Events

Deadline: March 1st, 2015 Payment: Base rate of $25.00 and two contributor’s copies Intrigue Publishing is delighted to announce that we’ll be publishing a new YA anthology, Young Adventurers: Heroes, Explorers & Swashbucklers. Publication is tentatively scheduled for November 2015. This will be aimed at the Young Adult audience. The subtitle , “Tales of teens saving the day in the past, the present, the future & on other worlds” should indicate the level of diversity we’re looking for. We plan 16 stories, with a deadline for submissions of March 1or until the anthology is full. What We’re Looking For: Young Adventurers seeks stories of action, adventure and, yes, intrigue, featuring a teenage protagonist. We would welcome spy thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, paranormal or fantasy stories (dragons and magic are fine.) Straight adventure stories are also welcome and they could be set in any time period (we’d love to see a good western or pirate story.) Stretch your imaginations and surprise us! The important requirements are that the protagonist be a courageous teenage boy or girl, that the story be gripping with a real sense of risk or danger, and that the protagonist survives or saves the day through his or her own intelligence, skill and ingenuity. What We’re NOT Looking For: Please no stories involving graphic violence, graphic sex, or profanity. That said, respect your audience: do not talk down to the reader. Twenty-first century young adult readers are pretty sophisticated. The Submission Process: Young Adventurers is looking for original, never-published short fiction only (no poetry), 5,000-10,000 words. But we will consider reprints from well-established writers. Manuscripts must be submitted by email attachment in Word. Submissions pasted into the body of an email message will not be read. The manuscript must be double-spaced, 12-point type, (Times New Roman or Arial.) Please...

Deadline: March 1, 2015 Payment: 6¢ per word For this issue, rather than limiting ourselves to one specialized field of study, we’re looking for stories about the act of studying and learning itself. This could be anything from stories set in unusual schools like Hogwarts, Brakebills, and the Unseen University, to stories focusing on the students and faculty of unorthodox majors like Decision Sciences, Theme Park Engineering, and Bowling Industry Management and Technology (these are all real majors offered by real universities), to tales of researchers digging deep into forbidden tomes, to fictionalized scholarly articles on the Ethics of Motorcycle Taming or the Alternate History of Space Flight in the Mongol Empire. (Yes, we realize this opens us up to stories with footnotes, and we’ll probably kick ourselves later, but we’re brave souls.) We would not be dismayed to see stories that delve into epistemology and hermeneutics, into the nature and limits of knowledge itself. As always, we want gorgeously-told tales, gripping characters, and unique worlds to explore. Genre doesn’t matter to us, along as your tale involves schools, studying, or academia in some integral way. For the sake of setting this issue apart from our recurring entomology and cryptography issues, we’d prefer not to receive stories involving the study of bugs/insects, or computing/code. Word limit: We’ll consider stories up to 8000 words, but strongly prefer stories of 5000 words or less. We’re open to flash fiction and fiction in non-traditional formats, but we do not publish poetry or non-fiction. Pay rate: We pay 6¢ per word for original fiction. Payment is made upon publication. Rights: We buy first-printing world exclusive English-language rights for six months after publication, and non-exclusive electronic rights for twelve months after publication. We hope (but do not require) that you’ll allow us to post the...

Deadline: March 1, 2015 Payment: $25 per story selected for inclusion. The elevator doors open, the lights are flickering, the gurney is wheeled into a dank, dimly-lit hallway well below ground. Does the Doctor have the patient's best interests at heart, or is something more nefarious going on? How does the staff figure out what treatments are most effective and which are not? In our other two Mental Ward collections, we asked you to tell us what happened above ground in the institute itself; what memories of the past were trapped in the abandoned hallways; now we're asking you to tell us what goes on behind closed doors. The secret experiments that are feared and whispered about among the patients. Tell us what unthinkable things greed, the corruption of power, and the desire to be remembered will drive a Doctor to do to the unfortunate patients left in their care. Tell your tale from whoever's perspective you'd like, just make sure the story you tell is a depraved one. Note: This is a reopened anthology. Your story must contain the following three elements to be considered: Your story must take place in a Mental Asylum or Institution. Your story must involve individuals from the Asylum: doctors, nurses, patients, maintenance staff, etc. Your story must contain what would be considered an inhumane experiment that is physically performed. Submission Deadline: March 1, 2015 Word Count: minimum 4,000 words; maximum: 8,000 words. Payment: $25 per story selected for inclusion. Copyright: First time worldwide copyright for a period of one year after publication. Reprints will NOT be considered. Anthology Submission guidelines: Submission Deadline - March 1, 2015 Word Count: 4,000 - 8,000 words. Payment: $25 per story selected for inclusion. Copyright: First time worldwide copyright for a period of one year after publication. Reprints...

