500 and 3,000 will have a better chance of being selected for at least the first few submission periods in 2024. Please read the full submission guidelines on down below or on our Moksha page before submitting your work. All submission periods end at 11:59 pm PST on the 14th of their given month. 2024 Submission Window Schedule: January 1-14 April 1-14 July 1-14 October 1-14 2024 Issue Release Schedule: Issue #13 – January 10 Issue #14 – March 12 Issue #15 – May 14 (delayed to May 21) Issue #16 –...

Deadline: October 15th, 2024 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...

Deadline: October 15th, 2024 Payment: $25 Theme: Theme: Winter Horrorland Word Count: 1,500-3,000 Call Open: September 1-October 15, 2024 Publication: December 2024 Call: We’re looking for horror stories of all subgenres that take place in winter. Please note that we are not looking for holiday-themed horror stories.   Theme: Stories to Take To Your Grave: High Seas Edition Word Count: 2,000-5,000 Call Open: November 1-30, 2024 Publication: July 2025 Call: We’re looking for horror stories of all subgenres that take place on the high seas. Ports, ships, deserted islands–all are fair game! Undertaker Books is a royalty-paying, full-service publisher. This means we do not charge fees to the author at any time. We pay a royalty rate of 50% of distribution payouts. This can mean you will earn different rates for books sold through different outlets. Our contracts are for digital and print worldwide English rights. At this stage, we do not provide advance payments unless specified for anthology calls. SUBMISSIONS ARE TO BE SENT TO: [email protected] Modern Shunn Format is preferred. Please review this website if you are unsure how to proceed. Submit the first 20 pages of your manuscript as a single .doc(x) file attachment. If submitting for general consideration, please include a one page synopsis of the plot (including the ending) with working title, category or subgenre, and word count. In the body of your email, please include a cover letter containing: a short author bio,your legal name, pen name (if applicable), social media links, and website. WHAT WE WILL NOT ACCEPT No AI-generated content. If an author’s work is discovered to be generated by AI, the work will be rejected (or unpublished). View our AI Use Policy. No depictions of sexual assault against children. No animal abuse. No reprints or previously published works. No unfinished stories or rough drafts. Via: Undertaker Books.