Deadline: March 1st, 2015 Payment: .02/word (up to 5k words) Fictionvale Magazine is designed to bring great short fiction to folks on a quarterly basis. But we can’t do that without you, the awesome writers out there! So please read the submission guidelines below to find out how to contribute to Fictionvale. Fiction We look for well-written genre fiction to fill our valley with story! Most episodes will pair two genres, sometimes similar ones, sometimes distinctly different ones, so we are open to all types of popular fiction. Because each episode features eight or so stories of two genres, we will put out a call for those genres first, but we will accept other genres as well, for future episodes. Please note that we are an editorial publisher. Check out our Editorial Musings blog post for what that means to us and to you if accepted. You can find any and all submission calls on our Submittable Page. Research Where You Submit It’s important that, as a writer, you know the market you’re submitting to. We really can’t stress this enough. Each publication has its own style and its  own ideas of what makes a great story. We strongly suggest purchasing at least one episode of Fictionvale so that you can familiarize yourself with the types of stories we find worthwhile to publish. It’s often not difficult to tell when an author isn’t familiar with our preferences. You can go for one of the genre free-for-alls, or, if you write in a particular genre, a genre-specific episode, as they’re published. Episode Eight – upcoming September 1, 2015 – Horror/Humor Guidelines Length & Format: Up to 5000 words, including flash (<1000 words) and micro-fiction (<100 words). Standard manuscript format: 1″ margins, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12pt. You really need to pay attention to...

Deadline: March 1st, 2015 Payment: 5 cents per word up to 5000 Stone Skin Press is proud to announce our newest anthology, Swords v. Cthulhu. As you might have guessed from the title, this project is a spiritual successor to our previous Shotguns v. Cthulhu, but while Shotguns featured mostly modern or futuristic settings for its action-heavy eldritch tales, this tome will collect stories of a historical or fantastical bent. Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington will be co-editing the project. If you’re simply an excited reader then there’s nothing more to report at present. But! If you’re interested in potentially submitting a story, there will be an open reading period for a few of the slots in Swords v. Cthulhu. Read on for the full guidelines… The brass tacks (or red nails, as the case may be): We are paying five (5) cents a word for original works of fiction of up to 5,000 words. No poetry. No reprints. No multiple submissions. No simultaneous submissions. The open reading period for story submissions will be from February 1st to March 1st, 2015. All submissions will be answered by the end of March. During the reading period, all submissions should be sent as a double-spaced word document in standard manuscript format to [email protected]. Please address the subject line SVC Submission: “Story Title.” Any stories submitted before or after the open reading period will be deleted unread. To fulfill the promise of the title, we want at least a few adventure romps in which sinewy muscle and cold steel are pitted against the minions of the Great Old Ones. That said, we’d also like some stories combining movement and violence with the existential despair at the heart of Lovecraft’s work. What we want to see is the cerebral cohabitating with rowdy action sequences....

Deadline: March 1st, 2015 Payment: Contributor's Copy SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE 3 ARE OPEN UNTIL MARCH 1, 2015. Dark Corners publishes pulp fiction quarterly. Hardboiled, noir, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror are all desired. If you have something that exists outside these genres or even combines them and you think we'd enjoy it, feel free to submit. Be forewarned, though, that we reserve the right to be picky. If you don't know what pulp fiction is, you might be better off submitting elsewhere. Absolutely no fan fiction. Our readers demand and deserve quality and there is a lot of quality out there so be competitive. Give us your best. Word limit is 2-5,000 words but err on the side of brevity. We want it fast and memorable. Please send only one story per quarter. This is a small operation here and while I appreciate the vote of confidence, we have our limits. Submit to craigtm85 (at) gmail (dot) com. (Please don't type "at" and "dot". I think you know how e-mails look. This is to protect myself from Nigerian princes and people trying to enlarge parts of my body or introduce me to Russian girls. I already live with the best woman possible.) Attach your submission in a Word Document file or Open Office file if you prefer. For the subject of your e-mail, write "Dark Corners Submission -- Your Last Name". If you actually write "Your Last Name", I will respond telling you how funny I think you are but I probably won't read your submission. In the body of your e-mail, send your cover letter. Look up how to do one if you don't know but don't fret about it. As long as you give your best attempt at professionalism, we won't ignore you. Make sure your letter contains...

Deadline: March 1st, 2015 Payment: Royalties from the sale of the individual anthologies will be split between the company and contributors, paid out on a quarterly basis.  Each contributor will also receive an author’s copy of the complete anthology, which will exist in electronic format only. Pagan Writers Press and Ishtar Press (the romance/erotica imprint) are currently seeking flash (short) fiction stories of 1,000 to 2,500 words for inclusion in five separate promotional eBooks for the press. The purpose of these books is to introduce new readers to PWP and display the vast talent of our authors to grow their individual followings. Themes for these eBooks include: Paranormal Romance: These stories focus on relationships, but have a supernatural twist. Characters can be shifters, witches, ghosts, vampires, or a host of other creatures (or be the humans that interact with them). They can be on the darker side, but the focus must be on the relationships. Erotica: While the romance has a relationship focus, here we are looking for stories centered on the physical acts of pleasure of one or more parties. All manner of couples and light BDSM welcome. Halloween / Samhain: Celebrate the magic and mystique of this solemn (and fun) holiday with stories that occur on this day or the days leading up to it. All non-erotic genres welcome. One submission per author per collection is allowed (i.e. you can submit two different stories to two of the anthologies, but not more than one story for each). Please review our standard guidelines before submitting your work. Failure to follow them will result in the rejection of your work. All settings/eras/time periods welcome unless designated in the comments above. All manner of relationships (straight, GBLT, or polyamorous) are welcome. Graphic lovemaking should be restricted to the Erotic submissions only. Royalties from the...

Deadline: March 23, 2015 Payment: $15 per story accepted Timeless Tales exclusively publishes retellings of fairy tales and myths. We don't accept original fairy tales or stories outside of our current theme. These are the known upcoming themes: #4.    Perseus and Medusa (Submission window open Feb. 8 - March 23, 2015) Additional Rules:  Length: Up to 2,000 words. Under 1,500 preferred. Genres:  Please be creative! We love to see modernizations, sci-fi retellings, continuations, mash-ups, etc. Just no eroticism, please (see Content section). Formatting: Please put your story's title and the author's name in the file name of your submission. Example: "Pandora's Choice by Zeus Smith.doc". Too often, we'll get a ton of submisions all labled "Pandoras Box.doc" and it makes it harder to keep track of them.  ​ Want to know what makes an A+ fairy tale retelling?, HERE is my blog post about it. Content: While Timeless Tales is not targeted specifically at children, it is a fairly conservative magazine, especially when it comes to sexual content, so I intend to keep the stories in the PG-13 range or below. However, I have a deep appreciation for the darker side of many original fairy tales, so don’t assume I only want “happy” stories. Pay Rate: At the moment, we’re just starting out and budget is tight, so we will pay a flat rate of $15 per story accepted, but we hope to increase this amount in the future. You'll also get a free year of our premium subscription. 1.    We do NOT accept multiple submissions. 2.    We DO accept reprints as long as the author has the rights to the story. But please include in your cover letter the details of where and when the story was previously published. 3.    We DO accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us by email immediately if your story has been accepted elsewhere. If you have a question, please us the contact form at the bottom...

Deadline: March 31st, 2015 Payment: Fiction and nonfiction alike, we will pay $0.01/word (1 cent a word) USD. For poetry, we offer a flat rate of $5 USD per accepted piece; for artwork, $40 ($60 for cover art) Kaleidotrope is currently open to submissions until March 31, 2015. Kaleidotrope tends very heavily towards the speculative — towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror — but we like an eclectic mix and are therefore always eager to read interesting work that blurs these lines, falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all. We’d suggest looking through the archives to familiarize yourself with the zine, and/or checking out other work by our past contributors, to get a sense of what we’re looking for and what we like. In the end, what we want is interesting, sometimes unconventional work, well-written stories and poems that surprise and amuse us, shock and disturb us, that tell us things we didn’t know or reveal old truths in brand new ways. We want strange visions of distant shores, of imaginary countries and ordinary people, and work that doesn’t lose sight of entertainment and the joy of good writing. Fiction We have no maximum word limit, although anything over 10,000 words may be a tougher sell. We do like well-crafted flash fiction, too, although preferably not under 250 words. Poetry We will consider all forms. Humor is encouraged, if tricky. Rhyming is not actively discouraged — done well, it can be terrific — but be careful about overly simple, sing-song-like structures. Individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell. Nonfiction We want essays, memoirs, creative nonfiction, thoughtful criticism. In past issues, we have featured essays on popular culture — from Transformersto fembots...

Deadline: March 31st, 2015 Payment: $0.01/word and Contributor's Copy Our journey continues… World Weaver Press has agreed to publish a second volume of the Far Orbit science fiction adventure series. We are once again looking for modern space adventures crafted in the Grand Tradition. We are not looking for slavish imitations of past classics. Rather, we would like to receive stories that establish a new tradition in the much maligned Scifi adventure genera — smart, modern stories built around the classic traditions. We are looking for adventure stories that are creative, readable, and memorable. We are also looking for midnight indulgences; exciting stories that transport you from the everyday grind and leave you wondrously satisfied. All adventure-based sci-fi genera are welcome but stay away from fantasy elements unless they are genetically engineered or cybernetic. Stories can begin on Earth but the major action should happen out there, beyond the edges of our blue marble. Dystopia (Mad Max) and fantasy-like adventures (John Carter of Mars) have to be very special to be included in this anthology. Please, no fan fiction. Because adventure stories often take more space to develop, World Weaver Press is accepting stories up to 10,000 words in length. Previously published stories are acceptable but we will not publish stories that have been previously anthologized. Want to know more about the editor’s preferences? Check out the links at the bottom of this post or pick up a copy of the first volume of Far Orbit. Rights and compensation: Payment: $0.01/word. All contributors will receive a paperback copy of the anthology. For previously unpublished works: Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive rights to publish in print and electronic format for twelve months after publication date after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish for a term. For reprints: Seeking non-exclusive right to...